First stop San Juan, Puerto Rico.

We’re on a plane to San Juan, Puerto Rico and we are a little emotionally hung-over from the parties our friends and family have thrown for us, and from the incredible stress of actually leaving everything behind.  Our tickets to San Juan are one way.  We are renting an apartment in Old San Juan for a few days and then getting on a ship for Spain where we will be taking a twelve week intensive course in the Spanish language.  This was the beginning of a whole new life.

Our goal is to live “in the world”, see places we haven’t seen, meet different people that speak different languages and have different cultures.  It is surprisingly difficult to wind up your affairs in order to live abroad extensively.  We hoped we had been successful and knew that only time would tell if we had missed anything important.

It’s a muggy, dark April night when we finally arrive in San Juan.  We have to travel heavy when we move since it is everything we own (four 50 pound duffle bags and two 20 pound backpacks).  The taxi driver takes us to pick up the keys to our apartment.  Our landlord Gaby has been wonderful and has made arrangements for us to collect the keys to the apartment at 11 p.m. on a Thursday night.  Then we’re off to the apartment.

The outer gate to the apartment is locked and barred but the keys work fine and we step into a lovely inner courtyard to the sound of a running fountain.  Our apartment is on the second story which is accessed by a steep, winding, stone staircase.  In some places the stone is broken and dangerous if one were to step wrong.  Mike’s job is to carry the heavy duffle bags up this staircase.

When we get everything in we are covered in sweat.  We have rented a small, one bedroom apartment right in the center of “old town”.  There isn’t much to it…a living area with a small couch and bookshelves, an attached kitchen with a small dining table, a small bedroom with built-in closet space and a functioning bathroom.  Much bigger than a standard hotel room and right in the location we wanted!  It is clean and has everything we need to live for a few days.  The front door has swollen from the humidity and doesn’t open or close easily and we soon find that the French doors to the balcony have the same problem.  Interestingly, the apartment had air conditioning but we never felt the need to use it.  We just opened the French doors in the bedroom and the salon and let the island breezes cool us off……perfect.  There was certainly a bit of street noise but we slept right through it that first night.

There are only a couple of large hotels in the old part of San Juan, and we did not want to stay in the areas where they were located.  We wanted to be where real people are living and the hotels we could find in the Old San Juan area were very expensive boutique hotels with a small number of rooms.  We had discovered HomeAway.com and it lists apartments for rent (generally a four night minimum but you can find lower minimums) by private individuals; fully furnished of course.  An apartment just seemed right for us…..the price was certainly an improvement.

Our first full day in San Juan was wonderful.  As is typical for us, we walked entirely around the old city and started exploring within.  San Juan has an walled fortress and separate castle and beautiful ocean views.

San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico,  is the oldest city in the American territories.

Like all “old towns” there is an incredible combination of old ruins and restored walls and buildings.  Beautifully maintained buildings stand next to crumbling, weed infested derelicts.  We wandered through the narrow streets, with their interesting bright blue cobblestones, grabbing a coffee at a stand in one of the plazas and enjoying the ambiance of a city we had never been in before.

Old San Juan is the historical center of the city.  It is a lovely warren of old homes, churches, government buildings and gardens with spectacular views every where you look. 

15 minutes outside of the old city you can find Condado Beach, tall hotels and apartment buildings on a beautiful Caribbean beach that reminds one of Miami Beach. 

There is a rain forest that is definitely worth seeing and a myriad of other interesting things on the relatively large island of Puerto Rico.  We chose to ignore the beach and the rain forest this trip, instead spending our four days in the old city.

By mid-afternoon we stopped at an outdoor bar, attached to a restaurant for a coconut rum.  This drink is made by removing a shot glass worth of milk from the coconut and replacing it with, of course, the rum of your choice. 

It has an interesting taste that is not for everyone and the locals swear this drink is good for the digestion (sometimes too good for the tourists if you know what I mean).  Our bartender Norman was wonderful and we returned in the evening, after a late afternoon nap, for further drinks and to sample some the restaurant’s island cuisine which was fantastic.

We met our friend Eddie near the port on the second day.  Eddie took us to the Don Q production facility to learn about rum production but most importantly, to sample some of the many different flavored types of rum.

  We passed a lovely day with Eddie wandering the old town and finished with dinner, drinks and cigars in an outdoor plaza.

  Eddie lives on the beach on the opposite side of the island and as we bade him farewell for the evening we agreed that our next trip to Puerto Rico would include a trip to his side of the island.

Our last two days on the island were punctuated by rain showers and featured wonderful seafood cuisine and cocktails made with rum.  We walked every street in the old city, occasionally stopping at an outdoor café for some food and/or a beverage.  We quickly discovered the difference between the tourist-oriented locations and the harder to find local facilities.  People everywhere were warm and welcoming, this island needs tourism and has a lot more to offer than some of the smaller Caribbean islands.

