How we prepared for our trip

This is our home in Colorado

- WHY LEAVE OUR COLORADO HOME?

-  HOW WE FINANCED OUR TRIP
- THE HOME IMPROVEMENT

- CHOOSING A MODE OF TRANSPORTATION FOR OUR TRIP 
- HOMESCHOOLING
- OTHER PREPARATIONS:  Choice of luggage - day bags - money belts - official documents
- THE LAST WEEK BEFORE LEAVING DURANGO 

WHY LEAVE OUR COLORADO HOME?

The idea to explore Latin America was first put into words in February 2011. Christelle’s eldest son Hadrien, and his girlfriend Stephanie, were planning a trip to Central America for the fall of 2011. Hadrien suggested that we meet them somewhere along their travels. When Christelle mentioned this to Peter his response was, “That sounds great, but how are we going to afford it?”

Christelle was the breadwinner and for the first time in her 24 year career she had completed all of her current jobs and was waiting for more to come in. The tragedy of the earthquake in Japan the following month struck an ominous tone in the Day household since about 75% of Christelle’s work originated in Japan. She knew there was a 3 month backlog of jobs and by June 2011 work would start to thin out in earnest.

Meanwhile, Hadrien continued to suggest, a little more forcefully, that we seriously consider his invitation. When June rolled around, Christelle was completing her last big job and was having difficulty with her eyesight. Her work was translating patent applications from English into French. She would read the text in English and type the translation directly on the computer. When the job was completed, she would proofread the work word by word, constantly going back and forth from one document to the other. Twenty four years of her eyes and brain going back and forth had taken its toll. Peter noticed at night, after Christelle did a lot of proofreading, that she had trouble understanding what he said. By this time, it was acknowledged that in more ways than one Christelle’s job was over.

So what opportunities were available for us in Durango? The most natural, obvious job for Christelle would be to teach French at a school if a position was available. Peter could go back to working in a shop, whether it’d be as a mechanic, machinist or woodworker. There was also a possibility of creating some kind of new job, yet no creative ideas were flowing. We estimated that entering the workforce in Durango would bring in roughly half of the income that we need. We knew from our current finances how much we struggled with this amount. Neither of us were the least bit interested in these options. By then we were really wondering what to do.

This is when our good friend Doug called. Doug was instrumental in introducing us to each other. We had not heard from him in over 6 years, and he called up out of the blue and told us about his recent trip to Central America and how beautiful it was. He said to Christelle, “You are very good at your work, but there are other things to do in life. You guys should go to Central America, the kids would love it. The nature is incredible. It is completely wild.”

When Christelle hung up the phone she said, ”Now Doug is telling us we should go to Central America, too.”

“Christelle, your job is over and we have no money” replied Peter.

“All I know is these 2 people, Doug and Hadrien, encouraged us to meet years ago. Now they are strongly suggesting we go to Central America. It is important that we listen and seriously consider what they are saying.” replied Christelle.

Peter had no argument for that one. We firmly believe that life provides guidance when someone asks for it. This is fundamental to how we met and the foundation of who we are.

At that point, Peter basically surrendered to, and let go of his resistance to, the idea of travelling to Central America. Then he asked the question, “How can we afford it?” All along, Peter had been looking at the idea of travelling to Central America as a vacation, and not a journey. Once he opened up to the idea of going, with the return date to Durango open ended, thoughts arose about how to pay for it. Renting or selling the house were obvious sources of income. He said, ”OK, we do it.” And that was it.

While raising our kids we had talked a lot about taking them to different countries so they could experience more than just the Western culture. We did not think it would be this soon, but we now realize that by speaking it we had created it. The timing is also absolutely perfect. We feel they are at a great age to benefit from the experience and that there is a lot for all of us to learn. The world is here to be explored. We do not want to look back at this time later in life and regret not taking this opportunity.

HOW WE FINANCED OUR TRIP

Now the challenges ahead of us were: 1) How do we pack up our lives and leave? 2) How do we provide the financial support for this trip?

