Living Abroad: A Surprising Start to 2022

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 need to figure out everything, or anything for that matter, like we would in totally new surroundings.

C:  We had some great travel experiences reimagining our retirement last year, but I’m honestly looking forward to staying put for a while. I don’t think we anticipated how tiresome continuously moving from place to place would be.

E:  Funny you mention that because I just went through our 2021 calendar and figured out we changed locations last year 33 times!! And since we didn’t even leave Ecuador until the end of March, from that point forward we averaged packing our luggage a little over once a week!

C:  That’s incredible—no wonder we’re exhausted. And for the record, I did most of that packing. We haven’t figured out our schedule this year yet, but it will definitely not be that crazy.

E:  Agreed. Hey, we’re making this new life of ours up as we go. Even though our excitement and enthusiasm created an itinerary that ended up being a little too aggressive—

C:  A little too aggressive? I think sometimes we forget we’re not teenagers anymore.

E:  You know what, we had a year to remember when, sadly, way too many people had a year they’d like to forget. And we’re going to take everything we learned in 2021 and make sure this one’s even better.

C:  Ah, my eternal optimist. Besides the over-scheduling, I’d like for us to have another conversation to explore all that we did learn from our year of travel and service. Not just about the ins and outs of globetrotting, but about ourselves as well.

E:  That’s a great idea. When you say goodbye to the “same old same old” and throw yourself into the unknown like we did, it’s a crash course of discovery on many levels. Let’s do it!

Note ~ As we’re publishing this blog, Winter Storm Izzy is bringing snow and ice to millions in the U.S. Meanwhile, here in Cuenca it’s blue skies, short sleeves, and open windows.

Might be a great time to check out our updated Free Report spotlighting 10 affordable international locations (including our hometown 😊) with ideal year-round climate!