Episode 22 - Travel Tips and Budget Wins from Panama to San Miguel

What happens when you combine adventurous spirits with a keen eye on budgeting? Join us as we recount our memorable journey through Panama City and Playa Coronado, where we faced both triumphs and challenges. From the affordable Airbnb stays and vibrant local markets in Panama City to the higher costs and limited amenities in Playa Coronado, we navigated the ups and downs with a strategic budgeting approach. Rita shares her mixed feelings about Playa Coronado, contrasting it with the more favorable experience in the bustling Panama City. Learn how we managed to stay under budget despite unforeseen difficulties and still enjoyed the vibrant culture and convenient amenities.

Our journey didn't stop there. Discover our adventures in San Miguel, where even unexpected power outages couldn't dampen the warmth and safety we felt. We dive into our budgeting strategies, from high-yield savings accounts to frugal travel plans. Plus, we share tips on travel perks like Global Entry and TSA PreCheck that made our trips smoother and more enjoyable. With upcoming plans to share our slow travel insights at the International Living 2024 Ultimate Go Overseas Boot Camp in Las Vegas, we invite you to tune in for valuable tips and experiences to enhance your own retirement travels.

https://jimsantosbooks.com/blog
https://intliving.com/events/
@jimsantos508 (YouTube Channel)

Chapters

• 0:19 Retirement Adventure
• 15:55 Budgeting and Safety in Travel
• 19:52 Benefits of Travel Perks and Tips

Transcript

Jim Santos: 0:19

Welcome to Travels with Jim and Rita. I'm your host, jim Santos, and in this podcast series you can follow along as my wife Rita and I work out our crazy plan to outfox the real estate market in the US and actually increase our retirement nest egg by spending the next three years or so living abroad and exploring the world. Are we bold, forward-thinking pioneers or just plain nuts? Let's find out together, shall we? Hello everybody, I'm Jim traveling with my lovely wife Rita, and you're listening to Travels with Jim and Rita.

Jim Santos: 1:00

Well, we've had a busy 10 days in Knoxville with doctor's appointments, getting our household storage situation under control, sorting our clothing for the next two legs of our travel and getting the car service before we take a 2,000 miles plus road trip to visit family and friends before we leave for Europe in early August.

Jim Santos: 1:17

I thought it would be a good time during this break to stop and take stock of how things have been going with our plans to grow our nest egg while traveling and living on a budget of about $3,000 a month. Let's look at expenses first. Although not technically part of our roving lifestyle, as the travel happened before we sold our home, we did spend 10 weeks in Panama, one month in Panama City and six weeks at the beach in Playa Coronado. The month in Panama City turned out great. We got a good rate on the Airbnb, less than $1,200 a month, and we were just a short walk from a mercado and seafood market, which really cut our food expenses. Even with some nice meals, out excursions to the Miraflores Lock and the island of Tobago, we still came in at $2,746.17 for the month, easily under budget, and it included our transfer to Playa Coronado. Rita, how did you feel about that Panama City trip?

Rita Santos: 2:11

I actually liked Panama City. I enjoyed the Rambla, or some people call it the Malecon. We had access to great food at the Mercados, the fish market and also the veggie and fruit market. We enjoyed walking around Old Town, which was Casa Viejo. So all in all, I would say it was a great trip in that we got to really enjoy Panama City. However, it was extremely warm most days in the 90s, very humid, so we did most of our walking early in the morning and if we went out at night we used Ubers so that we didn't have to walk back in the heat. But I thought it was a beautiful city. It has something for everyone. It had two great malls. One was the Albrook Mall, which really I felt was more the everyman's mall. Anyone could find something there that they would enjoy. And then there was the Multiplaza Mall, which was more a luxury mall, more upscale.

Rita Santos: 3:27

Yeah, fendi, cartier, chanel, that kind of stores, which is not your average man's cup of tea, but if you can afford it, that's wonderful. But it has something for everyone.

Jim Santos: 3:42

I really liked about the Ubers Absolutely.

Rita Santos: 3:44

The first one we ordered.

Jim Santos: 3:46

we ordered it before we went down the elevator, and by the time we got there the guy was waiting for us. So after that we had to wait until we were actually on the street to order it, because you could get them so quickly and pretty cheaply too.

Rita Santos: 3:58

Right, I think that Panama City was very convenient. Would be easy to live there if you could tolerate the climate.

