20K and a Year Away

Today is Tuesday, January 4, 2022.

Update #1 – The place we planned to stay in El Nazareno is only $330 after they sent me an offer as “first come” to rent the place. That is crazy cheap. I hope it is not reflected in the space… Ugh. Oh well, it is an adventure, right? There are 4 years of reviews on Airbnb- all positive – so I am going to assume the best rather than the worst.

Update #2 – The plans to stay by the rainforest have changed. We are going to stay at the beach instead. The apartment cost is essentially the same – around $800 for the month – so why not. I asked Axel what he would prefer – hiking through the jungle or lounging at the pool/beach – and he chose the latter. Can’t say I am disappointed. HA! This puts us a few miles west of where we will be in January, but that’s no big deal. We are going to have to leave the place early, anyway, to get closer to the airport and COVID testing sites before we go home. If the requirements don’t change, we will be leaving this place March 1 to stay in a hotel next to the airport, get tested on March 2, then fly home March 3.

Santa Fe cost – I will do some math later to see exactly how much this month cost. It was way less than I thought it would be – including the tours and taxis. There isn’t much to spend money on up here… I am sure when we get down the mountain, we will find things to spend money on!

One potentially expensive trip we are working on is to go through the Panama Canal. A woman who has lived here 40+ years was telling me about volunteering as a line handler on small boats because they are required to have a minimum of 4 people on board to go through the canal. They actually pay you to stay on their boat and hold a line to keep the boat in the center of the locks. The whole trip takes about 12 hours and you have to find your own way back to the starting point – usually by train. That would be so cool to go through the canal on a sailboat. If we can’t do that, there are tours you can pay for that will take you through. I will keep looking for information, but in case we can’t find a ride, we will plan to visit the Miraflores Locks and watch BIG ships go through – much cheaper, but not nearly as cool.

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Today is Friday, December 17, 2021.

Some updates for the food budget. We made a deal with the lady who has the restaurant right here at our hotel. We will buy our lunch and dinner here for $3 per meal per person for the 5 days a week she is open. That is $12 a day Tuesday through Saturday for four meals. I will total it up at the end of our stay, but that will be so much easier to do with limited kitchen access. And, bonus for Axel, he doesn’t have to walk up the hill for lunch! Food is still really inexpensive up here. The choices leave a lot to be desired, but we are adjusting and trying new things. They even have a place that delivers pizza. HA! There is no escape from the pizza!!

Today is Wednesday, December 8, 2021.

Happy Mother’s Day! It is Mother’s Day here in Panama. We arrived yesterday, stayed the night in Albrook, close to the bus terminal, then took a 5-hour bus ride today to arrive in Santa Fe, Veraguas. The breakdown of costs right now are:

• Airfare: $330/person roundtrip Seattle to Panama City
• December 8 – January 5 Hotel – $464
• Taxi from Airport – $40
• Uber to Terminal – $2.54
• Bus to Santa Fe – $23.80 (2 buses, $9/each to Santiago; $2.90/each to Santa Fe)
• Phone/data plan – $30/2 lines for one month
• B&B first night splurge – $90

We are going to find food tomorrow. I will update those costs after we have seen how much we go through and how often we need to shop.

There are some recurring fees I am paying at home, still, too. We kept Netflix and a $5/month phone plan just to keep everything going since we are going back in March. We also have Axel’s $18/month school subscription. I am sure he wouldn’t mind losing that expense! Hahaha!

The goal is to average $500 per month on lodging and keep food around $400 or so. Of course, less is better, but we will see what food costs and how often we need to go out. Here, in our first stop, might be the most expensive for food since we have limited kitchen use. We can keep stuff in the fridge and packaged stuff in our room. Transportation will be cheap here. Town is less than 1km away. We can walk to take a local bus in for a quarter or so. When we get back to the bigger areas, it will cost more to get places, but still pretty low.

I will keep track and update this as we go.

Today is Tuesday, October 12, 2021.

We are in Washington now. We arrived on the 2nd and have been working on getting the house cleared out. The house went on the market October 4th at 3pm and we had a full-priced offer by 1pm the next day. That is crazy. Not that I am complaining…

The household items that are left here need to get sold – déjà vu Florida – so we are listing it online and crossing our fingers. We just sold a cabinet, which only leaves 327 more things to sell. I am seeing a dumpster, donations, and ReStore pickup in my future.

As soon as the inspection is done I will have a firm date for departure and be able to buy plane tickets to Panama. There are some good deals right now. I got a notification for roundtrip from PDX to PTY for $403. That is incredible!

Today is Wednesday, September 8, 2021.

We have 23 days until we leave for Washington. So far, I have sold $1,700 worth of stuff. I have about $500 more to sell. I have sent 22 (small) boxes home for safekeeping. I have an appointment to sell my car to the car dealership on the 24th. We move out of our apartment on the 27th and we’ll go to a hotel for our last 5 nights in Florida. Everything is moving fast now, but it feels pretty good – the plan is finally moving.

Today is Sunday, August 22, 2021. We are frantically clearing out our apartment, selling everything.

The plan is to leave Florida with suitcases. I will sell my car here, too. We are boxing up things we want to save and sending them to my sister to store in her storage unit. I have already listed a ton of work clothes on Poshmark, furniture or Craigslist, and everything on Nextdoor. I know there are more places to sell stuff, but that is enough for me. I am wandering down to the pawn shop, too, to see what they want to give me for the electric scooter and bike. So much stuff!