In July of 2011, we left for our 5 week trip to Europe. This vacation was the design of Christelle’s mother, Jackie. She had started discussing with Christelle the previous year about us visiting in 2011 to celebrate Christelle’s 50th birthday and her own 80th birthday. It’s a good thing that Jackie paid for the plane tickets, and that we did a home and car exchange with Christelle’s cousin while staying in France, or else we would never have been able to afford the trip.

We decided to put the house on the market to see if we got any offers, prior to leaving for France. We spent several weeks in France visiting with Christelle’s family and friends telling everyone about our plan to travel to Central America. The reaction to our idea was varied. Many suggestions were proposed. We could move to France and get jobs there. This did not sound very appealing since job opportunities in France are no better than in the US. It would be the same situation in a different location. It was also suggested that we get jobs in Durango or in another location in the U.S. with a lower cost of living, or maybe Christelle could look for new customers in her translation field, which is what she had been doing for years anyway, without any success. Some expressed concern for our safety, because we were going to be travelling in what some people consider dangerous countries. A few people were very supportive and excited about our plans. We thanked everybody for their ideas and concerns. Again, to be clear, we felt we were being provided a wonderful opportunity and that the real struggle would be staying in Durango or doing something different than what life was offering.

We returned to Durango in August, a week before school started. The realtors had some activity showing our house, with very few positive responses and no offers. We had toyed with the idea of selling our house and travelling south with a motorhome. We decided to complete all of the unfinished projects using a home equity line of credit (heloc) that was available to us. By this time the income from Christelle’s last few jobs was dribbling in and we were on the verge of having to use the heloc for living expenses. By the beginning of October we gave up on selling the house and realized we would have to rent it out.

The yard sale

We started a mega yard sale that lasted 6 weeks, 24 hours a day. Everything we owned was for sale. Sundays were 50% off marked prices. It was very successful and we did not have to watch anybody. The atmosphere around the yard sale was always very friendly.

Christelle helped the kids go through all of their belongings, selecting toys and books they no longer used and/or wanted to sell at the yard sale. They also put aside what they would like to take on the trip. They did not have any difficulty making choices. Louis and Angelina had their own tables and conducted business themselves. They showed a lot of enthusiasm towards the whole process. Plus, they were receiving money which they applied towards purchasing their mp3s for the trip.

Angelina did have some fears which expressed themselves as nightmares. We had her talk to a counselor recommended by the school. When she was reassured by us that everything would be ok, the nightmares stopped. Christelle has prior experience with this kind of adventure. She left France in 1999, and moved to Durango with her 2 sons aged 13 and 15. They are now aged 26 and 28, and have very fond memories of their teen years.

We noticed the first Sunday night after coming back from town that some people had come by when we were gone and left money in a box on the front porch for items they had purchased. This gave us the idea to make the yard sale continuous and a payment box available with change on the porch. People were very honest. Prior to inclement weather, we’d pile up things inside the garage, juggling space with construction materials for all the home improvement. Every day there would be more money in the box. We believe we sold at least 80% of our belongings, which covered our living expenses until just before we left.

Many people that came to our yard sale had travelled in Latin America and were very supportive of our plan. The responses were overwhelmingly positive. A few people even said, “I’m a little bit jealous.” We don’t believe that they really felt a lot of envy, but probably had very fond memories of their travels of the past, or wished they could pack up and leave also. We felt that it was just another sign we were doing the right thing.

People would say that this was not a typical yard sale because we had really nice stuff for cheap. The only problem was that everybody already had too many belongings. You could see it in their eyes. We heard a lot of people saying that they wished they could get rid of some of their things too.

We have 700 square feet of loft space above the garage that was piled full of items that we almost never used, plus much more inside the house. We would sell thousands of dollars of stuff in a weekend and walk into the house and it would look like it was still overflowing with possessions. We found boxes of items in the loft that were unopened from our previous move in 2004. It’s true what everybody says: getting rid of what you no longer need feels great.

