Sunlight filters through swaying palm fronds. My feet are in the sand, I have an ice-cold Pilsen beer in hand, and I’m savoring my lunch: a heaped plate of rice, beans, plantains, and chicken that cost just $6. Coconut milk and a secret blend of spices are commonly used in Caribbean cooking and it’s delicious.

Keith and Karen were ready for a change. They’d lived in the city for 40 years, and with retirement looming, they weren’t certain they could take much more of Toronto. "Keith, in particular, was tired of the traffic, the increasing cost of living, and the long, cold winters," says Karen. They hadn’t really considered leaving Canada, but they knew that if they stayed that nothing would change.

There is something amazing about the medical system here, and something not quite right with ours,” says Shane Simons, who moved to the tropical island of Penang, Malaysia, eight months ago from Los Angeles. “My doctor in L.A. told me I needed a mole removed from my neck.

Four-and-a-half hours’ flight-time south of California are opportunities that feel a world away. This short plane ride from the snapped-up beachfront and million-dollar mansions of the Golden State brings you to deserted beaches, lush, jungle-clad hills, and low-cost real estate that has to be seen to be believed.

It had to happen sometime. After a decade of outperforming U.S. stocks, Brazil has started lagging behind the States. Now, I have recommended Brazil a number of times in these pages. So in true IL fashion, I hopped on a flight to São Paulo to put “boots on the ground.”

Elderly Americans may long ago have heard the quaint expression “sound as a dollar.” It was a prideful phrase that referred to the strength of the American currency, and you certainly don’t hear it any more. The sound dollar began disappearing with Woodrow Wilson and the 1912 Federal Reserve Act.

Sarah Towle never meant to become an entrepreneur. when her husband James’ job brought their family to Paris in 2004, she thought she’d enjoy kicking back in the City of Light for a while, then return to her career as a linguistics teacher. “At the time, his assignment was for two or three years, so I didn’t think it would derail my career completely, just put it on hold for a little while."

A former video technician who used to spend long hours at a stressful job, Lee is now a freelance consultant doing a little bit of everything, putting his expat experience to work. His biggest business is advising people how to build eco-friendly homes out of shipping containers, throwing in alternative-energy systems, like solar panels, if they’re interested.

At the height of the British Empire, the colonials in Malaysia used to visit hill stations to escape the lowlands heat. In this lush highlands the men ambled about in tweeds, canes in hand, carrying shotguns in case of a tiger attack. Women wore long skirts and carried parasols to hide from the sun.