In hindsight, the old city can be explored sufficiently in two or three days but we used the extra time to make friends and decompress.  Wandering and enjoying this island paradise was just the way to embark on our new adventure.  Our final day dawned rainy and we caught a cab to the port to embark on our ship to Spain.

By the way…not a single Irish Pub to be found in Old Town San Juan or in the Condado Beach area, anyone looking for a business opportunity?

Now Arizona would b e where we came from....rather than home.

It was Monday, April 9^th and our plane to Puerto Rico left on Wednesday.  All we had left to do on Tuesday was sell the truck, pack everything we intended to keep, clean the condo, have all the left over stuff picked up, cancel our mail, cable and cell phones, donate the scanner (just finished scanning the last of the photos, whew!) and move to a hotel for an evening. 

We had decided to stay at the Twin Palms Hotel in Tempe for our final night in town (thanks so much Pat!).  That way we did not have to worry about getting to the airport in the early morning, the shuttle would take us.  We are not big on extended good-byes so it would be easier than having friends or family take us to the airport, we could enjoy their company on Tuesday night in the hotel bar and avoid any early morning drama at the airport.

Tuesday was a little less crazy than we thought it would be, we concluded a deal with a friend to sell the truck after listing it for a couple of weeks, unsuccessfully on Craigslist.  Resurrection Ministries came first thing in the morning so we were able to get everything out of the condo that wasn’t going with us.  We had been packing our bags for a week so there were just a few things left to pack.  We successfully checked the weight of the bags on the bathroom scale to be sure we would be okay at the airport, cleaned the condo and headed out to run the last few errands before checking into the hotel.

Marilyn went into the post office in person while I fielded a client call and waited in the parking lot.  Our purpose was to cancel our mail because any correspondence we needed to receive had been either changed to our permanent address or was being received electronically, successfully.  After about twenty minutes, Marilyn came out obviously suppressing laughter and when I terminated my call and asked why she told me what had happened.  Apparently, postal clerks are unprepared for a person who wishes to cancel their mail, permanently, with no forwarding address.  The clerk had to call a supervisor in order to determine if this could be done, which, after several minutes of confusion turned out to be possible.  There was no way we could explain why and the incident still provides a good laugh for us.

We made a quick stop at the Salon to have my hair cut very short, by our friend who has been cutting it for years, and were given a great going away gift, an electric hair clipper to take with us (this requires an understanding that Marilyn would be cutting my  hair in the future, very scary).  A quick stop at the Cox store to drop off the cable box and a run next door to the Verizon store to cancel our cell phone contracts and we were all wrapped up. 

As the beautiful Arizona sun began to set our family and a few close friends came by the hotel.  We commandeered half the bar and spent our time just chatting and enjoying each other, knowing that it would be an extended time before we would be back here for any length of time.  Some tears were shed as we said good-bye, especially to our girls, who we knew we would miss tremendously, but the anticipation of the journey to come was a great offset for them.

Ok, we have to admit, there was something we just couldn’t part with; our golf clubs, we left them with some very good friends (thanks Guy and Dee Dee) whom we did make time to have dinner with a couple of nights before we left.  We did however, get rid of substantially everything else and the feeling of liberation was incredible; and still is.

We do not have to pay property taxes, car insurance, homeowners insurance, or rent a place for our things.  We don’t have to register vehicles and our income taxes are very simple.  We only have to pay utilities in the small apartments or houses that we rent and make arrangements for health insurance wherever we stay.  We really don’t worry about theft because we don’t have anything worth more than a few hundred dollars.

80% of the stress in our lives had been eliminated and the rest was rapidly changing.

It was still pitch black outside when we got up in the morning to head out to the airport, the shuttle got us there in plenty of time and surprise, surprise the flight was leaving on time.  As we taxied down the runway the Arizona sun was just touching the valley.  We could not have asked for a more beautiful departure.

Saying good bye to friends and family.

As our departure date loomed closer and closer we realized that we weren’t going to be able to spend one-on-one time with many of our friends before we left so we began arranging evenings where we would be somewhere, a restaurant or bar, and just let everybody know so they could join us if they wished.  The Cameo Ball turned out to be one of these functions that allowed us to spend an evening with quite a number of our friends all at once. 

We were slightly embarrassed when the Master of Ceremonies called us to the stage while they sang good-bye to us but all in all it was a lovely, very enjoyable evening.  Other evenings we spent in the company of several of our friends enjoying their companionship for what might be the last time for quite a while.  This process worked out rather well for us since our calendar was crazy with last minute things that needed to be done throughout March and April.

