Back to Panama and Paraguay for Another Round of Farm Inspections

Wow!  I didn't realize how long it's been since my last post!!!

A lot has happened in my life since then and I'm going to try to get it all down on "paper" soon, but in the meantime, I want to share some details about my next visit to Panama.

I'm headed back down to Panama and Paraguay the first ten days of May.  The trip is partly to see friends but mainly to check up on some of my farmland investments and see how things are going.  I can't wait. 

I have a permanent residency visa and would have moved there by now but I met the most wonderful woman in the world and got married instead.  It's turned out to be a pretty good tradeoff.   😊 

While I'm in Panama City I also have an appointment with the American Consulate to get my Florida driver's license validated, which is the first step toward getting a Panama license.  Like everything in Panama, the bureaucratic nonsense for such a simple task is unbelievable... I even have to provide proof of my blood type to get a license!

Simply Natural Farms

I first invested in Simply Natural in 2015.  Over the years I have purchased multiple hectares of land to grow limes, mangos, plantains and avocados.

Unfortunately, the pandemic lock-downs have been especially hard on this company.  Panama hyped COVID-19 as if it were the Black Plague.  Unless designated as an essential worker, residents were allowed out of their houses a grand total of six hours per week; women could go out for two hours on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and men could go out on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

When I say "go out" I mean go to the store, doctor or pharmacy and the hour of day was determined by the last digit of their Cedula (national ID card).  That was pretty much it.  They weren't even all9owed to walk their dogs. 

It took weeks and weeks to get the government papers that would allow essential workers to drive to and from work.  Even then, some provinces (including Coclé Province where the farm offices are) wouldn’t accept the national travel papers.

A great many Panamanians don’t own a vehicle and depend on buses and vans for transportation.  Well, if you used to take a 16-passenger van to work, now they can only take four people at a time because of strict social distancing rules.  Many farmworkers who were scheduled to begin their shift at 7:00 AM showed up at noon or later.

As time went on, many Panamanians were so freaked out that even essential workers like those working on farms just quit.  The government and local agencies were providing food and they didn’t need to pay rent or utilities, so why take the risk?

As a result, crucial crop maintenance went undone.  Rains that created mild flooding and under normal conditions required a couple of guys with shovels to divert the excess became major problems.  Without this simple maintenance, the roots of mango trees remained submerged for weeks on end resulting in root rot and destructive fungus.  I lost one hectare of mangos because of this.

None of this was Simply Natural’s fault but they stepped up anyway and decided to offer a swap of affected hectares for a new greenhouse project growing dragon fruit.

The upside to this is that those who were faced with replanting crops will be able to get a payout much earlier than waiting four to five years for new trees to grow.  The downside is that the payouts aren’t quite as high and you no longer own the land, just the greenhouse and related systems.

When I visited last May (see Back to My Farms in Panama), the nine-month lockdown had been lifted and things had opened up quite a bit.  I still had to wear a mask just walking down the street and going into a store required that I have my temperature taken and that I slather on hand sanitizer.

After spending two days on the various plantations, I believe the long-term outlook for Simply Natural is positive.  Despite the lockdowns they managed to complete a major irrigation project, stage the piping for the next pumping complex, complete a number of greenhouses and resumed routine maintenance of the field crops.

At any rate, I’m anxious to see my hectares that weren’t impacted and to see the construction of the new dragon fruit greenhouses.  By the time I get there, the excavation should be nearly completed along with some of the foundations and hopefully some of the structures will be started.  The seedlings will be planted by year’s end and the first crops harvested in 2023.

This will be my sixth farm inspection tour since 2015 and I will be hosted by the President of Simply Natural as well as their Director of Client Relations.

Paraguay AG Invest

 The greenhouse that my wife and I own in Paraguay should be fully implemented by the time I get there.  The construction was delayed a bit by COVID-19 restrictions that impeded shipment of the structure and created a challenge for the workers, but overall Paraguay AG Invest has done an amazing job of getting the greenhouses built, irrigation and environmental systems installed and the first crops planted.

Paraguay instituted a six-week lockdown in 2020 in response to the pandemic but overall wasn’t nearly as draconian in their pandemic restrictions when compared to Panama.

The country has some of the lowest per capita spending on health in Latin America according to the World Health Organization.  As a result, there were widespread protests in 2021 in response to a lack of vaccines, hospital beds and the overall medical response to COVID-19.

Despite these obstacles, Paraguay AG Invest managed to get their crops harvested, maintain the existing greenhouses and begin construction on new ones.

The Agri Terra Group, the parent company of Paraguay AG Invest, hasn’t been sitting on their hands during the pandemic, either.  Not only have they moved forward with new projects, but they have also opened their own chain of produce stores and purchased an existing processing plant for packing, canning and juicing.

I really love this project and the company.  Not only are the verified returns substantial (a 21.5% average annual return on investment) but the crops and structure are fully insured against fire and force majeure.  My greenhouse will grow tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and other produce, and uses an advanced drip irrigation system to conserve water and provide direct fertilization.

