A few years ago, my wife Diane and I packed our lives into six suitcases, Diane tucked our beloved Chihuahua, Carmine, under her arm and we set off to build a new life in a small coastal village on Ecuador's northern coast, a country we had never visited.
To say we had a fair amount of fear and anxiety would be putting it lightly. As we were riding from Quito's airport high in the Andes mountains to our destination on Ecuador's northern coast about eight hours away, all the familiar fears we'd had before we left the States once again bubbled to the surface.
Will my fixed income really be enough to live a comfortable lifestyle? Could we learn to speak Spanish well enough to get by? Will the healthcare in our target community live up to the …show more content…
The small village we called home did, indeed, have a hospital nearby as our research had indicated. However, as a heart patient, I learned that emergency medical care was not up to the lifesaving standards necessary for our peace of mind and the lengthy time and expense to return to the U.S. was another factor. After a bit more research and with absolutely no fear, we targeted Cancun on Mexico's Caribbean coast for our next chapter. Cancun had numerous large hospitals and was only about an hour-and-a-half back to Florida.
As I watched the sunrise over the Caribbean this morning, from our bedroom in a beautiful, multi-level beachfront condo, I realized that we are now approaching the completion of our second year here on the spectacular Riviera Maya.
It turns out that we had nothing at all to fear. Our Spanish is passable and improving. We have enough money to live with zero worries, our safety has never been compromised, and we've easily made friends. In fact, our life, now, is a cliché with afternoon swims in warm Caribbean waters, morning walks on the sugar-sand beach and postcard sunsets over the lagoon while sipping tall tropical drinks on our large rooftop
To say we had a fair amount of fear and anxiety would be putting it lightly. As we were riding from Quito's airport high in the Andes mountains to our destination on Ecuador's northern coast about eight hours away, all the familiar fears we'd had before we left the States once again bubbled to the surface.
Will my fixed income really be enough to live a comfortable lifestyle? Could we learn to speak Spanish well enough to get by? Will the healthcare in our target community live up to the …show more content…
The small village we called home did, indeed, have a hospital nearby as our research had indicated. However, as a heart patient, I learned that emergency medical care was not up to the lifesaving standards necessary for our peace of mind and the lengthy time and expense to return to the U.S. was another factor. After a bit more research and with absolutely no fear, we targeted Cancun on Mexico's Caribbean coast for our next chapter. Cancun had numerous large hospitals and was only about an hour-and-a-half back to Florida.
As I watched the sunrise over the Caribbean this morning, from our bedroom in a beautiful, multi-level beachfront condo, I realized that we are now approaching the completion of our second year here on the spectacular Riviera Maya.
It turns out that we had nothing at all to fear. Our Spanish is passable and improving. We have enough money to live with zero worries, our safety has never been compromised, and we've easily made friends. In fact, our life, now, is a cliché with afternoon swims in warm Caribbean waters, morning walks on the sugar-sand beach and postcard sunsets over the lagoon while sipping tall tropical drinks on our large rooftop