We were finally coming to an end of the process of getting rid of our possessions.  Final selections regarding what would go with us and what else needed to go where were being made.  We made arrangements to donate the remainder of our possessions with a friend who operates a thrift store in his ministry.  Resurrection Ministry scheduled a van to come pick up everything that we were not taking with us on the day we moved out of the condo, the last day before we got on the plane!

One of the single most time consuming jobs we had to complete was the scanning or recording in electronic format of our photos and important documents and we were finally bringing this to an end.  Our daughter and her friend spent hours at our kitchen table when they were not at class or at work helping us with the photos.  It was so very hard to throw 30 or 40 years of photos away!

We were still selling the last few things, so people were coming by to pick stuff up and we were making almost daily trips to the post office to ship items that were bought from e-bay listings.  Gradually the condo was emptying out.

Little, yet important things also needed to be handled.  We personally updated our wills and trust and had the changes notarized at our bank at the same time we closed our local accounts.  We put the hard copies of our wills, trust, passports, birth certificates, insurance policies, etc. into a book that we left with the executor of our estate with copies for us and a copy to the backup executor.

Interestingly, with all we had going on, we found that it was next to impossible to do without a permanent phone number or permanent address.  We planned to truly be vagabonds, renting wherever we wished to be, for however long we wished, or could be there.  We solved the permanent phone problem through Skype who provides us a local Arizona number with voicemail for $60 per year.  The permanent address problem was solved by using the executor of our estate’s address (thanks Ed we really appreciate you!)

We worked very hard to make the permanent address a very small problem for the executor by changing all our investment, banking, credit card and other correspondence to be delivered via email.  We had also tested the effectiveness of this by having our other mail forwarded to the condo we were staying in for several weeks.  The result was good as we found that primarily junk mail was being forwarded and we were successfully receiving important information electronically.

Our friends got together and planned a phenomenal “going away” party for us, we were astounded at the outpouring of love and support even though we knew many of them thought we were crazy!  We knew that although we would be going to an entirely new life our friends here in Arizona would always be with us, and would be counting on us to stay in touch.  FaceBook, Skype and Gmail were going to get a regular workout!

Getting close, out of our house and on to the final countdown.

The past few months had flown by and we were suddenly coming up on Christmas.  In addition to scanning photos and documents in our every spare minute we were fielding calls and emails about our belongings listed on Ebay or Craigslist and selling books as fast as we could.  All our music had been “burned” to our computers; we subscribed to a very strong anti-virus program and made the decision to back up all of our data in the cloud.  Now we had an offer on the house.

It was all becoming very real, very quickly.  We sold all of our yard maintenance equipment and tools realizing that we would never need them again.  This would be the last holiday celebrated in the house in which we had lived for eighteen years.  The date for our retirement had been selected and we had been carefully managing the process of winding down or transferring our client loads.  We started making arrangements for a place to stay after the sale of the house and it seemed very strange to evaluate the rental market after owning our home for so long.

We were beginning to doubt that we would be able to dispose of everything in the four months we had left and we knew we didn’t want to move more things than absolutely necessary.  There were companies to wind up, boards to resign from and taxes to be calculated and paid.  Sometimes it felt like we couldn’t catch our breath but we had become very good at setting it all aside and going out to lunch or dinner for a couple of hours and our “date night” had expanded into an everyday necessity.

We accepted an offer on our house before Christmas with an estimated closing date at the end of January.  We’re not sure our family and friends realized and understood that this Christmas would be the last one we celebrated with them in our Gilbert, Arizona home.  It was a little like being in the twilight zone.  We were now selling things we used every day like our home theater system, extra utensils and patio furniture.  We had already cut several swathes through our wardrobes and still needed to reduce them further.  It was time to practice pack, oh joy!  Worse, it was time to have a series of garage sales.

We had to hunt for and buy the best kind of luggage to carry a lot of stuff but be easy to manage and not exceed size or weight limitations imposed by the airlines.  Even though we did not plan to fly any more than necessary we knew that we would have to get on airplanes from time to time.  We found some great rolling duffles on Ebags.com and bought 2 of them in the largest conforming size.

One interesting strategy we incorporated at this time concerned our books and music.  We needed to find the remainder of our library a good home and we initiated a strategy using the local second hand bookstore called Bookman’s. We would take boxes of our books and all of our music CD’s into Bookman’s and they would issue store credit for all items that they wished to add to their used book and music inventory.  Any remaining books we would take next door to the Goodwill store and donate them.  I know this sounds counterintuitive but we used the Bookman’s store credit to buy additional music.  This additional music we burned to our computers and returned to Bookman’s on a subsequent visit.  What a circle life was becoming.