I’ll be in Asuncion for three days.  In addition to inspecting their greenhouse project and orange groves, I’ll be meeting with the company president and get a briefing on their new strawberry greenhouses.

Follow-up

My company, Alternative Ag Investors, sells managed farmland and represents both Simply Natural and Paraguay AG Invest in addition to Teak Hardwoods.

I’ll give a full report when I get back in mid-May so that fellow investors can have the benefit of my analysis of both operations.

International Living... are they for real?

There are a lot of organizations out there that promote the expat life.  Some are good, some are bad, some are just plain useless... in my opinion.  Those last three words are key.  My needs may not be yours and each group has some value based on what you're looking for.

International Living, Live and Invest Overseas, Viva Tropical, Hemispheres Publishing, Tales from a Small Planet, Global Wealth Protection -- they all have something to offer depending on your needs.  Several offer conferences, books, special reports, VIP programs, etc., etc.  You have to pick and choose to find the right offering that fits where you are in your campaign to become an expat.

I attended the Panama conference offered by Live and Invest Overseas and was impressed.  I'm hoping that the Ecuador International Living conference will live up to its billing as well.  I was planning on visiting Ecuador anyway to do a general check out tour, so when this conference came up it fit my timing and the opportunity to meet with many expats already living there is a great opportunity.

I know... if they are expats extolling the virtues of their chosen country, will you learn any of the negatives?  Will you hear any horror stories of people who came, lived through a disaster and went back home?  I am not shy and will be asking those questions, so I'll let you know.  This is where doing your research, trolling the expat internet forums and having a healthy amount of skepticism will keep you on track.

International Living's Fast-Track Ecuador Conference

I'm really looking forward to International Living's 2015 Fast-Track Ecuador: Lifestyle and Opportunity Conference in Quito.  There will be the usual panels on immigration, buying real estate, the cost of living in Ecuador, etc.  I'm sure the conference will be informative, but I'm also looking forward to rubbing elbows with other expat wannabes and the Ecuadorian expats who will be in attendance.

IL's conference gurus did a nice job of arranging optional trips to Cuenca, the Pacific coast, cultural and real estate tours before and after the conference.  I arranged for two separate real estate tours on January 30th and 31st.  February 1st through the 4th I will be joining others from the conference for a tour of the coast from Jama to Salinas, including Manta, Canoa, San Lorenzo, Ancon and many points in between.

Traveling by myself, I don't need a fancy hotel to stay in.  I'm sure the Swissotel Quito, location of the conference, will be great but I really prefer simpler, friendlier places.  The folks handling the coastal tour took care of arranging hotel reservations, so I only needed to make bookings for my first two nights.

I'm flying into Guayaquil, picking up my rental car and driving to Salinas for my first real estate tour.  I will stay the first night in Salinas at the Hotel Francisco II hotel, just a block from the malecon.  Trip Advisor readers gave this hotel three and a half stars, so I'm expecting it will be simple, but comfortable.

After my second real estate tour on Saturday, I will drive back to Guayaquil so I can meet up with my coastal tour group the following day.  After reading more Trip Advisor reviews, I chose the Hotel Boutique Orilla del Río.  With only six rooms, this boutique hotel has received rave reviews and is just a few minutes from the airport, where I'll be meeting up with my tour group.

I booked both hotels using my Rocket Miles membership.  Rocket Miles not only gives great rates on a wide range of hotels (comparable to Orbitz, Booking.com, et al), you also earn frequent flyer miles in the loyalty program of your choice.  Use this link Rocket Miles link, and you'll earn 1000 bonus miles with your first booking.  A similar program is Points Hound.  Both sites have agreements with many frequent flyer programs to help you earn bonus miles.  The key to getting the most of such booking sites, is belonging to many loyalty rewards programs. 

If I get time before I leave, I'll try to give more details regarding the conference and various International Living programs.  'Til next time.

Back at it...

It's been a long, long time since my last entry and it's high time that I get back at it.

Life happens and sometimes gets in the way of the best of intentions.  In my case, I started dating again, moved to be closer to the new object of my affection, changed jobs, broke up with my new girlfriend, moved again, broke my hip, began dating again and just ended that relationship.  Wow.

So, I am substantially healed from hip replacement surgery, bounced back from a couple of broken relationships and continuing to seek out that perfect retirement place abroad.  I am planning a trip to Ecuador for the International Living conference February 5-7 in Quito, Ecuador.  I am flying into Guayaquil on January 30 and spending a few days exploring the coast from Jama to Salinas, including Manta, Canoa, San Lorenzo, Ancon and many points in between.

But before I get to the details of that trip, let me just say that despite all the twists and turns of life, I'm doing well and trying my best to enjoy and learn from all those twists and turns.  I remain great friends with both women I dated and I chalk that up to being older and wiser (just turned the big Six Oh).

I'll do several posts on my pre-trip planning and then provide full conference details when I return.  I also plan to finally give a full account of the Live and Invest in Panama conference, which was really great.  I am still very high on Panama, but want to check out a few other places like Ecuador, Costa Rica and maybe Mexico before making a choice for my retirement location.