The donations

After about six weeks the sales really dropped off. We had been weeding through things and started giving away items to friends and neighbors. What was left was donated to the thrift stores or stored in our garage. We noticed that there was a movement of people trying to rid themselves of needless stuff, because the thrift stores were very busy. Some days they would not even take donations.

One day, in particular, stands out in Peter’s memory. The truck was loaded with kid’s items for the thrift store, clothes for the Red Cross, and home improvement items for the Habitat for Humanity Resale Store. When he arrived at the thrift store there was no place to park and he had to wait a few minutes to park. The place was jammed. As he brought his second armful into the drop off area inside the store, the volunteer asked him to pile the rest outside. She looked overwhelmed. As Peter gathered up the last armload from the truck he saw the woman walking past him, going to the dumpster with some of the things he had just donated. It was going in the trash. Taking a deep breath, he drove on to the Red Cross drop off at the supermarket. Only none of the employees knew where the drop off was. “It used to be here, but I don’t know…”. The clothes were what Peter and Christelle considered very nice, usable items. He took them back to the truck and continued on to the Resale Store. As he drove up to the drop off gate, he saw a sign that said, “No donations accepted until Nov. 20th.” Feeling frustrated as he headed home, he decided to swing by the dump and at least get rid of the home improvement stuff. Only he did not have enough cash and had not brought the checkbook. They did not accept credit cards and he was a couple dollars short. No deal. Some days you just can’t give things away.

THE HOME IMPROVEMENT

Things were rolling along with the home improvement. As the projects were being completed, it was a little difficult to stop. We ended up taking on more projects than we had originally planned. We decided to finish as much as we could so that when we returned home someday we would not be faced with all the work to do on the house. Also, we wanted to make it nice with the idea that we would get renters that would take good care of our home. We set a firm date to leave Durango on December 21st, and it became clear that the work would not be done before we left. We made arrangements with the workers to continue and finish all work after we left. We felt confident because we had 3 very reliable, knowledgeable contractors on the job.

This is our valley in Colorado


CHOOSING A MODE OF TRANSPORTATION FOR OUR TRIP

Originally our idea for a mode of transportation on our journey was a motorhome that we would purchase using the proceeds from the sale of our home. Since we gave up on selling our home we considered a less expensive option which was a mid 90’s “Toyota Land Cruiser” with a pop-up camper trailer. After checking out pop-up camper trailers, we felt we might go a little crazy being crammed into such tiny quarters for an undetermined amount of time. So we considered the option of travelling with just a Land Cruiser while staying at hostels or hotels. We tried very hard to buy a Land Cruiser but had no success. One local used car dealer even talked Peter out of buying one that he had for sale because he did not feel good about the intended use. Eventually a neighbor suggested we take no vehicle and rely on public transportation only. We had not seriously considered that option, but once we did we started to really warm up to it. We wouldn’t have any concerns about theft or vandalism. We would be free to travel wherever we wanted. So we followed through with this plan and bought one way tickets to Cancun, Mexico leaving on the winter’s solstice. We were banking on selling our truck and van, rather than storing them, in order to pay off our credit card balances.

Our house in Durango by Angelina

HOMESCHOOLING

Our goal was to enroll Louis and Angelina in a local school when we settled somewhere, so that they could learn Spanish, experience another culture and hopefully make friends. Until then it was planned that they would keep up with math on the excellent and free website khanacademy.com. This website is very user friendly. They would practice reading, writing and spelling on a weekly basis with us. We gave our “Skype” name to both teachers at “Needham Elementary” so that Louis and Angelina could keep in touch with their classmates. We have no room in our luggage for two comprehensive curriculum workbooks for their grades but we will order them on line from "Amazon.com" sometime during our trip.

OTHER PREPARATIONS:  Choice of luggage - day bags - money belts - official documents

While Peter was immersed in home improvement and buttoning up as much as possible with the property before leaving, Christelle was taking care of the luggage requirements. Since we would be using public transportation, she decided that we would each have one carry-on size suitcase and one small backpack. Christelle chose cases with very sturdy wheels and zippers, and visited websites to see how to pack the most belongings in the most efficient manner.

