Adventure living isn’t exactly new to us. When my wife and I were in our mid-30’s, we moved to the tropics. We sold everything – two houses, two cars and a lot of stuff (we were newlyweds). We had good jobs and we dove head first into the unknown. That was before YouTube. Before there was really much guidance in doing something like this. In hindsight, I’m not sure why we did it, but there was something inside of us calling out.

So why did we sell everything to have an adventure in the tropics? We sold everything and ventured into the unknown because we had a voice inside of us calling out, telling us there is more to life than just the comfortable, predictable life we knew in the United States.

That is not to say that we don’t love the United States and all that it offers and represents – we love the United States – it is the best country to every exist in the entire existence of mankind.

We do understand that there is a huge world out there and different geography and cultures to explore and wonderful people to meet. That’s why we sold everything and ventured into the scary, unpredictable, sometimes extremely challenging but fantastically rewarding unknown.

What Did We Learn on Our Tropical Adventure?

That is a very difficult question to answer. What did we learn on our tropical adventure?

If I have to summarize in one short sentence, I would say that we learned that happiness is being together as a family, not in owning a bunch of stuff and certainly not living the rat race.

Jamming as much into your life as possible, is one theory on the best way to live, but we believe that life is more about maximizing each, and every day and enjoying and being present in every life experience.

What is Living Outside the Box Like?

Living outside the box definitely isn’t always the easiest way to live, because life outside of the US as an explorer can certainly try your patience. Everything is more difficult. It is kind of like having children. Life is certainly much easier without children, but having children, though difficult at times (sometimes most of the time), has made my life much more rewarding.

If You Have Already Done this Adventuring Once, it Should be Easy the Second Time, Right?

Wrong! I am writing this article five years after moving back to the United States, after living abroad for eight years. I am telling you that it took us an entire two years to re-acclimate and to not feel like strangers or foreigners in the US.

Everything seems so unreal when you come back, but what is the most difficult part is having things in common with your neighbors. After living abroad, as an expat, you see the world through different eyes.

How Did We Change While We Were Expats

Costa Rican’s live for today (yes, I know I am speaking for an entire culture, but generally speaking). They don’t worry about tomorrow or next week, let alone next year. They are a very friendly culture and really, just want to please you and be happy. There are times where this can be counterproductive to getting things accomplished, but in so many ways, this is a great, stress free way to live.

Trying to get things done in Costa Rica can take a long time. In the United States, if you have an appointment with a service company for a repair and they continue to be late, or don’t call and don’t show up until the next day or the day after, they probably won’t be in business very long (unless they are the public utility).

Managing Frustrations

I used to make a list every morning and check off the items on my list as I accomplished them. At the end of the day, I may have had one or two items out of twenty that I had to move to the next page while everything else was completed and checked off the list.

After moving abroad, I had to quit doing this. I started to go a little insane because my list just kept growing and growing and growing. Instead of checking off eighteen items of twenty each day, I was checking off two or three things out of twenty each day. After struggling with it and fighting the culture and getting stressed each day, I finally decided to just go with it. This didn’t happen overnight, but it was a process that took place over many, many months.

My Advice

So my advice to anyone leaving one country or culture and moving to another, is to go with the flow. This is especially true to those that are moving around from destination to destination like cruisers do.

The other saying is when in Rome, do what the Romans do, which is exactly what you need to do to survive. That doesn’t mean that you need to lose your culture and your values, but instead of living 100% in your old ways, start by going 75% your old ways and 25% the new ways. Then every month, give up another 3% or 5% or 10% or whatever you are able to do.

After a period of six to twelve months, if you are still there and haven’t already gone back home, you will find that you have adapted quite a bit to the new culture or lifestyle. That doesn’t mean that you have forgotten your roots. It doesn’t mean that you fit in completely in the new culture. It really means that you have figured out how to live in both cultures.