I am also actively working on plans for a retirement income, wherever I may end up.  I have come up with a number of portable income ideas and will do some writing on that as well.  I have a lot to say and I don't know that anybody is actually reading this, but it really helps me to get my thoughts on paper, sort them out and refine my ideas.  Some of the other topics I would like to write about are international investing, travel planning, managing your health, photography and many other things that may pop into my little brain.

So, here we go.  Next up...  planning for Ecuador.

Returning to Panama...

I have received a few emails from folks interested in seeing the completion of my sailing trip story or for information on Blue Water Sailing School, the company I went with.

I may finish the sailing series at some point, but in the meantime we are going to Panama at the end of August.  I don't know if I will attempt to do a series on that trip or not, but at least I will have someone to take a picture or two of me.  :)

We will start off by exploring the area from Punta Chame to Farallon.  I have made contact with a realtor there and would like to get some ideas about what is possible.  What are rents like?  What would I get for my dollar if I buy?  Should I buy something now with the intent of renting it out until I move there when I retire in five years?

We will then be attending the 2013 Live and Invest in Panama Conference.  This conference is run by Kathleen Pedicord's Live and Invest Overseas organization.  This type of conference is designed to give an overview of all the issues that expats may face when moving to a particular country.  I'm hoping to pick up some general knowledge that I could apply to any country I may be interested in.

Organizations like Live and Invest Overseas, International Living, Escape Artist and others have great expertise, but they also have something to sell.  There's nothing wrong with the sales part... let's face it, they have to make a living and they do it by accumulating knowledge for wannabe expats and selling it via newsletters, books, special reports and conferences.  If you decide to use the services of these organizations, just be aware that each outfit has their own set of prejudices and limitations.  While I am not comparing any group to a car salesman, you don't by a car without doing research and verifying the claims of the salesman.

I have been getting Kathleen's emails for several years and I am an International Living magazine subscriber.  I loved Kathleen's book and pick up interesting tidbits, suggestions, factoids and cautions from each of these sources.  I will be sure to at least give a review of the conference.  I won't divulge the information they provide because I strongly believe in their right to sell the research and expertise they have, but I can absolutely provide a critique and let you know if I got my money's worth.

Preparing for sailing...

Before I continue describing my trip, I have some advice for those considering the same or a similar sailing course.

First, study the books!!!!!

If you have not sailed before, there is a ton of information to learn before you can master the skills you will need to pass your exams.  Remember, you will be learning a whole new vocabulary and when the skipper says to trim the jib, you need to know what that means right now.

Second, contact the company you are going out with and learn a bit about the layout of the boat you will be on.  The Prana has a dodger and bimini so we actually spent little time in the direct sun.  I could have left a lot of the sunscreen at home.  You will want to be prepared, but I ended up over-packing.

I also did not need the foul weather pants and floppy hat I bought.  I'm sure I will use them eventually, but not on this trip. The couple of times I was on deck during rain I definitely didn't need foul weather gear.  Check out the weather at your destination during the weeks before you go.  Having an idea of what to expect in that regard can be a big help.

Bring a flash light and extra batteries.  Our boat had lights throughout the cabin, but they were not bright enough to read by.  I had a flashlight to use and definitely needed it for studying the night before each test.

Except for one night when we went ashore for dinner, I lived in lightweight shorts and a t-shirt.  The sand flies can be quite bad on shore at night in the Virgin Islands (and elsewhere in the Caribbean, I suspect).  Insect repellant, long pants and a long-sleeve shirt are your best defense.  I have a neem oil-based repelleant I got in Panama and found it to be very effective for both flies and mosquitoes.  I'm not sure if the standard Off bug spray will deter the sand flies or not.

I wish I had reached out to my instructor before going down there to see if there was anything I could have brought with me for him.  A lot of items are either unavailable in the islands or are outrageously expensive.  It would have been a nice gesture to offer to run to the store for Bill and I'm sure he would have appreciated it.

We cooked on board most nights and had to come up with a menu.  If there is a simple, quick menu item you can make in a galley with limited space and utensils, bring the spices or other special ingredients with you.  A great meal at the end of the day really adds a lot to the experience.

Check out the cell phone coverage where you will be sailing.  Sometimes I could get a signal and sometimes I couldn't.  The AT&T network is used in the USVI, so if you have Verizon or T-Mobile you will be paying roaming charges.  Being able to send a text message or get an email from home is nice, but I would not depend on that ability.  In addition to my smart phone, I brought my iPad.  Mine doesn't have a data plan so I couldn't connect to the internet except when I was in the hotel on land, but I was able to take notes during my trip and that was handy.

Feel free to add a comment if you have questions or there is something special you want me to address and I will do my best.

Another free airline ticket...

If you haven't clicked on the link in the upper right-hand corner and become a Travel Hacker, you're missing out.  The travel cost for my trip to St. Thomas was about $20 because all I had to do was pay the taxes on my Delta SkyMiles ticket.

