It felt good to book it.

Is on the list!

Have a friend who retired in Belize. He loves it.. He said could visit them, as they have guest house.

So it's Panama, Costa Rica and Belize, so farrrr...
Ive been to some Central American & Caribbean countries already, but they were vacation and not really with an eye for retirement. Totally different way of thinking and traveling.

BUT, I spent two weeks in Venezuela long ago and my spanish got better than my french ever was going to. (Studied french)

I realized Spanish is probably the language I should focus on.
I knew it would be later. I always had a goal to live in a foreign country, and figured immersion was how I was truly going to learn a language.

When I was in Guatemala for work, i found family sponsored language immersion programs. 30 to 90 days for lessons in a school setting, live with a family, and inexpensive! That is on the list.

Time. Although, when you think you've got time to learn something, it goes fast.

is in heaven with all the exotic wood available down there.

Did he retire? How great he does woodworking.

spent their vacations there while they were still working. They worked on their Spanish so they were pretty fluent by the time they moved permanently after retirement. The vacations they spent there solidified their feelings that Panama was where they wanted to end up.

altho we haven't been there yet. Keep us posted...

Can bump up to February. So far away, but that's ok.

Friends would ask, Aren't you going to check it out first?
Why I ask? I might visit at a terrible time and thus make a bad decision, missing out on the best, or visiting there might be great but the living not so much.
For us the looking first was too expensive. Thanks to the internet and some self-inquiry and honesty about ourselves, we chose wisely. By the time we arrived in the city, the sights already felt familiar thanks to Google Earth.

We arrived with six suits cases and a plan, all our required documentation in hand; a three month Air B&B booked and three months on our tourist visa for settling in the new land.
The first week here we were at 'migracion' and often again. We received our permanent legal residency a year and some later.

Without my wife's Spanish, we would likely have failed. Now, if I could talk to the cruise ship passengers not arriving this year because of the pandemic, I'd say, "It is a great place to live, but not so much for visiting.

I joined some fb groups of expats in various countries. That has been so helpful already. Plus it made my fb feed so much better.
People cover a wide variety of topics there, and just seeing all the discussion is really informative.

My list is wide and far. Sometimes I wonder if some should just be on the travel list. But, for example, Sri Lanka is on it. Because my husband has been there, and loved it, but I have not been. But I have colleagues there, and know some about their thoughts and feelings as citizens.

How great that you moved. That is very cool. I love that you had 6 suitcases. And just did it.