From the earliest age, I have always had an incurable case of wanderlust– something calling me out into the greater world to explore. It all began as a little boy when my mom would read me “Henry the Explorer” by Mark Taylor.
The colorful book was about a young boy named Henry and his faithful dog, Angus McAngus. Each morning, Henry would prepare a lunch, pack his backpack, and head out into the world, exploring with Angus. I have always found this story to be a metaphor for my travels.
My earliest adventures began at age 17 and took me to California, Hawaii, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and several countries throughout Asia. These earliest experiences ignited an internal desire that has never left me, sending me on a quest to live more simply outside the norm of our hectic, modern consumer culture in America. This journey has taken me on adventures to China, Hong Kong, Costa Rica, and South Korea, culminating in a year of solitary mindful living in a tiny Japanese house in Kyoto in 2019. I have now traveled to 14 countries over the years.
If you had asked me three years ago, I never would have guessed that I would become an expat. I am easily a decade away from “retirement,” although that is a term that is almost a foreign word for people of my generation. At that time, I was living the year of my dreams in Kyoto, Japan, walking among the gardens and temples each day, studying painting and calligraphy, on a never-ending mission to find the best ramen in town.
Then I returned abruptly to the States after news broke of the pandemic around the world. For 15 months, I desperately tried to assimilate back into the way of life in America with no success. It became very clear that this was a path and place I had left behind, and it was now time to chart a new course and direction in the greater world. I knew by now that 80% of the world offered me the opportunity to live more simply and cheaply than the U.S, but did not know where I would ultimately end up.
The first leg of my journey led me to Costa Rica on a one-way ticket. Costa Rica was a place I had fallen in love with over a decade ago on my first solo journey. Its “Pura Vida” way of life, in accordance with the rhythm and tide of nature, was a natural fit for the simple way of living I sought. I spent a slow, quiet season along the Guanacasta coast immersed in one of the “Blue Zones” of the world, the home of some of the longest living people on the planet.