An interesting thing developed as we really started to get rid of our stuff.  We realized that there was really very little that we wanted to keep, that would not be traveling with us.  Our girls picked up the stuff that they had claimed and we found homes for almost everything else.  A few special family heirlooms went to other family members to keep or use while we got ready to head off, planning to live in apartments (flats) with only what we can carry.

Mike’s brother came to visit prior to the closing on the house and helped us during a couple of garage sales but was there primarily to play golf at our club, Encanterra for the last few times.  Moving day arrived and our girls helped us move the needed furniture and the few small items of value that we still needed to sell or donate.  Mike finally moved away from his desktop computer to a his laptop and had our local computer expert wipe the hard drive and set it up for a new user so it could be donated.  We donated all our office supplies, and there was quite a bit since we both had worked from home for years, to the public school where one of our friends worked.  The teachers were amazed and grateful for all of the things they could find use for.

Suddenly it was real.  We were out of our home of eighteen years.  We had sold or given away almost everything we had spent more than thirty years acquiring.  We changed our address for the few items we couldn’t obtain electronically and filed final tax returns for our small, now defunct, companies.  We moved into a lovely condo in the university district of Tempe, Arizona.  We were happy to be out of the suburbs and enjoyed the ability to walk to restaurants and bars rather than driving.  All we had left to sell were a few valuable items from our home, some small pieces of furniture and our remaining vehicle.

We decided that we did not need a storage unit, but that meant that we truly were going to be packing almost everything we owned.  We could take two duffle bags each and a backpack.  That was our limit and we were sticking to it.  Neither duffle could exceed airplane size or weight restrictions so we knew that we really had to make wise choices.  What we were taking with us needed to be enough, and we planned to simply replace things as they wore out.  Evening gowns and suits were given away or sold, a mountain of shoes found new homes. Our daughter found a great rolling duffle on sale at Big 5 Sporting Goods and we found that we liked hers even better than the ones we already had so we bought two of them as our second bags at half the price we paid for the first two.

The thrift stores in our area found themselves with a sudden surplus of nice clothes, shoes, accessories and computer equipment as we finally realized how little we were going to have room for in our “new life”.  There were a few things that we knew would not make the trip but that we still needed for the last few weeks in Arizona so at least one more load was still on the horizon.

 Our flight to San Juan was just a few weeks away.  We were almost there. 

Why Fly?

Looking at retirement causes many changes in perspective.  One of the better changes is a relative lack of deadlines.  You have time!

Over the past ten years we have grown increasingly disgusted with the cost, the hassles and the state of airline travel.  Cancelled or delayed flights, baggage limitations, damage to and outright theft from baggage, seats built for dwarves, etcetera.  We have put up with this due to the necessity of business travel and the time limitations on our rare vacations.

Guess what!  No more business travel.  No more time limitations.  Our time is now our own.  If we can avoid an airplane ride, it just makes the whole travel experience that much better.

We have been destination cruisers for about 15 years.  For a while it was comforting to think that we only had to unpack once during our vacation and the ship was basically a hotel that followed us around.  Over time however, the ship became more of a tether pulling us away from places we wanted to be.  So, for a time, we stopped cruising, preferring to spend time in the places we wanted to go.

When planning our trip to Spain we were astounded at the cost of airline travel and dreading the idea of 20 hours of flying and airport connections.  On a whim we looked at repositioning cruises, since it was to be the springtime ships would be going from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean…seemed like a good fit for us.  We found several cruises from the east coast of the US or the Caribbean to ports all over the Med and were delighted by the low prices.  The perfect cruise for us left from San Juan, Puerto Rico and arrived in Malaga, Spain a 1.5 hour bus ride from Granada!  The cost for two people, in a balcony cabin for two weeks with several interesting stops when added to the cost of air travel to San Juan was less than the price of the economy class airfare to Spain!

Hmmmm, let’s evaluate. 

Two weeks of reasonably good food in several restaurants, a double bed to stretch out on, a private bathroom, maid service, 24-hour room service and entertainment all included.  Beverages of all kinds are available for purchase when you want them not when the flight attendant decides to visit you.  No jet lag?  Sold!  An added benefit; two weeks of living expenses are covered as well!  We were to stop in St. Thomas; St. Maarten; Lanzarote; Tenerife; Madeira and then made final port in Malaga, Spain.  We would arrive in Spain happy, tanned, well rested and ready to go.  Having energy from the first hour of the first day would be a first for us in Europe.

Another thing to consider, we were going to be in a state of near exhaustion from the last few weeks of getting rid of everything in our lives and saying good-byes to everyone.  Perhaps some "down time" on a ship on our way across the Atlantic would give us a chance to rest and catch our breath before beginning an entirely new life, in a new place, with a new language.

