It’s easy to come by advice on nurturing your creative side. Why? Because it’s easy to suggest we read more, get out and meet new people, join a drawing group, or take time out to think. The hard part is finding the time. If you’ve spent decades juggling family and career responsibilities, you’ll know what I mean. So many of us shelve our creative passions.But a move overseas is a sure-fire way to unleash them. For many retirees in affordable destinations around the world, the most fulfilling thing about their new lives is the ability to reinvent themselves and reorganize their priorities.
With a $1,500-a-month mortgage to pay in Pasadena, Fred Fleet didn’t have much time to nurture his creative side. But since building a 3,000-square-foot home on the beach in Panama, Fred’s found plenty of time to make short films and write books.
In Cuenca, IL correspondent Donna Stiteler, has tapped into an incredible vein of artistic talent among the large and welcoming community of retirees there… Alaska-native Mara Gano spent 30 years teaching and raising a family and put her love of opera on the backburner. But since moving to Cuenca, the 56-year-old has become a member of the Cuenca international chorale and hosts concerts around town.
Fellow expat Keith Paul always thought being an artist was something he could never do. “I was a computer guy. I never thought of myself as someone who had talent,” says Keith. But the stress-free life he’s found through early retirement has allowed him to explore and develop his artistic streak with lessons just $5 to $10 an hour.
One of Peru’s most dynamic expat hubs, the historic city of Cusco has attracted many foreign artists and creative types. As the jumping off point for the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu you might assume it’s pricey, but you can rent an apartment in the ancient heart of the city from as little as $250 a month. IL correspondent, Steve LePoidevin, reveals how and where to retire well in the Land of the Incas.
Eoin Bassett,
International Executive Editor
Deana Culp is part pioneer woman, part international explorer, and part math and Spanish teacher. She feels her sense of adventure is in her DNA—inherited from her grandmother, who boarded a boat in Switzerland at age 16, with...
Our first home in Portugal was a 200-year-old stone cottage with an inviting red-lacquered wooden door and window boxes brimming with pink hydrangeas. The place was aptly titled Pastor, Portuguese for “shepherd” and had once been....
When my wife Vivien and I first began looking into an overseas retirement, we looked everywhere for information. We wanted to know about the costs, climate, safety, how easy would it be to make friends, would we be bored…the list went...
My husband Stuart and I always loved to travel, but work commitments never allowed us more than two weeks’ vacation at a time. My 50th birthday was a turning point. Seeing friends and family getting older, some of them suffering from...
As one of International Living's correspondents, my normal beat is the Riviera Maya, along Mexico's Caribbean coast. My primary mission is to observe and report on life along an 80-mile stretch of perfect, palm-studded beaches from...
As someone who travels extensively—especially in East Asia—I usually have a pretty good idea of what to expect when I arrive in a new country. But Taipei took me by surprise. I expected to see an island version of the China that I've visited many...
Please don’t promote Peru.” It’s a common refrain among expats here when they discover I write for International Living. Peru still remains fairly undiscovered as a retirement destination. And many expats here would like to keep...
Cusco and the Sacred Valley of the Incas is a hot spot for expats in Peru. This narrow valley in the Andes stretches over 60 miles along the Urubamba River from Machu Picchu to Pisac. Bordered by mountains, it is a high-altitude...
An exotic, offbeat, beautiful, and very inexpensive place to stay.” That’s how International Living founder Bill Bonner described Tulúm in the first issue of International Living magazine, in 1981. Back then, it was a low-key, hippy-chic beach destination for a “new crop of flower children” who listened to The Grateful Dead on the radio, stayed Read more...: Beautiful, Jet-Set Caribbean Tulúm—Seriously Undervalued Right Now
I often joked with friends that I should be working in a yoga retreat in Costa Rica, or something,” says 55-year-old Margo Guenther. “I knew my life was completely out of balance.