A recent survey shows that inflation is causing some older Americans to delay their retirement plans.

Inflation for February ballooned to 7.9%, a new 40-year high, and most consumers expect prices to continue to rise over the next 12 months.

Concerns about the future are compounded by recent stock market drops and the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, other Americans are taking a different approach.

We ran into a longtime local friend named Paul last week. He owns a relocation service that helps people from the U.S. and Canada move their possessions to Ecuador. In fact, his company moved our belongings here over a decade ago.

When we inquired how business was going he replied,”Fantastic!”

We wanted to know if his customers were coming to Cuenca, leaving, or both.

He said, “They’re coming. They tell me with prices going up, the ugly politics, and now the war in Ukraine, there’s too much uncertainty. They’ve had enough and want a 'más tranquilo' (more peaceful) life.”

His comments were ...

When the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic in March of 2020, a common mantra was, “No worries. This thing will be over by summer!”

Well…

Two years later and a lot of us are finally starting to emerge from the quagmire of mandates and restrictions we’ve had to endure.

If you’ve been following our story, you know we have been sensible but not suppressed by the coronavirus. Disappointed that our planned family trip in April 2020 had to be canceled, when the U.S. lifted its ban on international travel four months later, we were on a plane headed north in September.

And last year while many were still hunkered down, we spent 2 ½ months touring Mexico. Between there and our travels in the States, we changed locations a total of 33 times!

When you’re on the wrong side of life’s bell curve like we are, time is your most precious asset. We had complied with shelter-in-place orders for the better part of a year in Ecuador. Certainly not a hardship, but continuing to pos...

Edd:  Finding ourselves in Cuenca to start 2022 is the most unexpected thing we’ve done in quite some time.

Cynthia:  Two months ago we were talking about spending the winter months in South America, but going back to Ecuador wasn’t even on the radar. Yet here we are.

E:  When we left last March I couldn’t wait to get on the plane. We’d been in Cuenca for 11 years and I felt so ready to move on. Which makes my happiness to return incredibly surprising to me.

C:  I’m pleased to be here as well. Maybe your feelings are a variation of the old saying that “absence makes the heart grow fonder.”

E:  Yeah, quite possibly. It’s all too easy to take things like Cuenca’s ideal year-round climate for granted, isn’t it? The frigid temps we experienced in the States during the holidays were hard for us to handle.

C:  As was the brutal heat in parts of Mexico last year. Particularly in Mérida. When it comes to weather, we’re unapologetic “Goldilocks peeps.” Not too hot and not too cold.

E:  ...

Cynthia:  In the midst of a pandemic we left behind our safe, predictable lives last March to reimagine our retirement by becoming global explorers. I’m sure a lot of people thought we were crazy.

Edd:  They probably also believed we had some kind of detailed plan for our travels. The truth is we knew we were going to Mexico for at least a month. We booked a one-way flight to Mérida and our accommodations there. The rest unfolded one stop after the next.

C:  Hmm—putting it that way, yep, sounds like we were nuts! To be fair, we did have a general itinerary. But since we were scouting locations for our website, we wanted to give ourselves maximum flexibility to stay at each place long enough to gather the info we needed.

E:  That “plan” worked out for the best since the four original destinations grew to six, and we ended up staying in Mexico for 2 ½ months. Let’s talk about some of the things we learned during our adventure.

C:  Wow, where to start. Well, I want to congratulate you...

Edd:  Our followers will probably be surprised to learn where we are now.

Cynthia:  Well, so are we! Our plans were to say goodbye to cold weather after the holidays and head south to Peru or Colombia. But we learned both countries currently have restrictive policies in place regarding COVID-19.

E:  Right. And we didn’t want to go to the trouble and expense of traveling somewhere new without the freedom we enjoyed in Mexico.

C:  Plus, we discovered when we’re constantly on the move it’s difficult to focus on creating new content and products for our website.

E:  So we decided to spend the winter and get caught up on work projects in…our hometown of Cuenca, Ecuador!

C:  Finding ourselves back in the same neighborhood wasn’t the way we’d envisioned 2022 beginning. When our original plan didn’t work out, we quickly pivoted and decided going home for a few months makes the most sense.

E:  To be clear, Ecuador has some COVID restrictions too. But since Cuenca is so familiar we don’t n...

