Came dangerously close to "panic mode" the other day when...in my naivete...I realized the whole passport experience wasn't going as I thought it should. Recently the post offices (in Madison/Middleton/Waunakee, Wisconsin anyhow...and, I assume, nationwide) determined that appointments were needed for receiving passport applications. Since I had read, on official government Websites, that tourists traveling to Honduras are required to have their passport six months prior to travel, I metaphorically grabbed the paper bag needed to keep from hyperventilating.
You see, the whole basis of this move was predicated on my apartment lease being up for renewal at the end of August; my 65th birthday being at the end of August, my license for driving a school bus being up for renewal at the end of August (since I drive a school bus for a living, very important!)...and...six months prior to travel at the end of August...is...the end of February!
My heart sank when the Postmaster told me my application would take four-to-six weeks to process. I explained my predicament. "Oh, don't worry", he replied. "That six-month time frame just means that they want you to have at least six months before your passport expires." Really?!! I joyously paid the State Dept. the required $110 and the Post Office their $25 and returned to work.
Before long, however, the nagging doubts crept in once again. Which "official" rhetoric was correct? Should I just take the Postmaster's word that I needn't worry? And if I did that, then found out upon arrival at the airport that I can't enter for at least another month, what then? I realize I can't rent my apartment in Honduras until I'm sure of an arrival date. And if I can't leave for Honduras at the end of August, where am I going to live until I can leave? And what am I going to do for income if everything is delayed for a month or more?
I decide, now that my hands are clammy and my breathing laboured, that I should contact the Honduran Embassy. I Google it on the computer at work, then click on Contact Us. Great...everything is in Spanish! (While Honduras is a Spanish-speaking country, the island of Utila is mainly English-speaking.) I manage to semi-translate a few things which need to be filled in, such as email address, name and comment, and proceed to transmit my concerns. I'm hoping to hear back in a timely fashion...preferably by Monday...so I can take any further necessary steps to insure I leave the states at the end of August!
I will only accept this as a minor setback. I tell myself, 'Things WILL work out...I AM going to Utila at the end of August.' A positive attitude...right? Stay tuned!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Moving Forward
What a busy week! Received my birth certificate in the mail, filled out my application for a passport, and will get the picture taken at Walgreen's today, then bring it all to the Post Office sometime during the work week.
A word of advice to those of you planning a trip or move out of the country: check with the embassy of the country to which you are traveling for passport requirements. Everything I had read maintained that I would need a return ticket to the states. However, upon checking with the Honduran embassy, I was assured that I could renew my stamp each month for 3 months (visas are not required in Honduras), then either leave the country for a few days and return or pay an extra $100 to stay. This is if you are entering the country as a tourist. If you enter as a resident, or apply for residency after arriving, the requirements are different. But don't believe everything you read...check with the country's embassy to get the facts
I emailed my new friend, Mark (Webmaster of official Utila Website), with more questions. He put me in touch with an ex-patriot from New York who has lived on Utila for 7 years...Jan. She called me last night and answered many of my questions, and will call again today for more conversation. She sounds like a delightful person, and I'm looking forward to already having some friends when I move to Utila.
I think I have an apartment lined up. Emailed Rita, owner of the Sandstone Apts. regarding availability. She has a lovely one-bedroom with hardwood floors, cable tv, A/C, wifi, completely furnished and right by the ocean for only $450/month! I can fall asleep to the sound of the waves every night. If this is a dream, please don't wake me up!
Wisconsin is having more than its share of political woes right now. As an employee of the Middleton-Cross Plains School District, I have not been to work since last Wed. Teachers are protesting our new governor's bill which would strip them of their collective bargaining rights. As a school bus driver, I am non-union, but I defend the stand taken by the teacher's because this is (supposed to be) a country founded on people's rights. None of us should stand by while our rights are threatened, even if we don't agree with them. This is one of the reasons I am anxious to move to Utila. America is not the country it was when I was growing up in the 50's & 60's...the political climate is almost intolerable, and the sense of entitlement embraced by the American people is deplorable. Whatever happened to common courtesy, living within one's means, and raising one's own children?
