Now that I’m fully retired, I have been looking at residency in Panama or Mexico, each having its own advantages and disadvantages. I am deciding on Mexico because it has direct flights to most places around the world. Panama uses the US dollar and could hurt me when the dollar increases in value. The Mexican peso is always less than my Canadian dollar, giving me greater value there. The Mexican Consulate has an office in Calgary and I have a meeting with them next month to discuss residency status. The US border then opens November 8th 2020 allowing me to drive my campervan “Old faithful” to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. (I drove the same van to Panama City, Panama 6 years ago from Calgary, Canada.)
Another reason I picked Mexico over Panama. I can buy a nice condo in a gated community with pool and gym for about $90,000.00 USD. A comparable condo in Panama would cost me more than $200,000.00 USD. I am now focused on my road trip to Mexico. I started the first part of the leg (one third) from Toronto where I picked up the campervan from my friend Tim. His hapyhipi instagram place is one of my favorite hangouts on earth. I drove 31 hours Toronto to Calgary and plan to drive another 62 hours to Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. Cost of the trip is going up! Six years ago my road trip to Panama cost me $20/hr and today cost will be $22/hr. (Most people go by miles per gallon but I go by gas/hr!) Looking forward to Change, life is good!.... Pete from WorldTripPete.com Time to travel the world again 2X Pfizer.Heading home to Toronto (Rexdale) for a holiday found a great deal on Air Canada Calgary to Toronto $262.82 return, Airbnb $392.85 for 7 nights in Rexdale, and a rental car $162.56 for 7 days. My first trip in over 14 months also I’m fully X2 Pfizer vaccinated. Favorite places to visit is Wasaga Beach and Tim's & Christine's place.Just love this place north of Toronto thanks Christine, Tim and Hipster the dog for having me over the past couple days. Riding around in the white Rolls-Royce yesterday and the yellow Volkswagen thing today, Love it when people put thumbs up with the two tie dye hippies driving around, OK Tim is the real hippie with the long hair and beard I still always wear my tie-dye though. Tim's amazing place instagram hapyhipiWe had Christmas five days before ChristmasHad Christmas 2020 early with family, I went to both my Daughters Crystal, Tiffany and their families to hand out gifts the pass couple days being safe (COVID-19) in their back yards. The past 18 years I think I have been home about 4 times for Christmas, we normally celebrate Christmas about a month before so I could get away somewhere warm, they did not mine. I really enjoyed shopping for them and just see the kids’ faces opening their gifts was priceless, I normally ask their parents what I should get them but this time I did it all on my own and it felt great, I even bought myself a Christmas present an all-wheel drive Lincoln SUV. Most of the people on my Facebook I met while travelling and I know the feeling we get just hopping on a plane somewhere warm and maybe somewhere new, the travel bug will never go away but after this COVID-19 thing is all over we will all appreciate life so much more. I was going to do a drive by Christmas gift drop off but the weather in Calgary was warm this past week so I divided to ask my daughter’s if we can meet up in their backyards 2 meters apart with facemask, no problem it worked out great. My daughter Crystal also put a family zoom so other family members including sisters Carol, Janet, Colleen and some of their family members so we can all see each other; it was a great safe early Christmas for us all. Merry Christmas to all stay safe and stay home until this COVID-19 thing is gone.
Camping, golfing and traveling southern Alberta, Canada summer 2020...Covid 19 has not slowed me down from traveling my Provence of Alberta. I sold one of my condos May 15 th 2020, calling myself homeless until I could move into my downtown condo which was tenant occupied! Homeless in my motorhome on wheels traveling around Alberta, camping, golfing, and sightseeing!
Traveling in covid 19 presence was hard because I did not want to take a chance of traveling across Canada. I did that trip a few years ago and really enjoyed the experience! With Covid 19 around, different rules applied to different provinces and I didn’t want to get caught entering or isolating! I stayed in southern Alberta, visited places like Black Diamond, Turner Valley, Milk River, Cardston, Madden, Keho Lake, Medicine Hat, Drumheller, Pincher Creek, Lake McGregor, Sylvan Lake, Calgary, Canmore, Crossfield as well as more places. I played a lot of golf in most places costing a buck a hole in Milk River to $38.00 with cart in Cardston and Madden (Beaver Dam). It was nice to catch up with a lot of good friends/family (social distancing)of course, that joined me on my Alberta trip! I met many new and interesting people while camping, golfing, rafting, hiking, biking, e-bike scooter, campfires and so much more....I love camping No matter what the future brings, I will always be active, have good laughs and fun, I try to be positive always even through Covid 19! I like to help other travelers around the world through my new link TravelMyExpedia a link on WorldTripPete.com! My objective is to TEACH and SHOW travelers how to find great deals ss well as sell from my Expedia account that will match most of the deals I will find for you....Try me!! Winter travel does not look good right now as Canada has a travel ban which means us Canadian’s will not be covered with covid insurance unless Canada lifts the travel ban. I retired over a year ago and looks like I may go back to work just to keep busy, I am a person that cannot sit around and do nothing. The good thing is I finally got my downtown condo back before winter. |