One of the recent editions of the Travel Hacker newsletter listed an opportunity to pick up 30,000 American AAdvantage miles by opening a checking account.  Not a credit card -- a checking account.  All I have to do is spend $750 over three months using the debit card and have at least two direct deposits made.  Who can't do that?

And, by the way, this is the second time I have done this with Citi.  I closed out the last account about nine months ago.  Look, unless you got lucky in the stock market, your money is earning squat if it is in a CD, savings or money market account.  Put it where you get something for it.

The economy is going to tank big time over the coming few years as the Euro zone finally can't sustain itself and takes the rest of the world with it.  Initially, money will seek a safe haven and the US dollar has always been the reserve currency.  But as the fiscal crisis becomes a reality in the US as well, inflation will go through the roof.  We're going to watch Barack morph into Jimmy Carter... just lacking the administrative experience, common sense and ability to manage foreign affairs that the Peanut had (oh... wait... Jimbo didn't have any of those things either).  I vividly remember the 16.25% mortgage that I had for fifteen months because inflation was so bad.

Good times ahead.  Get your free airline tickets so you can get out of Dodge when it becomes necessary!

What an amazing experience!

I came away from my trip to the US Virgin Islands feeling totally energized and excited about the prospect of sailing again.  The St. Petersburg boat show is this weekend and I have joked to friends that I have cut up my credit cards to make sure I don’t do anything stupid.

I’m not going to try to explain all of the things I learned in a week of sailing instruction, but I will try to share the enthusiasm I have for my new hobby.

I arrived in Charlotte Amalie (the capitol of the USVI and primary city of St. Thomas) in the early afternoon with the intention of grabbing a taxi to Red Hook in the East End.  There are tons of taxis along with guys directing you to a van headed to your destination.  As soon as they have a full load, off you go.  The cost was only $15.00 per person and our driver was fairly cheerful (compared to subsequent drivers I had).  Including dropping off other fares, it took about 45 minutes to get to Two Sandals by the Sea Inn.

Sunset at the Sunset Grille

Two Sandals is a nice property on the hillside overlooking Red Hook and American Yacht Harbor on Vessup Bay. Two Sandals is clean, simple and relatively new.  The rooms are just big enough and have the usual amenities.  After dropping my bags and changing into shorts and a t-shirt, I walked into Red Hook to look around.  Red Hook itself is a ten-minute walk down the hill.  Be careful – driving is on the left side in the Virgin Islands (US and British) so as you cross the street, look right!

Red Hook has quite a few restaurants of various descriptions, a couple of gift shops, a good sized grocery (Marina Market), a pharmacy, an Ace hardware store, three banks and a couple of chandleries.  I’m sure I missed a few things but from a tourist perspective those are the high points.  Oh, I almost forgot the Red Hook Ferry Terminal.  There are ferries on the hour to St. John for $12 that takes you right into Cruz Bay.  Another ferry goes to Christiansted on St. Croix.  And still more ferries take you to the BVIs – Jost van Dyke, Virgin Gorda and Tortola.  The latter includes stops at both Road Town and the West End.

After wandering around a while, I hoofed it back up to Two Sandals and this time went up the hill and down the other side to the Secret Harbour Beach Resort.  There is a nice, somewhat secluded beach here and the resort’s Sunset Grille is right on the beach.  I couldn’t get a good estimate on the number of rooms, but I would imagine a room in the worst location on the property would be a three-minute walk to the beach.  There is a dive shop on the premises.  There was a 10^th wedding anniversary party going on with a bunch of 30-somethings having a great time.  I got one of the local brews, kicked back and just enjoyed hearing the lapping of the waves as the sun slowly set amidst boats of various sizes anchored on the inlet.  Compared to other parts of St. Thomas, the prices were very reasonable.  As I sat enjoying the view, a three-foot long iguana slowly made his way up the steps from the beach.  It started raining lightly as he came across the top step and he had his fill of fresh water as he meandered back and forth between the small pools of rainwater that accumulated.

View of American Yacht Harbor from Two Sandals Inn

Breakfast the next morning at Two Sandals was wonderful and included a warm chocolate chip scone, a yogurt parfait with granola and jam, coffee and orange juice served in a tall glass with a splash of grenadine.  Breakfast is served on the balcony overlooking the harbor, which provided a very pleasant atmosphere.

After breakfast I decided to head back into Red Hook to see if I could find my boat.  At this point the only thing I knew was that I was booked with Blue Water Sailing School.  I did not have the name of the boat, the dock where he was berthed or even the name of the skipper.  I asked various people where to find BWSS and no one seemed to know until I came across Sam, an instructor on a catamaran school that pointed me in the right direction.  It turned out that I would see Sam several more times during the coming days.  I wandered around Red Hook a bit more and stumbled across Lattes in Paradise, an open-air coffee and breakfast shop on the second floor of the American Yacht Harbor complex.  As I sat and had my medium latte with an extra shot, dock employees, shop owners, fishing guides and others with business in the Red Hook vicinity came by to grab fresh baked goodies and coffee, lattes or espresso made from freshly ground coffee.  It was fun to hear the banter going back and forth between these regular patrons as they began their day with a round of caffeine.