What if You Can’t Adapt

I met hundreds if not thousands of people (Americans, Canadians, Europeans and some others) in my eight years in the tropics. Some did great in making the change and adapting to the new culture. Others didn’t fair too good. Living a different lifestyle is not for everyone and not everyone can adapt to living in a different culture.

It does take effort. Some people that would get really pissed off (sorry for the crass wording) on a daily basis (just like I did at first). They were going insane trying to get the locals to live like they do in Canada or in the United States or in Europe, instead of trying to adapt to the local culture. So many of us believe that the way we were raised is better and tried to get a whole country to change to our way of doing and seeing things.

The definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Well, let’s just say that some people, lots of people thought they could do it and left pissed off, bitter and defeated. Others just got tired and worn down and left.

Do Your Homework

My best advice to being a happy and successful expat or explorer of a new culture is to first, do your homework. Then go there on a vacation. Spend a week not doing touristy stuff. Go off the beaten path. If you like it, plan another trip. On our second trip, we spent three weeks. We fell more in love with the country and the culture and the its quirkiness. If you haven’t changed your mind, then do more homework. Try to learn why the people that left didn’t like it.

Adjust Your Expectations

After our third trip and more research, including learning why the unhappy expats left,  we adjusted our expectations accordingly. We didn’t expect every day to be the same as our honeymoon week. Yes, we first visited to get married in a tropical location, at sunset, on the beach, with blue morpho butterflies being released. It was the perfect wedding and honeymoon, but we did our homework (lots of it) and knew that every day of blue morphos were not a reality (though Costa Rica is amazing). When the tough times came, we expected it. When it took 3 days to do what takes an hour or two in the US, we were expecting it. That doesn’t mean we didn’t get frustrated from time to time or angry or impatient, but when it only took one day, instead of three, it was a victory and every item we checked off our list was a great victory and accomplishment.

Another Alternative to Full Time Living

For those people who love their new culture and lifestyle, but aren’t ready to give up the old, they should choose both. Yes, I know many that enjoy both worlds. I have heard this called one foot in – one foot out. You spend time in your new culture for a few months, then go back home, visit with family, children or grandchildren for a few months. Rinse and repeat. For many, this is the crème de la crème or the best of both worlds and it can be quite fabulous.

Many sailors practice this during hurricane or typhoon season. They leave their boats in a hurricane hole (place where risks of hurricanes are lower than others) and fly back home to visit with family and friends. Some go back to work and make a little money to put towards extending their epic adventure.

So Why Did We Leave?

I will say that leaving Costa Rica and moving back to the United States was difficult. In fact, it was more difficult for us to leave Costa Rica and move back to the United States than it was for us to move to Costa Rica in the first place. When we moved to Costa Rica, it was an adventure and an adrenaline rush.

Although our close family and some friends thought we were crazy and may have even tried to convince us we were making a big mistake and many tried to talk us out of going. This is normal, by the way. If you are planning a big adventure, be ready for those who are close to you try to talk you out of doing it.

In the United States, most of us have been convinced that living the easy, safe and familiar life is what we should be doing. Any time you step outside the box and challenge the status quo, people are going to have a negative reaction. That’s not to say that we didn’t get any encouragement, because we did. We also had a lot of jealous, envious comments by those that dreamed about doing something like us, but were too afraid to step out and take the risk. Once we were there, we met so many people who were on vacation that envied us and our life and our sense of adventure. To them, we were living the impossible.

Moving Back To a Normal Life

Moving back to the United States was difficult. For us, we needed to put family decisions – what was best for our children, above our comfort. My oldest son was struggling in school. Struggling to point that we knew he had a learning disability. We weren’t sure if we could get the best help for him in the small community where we lived. We didn’t want to look back and regret not getting him as much help as possible while he was still young. Five years later, looking back, we did exactly the right thing. He has excelled in school.