Jim Santos: 4:08

And, to be fair, they were having a hotter than normal winter.

Rita Santos: 4:12

Exactly they were.

Jim Santos: 4:13

But you can expect it to be pretty hot and pretty humid for a good part of the year there.

Rita Santos: 4:18

Right. All right. Well, now let's talk about our other Panama excursion. That was to Playa Coronado, about an hour and a half or so southwest of the city. We were there for 10 weeks, so that would make our proposed budget about $4,500 for that visit. Now, right off the bat, we were in trouble because our Airbnb fee was $3,587.33, so that left us less than $1,000 to work with, and 33 cents, so that left us less than $1,000 to work with. Even worse, much to our surprise, there was no easy way to reach a mercado or a seafood market to limit our grocery expenses. We did, however, save on dinners out, but only because we had limited choices and the food was not anything special in the restaurants that we could get to. So still for the six weeks, we came in at $51,3723, which was about $600 over budget. But wait, we had a lot of trouble with the air conditioning in the unit and you can get the details in an earlier podcast and also on my blog at jimsantosbooks. com/ blog. But there were other issues with cleanliness in the condo as well. So we ended up asking the owner very nicely, I thought if she could rebate us $600 due to the several days where we had no AC. We had to wait for repairmen and because the pool was closed for part of our stay, we thought she'd probably count her at around $400. Instead she refused to refund a dime. She offered to let us stay a couple of days longer or come back next year for a few days for free, but why we would want to do that with the problems we were having, I have no idea. But at any rate, you can always involve Airbnb directly in any dispute. Now we took the precautions of taking pictures of leaking AC units, stains on the couches and mattresses, and had screen captures with dates and times of when we were asking for help or reporting a repairman that had still not arrived over WhatsApp. Much to our surprise and delight, airbnb determined that we should get a refund of $1,147.50 for our trouble and promptly issued a credit to our card. So that dropped our 10-week expenses down to $39 89 and 73 cents, so suddenly we were almost $600 under budget. Now, rita, I know you were not particularly thrilled with our stay in Playa Coronado.

Rita Santos: 6:37

Right. I think it was a big disappointment to us because there were, first of all, everyone we saw was an expat. The eateries were catering to expats only. You didn't see any locals eating in them.

Jim Santos: 6:55

And all bar food. There weren't really Panamanian delicacies, exactly.

Rita Santos: 6:59

There was not really what you would call local food at all, and I think the biggest thing for me was the first beach area I've ever been that you couldn't walk in any direction and not have a drink or a meal right on the ocean. All those restaurants were way back from the ocean. You weren't enjoying like a sunset or a sunrise, going for a cup of coffee and then sitting on the beach. That just wasn't available there. So for me, as far as a beach experience, it wasn't what I was anticipating and I just didn't feel any local vibe.

Jim Santos: 7:46

Yeah, it was disappointing, but if you're looking for an expat destination where you can play golf, where you're surrounded by a lot of other expats, so there's not as much pressure on trying to learn Spanish or learning anything about the culture.

Rita Santos: 8:01

It would be a super easy landing if you intend not to be involved in any way with the local culture. Well, the saga continues. We returned from Panama in mid-March. We had a buyer on the hook and about a month to get our household goods sorted, distributed, packed up and stored. Somehow we managed I'm still not really sure exactly how and on April 18th we closed on the house and headed for the eastern panhandle of West Virginia to spend a few days with our daughters and grandkids before leaving for Mexico. Now, our first week in Mexico was at a seaside resort in Playa del Carmen called Sunset Fisherman. That week we consider completely off the books. This was purely a rest and recovery vacation after the stress and the physical effort of packing up the house. Now, we didn't worry about budgets at all. We just enjoyed meals, this time by the beach, and we sat on our balcony every morning with coffee, gazing out at Cozumel across the water. Now, despite more hot weather, that seems to be really a theme with us this year. I really thought that was a great and very relaxing week. How about you, R rita? Oh yeah, I loved it. I loved the fact that we could walk less than a mile down the road and have any type of food that we wanted sit on the beach, enjoy our drinks, have a nice meal. Plus, we actually took a ferry across to Cozumel and visited our friend Belle, which we had a great day with her. Belle, the batty botanist.

Rita Santos: 9:31

Yes.