After checking out of Two Sandals I had a taxi pick me up and deposit me at AYH around 3:00 at a cost of $6.00.  Based on Sam’s directions, I met up with skipper Bill Miles and the other two students for the week, Paul and Beth.  More about my roomies later.  The boat, Prana, is a 1994 Beneteau 440 that is spacious and well maintained.  In fact, I actually thought it was a much newer boat when I first saw it.  I later learned that the boat is put in dry dock at the height of hurricane season for maintenance and was just put back into water a couple weeks prior to our arrival.

Next up, the beginning of my lessons and the experience aboard Prana.

Sailing, St.. Thomas and other ruminations...

I got off of my training sailboat, Prana, a couple of days ago and will give a full report once I return to the mainland.

Typing on an iPad is a pain in the butt (basically hunt and peck... I need to get a portable key board!).

I'll try to give a blow-by-blow description of my classes, sailing experience, etc. once I have my laptop available.

Study, study, study...

As the date of my departure gets closer, I am actually getting a bit stressed.  I have pretty much got things taken care of at work so that won’t be a concern, but I had no idea of the amount of prep work required to take these classes!

I had to make some special purchases for this trip… sailing gloves, some light foul weather gear and a few other odds and ends but that wasn’t difficult.  It is the studying that is killing me.  There are three books (one for each certification) that need to be read and the material assimilated in order to get the most out of the classes and make sure I past the written exams.  How many names can there be for a piece of rope???  And then you have to learn the name of every piece of the boat, their functions, the various forms they may take and their alternative names.  Holy crap.

I knew this was going to be a physically and mentally challenging vacation, but I really didn’t expect to have to do this much study.  All in all, it’s about 400 pages of material.  Yes, there are lots of diagrams and pictures.  Even so, I am wondering now if I wouldn’t have been better off taking the first two courses locally, getting some experience and then taking a couple more courses once I had a handle on basic sailing skills.  Too late now, I’m committed.

I’m looking forward to getting through it all, not just to get it over with, but because I have a friend at work who is also very interested in sailing and we may join the local yacht club together.  From what I understand, the membership is not that expensive and they have boats you can take out to continue learning, have a good time and develop your skills.  If I am teaching him along the way, that will reinforce everything I have learned.

I’ve been watching the weather around St. Thomas and it looks like they are getting daily afternoon showers but the temps have been in the mid-80s during the day and high 70s at night… sounds perfect.  So, I stocked up on sunscreen, got everything packed up and I am ready for adventure!  I arranged for a car to pick me up at 4:00am (OMG) to catch my 6:00am flight.

I’m glad I gave myself 2 ½ days after the sailing is over to just kick around St. Thomas, do some snorkeling and maybe take a ferry to Tortola, Virgin Gorda or Jost van Dyke.  It’s been at least 25 years since my last visit to the Virgin Islands, so I am looking forward to having some down time to do some exploring.

St. Thomas sailing itinerary...

Here is my itinerary for my November trip to St. Thomas.

With all the delays plaguing American Airlines these days (don’t ya just love a good pilot’s slow-down?), I chose to use Delta SkyMiles for the trip.  And since you can depend on Delta to routinely screw things up in Atlanta, I chose flights that allowed for a two hour fifteen minute layover.  That way, when the plane from Tampa to Atlanta is 90 minutes late because a cabin steward slept in or they can’t find a widget to fix the whatchamacallit or the captain breaks a fingernail, I will still be able to catch my 9:44 flight to Charlotte Amalie.  That means that I have a 6:00 am flight out of TPA… good times!  As one of my ex-military friends likes to say, I’ll be getting up at “oh dark hundred.”

I arrive in St. Thomas in the early afternoon and will grab a cab to the East End for my one night stay at Two Sandals by the Sea Inn.  Two Sandals is a four-room B&B that overlooks the American Yacht Harbor in Red Hook.  I prefer small properties to the big hotels.  Traveling is all about the experience and I have found little inns and B&Bs to be more hospitable and interesting than large hotels.  You’re more likely to get the real scoop on local happenings, the best places to eat and the must things to see from the proprietor who has a vested interest in both your return and strong recommendation.  Ferries leave from the American Yacht Harbor Marina for St. John and the British Virgin Islands.  Two Sandals is also very close to Secret Harbor Beach so I will have plenty to keep me busy until 3:00 pm the next day when I join the other students for six days of intensive instruction aboard a Blue Water Sailing School vessel. 

The next six days will be spent applying all the material I’m reading for my American Sailing Association 101, 103 and 104 certifications.  Getting through all this material before I depart is going to be challenging because all of my reports and tasks at work need to be completed before I get on that plane.  All totaled, the material in the Sailing Made Easy, Cruising Made Easy and Cruising Fundamentals comes to 390 pages, not including glossaries, tests, check lists, etc.   I should have signed up a month earlier so I would have more time to digest all this information.  I even have a length of rope at my desk so I can practice knots while I work.  There is so much to learn and know.  How the hell did Columbus get here and back so many times?

