Peru is fast gaining attention as a top retirement destination. My wife Nancy and I moved here almost a year ago, and we love the 300 days of sunshine a year, the excellent cuisine, and the highly affordable lifestyle. Although we choose to spend more (think $2,000 to $2,400 a month) a couple can live comfortably on $1,500 a month or even less.
As the bus trundled along, the city soon gave way to a parched, desert landscape studded with ancient, pre-Columbian adobe ruins. Before long, the air smelled of salt, and the blue sky dipped closer to the horizon, telling us that the ocean would soon come into view.
My wife Nancy and I have just returned from a two-week whirlwind tour of the northern coast of Peru, from Trujillo to the Ecuador border. I’m amazed that more expats have not discovered this spectacular section of South America.
Stopping in a small, rural village for lunch, I was led back to the kitchen by the owner. I pointed to what I wanted, and 20 minutes later, I was staring down at a delicious meal of stir-fried rabbit and assorted vegetables.
My wife Nancy and I are enjoying the sun in one of South America’s most beautiful town squares. A tiered fountain, surrounded by palm trees, lies at its center. Red, pink, and purple roses are everywhere you look.
Clear sunny skies, a sandy coastline that stretches over 25 miles, and a year-round tropical climate…it’s not the image most people have of China. There is more to this exotic land than sprawling, polluted, and over-populated cities.
As my wife and I took our evening stroll along the sprawling sidewalks of Tianjin, we could hear the loud pounding of dance music in the distance. It wasn’t long before we reached the source of the racket. Spread out across a large public square, a few dozen older women were shaking their booties, as they pranced forward and backward in time with the music.
Until the early 1970s, the Thai island of Koh Samui was without roads. Initially popular among adventuresome backpackers, Koh Samui today welcomes lots of tourists and newcomers from Thailand and abroad.
Throughout Asia, natural formations resembling female and male genitalia are a common fascination. I have visited two such sites during my travels over the last few years. My recent trip along the coast of Koh Samui, in southern Thailand, led me to a couple of fascinating rock formations known as Hin Ta and Hin Yai (grandfather and grandmother).
When most people think of retiring to Thailand, they think of relaxing on white, sandy beaches or enjoying the spectacular sunsets from their beachside condos in Phuket, Koh Samui, or one of the many tropical islands that dot the Kingdom’s coastlines. Not so Carl Barrow, who has found his own personal-retirement Shangri-La on a farm in Isaan province.