Luggage with wheels or no wheels?

This is the subject of many forums online. One very informative website for people who travel with very few belongings is www.onebag.com. They give a lot of very useful advice for travelers. Among other things, they recommend staying away from wheeled luggage but we felt that we would not be able to carry all our belongings on our backs. We believed that a small backpack and a carry-on case with sturdy wheels would provide for a more balanced, manageable load. They advertise a very nice backpack suitcase that makes sense for those who do not want wheels. In other websites, some people say they were very happy with their wheeled luggage using public transportation in third world countries. It depends on how much you will be able to drag your luggage on its wheels. The “Eagle Creek Hovercraft” has good reviews saying that people were able to drag this unit over train tracks and in mud with no problems. Cases that have large wheels with a thicker tread that are deeply encased in the luggage can go almost anywhere. “Patagonia” has a very nice hybrid backpack/wheel suitcase for adventure that has been getting good reviews.

For the kids, Christelle chose “Studio D” polycarbonate hard shell, weather resistant carry-ons, with 4 wheels so that they could either push or pull them. Adults were getting soft-sided 2 wheelers (one “American Tourister” and one high-end “Eagle Creek Hovercraft”). Zippers were size 10 and looked excellent on these units. There are a number of different types of zippers available and it is important to know exactly what kind of zipper you are getting because a zipper failure makes for a useless piece of luggage. It’s also best if all zippers are lockable on a suitcase. We would secure all the zippers with 4 wheel dial locks and each carry-on had a “Lugglife” (available at “ebags.com”) neoprene sleeve to better cope with impacts, plus a dial lock security strap over the sleeve. Check out the picture on the right-hand side of the blog at the top.

It was decided that the best way for us to pack our carry-ons was to roll up the clothing one item at a time, each into a tight sausage. Sausage links were stuffed into very light, durable and inexpensive “Cochlan’s” mesh zipper pouches. “Ziploc” plastic bags can be used, but they are not as convenient or durable.

It is incredible all the things you can pack in just one carry-on this way: one zipper bag with 4-5 tee-shirts/short-sleeve shirts; one zipper bag with underwear; one zipper bag with 4 long-sleeve sunshirts from “Coolibar” or “Sunday afternoons”; a travel pillow; 1 long-sleeve sweater for chillier nights; 2-3 pairs of shorts; 2-3 pairs of shoes; swimwear; sunhats; PJs; a small rolled-up towel (preferably quick-drying); one poncho (for the adults we chose the one sold by “Magellan’s”, it is fantastic); one medium-size toiletry bag with shampoo, 1 soap, cream, shaver, powdered toothpaste, and what not; plus each carry-on was going to contain part of the pharmacy. We also had a bunch of extra organic bug spray, sunscreen, soap, shampoo and a small sewing kit. We packed some travel-size duct tape too (for a possible suitcase repair). On the day of departure we would all wear our only pair of long pants.

Do we take ponchos or umbrellas? Both would be best but we did not have enough room. An umbrella keeps you cooler in the rain in warmer climates and can be used instead of a hat for sun protection. But an umbrella would be cumbersome at times and would not work for hiking, so we chose ponchos.

With kids, at least 6 pairs of undies each are necessary because they will most probably get some kind of turista during our travels. Louis and Angelina also packed three Tintin books, a spelling book, carefully selected toys (they were allowed 2 zippered pouches each and left alone to choose what toys to bring on the trip), smaller stuffed animals and Angelina’s baby (Rosa) with her blanket.

There was some room for stuff on top of the carry-on, against the carrying handle. We put larger stuffed animals for the kids there and strapped the plastic bag to the carry-on with a “Travelon” strap. Christelle packed her wood flutes in a 6 inch diameter PVC lined flute case from The Flute Case Store (flutecase.com) on top of her carry-on.

Day backpacks

A whistle “FOX 40 Classic” was attached to one of the front shoulder straps of each backpack. This was to be used if we got separated in a crowd. It’s best if at least one zipper of the backpack is lockable too.