Anyway, I end the week at mid-afternoon on Friday, November 9.  I am tentatively booked at the Villa Santana, a small inn on Denmark Hill overlooking Charlotte Amalie that was the home of Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna in the 1850s.  During one of his several exiles from Mexico, the man who defeated the likes of Jim Bowie and Davy Crockett during the 13-day battle of the Alamo is rumored to have stolen a substantial amount of Mexican silver to build his stately home.  Although the great house was destroyed by a fire 1986, all of the outbuildings including the kitchen, watch tower, the library, a wine cellar and his attaché’s quarters have all been converted into what looks like a very quaint inn.  I have reserved La Torre (the watchtower) for a price considerably better than most of the hotels on the island.  Villa Santana looks to be located to most of the major landmarks of Charlotte Amalie and I have located a scooter rental place that delivers, so I will have some flexibility in getting around.

I hope the last few days will be relaxing, because it will be my last vacation for the year.  I usually take five vacation days around the President’s Day holiday so that I get a full ten days off in February, but that will be three months after my St. Thomas adventure.

The next three weeks will be filled with studying and other preparations.  I picked up a pair of open-fingered sailing gloves today and I need to make sure I have plenty of sun block, extra pairs of glasses, sunglasses, quick-drying shorts and other items necessary for a week aboard a sailboat.  The weather should be pretty nice since we will be at the tail end of hurricane season, but I have to be prepared for anything.

HP repairs their reputation...

Before I get to the rest of my trip I have to tell you about my computer saga.

I bought a new HP Pavilion lap top when my trusty old Dell was showing signs of giving up the ghost.  I did a lot of research and wavered between HP and Dell but the Pavilion ultimately won out because it had absolutely everything I wanted.  I don’t do a lot of video or play games, so I didn’t need the fastest processor or a gazillion MB of memory.  The Pavilion has a backlit keyboard that I find handy if I want to do some writing at night.  It has an Intel core i5 and Windows 7 so it covers the basics.

I bought an extended warranty (thank God) and had been using the computer for well over a year when I began seeing a problem with the screen.  It would occasionally dim and the images became blurry.  This began to become more and more frequent so I called HP to find out what to do.  Like any good-sized organization, they want to see problems resolved at the lowest level possible and the tech lady did her best to probe me for information that might give some clue as to what the problem was and, hopefully, a fix that she could talk me through over the phone.

That turned out to be a waste of time and she even managed to delete some files that I really couldn’t afford to lose, but at least I was able to reconstruct them.  (Note to self -- get a good cloud-based back-up system!)  So I had to send it in for repairs.  HP sent me a special box to ship it in and it included the label to get it to the repair location overnight.  Although I was not happy over the fact that I was without my computer, at least I had my little ASUS netbook as a backup and the whole process was handled very efficiently.  I received my laptop back on the appointed day, fired it up and the screen immediately dimmed and white streaks shot across the display from left to right.  So… over a week without my computer and it still wasn’t fixed.

The next day, a Saturday, I called the special repairs number provided and got their interactive voice response unit that claimed they were open, but no one answered my call.  The system also stated that I would have an opportunity to leave my contact information, but that didn’t happen either.  Perhaps I was supposed to call more than five times throughout the day to prove my sincerity in wanting to reach someone.  I finally reached a human being on Monday and we again arranged for my computer to be picked up and taken to the repair facility.  I wasn’t happy.  There were things going on in my life that required that I have access to OneNote, but I have the 2007 version on my netbook and the 2010 version on my laptop and, conveniently, they are not compatible (thank you Microsoft).

So the following Wednesday came with some anticipation of finally getting my computer back.  The day came to a close and no computer.  Hmmmm… maybe I misunderstood and it was being shipped on Wednesday.  Yeah, that’s the ticket.  Thursday came and went and still no computer.  The handy-dandy HP repairs website gives practically no information about the actual status of your repair.  As I sat and seethed, I became more and more angry about the situation.

I finally got ahold of someone in Mumbai or some other sub-continent call center.  She was very polite and offered to send an “urgent” email to the repair facility to get to the bottom of this.  An email.  No information was available regarding the status of my repair.  She could not contact the repair center.  She had no way to research the matter.  What she could do, was the modern version of push papers around on the desk… send an email. 

Not being satisfied with that response, I called back and spoke with a gentleman who was actually less helpful, which took quite an effort.  Based on the horrible experience I had endured, he suggested that I take out another year of warranty service.  I did, but did not feel right about the way it was presented.  I still could not speak to anyone in the repairs area who might be able to say if or when my computer was fixed, when it might ship or anything else one might want to know about a computer that had now been out of commission for nearly a month.

Enough.  It may not pay off, but I decided to send my own email to Meg Whitman, president and CEO of HP, and politely but firmly vented (no point in ticking off the one person who may be able to help).

