A Winter Wonderland - But Not For too much Longer

It was 5:30 am Jan 11, 2014 when we pulled out of Mesquite to begin the long journey back up to Canada.  Ice-maker off, water softener unplugged, hot water heater off, water shutoff complete, thermostat set.  That's it, Let's go.  

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.  

Alberta bound: Click to sample 
the flavour of our Province

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.  

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. 

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.

About an hours drive due west of Panama City, Donna has found us what looks to be a wonderful property to rent.  Owned by a couple from St. Albert, Alberta, it is a 3 bedroom, 2 full baths, single family home with a pool on a 1/4 acre lot in Gorgona. See pictures below.  From there we will take day trips and the occasional overnight trip to discover what Panama has to offer in other locations. 

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. 

The owners of this Casa live in St. Albert, Alberta 

It's a single family home, so the pool is all ours and it is looked after by one of the locals.

Nestled on a 1/4 Acre of land

Waiter…….Drinks please.  We can go down to the local dock and get fresh fish, prawns and Tuna right off the boat.

Sight-Seeing in Panama

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.

The Adventure Continues.

Donna sizing up the Massive earth-movers.  Four of them push and pull thousands of Tons of earth each hour.  The City Ordnance requires they remove earth 8ft down to ensure no clay then to replace it all. 

It was ten days or so after our last post that the silence we had enjoyed at the rear of our Mesquite home for the past five years was suddenly broken when massive earth movers turned up and began levelling the ground behind us in order to begin work on the services, sewers, roads and sidewalks for the next village in Sun City Anthem.  


These incredible machines wasted no time in moving tens of thousands of tons of sand (the composition of the land here in the Mohave Desert) each day.  

We knew this was inevitable when we built our home on this land.  We also realized that further construction behind us would in all likelihood take place when we were gone which is probably still the case.      

Birthday Time  

Donna managed to get us a king suite at the Rio for $20 a night

It was also Donna's birthday during that same week.  She asked to celebrate it in Las Vegas so without further ado, off we went.  It was much like any Vegas trip.  We both enjoyed ourselves and made the most of the visit.  

On the morning of the third day, we checked out of the hotel/casino and headed to an East Indian grocery store as we required some spices we could not find at any of the conventional grocery stores in Mesquite or Las Vegas.  A quick Google search brought forth an address so we jumped into the truck and five minutes later we arrived at this well equipped East Indian grocery store just of Tropicana Blvd.     

As we entered, the various aromas emanating from the many fresh spices the owners had in stock had my imagination racing as I conjured up fresh ideas for future meals.    

Prior to leaving Mesquite, we had organised a cooking course on Indian food which would take place at our home a week from today.  

Between us, we had planned out some recipes and food we believed our guests would find interesting and tasty.  We quickly grabbed what we needed and headed out for the 1 ¼ hour drive back to Mesquite.

The Indian Cooking Class.

Vegetable Pakoras  

The day of the cooking class arrived and a Co-ed group of 20 of our neighbours turned out.  This all began when one of our neighbours….no names (Liane) made an innocent remark mentioning how much she enjoyed curry.  

There aren't that many restaurants in Nevada that serve Indian food, and very few Americans have tried it, so it would be a balancing act as to what to cook.  In any case, It was decided to tone down the heat and go for more fragrant dishes as a good curry dish, does not have to be hot to be tasty.    

There are lots of clubs at our Sun City location - even a Gourmet Cooking Club but we believed that it was probably out of most of the club members comfort zone to cook such food which is very specialized and labour intensive.  As it was, two members of the club would be in our midst today.    

In order to introduce everyone to the type of food we were about to prepare, we had set out on our kitchen table many of the spices used in Indian cooking.  Passing them around so the participants could smell the various spices which resulted in lots of ooohs and ahhhs.  The participants were unfamiliar with many of the spices but they liked the different aromas and could not wait to get going.   

Once everyone was present and they had poured themselves that customary drink, we began by explaining what the spices were and how they should be used.
  