In his backpack (a “Targus”) Peter will carry the laptop and charging cord; an MP3; a few books; a pen and notepad; a hat; a flashlight; a fleece vest; sunglasses; a water bottle; and a zipper pocket with toilet paper, hand sanitizer, hand soap in sheets (lots of bathrooms don’t have soap and toilet paper in Latin America); and tissues.

Christelle’s backpack (a “Pacsafe”) will hold a Kindle; a first-aid kit; an MP3; sunglasses; a notepad and pen; a diary; an address book with all our contacts; a zipper pocket with hand sanitizer, toilet paper, soap in sheets, sanitizing wipes and a couple paper towels; another zipper pocket with four “Sporks” (fork, spoon, knife hybrid), tissues, sunscreen, bug spray, drops of organic grapefruit seed extract for purifying tap water and washing fruit and vegetables, iodine tablets from “Walmart” for purifying even dirtier water; a hat; a flashlight; a water bottle; a USB flash drive containing various computer files, MP3 files, photos etc. clipped to a D-ring inside the bag; and a thin black shawl that was offered as a gift for our trip. Christelle would carry her camera in a small cross-body “Pacsafe” bag.

Each kid’s backpack will hold small stuffed animals and toys; a water bottle; a mesh pocket with hand sanitizer, tissues, toilet paper, soap in sheets; an MP3; a hat; a camera; a flashlight; a couple of throw-up bags from the airlines, and a long-sleeve sweater.

Waist wallets

Peter and Christelle were both going to carry a waist wallet under their pants. Peter’s (a “Samsonite”) was going to hold his and Louis’s passports, and Christelle’s (an “Eagle Creek” silk unit) would contain hers and Angelina’s. Passports have to be inside a water resistant “Ziploc” to eliminate damage from sweat or rain. We would also have a couple of credit cards and cash in there. We read online it’s important to take a lot of small bills. Getting change for large bills can be problematic and we had read about having to possibly bribe officials along the way. We’d also spread out the cash in other hidden pockets in our shirt or pants and in an extra money belt in the off chance we were robbed. We decided not to take any traveler’s checks with us since they are no longer accepted in some countries. There are ATMs everywhere in Central America so we did not need to carry a lot of cash. We left Durango with about $500 in cash.

Official documents

We made paper copies of our drivers’ licenses and put them with our international drivers’ licenses (official ones are easily obtained at your local AAA office for $15 each. Beware of websites that offer international drivers’ licenses that are not official) in our respective carry-ons. We would carry our original drivers´ licenses in our day bag together with a copy of our passports at all times.  We also emailed copies of our passports, both sides of our credit cards, drivers’ licenses and other documents such as birth certificates, marriage license, homeowners insurance etc. to our own email addresses. We did not keep copies of any of our documents in our laptop in case it got stolen. When in a hotel or a rental home, we would lock our passports and credit cards inside our carry-on.

IMMIGRATION

In most countries in Latin America foreigners can stay legally for 3 months under the tourist visa. Some countries offer a 6 month tourist visa (Mexico, Peru...). Some are stricter than others and immigration law can change in a big hurry in certain countries (Ecuador for example). Information that is 6 months old only may no longer be valid.  Immigration lawyers in Latin America may not all be honest or competent, may charge as much as they would in the U.S. and will not necessarily get you the visa or residency you were applying for through them. We think it is best to start by renting a place for a while before committing to becoming a resident in a foreign country. This gives time to see what is really going on where you are, and helps make a more thought-out decision. Some foreigners have hurried into buying land and building a home before having enough knowldege and found their home gobbled up by a land slide or land sagging under their house...