To my great delight and surprise, I got a call the next day from CeCe in the HP executive office.  She apologized profusely and said that I was to deal with no one else going forward; she would be my sole point of contact until I had my computer back.  She had already been in touch with the repair center and said it was going through bench testing that day to make sure the problem was fixed.  She also said she would send a $200.00 gift card for HP products to atone for the problems I had gone through.  Having been in the customer service realm for nearly 20 years, I appreciated her professionalism and the fact that she took ownership of the situation.  Problems happen and mistakes are made – it’s how you fix those problems that counts and I was impressed.  I didn’t think there would be anything on the HP website that I would want to buy, but I appreciated the gesture (it turns out that they have a lot of items well under $200.00 that I am interested in).

That was Friday.  The following Monday, I got another call from HP, this time from a man who said that CeCe was off that day and that he was working her file.  He confirmed that my computer had been fixed (they replaced the screen altogether) and would be shipping it first thing in the morning.  He further stated that he felt uncomfortable with the way I had been sold the additional year of warranty.  He refunded the amount I had paid but let the warranty remain.

So the bottom line is, I got a $200.00 gift card and an extra year’s warranty for my troubles.  I would say that HP has gone above and beyond to remedy the matter.  I would have preferred not to have been put through all that, but I have to give credit to the HP executive office for doing a smashing job of restoring my faith in them.

Sailing lessons in St. Thomas...

Every time I start planning a trip I am racked with indecision… my list of “must see” places increases on an almost daily basis.  Do I go somewhere just for fun (Morocco, Chile or the Canadian maritime provinces)?  Go see friends and family (Key West, LA or Seattle)?  Or take a look at a potential retirement location (return to Panama, Costa Rica, Columbia or maybe Ecuador)?  Or do I take a week to go through the basic sailing courses that will allow me to charter a boat while traveling?  My problem is that I want to do it all.

If I go to Costa Rica or Panama I can get some dental work done at the same time and save money.  I could do a stay-cation by doing the sailing training in St. Petersburg or Sarasota.  And if I go to Key West I will just drink a lot of beer and maybe get in some diving.

So… sailing or retirement research?  After going out on a friends little daysailer two weeks ago, the decision became easy.  I’ve been putting off sailing lessons because I hadn’t done the research and so I just didn’t know where to put it in the list of priorities.  Well, I got so excited after a day on the water that I knuckled down and got the research done.

There are literally dozens of sailing schools in the Tampa/St. Petersburg/Sarasota area.  Lessons range from single classes taught at the various schools and the several yacht clubs, to weeklong get-the-basics-done courses.  In the course of my research I decided I want to get the three basic American Sailing Association (ASA) classes done all in one shot, so I can take single more advanced courses as I have the time and money.

As I dug a bit more, I discovered that I could take the same course somewhere in the Caribbean for only a few hundred dollars more than staying at home and get a great vacation out of the deal.  Until all of the frequent flyer miles I picked up with new credit cards post to the various mileage accounts, I really have to use either Delta or American.  So after comparing the locations of schools that offered what I wanted, had a reasonable cost and matched where I could fly for free using miles, I pared my list down to eight American Sailing Association accredited schools.

At a minimum I wanted to take the Basic Keelboat Sailing (101), Basic Coastal Cruising (103) and Bareboat Chartering (104).  Since I am very interested in someday having a catamaran (I think they tend to have more living space) I also want to take the Cruising Catamaran (114) course.  Many schools offer the first three as a combo because they only have monohulls, but three schools (Barefoot Offshore Sailing School, Belize Sailing, Blue Water Sailing School) offered all four classes. All three looked good, but I really wanted to attend Barefoot because it is located in St. Vincent and you spend the week sailing the Grenadines, a place that would be new for me.  Going to Belize was my third choice, in part because I have been there a couple of times in the last two years and would like to go somewhere new.  I figure that once I reach my destination I would spend a few extra days playing tourist and relaxing and while I could hop over to San Pedro to see my buddy Michael, I reallllly want to go somewhere new.

As it turns out, both Belize Sailing and Barefoot Offshore Sailing School were booked up and Blue Water Sailing School (BWSS) had availability, but not for the 101 through 114 course.  I suspect that if I had acted a few weeks earlier I would have had my pick.  So I will spend November 3 through 9 with BWSS taking the 101 through 104 courses in the gorgeous blue Caribbean waters around St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands.  I wish I had been able to pick up the Cruising Catamaran class, but that will have to be done later either locally or on another trip.

I am really excited about this trip and I haven’t been to the Virgin Islands since 1986 (?) so it will be almost like going for the first time.  I am actually departing on Friday, November 2 before the cock’s first crowing and will arrive at Cyril E. King airport in Charlotte Amalie around 1:30 pm.  BWSS is located on the St. Thomas East End in the Red Hook area.  The folks at BWSS made a few suggestions for lodging and I chose what appears to be a charming B&B within walking distance of the American Yacht Harbor on Benner Bay where the BWSS boats are berthed.

Two Sandals by the Sea Inn only has a handful of rooms and I was able to get a single night reservation for November 2.  We board and start our voyage and classes approximately 3:00 pm.  Between now and then I have several books to read and pre-exams to take; this is going to be pretty intense.  There will be a maximum of six students aboard so our instruction is fairly individual and I anticipate studying together in the evening.  Our rates include the boat, instructor, provisions, fuel, ice, customs and immigration fees, books, certification fees and sales tax.  I noticed some other schools charge extra for books, taxes and a whole variety of things including the certification!  Our trip covers all costs except alcohol.  I may need to try out the local rums (Cruzan makes a black strap rum that is supposed to be quite good).

