We pulled away ever-so-quietly in our truck, trying to avoid waking all our sleeping neighbours. Dawn was approaching fast as we left Water Barrel (the name of our village in Sun City Mesquite).
Turning onto Pioneer Blvd we headed for the Interstate highway a couple of miles away. Goodbye friends we thought to ourselves as we glanced to the right for one last look at the village disappearing in the distance. Shortly after, we turned onto the Interstate highway and headed north for the long trip home.
The drive back up into Canada was uneventful apart from 15 minutes or so over the Monida Pass in Montana where we were forced to engage the truck's 4 wheel drive as the snow depth increased on Interstate 15 and it became noticeably more slippery.
After an overnight stop in Idaho Falls, Idaho, we pushed on to the Canadian border where I opened the drivers side window as we slowly approached the Customs booth occupied by the Canada Customs Officer who was peering enquiringly into our truck at us both.
With my well practised "polite guy" voice on, and the accompanying facial contortions designed to try to get the customs officer on our side so he might forgive us the duty on our taxable items, I bid him "hello" and proceeded to declare our purchases.
"Take this paperwork inside and someone will meet you there so you can pay the bill" the officer said paying no attention to my attempt at acting. No Academy award for me this time around I thought as we reluctantly pulled up in front of the main building. After donating $95 in tax levies to the Canadian Government we pressed on to Lethbridge Alberta and met up with Donna's son Steve for supper.
During the night at the Comfort Inn Motel, the wind came up. The 4 storey motel with it's high profile facade took a real beating from the high winds coming out of the north which also made for a poor nights sleep.
We departed the "windy city" at around 9:00 am for the 2 hour drive to Calgary. Both of us cautiously eyeing the skies to the north of Fort Macleod. Then as we were buffeted from side to side by the unrelenting winds, the weather deteriorated further as the black skies turned ugly then opened up with a vengeance as the snow began to fall.
All of a sudden, we were in a horizontal blizzard which at times prevented us from seeing the road at all but eventually, a couple of hours later we pulled into Calgary none the worse for the journey. We stocked up with groceries at the local supermarket and headed to Parkland - our home for the next two and a half months. We weren't that surprised to find so much snow in Calgary as we had been following the winter weather while we were in Nevada.
There is a saying in Alberta, "if you don't like the weather, wait a minute". How very true! The following day the well known Chinook winds blew in and raised the air temperature from sub-zero to + 7C and that's how it remained until the latter part of January. We even enjoyed double digit temperatures at times. Not bad for Canada at the end of January.
The snow began melting for a short period about one week into January which had the effect or rendering all vehicles on the road (irrespective of the underlying colour) a dirty brown. Those stores selling windshield washer fluid must be making a killing I thought to myself.
January passed without incident, and ever-so-slowly the snow piles making side streets difficult if not impossible to navigate (unless you had all-wheel or 4 wheel drive) began to melt.
And then there it was. As plain as the nose on your face. It arrived like a long lost cousin. Half way through February when the atmospheric conditions were just right Calgary was visited by one of nature's natural wonders - The Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis.
The pictures below of the Aurora as it appeared over Calgary in the night sky made for a wonderful light show lasting two nights and was enjoyed by thousands of night owls.
By now we had decided it was time to touch base with a couple of our friends. We met Mike and Shauna at Brewster's Pub in Lake Bonavista. They were both anxious to hear about our trip to Ecuador and the reasons why it did not work out for us. Once we had explained, they understood perfectly.
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| Donna, Mike and Shauna enjoying a glass of wine together in Lake Bonavista, Calgary |
In early February the temperature dropped again to -28C and the snow came once again. It seemed like this will never end.
By the end of February, we were still in the -20's at night, but the days were getting noticeably longer. We could also feel the increasing strength of the sun's rays through the truck window as we drove around Calgary while running our daily errands.
Remember what I said at the beginning of this blog about changeable weather here. Despite it being around -20C for a long time, all of a sudden at the end of February the temperatures plummeted yet again, this time to -31C and with the windchill on top, we hit -43C (-44.8F for our American readers).
There is a saying in folk-lore "In like a lion, out like a lamb"? Maybe it's true because by March 3, David Spence, one of our local meteorological weather forecasters was calling for temperatures for the following Saturday to be a balmy +10C and even +12C a day later. We will reserve judgement on that because March can be snowy and very unpredictable as those of us who were in Calgary on March 16, 1998 will attest to. That was the worst March snowstorm in 113 years in Calgary, when an Alberta Clipper wreaked havoc in the city. No! we aren't out of the woods yet.
During the cold period in February, with no work to go to we both hid indoors. Donna and I hit the Internet on our MacBooks, both formulating a plan for the months to come.
We have decided that March 24/25 is the date to drive back to Mesquite where we will stay for about five weeks. During our time in Calgary, we have also had time to think about our future so when we get to Mesquite, we will list our home for sale. This revelation certainly surprised some of our family and our friends both in Canada and the US. Why would we sell something we loved so much they asked us?
Here's why! We have a great deal of money tied up in a home in the US that we can only use for a maximum 182 days a year. We could rent a fully furnished place in Mesquite for around $1200 a month, so it does not make sense any more to tie up that amount of money on something we can only have limited use of, especially with our plans for the future. Add that to the fact that the Canadian dollar has slipped back to 90 cents against the US dollar at the time of writing, and It makes sense to cash in and put more money in our pockets if we can sell while the Canadian Dollar is low against the US dollar.
Once the home is sold, it will free up enough to cash to purchase a property outright in Costa Rica or Panama, should we decide to live in one of the two countries. If not we will keep the money in the bank and carry on looking. Maybe Belize will be next on the list.
