Original article on www.vagabondjourney.com
Reality check for those who are seriously thinking about a traveling retirement:
It is almost nine o'clock in the morning, it’s getting dark outside – that means it’s going to rain, again. Maybe I should say it’s going to rain some more. Yes, definitely rain. I hear fat drops hitting the tin roof of my casita now. I enjoy a nice rainy day when I can stay snugged up in a cozy little casita and don’t have to go out in it. The problem is that today I don’t have to go outside to be in the rain.
When I rented my $150 USD a month casita (utilities included) in Mexico what I didn’t know was that a crew of men would be arriving every morning at seven o'clock to build an addition on the back wall. When they get here, the first thing they do is rip off the roof along that wall. That includes the roof over the bathroom. So, it is hammering and banging all day long — including Saturdays and Sundays. That is bad enough but not the worst of it. The worst is when they knock off for the day they just half-ass put the roof back on. And this is the rainy season. It has been raining every night now for over a week and sometimes, like today, it rains in the daytime. I’ve got the trashcan and every other container I have set to catch the leaks but the floor is already two inches deep in the low spots. Looks like more broom work today.
I mention this about the casita because housing is one thing I don’t spend much money on. The less money I spend now, the faster my traveling money will build up for my next trip. I thought about moving but was assured by someone who has been here many years that any place I could get in the same price range would have similar problems – maybe worse. I hope that isn’t always true, because beginning in the middle of July I’ve got what appears to be a much nicer place lined up for about $185 USD a month. For those who don’t care to be this much in touch with local living conditions, for a hundred more a month (around $300 USD) there are much nicer places here with roofs that don’t leak.
In any case, this is just part of the cycle of the trip I am on: I sit still for a while to save money then spend that money to travel to the next destination. It works and is certainly not a boring strategy.