You Will Be Changed Forever

Once we got over the obvious things (back in the US), like spending way too much time at the grocery store trying to figure out which of the fifty brands of each type of product to purchase. Once we got over gorging ourselves on all of the things that we missed out on for the last several years (this was about a six-month process for us), then came trying to acclimate back into the culture. This was a bigger challenge. Even though our kids were in a wonderful school, we found a good church and made some great friends who were amazingly helpful in helping us adapt to our new environment.

We continued to struggle. The main reason is that once you live abroad and see and experience the world through a different perspective, it is a challenge to relate to people who haven’t. It may seem strange to say, but many of the problems (not all of them) that people in the US have a hard time dealing with are mostly trivial with quite simple solutions. Others are self-imposed or caused by accumulating too much stuff or wanting to keep up with the Jones’ (no offense to the Jones’).

My Top Lessons Learned by Living Abroad

Having assets, accumulating assets or living to accumulate assets does not make you happy. When I was a much younger man, I thought that the person with the most toys was the winner. Now, I realize that the opposite is true. There is a freedom in not having a bunch of stuff – especially stuff that needs to be taken care of (cars, motorcycles, boats, rv’s and large homes. etc.).

By the way, I’m not some radical person that thinks you should sell everything and live in a van (though lots of people are now doing it and having a great time). In general, I don’t believe that owning things isn’t bad, as long, as it is done in moderation (for me). I do think that borrowing and going in debt to accumulate a lot of things is a bad thing and keeps most American’s as slaves to their stuff, to their bankers and to their jobs. Not having a lot of stuff is freeing in the mind, soul and pocketbook. And I truly believe that you should live the way you want to so I am not judging if you are one of those people that love to have lot’s of stuff. To each their own!

So What Does This Have To Do With Sailing?

Well, we are considering living full time on a sailing catamaran. For us, we are planning a two year (maybe longer) journey. An adventure into the unknown, an unusual world. We have decided to keep our house and rent it out full time. If it were up to me, we would simplify our lives and sell everything. Jump into the cruising/voyaging world head first.

My wife, doesn’t want to give up our little lake home and our community of friends. To her, it is some stability in a world of uncertainty. We learned when moving to a small ocean side community in Central America, that the one thing that it certain is that people will move into and out of our lives – a very transient community. Having stability or something to move back to isn’t exactly a bad idea, but it does create a little more complication than what selling everything represents.

So What Does It Have To Do With Sailing?

Well, moving full time onto a sailing catamaran – a sail boat is very similar to moving to Costa Rica or to Thailand or Belize or any other foreign country. It is giving up the known, the certain, the regular, predictable life and venturing into the unknown. New cultures. New terrain. New vistas. A nomadic life where the only thing constant is the same boat and the bonds of family.

Just Do It

I love the saying, “just do it,” but when you have a family, roots, work and stability, just doing it isn’t really practical. I do recommend doing research. I mean doing lots and lots and lots of research. Doing your homework upfront will help make your adventure not only more safe, but will take away many variables and help you to create realistic expectations which will make your experience much better.

But, at some point, you need to jump in and go for it. You can stall and research and watch a lot of YouTube videos on others doing it and live vicariously through them, but at some point you need to either do it or move on. Remember, you can always go back to the life you have now.

There Will Be Highs and Lows

If you are thinking about sailing full time, there will be highs and lows. Knowing what many of the highs and lows are ahead of time will help you enjoy the highs and tolerate the lows. You will know that the lows will come and go and mostly you will know what they are and that they will not last all of the time. You will know to fight through and overcome these times because the highs are worth it.

The memories that you will be creating will be life long, amazing memories that you and your family will cherish forever – even after you return to a normal, boring life someday. The boring life that you will long for at some days during your adventure. Then, if you are like me, you will long for the adventure once again. Only this time, you’ll need to find another adventure that tops the one from before. What will your adventure be?

I hope that mine will be to sail around the world with my family and experience (more) National Geographic moments first hand.

See You Sailing!