The list included Besan or Gram flour, Saffron, Cumin, Ajwain, Garam Masala, Cloves, Dhania Jeera, Red Chili Powder, Fresh Curry leaves, Fresh Coriander, Green Cardamon Pods, Cinnamon, Aesafetida or Hing and a litany of other spices we would use to create what hopefully would be some tasty dishes that day.

The menu was relatively simple for beginners:  We decided not to do all the work, but rather have the attendees participate by preparing and cooking the items under our supervision.  We had completed the donkey work before everyone arrived i.e. slicing onions, peeling potatoes etc.

On the Menu were: Pappadams that had to be fried, Vegetable Pakoras sometimes referred to as Bhajias (we made them from scratch), Beef Curry, Butter Chicken, Tandoori Chicken plus a highly flavourful Saffron Rice dish prepared with aromatic Basmati Rice, cinnamon, cloves and other condiments.

The girls enjoying the fruits of their labour in our kitchen sampling the dishes after they were cooked. 

If any of our followers want to try these recipes themselves, simply click on the links above for each dish.  Hopefully the sites we obtained the information from have not changed but if you have the name of the item, a Google search will bring forth recipes and YouTube Videos too.  

Also note; some of these dishes vary slightly from the dishes I cooked because as you get used to cooking them, you experiment by adding different spices, but they are all basically the same.  

In real life in India, the taste of a certain dish will vary from village to village due to the availability of particular spices at that time, so you can find many variations on the same dish even on the Internet or for that matter in India itself Garam Masala (a mixture of many spices) as an example, is not made the same way in every place.  

The one day introductory cooking course was a great success and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves tremendously. Literally everyone sampled all the dishes and there was lots left over.  Some even took away the left-overs they liked the food that much.

Occupying Our Time During The Early Months.

Since we have arrived, we have installed a water softener, added a great room fan/light combination, changed our dining room light fixture, installed an LED lighting system above our kitchen Cabinets to add an ambience to the kitchen, added shelving to the pantry and 12 Volt LED landscape lighting in the back yard to give an adobe look to walls we have at the rear of our home (see the pictures below).  

The landscape lighting worked well.  Now we can take full advantage of the back yard during the day and on the warmer evenings which occur 95% of the time in Mesquite, and if there is a chill in the air, we just crank up the patio heater when our friends are over.  Our palm trees are now highlighted and look great. All this, has kept us both very busy.

Adding 12 Volt LED landscape lighting really allows you to make use of the yard at night as well as during the daytime.

Now, we can sit out in the warmer evenings and enjoy our yard day or night.

Later this year, I will complete all the LED lighting to the front and sides of our home.  In December, we will take out the two tier Granite counters and breakfast bar in the kitchen and have the whole work surface redone with one large slab of Granite or Quartz, all on one  level.  It will look fabulous once it is all completed and will triple our work surfaces for parties and catering.  

Christmas Open House

Our next venture was in concert with our next door neighbours Dave and Barbara.  One day, while having our customary "it's 4 O Clock somewhere in the world" cocktails, between us, we all decided to entertain our friends and neighbours by having a Christmas Open House.  About 30 people attended the party Dec 11.  Dave and Barbara (our next door neighbours from Utah) suggested we host the Open House at their home which we did. 

Two of the four hosts Dave and Barbara - our next door neighbours - Super people, you could not ask for better more friendly neighbours.  

The two of us enjoying the party at the Open House.

What a bunch of wonderful "guys & gals" The food was delicious and we all had lots of fun.  You could not wish for a finer crowd
  

Brad (left) and Brenda (2nd from the right)  - fellow Calgarians from Lake McKenzie who also have a home only five doors away from us in Mesquite, made it down for the Party.  They are seen here talking to Jodie and Glen their next door neighbours 

A Brief Review About Retirement 

At the time of writing this blog we have been fully retired for exactly six months.  We are very happy doing what we are doing now, getting out and about and travelling to new places has been lot of fun so far.  

Do we miss the business?  I believe we are both of the opinion that you cannot drop something you have been doing for over 25 years and put it behind you.  So the honest answer to that question is yes! We do miss it…….a little.  

