I fall asleep to the sound of waves crashing just 100 yards from my bedroom window and wake up to the sparkle of an ocean view. They remind me how lucky I am to have found my personal paradise. I set off on my retirement-scouting...
As I sit at my writing table on my oceanside veranda, staring at the lapping waves of the Pacific, gentle breezes blowing my hair, I am a 65-year-old, extremely happy roving retiree. The path I’ve trod across Latin America over the last year or so has been incredibly rewarding.
The first day of my stay in Playa Brasilito dawned brightly and I couldn’t wait to get out on the white-sand beach. It was quite early and I found no one else strolling the stretch of more than a mile—the beach was often virtually deserted throughout my stay—but in the distance three horses carried riders into a mangrove-lined path.
Tucked into a secluded nook in the ancient Bayon temple, with benevolent stone faces smiling down at me from every angle, I felt overwhelmed at finally being in Angkor Wat, Cambodia, after years of day-dreaming of a life of travel. I remember thinking I should pinch myself. But instead I soaked up all the atmosphere I could, knowing this type of adventure would shape my future for years to come. Barely a year before, I could scarcely have imagined that I’d travel right across Southeast Asia—on my Social Security money alone. One morning early in 2015, I woke at dawn to get ready for a 10-hour shift as a shuttle driver.