We booked it! It was an RCCL cruise on the Adventure of the Seas and we used vacationstogo.com to get the best deal.  Cost of air tickets to San Juan $189 each accommodations in Old San Juan for 4 nights $324, cruise in a balcony cabin for 2 weeks $799 each.  $2300 total for everything including meals….two one way coach class tickets to Madrid $2160, no contest.  Keep in mind that we knew we were going to spend money for food and drink in San Juan and for drinks and extras on the ship but these expenses were already in the regular monthly budget for living expenses, no matter where we are we will have to eat and drink.

If you have time and have the flexibility to travel whenever you choose, a cruise just might be the way to knock the longer flight segments from your travel and save your back from those awful airline seats.

Besides, isn’t retirement about not being in a hurry?

Earning money while living abroad.

Once we decided to just start living abroad several things immediately became more relevant.  We are not rich and in any case, fifty is a relatively young age for complete retirement.  What if we were incorrect in our budget expectations?  What if our savings did not last?  What if the economy continues to do things no one seems to expect?

To add to the issue is the fact that it is complicated at best, almost impossible in other countries to obtain a work visa.  General rule: start the visa process at the embassy or consulate nearest you while in the US.  Retirement residency is available many places but generally requires an investment within a country or that you have a certain amount of proven income, the calculation of which varies from country to country and from bureaucrat to bureaucrat.  In some cases, this amount is expected to grow annually by a given percentage.  You can’t just go plop yourself down in another country and do as you wish; well like everything else that isn’t totally true either but it’s best to be legal.

It turns out that you can earn money while on any type of visa in most countries; you just can’t hold a job in that country that could be filled by a citizen.  Confused?  Don’t be.  One way to do this is to contract your services on the internet and be paid into your account in the US.  This way you are not taking jobs from the local population which is the main concern anyway.  There are many ways to earn money on the internet even if you aren’t an expert Ebay trader or specialize in computer programming.

Another way to earn money abroad is to teach English.  There is a seemingly endless market for English teachers all over the world and teaching English is a skill that travels well.  We had already taken the first steps towards having this internationally marketable skill set by becoming certified TEFL teachers.  A work visa to teach English is fairly easy to obtain in many countries except in the EU which is where we wish to spend quite a bit of time.  EU regulations state that if an EU citizen can perform the job, no work visa will be granted to a non-EU citizen and the EU includes those damned Brits who speak a language tolerably close enough to English that they can obtain employment as teachers.  So we needed something else.

One day, while reading International Living, we came across an article from a man who calls himself and his company “The Barefoot Consultant” and who claims to be able to teach anybody how to find ways to earn money by contracting services over the internet.  We were intrigued and signed one of us up.  Winton Churchill (that is really his name) really did provide a lot of information and recommendations, geared directly at people who have never operated in this type of environment before.  If you stay with his program he will walk you through the entire process although you can work at your own speed if you wish.  

Through this process we became aware of the multitude of internet based contract work websites beginning with the largest, multi-purpose site; Elance.  The work available is incredible in volume if not in reimbursement but there is a trick to all of this.  Once you are established, usually by working cheaply, you will generate demand for your quality services and many times, the employer will not wish to return to the Elance auction process and pay a commission which will allow you to gradually raise your prices over time.  The sheer volume and types of projects out for bid astounded us and in addition, we discovered quite a number of additional websites, some of which specialize in certain work categories like creative writing, copy writing, computer programming and translation.

One word of caution, we found that when we started to look at work that could be obtained and managed over the internet we got tons of email advertising “Work from home and make $$$$ per hour on your computer”.  The vast majority of this is scam stuff offering for you to take surveys for a penny a piece or solicit all your friends and acquaintances for pyramid type schemes.  Being new to the whole concept of working on-line we actually read through a lot of it, and even tried a few things that were offered.  In every case it was absolute garbage.

You can make money through a large number of legitimate websites by writing articles, short stories or books, proofreading or editing books and academic papers, selling your photographs, blogging, designing web sites, providing artwork; you get the idea.  It’s endless.  Better yet, for us, we have a modest budget and any money we make simply makes our savings last that much longer.  We have watched our daughter, in her spare time; take this concept to some of the more specialized websites and starting with ghost writing work herself into an ebook deal.  She now can support herself wherever she is in the world as long as she has access to the internet periodically.  Neat huh?

As for us, we are just beginning to fully explore the processes so stay tuned.  A short list of sites that we have researched and are very reputable is provided below to get you started if you are interested.  The rest is up to you.

Elance.com

Freelancer.com

Odesk.com

International Health Insurance is an issue if you are planning to live abroad.

We are both over 50 years old and in relative good health.  This is a problem age for self-employed individuals and early retirees because private insurance plans are expensive at this age and Medicare does not kick in until one turns 65.  Pure catastrophic health insurance is ridiculously priced or is simply unavailable.  Further, private plans have limited coverage while traveling and Medicare does not pay for health care costs outside of the US.

