San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. All Dressed Up and Ready to Celebrate
El Día de Muertos, the day of the dead, is a Mexican holiday honoring the lives of friends and family members who have died. It is a time to gather with loved ones, build altars to the deceased, and visit graves with gifts and offerings. It is not a time of mourning, but a grand celebration of life
(This post may be of interest only to musicians, especially those that roam)
A few years ago, if a guy wanted to travel the world with a guitar he had few options: Carry around a ton of gear, or get a dedicated miniature travel guitar. Now there is another choice
While consumer items don’t bring long term happiness, I am excited about my new Apogee JAM
. It is going to revolutionize my guitar playing. The 15W practice amp I picked up last month for $92 is now up for sale, replaced with this wonderful electronic gizmo. At $84*, it is superior to the practice amp in every way
Jam and iPhone
In the days before early retirement and world travel we lived in the best apartment in all of Seattle. We were a block from a weekly farmer’s market, a block from a Safeway grocery store, 8 blocks from a public library, 9 blocks from a Trader Joe’s, and 5 blocks from a large city park with walking trails along a stream in old growth forest.
Home was also a block away from a main commercial street and the main neighborhood bus artery. We had our choice of a number of coffee shops, restaurants, and bars, along with easy access to every part of town just one short bus ride away. The owner of the quaint coffee shop just across the street would often give us free coffee and vegan chocolate chip cookies, due to our generous tipping and frequent gifts of home cooking.
The commute into the office was quite nice as well. I could walk downstairs, cross the street, and get on a bus that dropped me off 1 block from the building where I worked. According to the bus schedule, this trip required only 26 minutes, enough time to sit back and relax with a good book. Winnie’s commute was even better. She had to walk only 2 blocks to the University of Washington, where she was taking photography classes
Often I would ride my bicycle to work, to get some exercise and fresh air. It was also a great way to work off the stresses of unrealistic schedules and office politics. Depending on mood and weather, I had a choice of riding 8 miles, partially on city streets, or riding either 21 or 23 miles primarily on dedicated bike trails. Sometimes I would ride to and from work, and other days I might ride one way and then utilize the bike racks on thecity buses in the other direction.
“Wow, that sounds great, no wonder you didn’t need a car. You guys were so lucky! Where we live we could never do what you do.”
Absolutely, we were incredibly lucky. You know, because we have absolutely no choice where we live, kind of like we have no choice where we were born.
Below are all of the details and tools we used to find our great Seattle apartment. Perhaps it will help others become lucky too
Mt. Rainier
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.