During our stay in Calgary Donna booked our flights to Costa Rica for April 30th when we will depart Las Vegas by air. We will stop overnight in Panama City then fly the next morning to Costa Rica for two months.
We were surprised by the price of the air fares. For the two of us to fly from Las Vegas to Costa Rica, onto Panama and back to Las Vegas four months later, we paid just $650 each including all airport taxes. A great deal.
We will fly into Costa Rica via Liberia Airport. Then we will take the one hour drive to our eventual destination at Playa Flamingo, slightly north of Tamarindo on Costa Rica's northwest pacific coast.
This region comes highly recommended by a former Calgary Realtor® friend of ours Linda Wilks. Linda worked at the same RE/MAX office with us in Calgary years ago but now, spends six months every year in Costa Rica. It was Linda who put us in touch with a couple from Texas during one of our Skype video calls with her. The couple rented us their condo for May and June. We are really looking forward to this.
Click here: our home for two months in Costa Rica
While in Costa Rica we will discover the the Central Valley region, Lake Arenal, Tamarindo, Playa Flamingo where we will be staying (all very popular with Ex Pats) and a whole load of other areas south but on the Pacific side of Costa Rica.
Flora and Fauna
There are literally hundreds if not thousands of species of animals, birds and plants in these two countries and we are so looking forward to seeing some of them.
Then It's onto Panama
After a two month fact finding trip we fly back to Panama City.
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| Panama City is a very modern City. The infrastructure in Panama is streets ahead of most other Central and South American Countries. Good Technology, excellent health care, great infrastructure and roadways, high speed internet access. It's the hub of business for Central America. |
My hat goes off to Donna. She is persistent and she managed to find us a fully furnished, fully equipped home for just $650 a month. It also comes with a smaller TV, Wi-fi, a new BBQ, DVD player, hammocks, deck chairs, the lot. Oh! this is going to be great.
Jerry and Liane - close American friends from Mesquite will join us for the whole month of August, so it will work out at $325 per couple for the month. Can't complain at that.
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| The owners of this Casa live in St. Albert, Alberta |
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| It's a single family home, so the pool is all ours and it is looked after by one of the locals. |
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| Nestled on a 1/4 Acre of land |
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| Waiter…….Drinks please. We can go down to the local dock and get fresh fish, prawns and Tuna right off the boat. |
High on the priority list and a must see of course, is a trip to the Panama Canal to see the series of locks (Miraflores and Gatun) that facilitate many boats saving the 8000 mile trip and lots of fuel to go around the tip of South America.
The area of Bocas Del Toro on the Caribbean side of Panama is another area we will visit. This is where you will find the Azure blue clear waters of the Caribbean. Altos Del Maria, the cities of David and Boquete in the mountains and El Alto, El Valle, El Puente and Santa Fe are also on our list of places to visit.
We don't want to pre-judge, but it looks as if we may just have found an area to give some strong consideration to calling home one day. We shall have to see.
The Panamanian government has made it very easy to become a resident of Panama. Show them a guaranteed income for life of $1,200 a month for a couple, get your marriage certificate certified and a criminal background check done and a few other things and you are almost home and dry. One other thing is that once granted permanent resident status as a pensionado, it is guaranteed for life.
For those of you who's interest is peaked. Read this below which I copied and pasted from another article. It has links also.
Inexpensive Real Estate and Health Care
Consistent with the generally low cost of living in Panama is the affordability of available real estate in Panama. Whether you are looking to live in a Panama City high-rise apartment, a condo in a gorgeous beachfront community, or a house in the temperate mountain region, you will find very reasonably priced real estate to suit your needs and desires. Most people who retire in Panama find themselves enjoying the property they have always dreamed about but couldn’t afford in the U.S., Europe, or Canada.
Health care in Panama is also both inexpensive and modern. Many Panamanian doctors are U.S.-trained, and hospital standards are on par with what you would find in North America or Europe. In fact, Panama City’s major facilities are all affiliated with prestigious U.S. hospitals. Perhaps the most appealing advantage is the private health insurance and prescription drugs that are readily available and much less expensive than their U.S. equivalents.
Panama‘s Unmatched Pensionado Program for Retirees
A major benefit of retiring to Panama that must not be overlooked is Panama’s incrediblepensionado (retiree) program. Panama’s pensionado program was created via Law No. 6 and Law No. 9, both passed in June 1987. Today, the program still provides pensioners with the most appealing special benefits the world has to offer.
Under the pensionado program, you will be entitled to :
- 50% off entertainment, such as movies, theater, concerts, and sporting event
- 30% off bus, boat, and train fares
- 25% off airline tickets
- 30 to 50% off hotel stays
- 15% off hospital bills
- 10% off prescription medicines*
- 20% off medical consultations*
- 15% off dental and eye exams*
- 20% off professional and technical services
- 50% off closing costs for home loans
- And more…
*Unless insurance applies
Pensionados also receive a one-time exemption on the importation of household goods of up to $10,000, and, additionally, will enjoy an exemption from duties for the importation or local purchase of a car every two years. This video explains more about the great benefits of Panama’s retiree program.
Well, It's Mar 3, so not long now before we leave on our next adventure. If nothing goes awry we plan to be gone until mid-September and by that time we should know if we are going to apply for pensionado status in Panama or Costa Rica.
After that, it's back up to Canada, Prepare all the paperwork for our application and get it all submitted.
We will send lots of pictures back and keep the blogs coming so keep in touch, and if anyone wants information on the side, we can be reached in either country by a local phone call.
Our Canadian friends and family dial (587) 315-7413
Our American friends dial (702) 613-4161, we would be happy to give talk to you any time.
Safe Travels and roll on Summer for all you Canadians.