After six days at sea, we return to Red Hook and the balance of my vacation.  More on those details in my next post.

Back to writing and exploring...

After a number of months of not doing a lot of writing (work has been killing me and my laptop had to be sent in twice for repairs), I am back in the game.

I'll tell you about my laptop saga later but on top of acquiring a lot of frequent flyer points recently, I have vacation time scheduled for November and February and I am itching to get out and explore.

I work from home and pretty much set my own work schedule... as long as I get the job done and play nice with the others on my team, I could theoretically work from just about anywhere.  Well, my company has a site in Costa Rica where, if an emergency arose, I could plug in and work.  I raised the issue of working remotely from Costa Rica with my boss and she isn't opposed to the idea.  We're not sure if we can get it past the higher-ups, but it is not out of the question.

So.... looks like Costa Rica is my next stop.  It would be amazing to be able to move there while still working because I would still be earning a US-based salary but probably have much lower living expenses.  Not only could make weekend trips all over Costa Rica, but to Panama, Nicaragua, and the rest of Central America.

A serious consideration for wherever I end up is quick and easy jetting back home to see family and friends. The San Jose airport has good connections to Florida, LA (where my brother-in-law and his wife live) and even Seattle, where my sisters live.  This is definitely worth exploring, so I am seeing if I can quickly put together a trip for November.  I have six weeks to figure it out and will post as I go.  If I cannot make it work for November, I will just go in February instead.

More ways to earn miles…

Another card I have had for many years is my American Express Rewards card.  I earn award points for every dollar spent and some retailers offer bonuses for using the card in order to earn your business.  For example, if I’m buying flowers for Mother’s Day anyway, why not use the florist that gives me 3 miles for every dollar spent?  Well, over the years I have built up 66,000 rewards points.  Through the Travel Hacker site I learned that I could get 1.5 miles for every reward point transferred to the British Air frequent flyer program.  You don’t have to be a math prodigy to figure out that by opening a BA Executive Club account I could start out with over 100,000 Avios (their term for the frequent flyer club points).  Done.

But it gets better.  BA had a credit card offer that gave you 25,000 miles just for getting the card and another 25,000 miles for spending $2,500 in the first 90 days you have the card.  Done.  I spend about $800 every month for things like my cell phone, ISP, alarm service, utilities, etc.  Throwing in grocery purchases and other necessity spending makes it easy to get to $2,500 in 90 days without spending money on non-necessities.  I haven’t received the card yet, but my application was accepted and once I receive the card, I will switch my automatic payments from my Citibank Amex card to the BA card.  So… within a very short time I will have a BA Avios balance of 150,000 miles.

I relayed this information to a friend who wanted to know what the heck I would do with 150,000 British Air miles.  Excellent question.  You can book flights on American and many other airlines using your BA miles and avoid paying fuel surcharges at the same time!  This is covered in one of the Travel Hacker tutorials.  I thought I knew a lot about how the airline points programs work, but Chris Guillebeau, the founder of Travel Hackers, and his crew have taught me much more about both earning and spending points.

An important thing to understand about the airlines is that all major airlines and many regional airlines belong to one of three consortiums that work cooperatively to serve each other’s customers.  You’ve probably booked a multi-segment trip before and got onto a plane operated by a different airline.  That’s because of the code-share partnerships between airlines.  This also works on a broader scale for the member airlines of the One World, Star Alliance and SkyTeam associations.

Before deciding on my Panama trip last year, I was toying with going back to Morocco for a ten-day trip.  As usual, I went to Hipmunk to do my initial search for flights and noticed that some of the best flight combinations used Delta and Air France; both airlines are SkyTeam members.  For a period of almost a week, I could have booked flights to either Marrakech or Rabat for only 90,000 Delta SkyMiles.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough miles and by the time I figured out that I could have moved miles to Delta from my AmEx Rewards account the offer was gone.  But this points out the importance of having miles in members of all three airline partnerships.  I now have points built up in American and British (One World), Delta (SkyTeam) and United and US Air (Star Alliance).

All of these tidbits and more are detailed in the tutorials offered by the Travel Hackers web site.  Could you do this on your own?  Maybe, but getting regular updates and reminders from Travel Hackers is helpful and keeps you from going to every site imaginable to stay on top of it.  I encourage you to click the link and check it out.  You won’t regret it and the worst that can happen is that you learn how to get more travel for less.

Some people have concerns about having multiple credit cards.  I understand that and you need to have a plan to keep yourself out of financial and credit trouble.  To make sure I stay within my budget each month, I have an automatic payment made to my current credit card of choice from my checking account.  That covers my regular spending (as outlined above) and then I add up my spending each week and make an additional payment as I spend the money.  That way I don’t rely on the credit card for living expenses and always ensure my card is paid off each month and avoid paying interest.