In our research we were surprised to find that several countries around the world ranked higher than the US in quality of health care.  In most cases, the cost of health care in these countries is significantly less than in the US. Since we hadn’t yet decided if we wanted to obtain residency in another country the option of utilizing a national health plan wouldn’t be available to us.

Health care and insurance work differently in every country.  First we needed to figure out how to obtain coverage (and health care) in Spain. Spain ranks very high internationally in the quality of health care, in fact, much higher than the US.  Spain has a national social security system which provides public health services to its residents for free or at extremely reduced cost.  Our perception of public health care was that you might wait for hours to see a doctor or wait days or weeks for an appointment but it will not cost you anything out of pocket. 

In all the countries we have researched there is also a limitation of coverage in the public health service, for example, one might be covered for a specific surgery, but reconstruction or cosmetic procedures that would be normal in the US might not be covered in other places.  However, the cost of these additional procedures in other places can be a fraction of the cost in the US.  

What should we do?  A requirement for an extended visa or residency in almost all countries is that the applicant has made provisions for health care coverage.  You can purchase international coverage that will cover you in most places if you are planning to be in several countries.  International health care coverage generally excludes coverage in the very high cost countries (including the US) so it is not an alternative if you are planning to spend significant time inside the US, the UK, or a few other countries. 

A country specific insurance plan is less expensive and has the advantage of being tailored to work within that particular country’s existing healthcare system.  Most plans we found both international and country specific can be purchased month to month or at least quarterly so there is no long term commitment to a specific plan.  However, the old pre-existing condition thing can creep into coverage anywhere so staying within one insurance company’s plans can have the benefit of getting you past any waiting period that might exist for coverage of a specific problem.  By purchasing from a large international insurer, like BUPA your time under contract begins when you purchase your first policy and continues as long as you are insured with them, even if you were to change your country of residence and plan several times under their umbrella.

We looked at many plans and found some great service providers that offer English speaking agents so that communication is not difficult.  Everything can be handled over the internet with applications or health questionnaires signed and scanned.  We were actually surprised at the ease of obtaining quotes and descriptions of coverage   

For us, we chose a BUPA plan for Spain.  The Bupa program in Spain is called Sanitas and it is offered for purchase through agents. It is Spain’s largest private insurance plan and offered the most options for us at a very reasonable cost.  The plan covers us for regular doctor visits, lab work and hospitalization within Spain and also covers us for up to 60 days of travel time outside of Spain for accidents or injury (including the US).   If we were traveling in the US and had an accident the BUPA network in the US is United Health Care.

A one page application and a one page statement of health was emailed to us, we filled them out, signed them and scanned them back.  Assuming we would get long questionnaires about previous health histories and adjustments to the basic premium quoted we were amazed when the following day we received an email simply asking what credit card we wanted to have our premiums charged to each month and when we wanted our coverage to begin.

Copays and deductibles work a little different than in the US but you can generally modify your coverage and out of pocket costs to arrive at an insurance premium that works for you.  Compared to US health insurance plans, coverage may seem to have lower maximum reimbursement but remember, health care costs a lot less in most other countries.

Our plan looks like a regular US PPO plan with no deductible.  Our copay for doctor visits is 12 euros and for a hospitalization it is 24 euros, all lab work ordered by a physician is included.  Prescription drugs are not covered simply because they are so affordable in Spain that coverage is not necessary.  Dental care, on the whole, is very good in Spain and significantly (40% to 50%) less expensive than in the US but dental coverage is relatively expensive so we decided to exclude it.

This plan was very similar to a private plan we had in the US that cost approximately $2,000 per month (for both of us).  There was very little medical information requested (mostly surgeries in the past 10 years and any chronic conditions) and the company did not blink at any of our historical medical information.  This plan costs us 140 euros or about $185 per month for the both of us together.

Wow, suddenly our monthly budget for designing a life overseas became much more reasonable and we started to seriously think that we might just be able to continue to live elsewhere around the world before or after our Peace Corps Service.  We were beginning to get the idea that even on our very limited budget we might really be able to afford it now instead of waiting for that ever elusive “retirement” age.

Buying into our wild idea completely.

Late summer turned out to be a time of momentous decisions for us.  The Peace Corps contacted us and asked if we would be willing to delay our service for a full year, to which we agreed.  With Marilyn’s accident it was going to be difficult to obtain medical clearance in time to serve earlier.  I was informed that since I had turned 50 I would need to have a colonoscopy in order to clear medical.  Oh joy!  At this point however, we were beginning to wonder if serving in the Peace Corps was actually going to be in our future given the delays in our medical clearance process.

