“The last time I went exploring by motorbike through the jungle, I saw an elephant just walking down the road. An elephant! Now that doesn’t happen in Canada,” says Michael Brown, who now makes his home in the Thai resort city of Hua Hin. “I have the time to enjoy my life, and there is truly so much to enjoy here.”
"I used to watch the sunset on the Empire State Building. Now I watch the sunrise over the Caribbean, on the bay of Corozal,” says Nancy Naftchi-Medoro, 46. For Nancy and her husband Tony, 68, the move has changed their lives for the better.
Why would anyone give up friends, family, a beautiful home, a good job, and security to roam around with a small bag and a backpack half the world away? I had it all. But, like so many people, the fast pace of life and high stress in the U.S. just had to go. Long working hours, business travel, churn and reorganizations in the office… So over three years ago I quit my job, sold my house, car, and everything else, left two boxes of personal items in my friends’ garage, and took off.
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 take the bend on the winding and steep mountain road, and a patchwork of forest, farms, and pasture is spread out on the valley floor far below. A river, with large rocks creating whitecaps, cuts through the landscape. Beyond it I can see Lake Cachí, glittering in the mid-afternoon light between the shield of pine trees that lines its shore. The tall, thin poro trees are in full bloom. Their orange flowers look like autumn leaves at a distance. They’re a favorite of local farmers, because when their nitrogen-rich seed pods fall, they act as a natural fertilizer.
“You could hike every day here and see something different,” says Kristin Simmon-Lowman of her new home in the highlands of Ecuador. “My friends and I just hiked Fuya Fuya (an inactive volcano), which was wonderful. Now we’re working up to doing Mount Imbabura (one of Ecuador’s most iconic mountains), so we’ve been getting a training system going to get in shape for that. There are waterfalls all around and a lot of lower foothills.”
“For the good of my health, I had to make a change,” says expat Jennifer Enright of her decision to relocate to the Colombian city of Medellín. “I had to reinvent myself businesswise. After working for years as an executive head hunter for high-tech companies in Seattle, I had had enough. Too much rain and cold, and I injured myself from too much repetitive motion.”
Lying in the northern mountains of Nicaragua, at the heart of coffee country, the city of Matagalpa is green all year round. With temperatures ranging from 59 F to 74 F, the cool breezes are a welcome break from the warmth of the lowlands. And even by Nicaraguan standards, Matagalpa is highly affordable: Figure $1,200 a month for a couple, all in. But these advantages aren’t all you’ll find here.
"The stars here are incredible,” says expat Linda Ott of the views she and her partner Mike Short enjoy from their self-built home in Santa Fe, Panama. “There’s no light pollution. Orion’s Belt goes right over our house. And during the day, we can see hummingbirds, hawks, and toucans right from our terrace.”
I think it’s the slow pace of life and the small-town feel that impressed me most. Battambang, in northwest Cambodia, is a social and welcoming place. No one’s in a hurry. Sitting down, having a cool drink, and meeting new people is a popular pastime. And when I walked around town, people would come out to talk to me and freely share what they enjoyed about living here, or which restaurants they liked the best, or when the latest opening of an art gallery was to take place.