What if you were sitting in the shade of a palm tree looking out at coral white sands on a tropical island? Yesterday, you were learning to paddleboard from a hidden cove, and tomorrow you’ll explore surfing spots farther up the mainland coast.
A cheerful chap delicately lops the top off a coconut and hands it to me. Along with the sweetest of bananas, this simple roadside lunch is exactly what I was looking for...
In my quest to find the world’s best retirement havens, I have traveled many miles, talked to thousands of expats, paraded down hospital corridors inspecting rooms, crossed the thresholds of rental properties in a hundred towns...
The world is home to some heavy-hitting retirement havens...places where the ingredients of a perfect retirement are all deftly mixed...a good climate, low costs, world-class healthcare, thriving social scene, plenty to do, safety...
Central America’s best contemporary art collection is housed in a lavish colonial mansion in a secret city. Actually, as you’re an IL reader, León may not be a total secret to you. But the biggest city in northern Nicaragua is unknown to most folks.
If you want to spend a summer pottering in a quirky cottage garden tucked away in Irish hill country, with the prospect of a cool pint of Guinness and an evening in the local pub ahead…then it’s easy. To stay 90 days in Ireland if you’re a U.S. citizen, just get a round-trip ticket and get off the plane. Your passport gets stamped and hey presto. Your Irish adventure has begun. Want to stay longer? You could do one of the following four things.
I’m looking down the barrel of an Arisaka rifle—standard issue for a Japanese solider in World War II. This isn’t your usual museum, more like a garage stuffed with war material: rusting shells, M1 rifles, a machine gun, radios, trenching tool, uniforms… The garage belongs to the Cata-al family, who have spent decades searching the forests around the “Horns of Negros” mountains on the Philippine island of Negros for leftovers from the battle of Mount Talinis.
The woman takes two wiry black hairs from a vial and dips them in water. She then puts them on a sheet of white paper. The stuff of forest magic lines her stall: powders, dried fruits, shriveled nuts…slender feathers and strange leathery objects. The hairs curl upward on the paper. Two earnest men look on. She is telling a fortune with those hairs…how, I’m not quite sure.
Bats portend doom. So the folklore goes. In New Mexico a bat in the house means a death will occur within eight days. In the Midwest it’s within a few months. And if you live in Washington State, the good news is you have a whole year.
For too many of us, daily life means paying mounting bills, commuting to work, staying there far longer than is healthy, and worrying about…well…everything. It’s what folks call the rat race. The futile grind. It’s stressful, it’s bad for your health, and it feels like it will never end. But freeing yourself from it is easier than you think. In this issue of International Living we hear from expats who have already escaped and taken advantage of low costs overseas to free themselves. They are living in beautiful locations around the world, enjoying lives that are a far cry from their experiences back in the States.