Jim Santos: 9:31

You look her baddibat up on Facebook.

Rita Santos: 9:33

Yeah, absolutely so. It was a fabulous week. I really enjoyed it. I loved where we stayed, the fact that we could be on our balcony, nobody bothering us, nobody could see us, we could have our coffee, just enjoy. It was very relaxing. I enjoyed it.

Jim Santos: 9:51

Yeah, it was the beach vacation we thought we were going to be getting in Playa Coronado.

Rita Santos: 9:55

Right, exactly, okay, now back into roving mode.

Jim Santos: 9:57

We thought we were going to be getting in Playa Coronado, right, exactly. Okay, now back into roving mode. We set out from the Cancun airport to the mountain town of San Miguel del Allende. Now there, our Airbnb expenses was just over $1,200, which is not too bad, but it's a little pricey for San Miguel in the off season. We were, however, right in the old town section and just a short walk from Mercado, so we were very happy with the location. We ate out a little more often than usual because we had friends in the town, but we still came close to our budget, hitting $31 31, and $0.94, so we were just slightly over budget. Now, despite a record heat wave, again, this is the year of hot for us. We had daytime temperatures in the mid-90s for most of the month. It was really anywhere from 10 to 14 degrees hotter than it normally is at that time of the year in San Miguel, but we still really liked it. In fact, we actually came close to buying a home there, right?

Rita Santos: 10:53

Yeah, yeah, I loved well, we looked at several homes, but I really fell in love with one, and you did too. It had outside courtyard.

Jim Santos: 11:04

A beautiful rooftop.

Rita Santos: 11:05

Oh, beautiful rooftop. It was absolutely perfect. That was the only home that we saw that I thought I could see us living in. We saw that I thought I could see us living in. The kitchen was great. There were three bedrooms, three full baths. It was perfect, had a place to park a car. It would have been a very easy transition for us because it was more us than anything we saw. But the altitude at 6,000 feet was giving me some blood oxygen level problems and I'm not real sure. I think maybe we should go back at another time and see if we can acclimate. I'm not real sure that we can or I can, but I love the Tuesday market, oh my gosh. Yeah, the Tuesday market, oh my gosh.

Jim Santos: 11:55

Yeah, the Tuesday market was great.

Rita Santos: 11:57

Yeah, it was about an acre of market of the most unbelievable produce and it was just fabulous. The fruits and vegetables were just amazing.

Jim Santos: 12:10

Again, and you can see some pictures of that at jimsantosbooks. com blog, or also look at our YouTube channel and you'll see a little video of the Tuesday Market there.

Rita Santos: 12:19

And we really had a sense of community there. We met a couple of friends that we had known for a few years, Todd and Da Timon and we just truly enjoyed seeing them again, and they brought us into their community of friends. It was absolutely a wonderful visit, so I really think that we could very well acclimate there quickly.

Jim Santos: 12:49

You know what was interesting about the expats there? There were a lot of expats, but they were more integrated with the society than what we ran to in Playa Coronado.

Rita Santos: 12:59

Oh, absolutely Absolutely. They were volunteering in the community and their life was not expat, expat, expat. It was really trying to immerse and be helpful and enjoy their surrounding.

Jim Santos: 13:18

A lot of great meals in San Miguel. Also, I don't think we had a bad meal at any restaurant. Oh no, it was fabulous food Fabulous.

Rita Santos: 13:27

Plus, we enjoyed just walking around in the evening when it was cool, loved the mercado, enjoyed all the fresh fruits and vegetables. That was really a half a block from us.

Jim Santos: 13:42

The locals also have a great sense of community. There were random parades just about every day. There was some kind of music or dancing or entertainment out in front of the many churches entertainment out in front of the many churches.

Rita Santos: 14:03

It seemed like it went from an indigenous play or parade to a mariachi band. It was yeah, it was very enjoyable.

Jim Santos: 14:09

On the downside in the historic district, especially where we were, it was rather noisy sometimes, especially at night, and again because of the heat, we had to have the windows open all the time, so there was no real break from the noise. In the area that we were in, a lot of people had what they call rooftop dogs dogs that are on the roof just basically to help protect the home, to have not having people jump from rooftop to rooftop and and come down into the home, and these dogs would bark or howl at odd times of the night and one would set another off and then you got a little chorus going. Also, like you see in a lot of Hispanic cultures, a lot of fireworks a lot of firecrackers, a lot of fireworks.