What we definitely do not miss, is the need to have to be here there and everywhere at a given time every day or have to be sitting open houses every weekend when others are out enjoying time-off.    

I don't think either of us are ready yet to finally give up our Broker's Licenses as the qualifying exams to obtain the license were both costly and challenging, so we will have to re-new our licences next year or lose them as quite rightly, there is a time limit or statute of limitations as to how long a Realtor® or a Broker can leave the business without having to re-qualify or update their Real Estate Skills.  When you think about it, Real Estate Laws change on a frequent basis and it would not be in the public interest to have outdated Real Estate Brokers or Associates for that matter.   

We have had a lot of fun over the past six months.  We have had a month long trip to our Mesquite home, a trip to Disneyland and Universal Studios in California with stop-overs in Pasadena, Hollywood and San Diego (where we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary).  

We had the three week trip to Ecuador, South America another month back in the US followed by a month back up in Canada - some of it spent on Vancouver Island with a cousin of Donna's.  The rest back in Calgary followed by three more months in the US. Yes, we have been busy and travelled lots and we hope this will continue to be the case into the future.  


December arrived quickly as did the change in temperature when it went from the balmy mid 70's to 16 F.   The cooler climate only lasted for a week then the temperature ever-so-slowly edged its way back to the mid 60's where it stayed for the remainder of the time we have been in the US.  

We looked at the weather in Calgary on a daily basis and tuned in to QR77 on our IPADs to get the news and weather reports.  The forecast day-after-day seemed to be snow, snow and more snow and very cold.  We were glad to be here in Heaven on Earth.  

Christmas in Mesquite 

Christmas was upon in a flash.  We seated 12 for Christmas dinner on Christmas Day.  Everyone helped out by preparing something for the feast, so we only had to worry about the turkey and a few other bits.

While in one of the two grocery stores we have in Mesquite, we saw a heck of a deal in a 23lb Butterball Turkey for $21.  We both agreed that a large turkey of this weight in Canada would probably cost about $60 - $70, so we snapped it up right away and it cooked up beautifully with lots left over.  

Long periods down in the US underline the fact that living here over the winter as a snowbird is so very much cheaper than it is in Canada.  Everything is far less expensive.  This applies across the board to food, clothing, gas and utilities etc.  We shake our heads and wonder how two countries so similar can have such vast differences in the price of the same commodities.  

We bid each other a Happy New Year as the ball dropped in New York which is about how it's been over the past few years.  We have not celebrated the arrival of the new year for many years, and as a result (along with probably 90% of our +55 community) we were asleep by 10:00 pm Pacific time. 

So What's Next?

We have a few things planned for 2014, but the most pressing item on the agenda right now as they say is to "get out of Dodge".  With the limit on how long a Canadian can stay in the US, we have just about reached that allowance, so to stay on the right side of the law, we head for the border in 5 days time to face the cold and the snow…….for a while.

A "Heads Up" here.  Aimed at all you prospective or upcoming snowbirds.  There is a bill going through Congress at the moment that is proposing to allow Canadian Snowbirds age 55 or older, to be able to reside in the US for eight months of the year.  The Senate and the House have both OK'd it and the President has indicated he will sign off on it but it is taking it's time going through the legal process.  We are hopeful that maybe within the year this will be signed into law.  

Jan 4, 2014.  Here we were in T shirt and shorts shopping at the newer and more upscale Town Square Mall at Sunset and Las Vegas Blvd just south of the Mandalay Bay.  We were basking in the sun and warm weather but facing the fact that in one week we would be heading back to Canada where there is currently an Arctic Clipper developed over the Calgary area and way down into the States.  

Some places have had  -30 C temperatures and some even -42 F (-40C & -40F is where both Fahrenheit and Celsius meet) with deep snow to contend with.  Our niece from Saskatchewan reported on Facebook today a temperature of -50C somewhere up there……Pretty cool. 

