Tag: New York

That happened…again

Featured by Stacy Ziegler, posted in Early Retirement, Empty nest, home exchange, Inspirational, Lifestyle, Mexico, Travel

Months have passed since the last entry, I am beginning to think I should rename this my quarterly blog site.

The events since October have been continuous. We have had a steady stream of visitors; my kids, my coworkers and my friends have all made the trip down with Lisa’s niece (and her family), mother/step father, sister (and her family) One of our most memorable guests was my best friend who came down (with her family) and her husband in mid October to celebrate their 25 year wedding anniversary. Lisa performed the ceremony and we honored the local culture with offerings and Copal, it was magical. Lisa’s dad and step mom are coming next week though they are treating themselves to a week at an all inclusive resort in Playacar before they stay with us for a few nights. My youngest son came down in November and we flew back to Washington with him in December due to a sudden tragic loss of my other best friend’s daughter.

We completed our first Home Exchange in NYC over the holidays, which was really living out a life dream of mine. Despite the absolutely awful, freezing cold wind directed directly into our eyes, we managed to make it to the Christmas Eve showing of The Rockettes, “Christmas Spectacular” and spectacular it was! It felt surreal and dreamlike, as if we were in a movie. We also went out to Coney Island on New Years day to grab a hot dog and people watch those who were crazy enough to participate in the polar bear plunge. We dined at several places but our favorite had to be Pig Heaven, where we had Christmas Dinner. Their ribs…no words to do them justice. They were so tender, flavorful, finger licking sticky, pieces of deliciousness. We were lucky enough to be within a few blocks of everything, including the subway. We were just a block down from an actual speakeasy, the concoctions were impressive! We spent a fair amount of time in the apartment, enjoying the breathtaking view from the corner apartment, snacking on charcutier trays, and delighting in foods we cannot get here. After meandering through numerous parks, ferry landings, subways, burrows, etc. we wrapped up our trip by visiting Summit One Vanderbilt. If you go, you should book well in advance if you are aiming for sunset or a night time visit.

Rockefeller Center Tree/ Drinks at the UES / Vanderbilt One

I have spent endless hours planning ,messaging, and prepping for our next big adventure. The ADVENURE OF A LIFETIME! Really, it is. I have planned this for months and I know the odds of ever being able to do it again are slim. When we retired, our goal was to travel. The big question became how to do that on a sustainable level where we were not just blowing through our savings. Through Home Exchange, we have found many others, like ourselves, who want to reasonably travel. Our first exchange in NY was perfect. It was beyond perfect really, we have friends in NY now and we plan on exchange with them again in the future. I don’t expect all of our exchanges to go that well but being able to text, call or video chat with our incoming guests have made this a much more comfortable experience for all. We have 87 days of travel ahead of us. 15 of those days will be on a cruise across the Atlantic. From there, we have reciprocal exchanges lined up for Montpellier, Marseille and Florence. We are allowing other Home Exchangers to use our home for guest points, which act as currency. In return, we had enough guest points to cover our stays in Barcelona ,Paris, Rome and Santorini. We are planning a minimum of a week per city and almost 2 weeks in Rome as we want to use it as a base to explore Naples, Pompeii, Sorrento, etc. We are only paying for accommodations for 6 out of those 87 days. A highlight of Home Exchange is being able to “live like a local.” Hosts are happy to provide information on where to eat, visit, etc. that can’t be found in a travel guide 😉

As for life in Mexico, it is still just as great and full of surprises and adventures as it has ever been. Lisa had to see a dermatologist for a suspicious mole. She was able to be seen in 3 days, it cost 1300 pesos (65 dollars) and the doctor was fantastic. She took Lisa’s medical history herself and spent about 45 minutes with us discussing concerns and what to look out for. She even had me look through her dermascope so I could see for myself what she was seeing. We also had to go through a process of changing out our license plates and registering the car for this year. It was not hard to do but one does question the logic behind making everyone change their plates every 3 years, at the same time. The lines in some places were hours long, I lucked out on a rainy day at a satellite office where it only took me 20 minutes.

When we returned from NYC, we did talk about possibly buying another home back in the States but then we were reminded of all the reasons we left. Sometimes it feels like we are on perpetual vacation and coming back from NY felt like we were coming back to a vacation house and not a home but that is exactly what we need it to be for the next few years. Who knows what the future will bring. Especially in regards to taking care of parents, helping out with grandkids (one day, I hope!!) or other unknowns but until then, we are going to travel travel travel and continue living our best lives!