I'm hoping the island will allow for a more stress-free life...at least one in which I won't have to be embroiled in political unrest. I will finally have the time to sit at my laptop and write. It might even be nice if I could sell a few articles to travel magazines, or get a novel or two published perhaps. But even if the writing is only for me (and posterity!) it will be a welcome change.
There is also some volunteer work I can be involved in...one having to do with iguanas (or wishy willies as they call them) and the other with whale sharks. Utila is surrounded by the world's second largest barrier reef, and we all know the damage being done to the coral reefs. Maybe I can learn to dive (the world's cheapest diving is available on Utila) and somehow do my part in helping to preserve this wonderous reef.
So many challenges await!
A word of advice to those of you planning a trip or move out of the country: check with the embassy of the country to which you are traveling for passport requirements. Everything I had read maintained that I would need a return ticket to the states. However, upon checking with the Honduran embassy, I was assured that I could renew my stamp each month for 3 months (visas are not required in Honduras), then either leave the country for a few days and return or pay an extra $100 to stay. This is if you are entering the country as a tourist. If you enter as a resident, or apply for residency after arriving, the requirements are different. But don't believe everything you read...check with the country's embassy to get the facts
I emailed my new friend, Mark (Webmaster of official Utila Website), with more questions. He put me in touch with an ex-patriot from New York who has lived on Utila for 7 years...Jan. She called me last night and answered many of my questions, and will call again today for more conversation. She sounds like a delightful person, and I'm looking forward to already having some friends when I move to Utila.
I think I have an apartment lined up. Emailed Rita, owner of the Sandstone Apts. regarding availability. She has a lovely one-bedroom with hardwood floors, cable tv, A/C, wifi, completely furnished and right by the ocean for only $450/month! I can fall asleep to the sound of the waves every night. If this is a dream, please don't wake me up!
Wisconsin is having more than its share of political woes right now. As an employee of the Middleton-Cross Plains School District, I have not been to work since last Wed. Teachers are protesting our new governor's bill which would strip them of their collective bargaining rights. As a school bus driver, I am non-union, but I defend the stand taken by the teacher's because this is (supposed to be) a country founded on people's rights. None of us should stand by while our rights are threatened, even if we don't agree with them. This is one of the reasons I am anxious to move to Utila. America is not the country it was when I was growing up in the 50's & 60's...the political climate is almost intolerable, and the sense of entitlement embraced by the American people is deplorable. Whatever happened to common courtesy, living within one's means, and raising one's own children?
I'm hoping the island will allow for a more stress-free life...at least one in which I won't have to be embroiled in political unrest. I will finally have the time to sit at my laptop and write. It might even be nice if I could sell a few articles to travel magazines, or get a novel or two published perhaps. But even if the writing is only for me (and posterity!) it will be a welcome change.
There is also some volunteer work I can be involved in...one having to do with iguanas (or wishy willies as they call them) and the other with whale sharks. Utila is surrounded by the world's second largest barrier reef, and we all know the damage being done to the coral reefs. Maybe I can learn to dive (the world's cheapest diving is available on Utila) and somehow do my part in helping to preserve this wonderous reef.
So many challenges await!
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Realizing the Dream
I would not have thought, at any point during my adult life, that I would be planning my retirement to a tropical island. And yet, here I am!
As a young girl I breathed the salt air, felt the warm sand tickling my toes as I ran into the foamy swells which lapped the eastern seaboard of Massachusetts. I believed then that the dream of island living was possible. And then life happened.
Fast forward to marriage at a very young age, children, creating a nest for the family, the usual...and unusual...ups and downs we all face in our lives. And now, here I sit, divorced, alone (but never lonely...I only felt loneliness during my marriage), working at a job both rewarding and nonsustaining, and anticipating an end-chapter of struggle, uncertainty and weariness of both body and spirit.