As Marilyn continued to improve from her hand surgery and whiplash we began discussing what we would do if we were unable to serve in the Peace Corps or if our service was again delayed.  Trying to time the sale of our home and ridding ourselves of all the things we used every day was going to take time and it would be a process that once started, could not be stopped.  After much discussion, we came to the conclusion that we still wanted to live abroad, see the world and experience new cultures.  Our friends were beginning to think we were crazy at this point and some of them wondering why we would want to live abroad or spend so much time together.

What followed was a series of life changing decisions as we now bought into our wild idea completely.  We decided not to replace Marilyn’s car and instead try to share one vehicle.  This was going to require some serious coordination which we figured would be good practice for us.

We also decided to go ahead and put our house on the market and try to get it sold by the end of the year.  This would give us a time frame in which we could organize all of the other things we needed to do.  Most importantly, we made the decision that we were going to just go, rather than wait for the Peace Corps bureaucracy to drive our actions.

From our reading and research we had developed the thought process that we might be able to “follow the sun” by living in Europe during the summer and then in South America in, well, the summer.  We really hate to fly however but we had discovered this really interesting fact; cruise lines relocate ships from the Caribbean and South America to the Mediterranean in the spring and reverse this process in the fall.  There were some fantastic deals available that made a 3 week cruise cost the same as flying.  Since we would be in no particular hurry and the cruise provided the added benefit of covering 3 weeks of living expenses; this became one of our preferred travel strategies.

We then took a lovely 3 day break during which our friends from the TEFL course, Nathan and Frannie, visited us.  I’m not sure we got out of the pool other than to eat or sleep for those roasting hot late summer Arizona days.

 Both Nathan and Frannie were freshly returned from several months in Granada and we were able to catch up on the news of our other friends there.  We really missed Granada!

Back to work, put the house on the market and immediately we found we needed to make several more important decisions.  Where were we going to go?  When were we going to go?  How were we going to get there?  What were we going to do when we got there?  It may sound like we really had no plan at all but that wasn’t true; it was the details and advanced planning required that we really needed to address and all of these details dovetailed with each other.

By early fall and after hours of discussion we decided to begin this adventure with a return to Granada, Spain and take Spanish language classes.  It made sense to us to try to acquire another language and Spanish is spoken in a lot of places in the world that we wanted to experience.  Now began the research on language schools in Granada (there are over 40).  We were familiar with Castila because they provided space for our TEFL program and we knew they were a quality program.  While they weren’t the cheapest program there was the benefit of familiarity for us and they would be able to arrange housing for us until we were able to find a place.

Now we had to decide when.  That would be determined to a large extent by our travel schedule because Castila initiated beginner level classes every other week.  We had put this largest of decisions off as long as we could.  It was time to commit…. so we signed up for classes beginning in early May and committed to an intensive course for 12 weeks.  We found a 2 week cruise that left San Juan, Puerto Rico (a place we wanted to visit) in mid-April and traveled to Malaga, Spain which is only an hour and a half from Granada by bus.  We wanted to spend a few days in Old San Juan and by working backwards like this our departure date was identified.  Our departure would be on April 11^th; my birthday.

We put the house on the market and decided to join a very interesting group called InterNations that was forming a new Phoenix chapter.  InterNations is a networking group for people who are either living abroad or simply interested in traveling abroad.  It is a group of widely diverse people of many different nationalities and they are a friendly group of people.  In fact, not long after we joined we were contacted by an American who had been living in Granada for 3 years offering whatever assistance or guidance she could.  Amazingly, it turned out she worked for Castila and her assistance was both invaluable and appreciated.  Gracias Allison.  Te echamos de menos.

We felt were definitely on the right track, and the train was now running at full speed.

Accidents happen, life moves on.

It was Father’s Day and a beautiful day it was too.  I was just settling down to watch the final round of the US Open (a Father’s Day tradition for me) when my cell phone rang.  It was Marilyn, obviously shaken up telling me she had just been in an accident two blocks away.  I ran for my truck.

When I arrived I found a much shaken woman with no apparent life threatening injury.  Thank God!  A young girl driving an SUV loaded with tires of all things; nevertheless a very heavy vehicle had turned left right into Marilyn’s car as she crossed the intersection.  Marilyn’s car lost the battle and was dragged clean out of the intersection.  Both vehicles had pulled to the curb and the police had just arrived.

It took about 45 minutes for the police officer to take information for his report.  When he asked Marilyn to fill out a basic information form we realized that her hand had been injured a little more severely than we initially thought.  I had to fill out the form and sign it for her (this was to become a recurring theme).  The officer indicated that the other party was obviously at fault and asked me to pull Marilyn’s car around the corner into a subdivision which I did.  He then asked if we wanted him to call an ambulance which we declined.  I would drive her to the emergency room myself.

