Our living room view in Ecuador
My trip to Ecuador allowed me to explore more of my possible early retired life and try to discover who Retired Me might be. There are a few goals I have for retirement that I tried to accomplish during this trip, such as:
- Go to sleep soon after sunset and rise with the sun
- Watch the sunrise and sunset as much as possible
As for sleep, I did really well. Since Ecuador is on the equator its sunrise and sunset time don’t really change: 6am sunrise and 6pm sunset. We had a chef cooking for us while we were there and usually had breakfast at 9am, lunch at 12pm and dinner at 5pm. So after dinner I would watch the sunset, maybe make a fire in the living room, chat with people and then head to bed. This gave me plenty of rest before the ruckus that is Ecuador awakened at 6am with the sun 🙂 .
After I awakened at 6am I would watch the sunrise over the volcanoes while sipping coffee or tea on the terrace with my partner. We would read or write until it was breakfast time. It was a nice rhythm and one I’m excited for in retirement.
Another interesting takeaway from this trip is how much down time I needed. It was a two week trip, which is the longest I’ve had since Thailand 2 years ago. I needed a lot of decompression and often wanted to lounge on the patio or read a book instead of explore the far reaches of Ecuador.
However, I enjoyed the little outings of walking to town and trying to speak Spanish during our errands. But this didn’t feel like true exploration. My step-dad did what I would think of as “true exploration” when he got on a local bus and just rode it all day to see where it would go. I wasn’t ready for that.
So I’ve concluded I might be in line with the other retirement bloggers I’ve seen say that they needed A LOT of time to detox before they were ready to take on the world. Most said 6 months to a year. So in that time I probably shouldn’t plan a lot of exotic adventures and just let myself decompress. I also need to not beat myself up from needing some quiet time. Good lessons learned!
Have you taken mini (or micro) retirements? How do you think you’ll be different in after reaching FI?
Hey APL, congratulations on meeting your sleep goals while in Ecuador – it’s really healthy to sleep early and wake early. That’s something I want to get into now, but I suffer from anxiety and insomnia, so it’s been difficult for me. I’m trying, though! 🙂
I feel like we get real hard on ourselves because decompressing sometimes feels like “a waste of time”, at least for me. I’m glad you’ve learnt that having quiet time isn’t something you should beat yourself up over. 🙂
Hi Liz! I’m sorry about your anxiety and insomnia. That can definitely get in the way of sleep. I have a really hard time sleeping: both falling asleep and staying asleep. If that was a superpower I could receive I’d jump on it! It’s awesome you’re trying to work on sleep now – I’ve tried (and failed). If you find something that works feel free to share 🙂 .
Yeah – something else I need to work on: always accepting that doing ‘nothing’ might be what I need for a while. Maybe I should think of it as a battery refilling or something. That’s necessary and not a waste of time 🙂 .
I took 9 months off in 2015 to train for Olympic Trials and I was just off for 2 months on medical leave. Neither was quite the same as a relaxing detox time and I didn’t travel during either (except for swim meets), but both times reinforced for me how little I like owing 8 hours a day to someone else.
Oh wow – Olympic Trials are hardcore! That’s awesome. I’m sorry about your medical leave – I hope you’re felling better. And I’m with you though: 8 hours + commute + time to drown out my brain thinking about work + 8 hours sleep = basically all day. I’m excited to break free from the cycle and see who I become.
I love this! I think decompression is really critical. Although we’re not early retired (yet!), I am able to work remotely from wherever – so we can enjoy slow travel which is super important when traveling with kiddos (ours are 2 and 7). We’re in Ireland for a month right now, and we sprinkle in “down days” between our exploration days… we hiked a few miles in Glenarriff Forest yesterday, and today no one put on pants and we lounged around watching cartoons and reading 😉
That’s awesome you can work from anywhere! Maybe I should take a page out of your book. I technically can as well, but the nature of my job (client service) makes it difficult to not be available at least for the 8 hour work day (if not late into the night)…or maybe I’m looking at this the wrong way 😉
Ireland looks beautiful! I’ve really been enjoying your pictures on instagram 🙂 . It looks like a blast! And sprinkling in down days sounds like a great plan. I should schedule those like a schedule every other second of my day lol. Pantless reading and lounging sounds AWESOME!
That’s cool you often have a chef during your vacations. How do you typically search for them and how much did it cost you?
We take recommendations from the owner of the house we’re renting. They usually have someone local they would recommend. The latest example we have was my birthday in Mexico. We paid $500 USD for 3 meals a day for 3 people for a solid week – groceries, shopping and labor included. A great deal for all the delicious food we had.
I listened to your mom on the Bigger Pockets Money podcast. You both sound alike and laugh the same!
Oh wow – that’s so cool! I didn’t realize that 🙂 .