Expat Life: Where we've decided to live next

Edd:  Well, we’ve been traveling full time for the past 2½ years looking for the next place to call home.

Cynthia:  After 11 years in Cuenca that ended with months of COVID lockdowns, we were ready for a change and decided it was time to explore more of the world.

E:  We started in Mexico, and our first stop, Mérida, was outstanding. Beautiful colonial city, great amenities, less than an hour to the beach…

C:  But OMG the heat! Granted, we were there in May, the hottest month of the year. Honestly, with 100+ temps and oppressive humidity we thought we were going to perish. Would certainly consider a return visit in the winter but moving there? No thanks.

E:  Living at the beach isn’t really for us, so Tulum, Playa del Carmen, and Cancun were more about research for our subscribers than ourselves. Tulum? Ugh. Cancun? We were surprised how much we liked the actual city away from the hotel zone.

If a coastal destination was on our radar, Playa is actually pretty great.

C:  San Miguel de Allende exceeded expectations. So much so that we extended our 50th anniversary celebration an extra week.

Our only concern was that it’s pretty small. Even though Travel + Leisure readers have named SMA “Best City in the World,” it seems more like a town than an actual city. Would we tire of it?

E:  Not hard to understand why Lake Chapala is such an expat haven. It’s the softest landing possible for someone wanting an American experience in a foreign country. Tons of folks from the U.S. and Canada live there, and even more snowbirds show up during the winter months because of the springlike climate year-round.

C:  Stores stock so many imported products. Amazon orders are brought in weekly from Texas. And Guadalajara, an hour’s drive away, has a Costco!

E:  That word “drive” is why Chapala, despite its popularity, wouldn’t work for us. We haven’t had a car in 13 years and don’t want one. With a main road that loops around the lake, spotty taxi and bus service, and no Uber, a car is a necessity there.

C:  Next we explored parts of Europe. Lisbon pretty much checked all our boxes. What a lovely city. And such welcoming people. That 5-hour time difference between the “other side of the pond” and our U.S. family on the east coast is the only sticking point as far as staying in touch between visits.

E:  We thoroughly enjoyed Madrid, particularly the Salamanca district. And the food, a particularly important subject for me, was the best we experienced overall. However, it’s a BIG, bustling city, and the temps get pretty extreme in the summer.

C:  Bordeaux, a last minute addition to our itinerary, caught us completely off guard. We loved it! The next two stops, Paris and London, were not so much relocation possibilities but rather an anniversary gift to ourselves.

E:  Although we discovered we could afford to live in the Parisian suburbs and commute into the city when we wanted. And I’ve gotta say, the city of Versailles was very intriguing. Only a 45-minute train ride to Paris and gorgeous!

C:  On to South America. I know you loved Medellín, Colombia, and have talked about going there for years.

E:  I mean, c’mon, what’s not to love? The neighborhood where we stayed for two months, Laureles, was like a botanical garden. The weather is absolutely perfect, the food’s fabulous, and the prices are super cheap because their peso is taking a beating versus the USD.

C:  But the city itself lacks appeal, and El Poblado, the area where most expats live, is located on a steep incline that doesn’t support our pedestrian lifestyle. I don’t disagree about the positives you mentioned. I’m just not convinced Medellín is our forever place.

E:  What about our last stop, Buenos Aires? Talk about cheap. We went there with a stack of US$100 bills and came back with more than we could have imagined.

C:  BA is a wonderful city and you’re right, presently it’s incredibly affordable for expats using U.S. dollars. However, the front-runner in Argentina’s October presidential election advocates switching from the peso to the USD to stop runaway inflation there, so who knows what the future holds? Plus, it’s a l-o-n-g flight from there to the States.

E:  So where have we decided to call home? As much to our surprise as maybe to you, our followers, after all the exploring we’ve come back to right where we started—Cuenca, Ecuador.

C:  San Miguel–Lisbon–Bordeaux–Medellín–all great choices, and we could most likely be happy in any of them. But did we like them so much more than Cuenca that we were willing to ship our belongings, apply for residency in another country, find new doctors, and recreate a community of friends?

E:  The answer was “no.” Truthfully, in some of the other places the food or weather was better. Lisbon and Bordeaux are gateways to the entire European continent. But at this stage of our lives, especially since Cuenca keeps getting better, a complete do-over simply doesn’t make sense.

C:  It’s not like our traveling days are over. Heck, we have writing assignments this month that are taking us on a glamping excursion in the Amazon followed by two weeks in and around Quito.

E:  Exactly. After living out of suitcases and constantly looking for the next Airbnb for 2.5 years, we realized we need a familiar place to relax and recharge between adventures. Since we returned to Cuenca five different times during our travels, maybe our decision wasn’t completely unexpected after all.

C:  The apartment we’ve just moved into is on the opposite side of town from where we previously lived. So even though we know Cuenca well, it will be fun to explore the neighborhood and discover new places to eat and shop.

E:  When we created our program, Retirement Reimagined!, we had no idea how much the title would end up describing our own life. What’s next for Edd and Cynthia? Who knows? Stay tuned…😉