Well, you can't have it all ways, so it's time to suck it up and make the drive back to Calgary.  On a positive note, it will be good to see all the family and the grandchildren again.  Time to share some stories and find out what they have been doing with their lives while we have been sorting ourselves out.  

For the next four months, we will be in Calgary, house-sitting for Donna's Sister and Brother-in-Law in Parkland while they enjoy time at their home in Mesquite.  

Hopefully in mid April, we will depart Calgary.  Time permitting, we may take a trip to Saskatchewan then drive across Manitoba and into Ontario to visit with friends.  I have never driven across the prairies, so it is another adventure and more places to see.  I understand it is a somewhat flat landscape to take in by all accounts but nevertheless, it is something new.    

In late April, we will head south again, but this time, to add to our experiences, and just for the fun of it, we may drive back to Nevada from Ontario, via Hamilton, London, Sarnia, then southwest through Lansing and Kalamazoo MI, just north of Detroit MI.  Then onto Chicago IL, Des Moines IA, Lincoln NE, and on to Mile High City Denver, CO.  Denver for the benefit of those who have never been, is almost the same as Calgary with the Rockies in the background but although Pike's Peak is higher than our Rockies, the mountains there are not as rugged.  Then we will enter Utah from Grand Junction CO then turn south onto Mequite NV.  

The drive will be 3,492 Kilometres which will take us around five of six days to complete but it will allow us to see a lot of the country we normally don't get to see.

___________________________

After a couple of weeks in Mesquite, we will fly to Costa Rica from Las Vegas on our trip to find that elusive place in the sun.  We may even have some company on this trip.  Jerry and Liane Neighbours of ours in Mesquite may well take the trip to Costa Rica with us and stay for a month.  That would be great fun to have friends along too.  

We plan to be in Costa Rica for May and June of this year and will move around to find out the facts about the country and to familiarise ourselves with the various parts of the country which I am told has 27 different climate zones, ranging from desert, semi-arid areas, rain forest and tropical zones too.

Throw in the odd Volcano or two and the diverse flora and fauna, and you have an interesting country to see.  While we are there, we will also meet with other Ex-Pats who have taken up residence there to ask their opinions on the pros and cons about Costa Rica.

___________________________________________

Then, It's Off To Panama 

______________________

The country of Panama is bordered by Costa Rica to the North and Columbia to the south.  We plan to be in Panama for July and August of this year.  Inevitably, we will go through the same exercise there as we will in Costa Rica.  We have already made contact with people in both countries (Costa Rica and Panama) - many of them through dedicated groups on Facebook or chat rooms.  Some are Canadians, others are from the US and Europe all trying to chase the same dream as us.  

By the end of the trip, we should be able to make a well thought out decision as to whether one of these two countries in Central America will suit our needs in terms of a retirement destination and if that is the case, we will in all likelihood  apply for permanent residency.  It goes without saying that both countries are vastly less expensive to live in than Canada and in particular Calgary which will allow us to save more and to travel in the future.

____________________________________

 

And After That

Well, that's a difficult question to answer at the moment….We aren't sure yet.  Maybe Europe or Australia and Asia should be on our bucket list.  

In closing it would be fair to say we have had the very best visit to our Nevada home we could have hoped for.  We have wonderful neighbours and great friends down here.  We also  believe we have achieved a nice balance and in an Idilic setting whilst getting used to the pace of retirement.  No regrets…….Not one so far.  I don't even regret the fact that my cell phone has not rang for weeks.    

When we return to Calgary next week, we will re-new old acquaintances and meet up with a whole bunch of people because now we have the time on our hands to do so.

Now that the winter solstice has been and gone, we can feel the days getting longer.  Inevitably the snow will give way to green grass and the snowblowers will be replaced by lawnmowers and life will be back to normal, especially for those of you locked up in the terrible cold right now.  

As we bid you all goodbye in this blog and prepare for the trip back north, we will in the next month or two, begin honing the details and planning our next adventure.

Keep safe, smile and do a good turn for someone this week and most of all, stay optimistic about the coming year.  We both wish you good health and happiness…

………....and the adventure continues. 

Ken and Donna.