Santa Marta, here we come!

by Stacy Ziegler, posted in Colombia, Early Retirement, Ex pat, Inspirational, LGBT, Lifestyle, Riviera Maya, Travel

It’s been awhile since I have been able to write. Unfortunately, my life doesn’t slow down despite my desire to spend more of my time daydreaming about where we might land in a few years.

It’s been a hectic few weeks; I am training a new class of CASAs (Court Appointed Special Advocates for children removed by the state) and that will roughly take up the month of April in conjunction with everyday work and life. We spent last weekend in Vancouver BC where we experienced the most amazing P!NK show and we are trying to unpack our things since we decided to pull our home off the market and pursue early retirement abroad instead.

With all of this going on, I managed to map out our upcoming trip and purchase our airline tickets and it goes a little something like this… SEA to JFK to enjoy New York City and have some really good food and unparalleled entertainment for our anniversary, JFK to CTG where we will spend 1 night in Cartagena, rent a car the next morning and make the drive to Santa Marta where we will spend 5 nights, SMR to BOG where we will spend 2 nights in Bogotoa, just checking things out, BOG to CUN to spend 7 more nights in Rivera Maya and finally CUN to SEA to be back in time for Thanksgiving. Fun side note, you can fly intercountry in Colombia for about $25 USD so while it is a 4-5 hour drive from Cartagena to Santa Marta, we are choosing to do that to see the the coast. Who knows, there may be some amazing beach town we drive past that we would never have known about otherwise! We are then flying from Santa Marta to Bogota for $25 where we will spend a few nights and then take a direct flight from Bogotoa to Cancun. We are not checking any bags so we can travel pretty freely and not have to worry about delays through customs, lost luggage, etc. I picked up a pretty awesome Travelpro carry on size suitcase on clearance at Macy’s that will easily hold everything I need to bring with me as well as my own snorkel gear. I was able to book the above itinerary for less than $1,500 per person using mileage points, perks, hotel reward points, etc.

I have never planned out a trip this extensive and I am sure some thing will not go as planned but that is all part of the experience. You may wonder why we are spending more time in Mexico since we just returned but if you’ve read my previous blog posts, we have decided to keep the Riviera Maya area open as a possible retirement location. Akumal, Tulum, Playa del Carmen-they all give off a mystical feeling. The Mayan culture, the beach, the people, the food, the cenotes… they call my name. The downsides to Mexico vs. Colombia on paper is rather extensive though. The medical care is not as good as the States and Colombia is significantly better than both. Cost of living is on par with Santa Marta though that is only if you are willing to swap an ocean front condo in Santa Marta for one that isn’t in Mexico. Residency is easily established in both. Mexico has really developed a reputation for being quite unsafe these days and that’s true even in Rivera Maya but of course, Colombia has its own sordid history but history is the key word. There are still plenty of travel advisories for both countries, check before you book! Common sense is your friend. There are plenty of places in the states, especially Seattle that I would not walk around at night and alone. Upsides for Mexico, English is much more widely spoken than in Colombia and its a 6 hour flight home instead of a 12 from Colombia. With that said, I have always felt like a flight is a flight so whether you are a 2, 6, 12 or 18 hour flight away, it is still just a flight. 🙂 Since we aren’t exactly looking for another America just in a cheaper location, I am not sure that part of Mexico would even give me the foreign experience that I want.

We are very excited for our trip to Colombia and the reason we aren’t staying longer is the fear that the humidity will be so oppressive that we will want to take Santa Marta off our list. If we do, that doesn’t mean Colombia is out. We want to spend two nights in Bogota on this trip just to see and feel the capital, we would not consider residency there but we want to return for at least a week long trip to Medellin and it’s surrounding areas for that purpose. Our stays in both countries will be research so that means that while we will likely dive and enjoy the beach, the whole idea is to rent a car, drive around, look at properties and neighborhoods at night as well as during the day. This isn’t a, sit on my rear and have a server bring me food and drinks all day while enjoying the Caribbean sun poolside, trip. The idea of being in Colombia thrills me. The people have a reputation for being extremely kind and open to foreigners and there is something uniquely empowering about forcing yourself outside of your comfort zone and submerging yourself in another culture especially when you don’t share a common language.