Serendipity arrived on the Welcome mat outside the door of my apartment in the form of the Sunday Wisconsin State Journal. There in the travel section of the paper was an article on Utila, a 25-square-mile island off the coast of Honduras in South America. As I read about this jewel of the Caribbean, I became that young girl once again, who dreamed of someday living on an island. And so began my awakening.
In the days that followed, I found myself re-reading that newspaper article many times over. I visited the official Utila Website, http://www.aboututila.com/, and literally engulfed myself in Utila lore. I read Utila blogs, checked out books on Utila from the library, emailed the Webmaster of the Utila Website with questions about life on Utila.
I discovered that there are many retirees who live in South American countries because you can live very well there on very little. And suddenly the realization came to me...that I could live on Utila...I could have my island dream! I could actually afford to retire, if I did so on Utila, whereas I would have to work until the day my lifeless body is taken away if I stay in the United States.
I made no reckless decisions. Instead, I conducted a very thorough investigation of my finances, made countless lists of pros and cons, talked at great length with my children, friends and coworkers. Once I knew the amount I could collect from Social Security, the sum of my retirement, when my Roth IRA would come due, I knew the move was doable. I looked into passport requirements, plane fares, chose a time frame and voila! On Aug. 21 I will be 65 years old and I will retire. I will unburden myself of all material possessions, pack a suitcase filled with shorts, tank tops and sunscreen, and fly off to my island in the sun. Suddenly that end-chapter looks much more promising.
I'll continue to post the steps I take which will get me to Utila. Perhaps it will benefit some of you who may have unfulfilled dreams of your own. And while I'm living my dream, I'll also keep you posted on my new life and the adventures I encounter on Utila.
As a young girl I breathed the salt air, felt the warm sand tickling my toes as I ran into the foamy swells which lapped the eastern seaboard of Massachusetts. I believed then that the dream of island living was possible. And then life happened.
Fast forward to marriage at a very young age, children, creating a nest for the family, the usual...and unusual...ups and downs we all face in our lives. And now, here I sit, divorced, alone (but never lonely...I only felt loneliness during my marriage), working at a job both rewarding and nonsustaining, and anticipating an end-chapter of struggle, uncertainty and weariness of both body and spirit.
Serendipity arrived on the Welcome mat outside the door of my apartment in the form of the Sunday Wisconsin State Journal. There in the travel section of the paper was an article on Utila, a 25-square-mile island off the coast of Honduras in South America. As I read about this jewel of the Caribbean, I became that young girl once again, who dreamed of someday living on an island. And so began my awakening.
In the days that followed, I found myself re-reading that newspaper article many times over. I visited the official Utila Website, http://www.aboututila.com/, and literally engulfed myself in Utila lore. I read Utila blogs, checked out books on Utila from the library, emailed the Webmaster of the Utila Website with questions about life on Utila.
I discovered that there are many retirees who live in South American countries because you can live very well there on very little. And suddenly the realization came to me...that I could live on Utila...I could have my island dream! I could actually afford to retire, if I did so on Utila, whereas I would have to work until the day my lifeless body is taken away if I stay in the United States.
I made no reckless decisions. Instead, I conducted a very thorough investigation of my finances, made countless lists of pros and cons, talked at great length with my children, friends and coworkers. Once I knew the amount I could collect from Social Security, the sum of my retirement, when my Roth IRA would come due, I knew the move was doable. I looked into passport requirements, plane fares, chose a time frame and voila! On Aug. 21 I will be 65 years old and I will retire. I will unburden myself of all material possessions, pack a suitcase filled with shorts, tank tops and sunscreen, and fly off to my island in the sun. Suddenly that end-chapter looks much more promising.
I'll continue to post the steps I take which will get me to Utila. Perhaps it will benefit some of you who may have unfulfilled dreams of your own. And while I'm living my dream, I'll also keep you posted on my new life and the adventures I encounter on Utila.
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