Trekking in the mountains is hard work. Weight and pack space is at a premium. Every pound must be carried up and down rugged terrain, through thousands of feet of elevation change. You must carry all of your food with you for a week or more, you can’t just stop at a grocery store or order delivery. It requires an incredible amount of energy, so you must eat enough to keep you going but nothing heavy that will weigh you down and make you feel sluggish.
For these reasons, we ate a 100% raw vegan diet while hiking the Wonderland Trail. With no need for a stove, we shed the extra pounds and space required for fuel. Making our own food meant the smallest possible volume, with no extra packaging to pack-in/pack-out, eventually bound for a landfill. Eating raw fruit, nuts, and sprouted seeds meant our body had an abundance of energy with easy digestion.
It also meant a ridiculously low price tag for quality dining. And out of it was born an excellent name for a popular early retirement and travel blog, as well as a great number of requests for one specific recipe
So here it is, the official cracker of Go Curry Cracker!
For 4 weeks in March-April 2013, we enjoyed the waves and surf in Puerto Escondido, Mexico. As usual, we had a room in a hotel for a few days while we explored the area, and when we knew we wanted to stay longer we found a monthly rental. Due to the popularity of posts about our longer term rentals, here is a brief tour of our Puerto Escondido home
We found a place that looked great in the online photos. A few emails, 2 phone calls, a meeting, a tour, and a fierce negotiation later, we were the proud residents of a casita near Playa Manzanillo. The asking price was $350 a week, and the property manager would not budge. But after a short conversation about how we liked “the other place more”, she emailed the owners and they had agreed to accept our offer of $1000 for the month.
Once upon a time, President Obama told the nation, “If you like your health insurance, you can keep it.” Our insurance company recently sent us a letter informing us that because our policy did not comply with the requirements of the Affordable Care Act, it will no longer be available.
We aren’t the only ones having our policy cancelled. The conservative media is full of outrage over this, exclaiming “President Obama lied!” I was confused when I saw it. This is news? I’m reminded of an old headline from The Onion satirical newspaper, “Politician Accidentally Tells Truth!”
The liberal media counters that policies are being cancelled only because they don’t meet the minimum standards demanded by the ACA, and therefore everybody who has had a policy cancelled will now get better coverage.
But here at Go Curry Cracker, we ignore the media hype, sensationalist headlines, and political ranting and just look at the facts. Let’s do that now
Brush after meals, floss daily, visit the dentist once a year… these are the rules of dental care as I remember them. So a year after kicking the old boss (and insurance) to the curb, we found ourselves in Mexico once again and in need of our annual dental cleaning
We started asking around if people liked their dentist. At a dinner party an American-Mexican couple gave us a strong recommendation, “We’ve been to many dentists in town over the past 25 years, but this one is the best! But he doesn’t speak English…” We also had many other recommendations for English speaking dentists, but we enjoy a challenge
Some time ago I received an email from one of the big brokerage firms, titled “Savvy Year-End Tax Strategies.” It contained much advice on how to minimize taxes and how to reduce taxable income, such as “Consider contributing as much as you can to a 401(k)” and “Be careful when selling highly appreciated assets, such as stocks, land, fine art, precious metals, or antiques.”
This might be considered good advice by some, but I just call it, “Boring!”
Benjamin Franklin once wrote that nothing is certain except death and taxes. I beg to differ. I personally expect to never pay taxes again, legally and respectfully.