After traveling to Philadelphia for a crash course in the story of our nation’s beginning, we once again took advantage of Lancaster’s central location to learn more about the Civil War with a day trip to Gettysburg.

Our visit started at the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum & Visitor Center. “A New Birth of Freedom” film narrated by Morgan Freeman set the stage for the historical significance of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Next we went inside a beautifully rendered Cyclorama ("...360-degree, hand-painted canvas longer than a football field...") building to view a presentation of Pickett's Charge which took place on the decisive third day of battle.

Originally created in 1883, according to the Gettysburg Foundation “the painting survived years of exhibition, multiple moves, vandalism, fire, cuts and neglect” before undergoing a multimillion-dollar restoration completed in 2008.

The Museum is filled with exhibits, artifacts, and information. We could have stayed there a...

Since we once owned one of Atlanta’s most successful interior landscaping companies, we were excited to discover that Longwood Gardens was only about an hour’s drive from Lancaster.

Created by Pierre S. du Pont and opened to the public in 1921, Longwood Gardens is a fabulous botanical showcase featuring flower gardens, fountains, and a massive conservatory all spread over more than 1000 acres.

Walking from the Visitor Center to the Conservatory, we were immediately blown away by the Bellagio-like fountain show complete with opera music taking place in the meticulously landscaped gardens.

We had never seen a greenhouse on the scale of Longwood’s Conservatory and didn’t know what to expect when we stepped inside.

Words can’t properly convey the beauty we witnessed and the joy we experienced. So we’ll keep the narrative to a minimum and let you relive the visit with us through our photos.

Against a backdrop of greenery, flowers alternate according to season. We were treat...

In our previous post on Lancaster, Pennsylvania, we didn’t mention the city having two international airports less than an hour away as a big plus for this retirement location. An Amtrak station right in town offers another option for travel possibilities.

We love riding trains and have always wanted to visit Philadelphia to learn more about our nation’s beginnings.

So we booked inexpensive roundtrip tickets and climbed aboard for a 2-day excursion to the “City of Brotherly Love.”

BTW—know how Philadelphia got that nickname? William Penn, the city’s founder, combined the Greek words for love (phileo) and brother (adelphos).

Arriving in time for breakfast, our first stop was the Reading Terminal Market, one of the country’s oldest and largest public markets.  Wow, compared to the market in Lancaster, this place was overwhelming. The selection of meat, seafood, cheeses, produce, baked goods and prepared food is so fantastic, we came back for breakfast the following day!

We began...

OK, we know what you’re thinking.

“Lancaster, Pennsylvania?!? What is the ‘retiring abroad’ couple doing there?”

We’d be asking the same thing. Let us explain.

After spending months in Mexico over the summer, then visiting family in the States, issues arose that made leaving the country again in 2021 impractical.

So…

We shifted gears and began researching best retirement locations in the U.S.

Unsurprisingly, several of the top picks were in Florida, which for many reasons holds no interest to us.

But more than once we noticed Lancaster being mentioned. In 2019 it was #1 in the entire country according to U.S. News & World Report.

Their top ranking reflected favorable scores in areas like housing affordability, desirability, health care, and overall happiness.

Having never even heard of the place, we were immediately intrigued. You see, we’d never heard of Cuenca, Ecuador, when it popped up on an Internet search in 2008.

And you know what happened with that discovery.

October...

Cynthia:  We’ve heard a LOT about Lake Chapala over the years and were anxious to see for ourselves why it’s home to so many North American expats.

Edd:  Right. It’s estimated that out of a total population of about 50,000, there are between 15 and 20 thousand expats living full time in the town and municipality of Chapala, which includes the town of Ajijic. And that number swells to more than 30,000 in winter when the snowbirds show up!

C:  Those are remarkable statistics. We were so lucky to find an Airbnb right between the two places, which made for easy exploration.

E:  A duplex with a pool that we shared with the owners? Perfect way to end our Mexico travel adventures! 

C:  It was such fun to meet up with friends from Cuenca living nearby that were happy to show us around. We were incredibly grateful for their help since we didn’t have a car, and their perspective as residents was invaluable. 

E:  Sure was. We hadn’t thought about the logistics of lakeside living, but by de...