Steven on Slow Traveling
My name is Steven, 60 years old, retired teacher since a year and a half ago, and now have been a Slow Traveler for the last 61 days to date… traveling the World with my Traveling Partner, Louise.
Flashback to a few years ago: I had hurt my back at work and no longer could bend down to help my 1st Graders (who are short!) 🤣 I had decided a long time ago that once my Teacher Pension reached a certain money level… I could survive off of that until I could supplement it with my Social Security once I hit age 62! The dilemma: Stay in Tucson, Arizona in my house I was still paying a mortgage on… and stay at home just watching tv (because I wouldn’t be able to afford to do anything else… much less travel) or have a Plan B… and Plan C… etc.
I love to travel! As a teacher, every Spring and Fall Break plus Summers… I would travel… paid for After-School tutoring and Summer School jobs! One day, I found this couple on YouTube, Amelia and JP (you might know them? 😆) who were living abroad in Cuenca, Ecuador.
After researching Cuenca, and some other places, I realized I didn’t have to convalesce in Tucson the rest of my life due to limited financial funds (I became a teacher for the Fame and the Money… I was wrong 😑… and oh, shape the minds of our young!) 😝
I had my Plan B… move abroad to a country that I could afford housing, food, and insurance… and still save money and do more traveling! So, in Jan. 2023, my last semester of my teaching career… I decided I was moving to Cuenca, Ecuador where I was sure Amelia, JP, and I would become fast friends! (Spoiler alert… they moved to Cumbaya before I arrived!)
I put my house on the market in May… and accepted a bid very quickly… made a good profit! Three weekends of doing an Estate Sale in late May/ early June to sell everything I owned… donating a lot of the leftover stuff… plus doing Grades for the last time… ever! My last day of work was May 26th… I turned 59 years old the next day! So May, to say the least, was VERY stressful and hectic!
My father, who also lives in Tucson, was going on several vacations in the next few months… and he has a cat 🐈! So, with 12 bins of stuff I threw into storage because I had a hard time parting with ALL my stuff… I agreed to House and Cat Sit until he was done traveling in September! Though moving into my dad’s house at age 59 seemed depressing to me! 😂 Over the summer… I did manage to whittle down to 6 bins that has since moved to his garage… he has space… don’t judge! 😂
So, come late September of 2023… I made the move to Cuenca with two large suitcases and a backpack. Stayed at a couple of Airbnbs to get a “lay” of the city and two weeks into my stay found a fabulous 2-bd, 3ba top floor apartment for only $650/mo… plus able to score just a 6-month lease! I moved to another apartment in a quieter neighborhood for another 6 months!
Enter Louise… who hailed from Seattle and Las Vegas! She made the move to Cuenca for many of the same reasons… affordability, less insurance costs, the weather (spring-like all year long!)… we met during a Cuenca Facebook Expat meetup… and clicked immediately and became fast friends. Fast Forward nine months later… and almost at the same time said, “I think I am done with Cuenca… I want to travel more!” We had gotten our two year cédula temporary visas… but it limits us on the amount of time we can be outside of Ecuador. So at the end of both of our leases at the end of November, 2024… we became “Homeless”, “Slow Travelers”, “Global Citizens”… we’ve used numerous terms to describe ourselves when people we meet ask: “Where are you from?” (We are planning to travel by train throughout Spain and Portugal in late Feb., this year thru mid May… before we have to leave the Schengen Zone… so warming up to “Hobos” as my next description of us… maybe? 🤔 🤣
Since Dec. 1st, 2024, Louise and I have been to:
- Valparaiso & Santiago, Chile
- Buenos Aires, Argentina
- 17 day cruise of the Antártica (hence my picture) – only $1800 each
- Montevideo, Uruguay (we absolutely loved it there)
- Asunción, Paraguay
- Back to Cuenca for last doctor visit, labs, and meds
- Aruba
- Medellín, Colombia
We are currently in Cartagena, Colombia. Leaving for Bogotá in two days… then off to Miami for five days, before we’re on another cruise ship (only $764 each) for 12 days to Cartagena and Barcelona, Spain where we begin our train adventure in Spain and Portugal. Other than that… not too busy! 😂
Main motivation for leaving the U.S.? Financially, I could survive in another country better than if I stayed in the U.S. Better access to healthcare. And the weather… if I don’t have to spend another summer in 100+ degree heat in Tucson! Why I fell in love with Cuenca so quickly!
Learning to speak a foreign language was one of my biggest fears! But I took Spanish Lessons twice weekly… still not fluent after a year plus, but I can get by! I have friends who live in Cuenca that will live there forever now… they are “all-in” and take multiple Spanish lessons and are active in the Community Language exchanges… they are pretty fluent now… so it can be done! Big thanks to Duolingo! 😂 But now I have to learn Portuguese for my visit to Portugal next month… uughh!
My biggest obstacle? The stress of selling and giving away most of my possessions… and in a limited timeframe… was overwhelming at times… so much to do in a short time. And getting all my documents apostilled and ready for my facilitator to get my short-term visa was NOT fun!
Favorite part of moving abroad is a two-parter for me: Cuenca Me and Slow Traveler Me right now!
Cuenca Me – Loved the weather and the architecture… made some forever friends there! Dr. Depreeuw was my Doc… she was incredible… got me in to see her within a day or two! Morning labs… got results by mid- afternoon the same day! Always felt safe walking around town… and I did a lot of walking. Taxis were only $1.50-$4 at max! Did get to explore some of S. America from there… though had to keep track of my days… but visits to Machu Picchu, Iguazu Falls, Río de Janeiro, Brazil, Galapagos Island, and Easter Island!
Slow Traveler Me – it’s rapid pace right now, but once we get to the other side of the Atlantic later this month… will slow down a little bit! 😆 But I want to see Everything in the short (hopefully long) time I have left on this earth!!! The Bad: no insurance at the moment… going to pay as I go! And thanks to Amelia and JP… a stop in Malaysia probably later this year to deal with a bum knee and some other stuff since you guys did the same thing!
My advice if you’re considering a move abroad: Be patient… Getting started can and probably will be stressful and overwhelming… but just take it One Day at a Time, One Problem at a Time! In my short two months of Slow Traveling I have “lost my passport” twice… I got my name announced over an airport loudspeaker once saying they had my passport at Gate 21… I was in the process of backtracking my steps when I heard my name… I was near Gate 21… a cleaning crew with a fellow passenger holding up my passport looking at me cuz I was looking up at the airport speaker… a funny moment! Dropped a wad of Chilean cash at a Bus Station… the lady behind me picked it up and tapped me on the shoulder to give it back. I have had luggage wheels fall off… one luggage came down the Baggage Claim ramp with just three wheels! 😂 You just have to laugh sometimes and figure the problem out! And that’s just a few of things that have gone wrong already… I could write a book! 🤣
My move abroad… first to Cuenca… and now beyond was ALL your fault Amelia and JP… and I thank you!!! Been following you two for many years now… now trying Slow Traveling like you guys!
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Hola todos! Welcome to my author bio page! Let's see. Where to begin... I grew up in the country on a lake outside a small Kansas farm town. As soon as I could, I got the hell outta there! Since then, I've lived and/or worked in Kansas City, Washington D.C., Denver, San Francisco, and Ecuador. I started and sold a dotcom, wrote a book about it, started a YouTube channel, and now I write a lot. Amelia and I have embraced the Unconventional Life and we want to help you do it, too!
You’re fortunate you aren’t staying in Tucson. Arizona is going to get increasingly unbearable as it continues to heat up and dry out.
The heat is getting unbearable in a lot of places.