Rita Santos: 14:53

We couldn't decide if it was celebrating marriages, births or divorces. We're not 100% sure what was going on there, but, yeah, a lot of fireworks.

Jim Santos: 15:05

Or just, hey, I got a bunch of fireworks yeah, the fireworks during the day too, which never made sense to me.

Rita Santos: 15:12

No, but having lived in a resort town in Salinas, Ecuador, we were kind of used to the fireworks.

Jim Santos: 15:20

Yeah, and that way it was almost like being at home.

Rita Santos: 15:22

Yeah.

Jim Santos: 15:23

But something interesting this is my first trip to Mexico. Rita, you've been a couple of times years ago.

Jim Santos: 15:30

Right, and actually the election was held the day after we left and you're seeing in the paper about the bloody reaction to the election and about, you know, writing and all this stuff. But you know, Mexico does have this reputation among a lot of North Americans for being a place where there's a lot of violence, but it's not violent through the entire country and that's really important to keep in mind. A In San Miguel, there in particular, we really felt just completely safe. We were walking around at night a lot. We were out walking during a power outage on these streets just using our cell phones for flashlights and we really didn't hear of, see or experience anything that looked like it was uncomfortable or difficult.

Rita Santos: 16:18

Absolutely, it was very yeah, just like you were home, walking in your neighborhood.

Jim Santos: 16:26

Yeah, so naturally you do have to be careful wherever you are, you know, and in American cities you have to be careful what neighborhood you're in and how late you're out at night and in those particular areas. But it's important to keep an open mind. Remember that Mexico and other countries are not necessarily as dangerous as they're portrayed in the news. There's the saying if it bleeds, it leads for a reason. That's what makes the news, that's what catches the eyeballs, so it tends to be skewed in that direction. You don't hear about those little festivals that we saw. You don't hear about the people giving up their seats for the elderly on the buses. You know, that kind of stuff doesn't make the news. It was very interesting to be there ourselves and to look around, and I'd be happy to go to San Miguel again or even some other place in Mexico, wouldn't you?

Rita Santos: 17:16

Oh, absolutely I enjoyed that month. It was hot, but there were so many pluses that the heat was doable.

Jim Santos: 17:26

Yeah, it was interesting to be sitting there with all the windows open, sitting around in our underwear and people walking by our door saying hola, buenos dias.

Rita Santos: 17:34

I know we were talking to each other. I thought, oh my God, you'd never do this in the States.

Jim Santos: 17:41

Well. Lastly, in the expense column, how are we doing in June so far? Well, as of June 10th, we were at $1,949.66 already for the month. I know that sounds bad, but that includes almost $1,000 for 10 nights at an Airbnb in Knoxville and we had our airline and hotel expenses for our trip back to the States because we had to juggle our flights a little bit. Also, for the rest of the month, in the first three weeks of July we'll be cat sitting here in Carmel, Indiana, and our only expenses will be food and gas. So the rest of the month of July we're visiting families and friends. We're only looking at a few hotel stays for the long road trip. So the rest of the summer looks pretty good. That is until we take off for Europe on August the 6th with a plan that shoots our budget all to hell and back. But we'll keep you in suspense on that. For now, Rita, how do you feel about what we've been spending so far?

Rita Santos: 18:36

Oh, I think we're right on target. I think we'll balance out just what we've planned at the end of the year. It will balance out because we'll be doing some pet sitting, we'll be doing some RV renting, we'll be doing Airbnbs.

Jim Santos: 18:52

I think we'll be fine even when we have gone slightly over budget, we're still spending less than we're making from our social security and pensions and et cetera. We haven't had to dip into any of our savings for our regular living expenses.

Rita Santos: 19:11

Plus the added income from the sale of our house, what it's earning us in long-term savings plans.

Jim Santos: 19:20

Speaking of that, that's the other part of our plan, not just spending 60% to 70% of our regular income. The goal was to also increase the size of our nest egg by letting the proceeds from our home sales generate income. Well, the numbers are in for the first six weeks, the last two weeks of April and the month of May, and during that time we've watched the numbers grow in our HYSAs, that's, high yield savings accounts. So that part of the plan is working very nicely. It's been really gratifying to see that we can actually make money while we travel. So a couple of travel notes. I mentioned last week we had some flight delays and difficulties getting out of Mexico due to extreme weather in Texas.