THE LAST WEEK BEFORE LEAVING DURANGO

An objective person might say that by the middle of December 2011 we had a lot on our plate. We were tearing into new home improvement projects which are always accompanied with a feeling of upheaval. We were rifling through the available credit of the heloc paying for all the work. One way or another most of our possessions had gone away. We built a storage box in the back of the garage to store what few items we still had; the nice living room furniture, beds, clothes we did not sell or donate, and tools. We entered a friendly agreement with our neighbors to manage the rental aspect of our home knowing they would keep a close eye on it. We contacted our local bank and made them aware of our travel plans. Since our travel plans were open ended, the decision was made to cancel the mail delivery. The postal worker tried to fill out one of the vacation forms which required a resume delivery date. We were able to get the point across that we wanted the mail stopped. The Postal Service does not enjoy losing customers. No tears were shed for all the junk mail addressed to us that would be returned to the sender, or shredded. The phone (landline) disconnect was scheduled with no intention of ever reconnecting when we return. These days the majority of the calls are intrusive.

Christelle was excited and continuously expressed confidence in the decisions that were being made. The kids were going about their daily activities like packing up the house and travelling to another country was business as usual. In fact, they were excited as if we were going on a vacation. Peter confessed that he woke up in the middle of the night, with his heart pounding, in a complete panic. All kinds of irrational thoughts would be bombarding him. During the days he had felt a lot of urgency about trying to complete as much work as possible. Fortunately for him he knew that Christelle had already gone through a leap of faith back in 1999 when she left France and moved to Durango. She recalls experiencing similar reactions. The one underlying, grounding force was the conviction that we had to do this. Life was giving us an opportunity and it required us to take a chance, to risk our safe, secure lifestyle in order to explore the unknown.

One of the most emotional days was the last day of school before Christmas break. “Needham Elementary” has a very bright, colorful and welcoming atmosphere. It just simply feels like home and the people are family. Saying goodbye to everybody was very hard. We dropped by the kid’s classrooms and spent some time talking to their teachers and looking at the kid’s schoolwork for that semester. We saw other teachers from past years and said our goodbyes as we made our way to the principal’s office. “Le Guardien de la Petit Enfants” is the name Peter secretly gave to the principal, Pete Harter. He is a big bear of a guy always maintaining a presence and looking out for the kids. Saying goodbye to Pete had an extra feeling of finality knowing he would be retiring soon. With incredible sadness, we left Needham not knowing when or if we would return.

We sold our old Dodge truck to a friend, but were banking on selling the 2007 Honda Odyssey and had not received a single call until 5 days before our departure. A nice family came over to look at it and we traded vehicles for the day. They decided to buy it and came over the following morning to complete the transaction. We had tried to sell it couple of times over the previous 2 months with no interested parties coming forward. The truth is we needed it a lot the last couple of months and it worked out very conveniently selling it right at the very end. We were able to erase the majority of the credit card balances before leaving Durango.

The last few days were very hectic, as expected. We borrowed a car from a friend since we were carless. The storage unit was finished in the garage and we decided to pack it with our belongings 2 days prior to departure and stay at a motel the second to last night. Christelle packaged up things as Peter and our home improvement friend, Steve, filled up the unit. Things went down to the wire the last night, and we finished well after dark. Last minute discussions were held with our property manager neighbors. We borrowed another car from another neighbor and dropped off the 1st loaner on our way through town. We spent the last night with very good friends, east of town in the direction of the airport, who had our kids over the last couple of days playing with their kids. Dinner was waiting for us and then Peter collapsed in bed. Christelle was able to stay up and give our luggage a final packing, adding gifts that were given to us by friends, before succumbing to exhaustion.

Morning arrived uneventfully, we had no problem sleeping. After all the work of the last months, life was going to take on a different hue. The adventure was beginning. Terry’s prayer before breakfast and last comment, “Godspeed on your journey” at the airport brought tears to our eyes. As the plane climbed rapidly en route to Denver, the kids exclaimed, “There is a round rainbow in the sky!” This brought back a memory to Peter. While coming down the hill south of Purgatory Ski Area and Coal Bank Pass north of Durango in early September of 1985, he saw 2 beautiful round rainbows just above the mountain peaks to the east. Recent thunderstorm clouds had just cleared by the time he reached Hermosa and Animas valley shimmered in the late afternoon sunlight. Ten minutes or so later he entered Durango for the first time. By the time he crossed 32nd St. he had the thought, ”This would be a nice place to live.”