When we got to the emergency room we realized there would be a little bit of a wait, even on Sunday morning and since we thought that only her hand was the issue, we decided that I would leave her there and go try to salvage the car load of groceries that were starting to bake in the 105 degree temperature.  While I was doing this, Marilyn called our insurance company, reported the accident and arranged for a truck to tow her car.  Back to the vehicle for me and the tow truck driver advised me to empty the car of all personal belongings which I did.  The car was obviously totaled.

At the hospital I found Marilyn with a large bandage on her hand waiting to be discharged.  The physician explained that her hand had indeed been broken and advised us to see a hand surgeon as soon as possible.  After another half hour wait we were on our way to the pharmacy for medication and home.  Marilyn seemed to still be in shock so we made her comfortable in a recliner and she took a nap.  I of course, took a dip in the pool and watched the final couple of holes of the US Open; don’t remember who won though.

Later, our girls came over for dinner as was our Sunday night tradition.  We joked with Marilyn a bit because she seemed a little out of it which we all thought was due to the pain medication she was taking.  The girls left early and we settled down for what was an uncomfortable night.

The next morning, Monday, Marilyn was in a lot of pain up and down her back, especially in the neck area and her hand ached considerably.  Before dealing with anything else we took her to her physical therapist.  After about 30 minutes he told us both that Marilyn was going to be very stiff and sore because she was suffering from a bad whiplash injury and her neck was really out of alignment, he encouraged us to get her to a chiropractor as soon as possible.

Back home we dove into a whirlwind of phone calls to work, the insurance company, the tow yard, the chiropractor’s office, finding a hand surgeon and by early afternoon we were fielding calls from Marilyn’s office, clients and a bevy of concerned friends. 

That afternoon we made an appointment with a hand surgeon for the following day (apparently a hand injury should be addressed as soon as possible) and made arrangements for Marilyn’s business calls to be handled by her office manager who would then contact me if necessary.  Many wonderful friends wished to drop by and bring food for us which was both good and bad.  The food was appreciated but Marilyn was in no condition to receive many visitors, she simply needed to rest so we arranged to funnel all calls and food through a good friend who would schedule and limit the visits.  Thanks Herme!

The insurance company calls and questions were becoming difficult to deal with and we were receiving what we believed to be irrational requests; it was time to hire an attorney to deal with this.  We were becoming overwhelmed.  The attorney we were referred to arranged to meet us on Thursday but in the meantime suggested a physician to manage the case.  We saw him late Monday afternoon.  From the physician’s office we went directly to the imaging center for a complete set of back and neck X-Rays and to the hospital to pick up her hand X-Rays.  Whew!  We returned home to a wonderful meal prepared by one of Marilyn’s friends and tried to relax.

Tuesday began with more physical therapy and a trip to the hand surgeon’s office.  I had an engagement that couldn’t be broken that day so our friend Brit drove Marilyn to her appointment where she filled out all of the paperwork (thanks Brit!).  The surgeon spelled out the choices and it was decided that Marilyn would have surgery in order to save as much use and capability in her hand as possible.  The surgery, to rebuild the shattered knuckle at the base of her index finger and hold it together with 4 pins was scheduled for Friday.

We did find time for an hour with the chiropractor Tuesday afternoon (more forms for me to fill out and sign on Marilyn’s behalf) who took the time to discuss the ramifications of whiplash.  As it turns out, the brain is concussed during a severe whiplash injury and doesn’t process information as quickly or as well for a couple of weeks and the chiropractor strongly recommended that Marilyn make no important decisions for at least week or two.  She also informed us that Marilyn’s short term memory would probably be pretty lousy for the same time period, which meant that I needed to be the one listening to instructions. 

Thus began a seemingly endless series of trips to the chiropractor, physical therapy, the surgeon’s office, the case management physician and the lawyer.  Marilyn couldn’t work and was on short term disability, living on pain drugs and anti-inflammatories.

For 6 weeks Marilyn pretty much stayed on the couch and slept, if she wasn’t with a doctor of some kind or a physical therapist.  Rehab for the back and neck were ongoing two or three days a week and then after the hand surgery, rehab for the hand was needed three times a week.

Our daughters were wonderful and my clients were patient since my travel schedule was completely disrupted.

We cannot begin to explain the value of having a qualityattorney to assist us through this time.  He allowed us to focus on Marilyn’s health and try to straighten out our suddenly disrupted lives.  We did not have to take one more phone call from an insurance company!

It was the middle of July before we knew it and we were unsure just how badly our Peace Corps timetable had been interrupted.  There was some good news however:  Frannie and Nathan, two of our friends from the TEFL training class were going to come and visit us in August!