Jim Santos: 20:05

The excruciating details are also in the blog if you're interested, along with pictures of historic Querétaro where we spent our extra day. But one thing went very well for us this was our first time entering the US using our new global entry status. I think Rita will agree that was a wonderful shortcut.

Rita Santos: 20:19

Oh, absolutely, it took about two seconds.

Jim Santos: 20:22

Yeah, it was great. We didn't have to fill out any forms, we didn't have to answer any questions, Didn't even have to take out our passports. We just walked up to the Global Entry kiosk, let it scan our faces and bingo cleared for entry. So if you travel out of the US more than once or twice a year, I highly recommend it. So if you travel out of the US more than once or twice a year, I highly recommend it.

Jim Santos: 20:46

Now, fortunately, also our American Express cards reimbursed us for the fee when we applied for it, and I understand some other cards that focus on travel will do that as well. Now we also use TSA PreCheck, Although in our little airport in Knoxville there's not much difference in wait time, and in fact we've noticed in larger airports so many people are using it now that the lines are almost as long. But at least you don't have to strip and take your shoes off and all that. So it's still totally worth it, to my way of thinking anyway. Now the other perk we upgraded our Amex to use is airport lounges. Now we've been in a few and it really makes those two or three hour layovers much more pleasant, Not to mention being able to get free food saves you $50 or more over the cost of airport food. How do you feel about those, Rita?

Rita Santos: 21:32

Absolutely Cause. Sometimes you'll go in and order something. Well before before we had access to these lounges. Go in and order your food and you weren't sure you were going to get it, be able to eat it and still make your flight, and it was always $50. So here in these lounges, not only do you get it's a buffet, you get any food and drink that you absolutely want. Plus, you can charge your devices, get them topped off, you could take a shower, you could rest. It's just an absolute wonderful deal.

Jim Santos: 22:06

You're not trying to sit on a little plastic chair out in a group of people and balance a drink on your knee while you're trying to eat a sandwich and not drop it all down your shirt.

Rita Santos: 22:14

Right, yeah, right.

Jim Santos: 22:16

Yeah, it's been amazing to me how big some of these lounges are too. When you walk by them in the terminals you just see a doorway or maybe a person standing at the doorway, but when you go into them, we've been in some that just take up an enormous amount of space. One of them had a garden that was open to the outside. You have a lot that have like outside seating areas, couches and lounges places you can take a nap. It's really a great thing. If you're.

Jim Santos: 22:51

You know, like us, you're traveling a lot. You're going to be in airports for a couple hours at a time, or even longer. It's a good idea to look to see if one of your credit cards supports joining. Yeah, in our particular case, the American Express Platinum card includes membership and priority pass, which gets you into certain lounges in airports around the US and the world. But then also be sure and look because, for instance, if we fly on Delta Airlines, we're not in the Delta Club, but if we show our American Express card, then we can still get into those Delta Clubs, provided we were flying on Delta, it can show the boarding pass. So there are other ways that you can get into these other clubs and it's definitely worth your while to check those out. So, Rita, any final thoughts on our travel and our lifestyle thus far, before we wrap things up.

Rita Santos: 23:38

We're doing great. I'm excited to start our adventure again in Europe.

Jim Santos: 23:45

All right. Well, that's it for this week's show. Thanks for listening and thanks for your continued support. We now have listeners in 34 countries around the world. Before we go, a reminder that Rita and I will be returning to the US to be at the International Living 2024 Ultimate Go Overseas Boot Camp coming up in Las Vegas October 26th through 28th. I'm scheduled to give a couple of presentations and we'll both be in the exhibit hall to answer questions about slow travel, the places we visited and our plans for the future. There'll be expats and experts from around the world and if you're interested in attending, check out intliving. com/ events - that's intliving. com/ events for more information or to make reservations. If you can, please take a moment to leave a rating and review and, of course, subscriptions are always welcome. If you have any questions or would like to tell your own story, email me at jim@ jimsantosbooks. com. You can also find my books and short stories on my Amazon page at jimsantos. net, and you can find pictures and stories from our travels on my blog at jimsantosbooks. com/ blog. Until next time, remember we travel not to escape life, but so that life does not escape us.