Journey & Adventure

I’m sure my tune will change when I’m finally relocated to Ecuador, Bonaire or some other southerly destination, but right now at this moment in time, here is a list of things I won’t miss… 1. My alarm clock. Waking up on my own will be a blessing. I should have all of the time in the world to do what I want, when I want, so my alarm clock won’t be a necessity any longer. 2. My commute. I can think of so many things I can do with an additional 2 hours every day. 3. The daily grind of a 9-5 job and all of the office politics that go along with said job. I know I’ll miss the paycheck but I think all the negatives outweigh that one positive. 4. Fast food restaurants. Yes, I know they are convenient and I am not one to frown upon their usefulness, but I’ll be glad when they are no longer an option for me. 5. Big box stores. Convenient? Yes. Cheap? Yes. Soul sucking? Absolutely! I can’t even put into words the despair I feel ...

Up and down like a see-saw… Round and round like a merry-go-round… Back and forth like a ping-pong ball… Do you get the picture? No? Me neither. Indecisiveness is the name of the game at the moment. I’m not typically an indecisive person, but when it comes to this 5 Year Plan, I can decide which end is up. Those of you that have been around long enough know the story. Before we decided to put the 5 year plan in motion, we had always talked about “wouldn’t it be nice to win the lottery and move to Bonaire”. Then when we heard about how economically one could live in Ecuador, we realized we wouldn’t need to win the lottery to make our dreams come true, but instead we would just need to focus our energy into paying off our debts within the next 5 years and with that “The 5 Year Plan” was born. When started looking into Ecuador in greater detail, we were excited about all of the opportunities that would be available to us like cheap real estate, cheap cost of living,...

I borrowed a substantial portion of this post from Ecuador George .  He's another individual in the process of selling it all and relocating to Ecuador (he's quite witty too), so I recommend you pay him a visit.  I found his post very moving.  Not only does it sum up life quite nicely, it's exactly the reason why J and I are moving forward with life...in another country.  Here is a synopsis... Bronnie Ware is an Australian nurse who spent several years caring for patients in the last 12 weeks of their lives. Ware writes of the phenomenal clarity of vision that people gain at the end of their lives, and how we might learn from their wisdom. “When questioned about any regrets they had or anything they would do differently,” she says, “common themes surfaced again and again.” REGRETS OF THE DYING by Bonnie Ware For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were...

Well, maybe I don’t know exactly where I’m going, but I now have a better sense on where I might want to go when I get there. What am I talking about? Well, as we start the investigation process on our relocation plan, we’ve been reading about places and points of interest throughout Ecuador. We know, we want to live on the coast, but we’re not sure where exactly, so to help orient us, I purchased a map of Ecuador.   Before you think it - yes, I’m well aware, you can simply use Google Maps to find the location of pretty much anywhere in the world, but I’m an old fashioned sort of person. I like maps – physical, hold them in your hands, type of maps. And of course, no trip to the virtual bookstore, would be complete without purchasing some books. After all, if you spend $25 or more, shipping is free! So, in order to complete the South American experience, I purchased a couple of “Learn to Speak Spanish” books. I’m pretty good at ordering food and drink in Spanis...

I know that will be the first question to be asked by our friends and families when we finally tell them about our escape plan.   My response will be “Good question.   You’ll be the first to know once we figure it out.”   That’s where we’re at - at this point in time, we don’t really know how we’ll earn an income.   The initial goal is to sustain ourselves with the initial proceeds from the sale of our house and all of our stuff.   Provided we are careful with our money, we should be able to live quite comfortably for a few years without having to work.    Obviously, we still would like the ability to travel, so becoming permanent beach bums isn’t really an option.   We have longer term ideas of perhaps opening a B&B, hostel, beach bar, scuba shop or the like.   We also have shorter term goals of selling some of J's photograph on stock photography sites or perhaps I'll become a professional blogger (ha, ...