Leeeaaving on a….. short bus….
(My apologies to Peter, Paul and Mary….. Or if you’re slightly younger, John Denver….) Today’s grand narrative is about travel schedule changes and budget considerations. We originally booked this place at Puerto Viejo for a full month – leaving Feb 9th – and then 3 nights in San Jose, Costa Rice before flying out to Lisbon, Portugal.
After much discussion and conversation about things to do in San Jose, we’ve decided to bail early and head to San Jose on Feb 2nd instead of the 9th. For context, we’ve been having conversations about this for 5 days and we’ve only been in Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica for 7 days.
‘Things to do in San Jose’ wasn’t the START of the conversation; it’s been building ever since we didn’t fall in love with the heat and humidity of Panama. We wanted to give Costa Rica a fair shot and we thought perhaps the Caribbean side might have a better overall environment for us. Alas, it seems this tropical escapade isn’t our jam.
So much so that there was even some discussion about accelerating the whole thing and changing our flights so that we arrive in Portugal earlier than originally planned. Yes, we’re seriously discussing just walking out on 2 weeks worth of prepaid accommodation to get to Europe early and be too cold rather than too hot. To be fair the daytime temps in Lisbon, Portugal have been in the 50’s and 60’s, so not as cold as our home state of Oregon right now but after discovering that hot and humid isn’t all it’s cracked up to be we’re now super excited about maybe having to wear long sleeves in the evenings).
Struggles with Beach Lounging and Tropical Humidity
One of the primary drivers of the idea to change the schedule is the fact that we apparently are not good at ‘lounging idly on the beach’ and we are also not good at ‘hot and humid’. Now, to be fair, we are far better at ‘sit around on the beach’ here in Puerto Viejo than we have been anywhere else because we found the spot; shade, comfortable-ish chaise lounges, an almost constant on-shore breeze and food/drinks on demand. We don’t use that last one very much because we do have a modest budget, but we have taken advantage of having beachside service for lunch a couple of times, slyly camouflaging the expense under the ‘Activities’ category of the budget rather than ‘Meals Out. More on the budget later.
Perhaps, had we selected accommodations with air conditioning and a decent couch, we wouldn’t be so eager to leave early. Another lesson learned for booking accommodation – we need someplace comfortable to sit because we spend a lot of time reading, writing and researching.
We also discussed whether we just made too abrupt a transition from cold to hot climates. Moving from central Oregon cold to tropical heat and humidity turned out to be more challenging than we anticipated. We went from eastern Oregon cold and spent a week in western Oregon cold then jumped overnight to tropical hot and humid. We really hadn’t given much thought to the temperature difference because we had never really been someplace quite this sultry before. Sure, back when we moved to Key West in 1990 we went from western Oregon summer to Mississippi summer over the course of a week and then to tropical hot and humid. Not such a shock to the system. But Key West’s hot and humid, with it’s constant off shore breezes, is nothing compared to central American hot and humid. We were also 30 years younger. Some of those factors are potentially relevant.
We made our original plans from the perspective of an entirely different lifestyle and climate. We had talked so long about a tropical retirement that we just assumed we’d love it. Wrong again, buffalo breath. We found we don’t like hot and humid nor to be isolated. Puerto Viejo isn’t that bad, there is a grocery store less than a mile away, but we aren’t very motivated to get there because it’s hot and humid. Which, again, we thought we were excited about. Plus the restaurant selection within a reasonable walking or even bike riding distance is extremely touristy – the food is fine, the value is suspect.
We both had assumed, in early planning stages, that we didn’t like being in big cities so we had mostly planned to avoid lengthy stays in cities, choosing smaller towns instead. Turns out, we don’t like big cities where it’s difficult to get around without renting a car. Looking back on our travels over the years, we actually quite enjoyed both Paris and Auckland which are – spoiler alert – big cities. But they’re big cities that are easy to get around and very walkable. We could have stayed in Panama City longer as well because ride shares were cheap and most of them had working A/C but it was still sticky hot.
Importance of Walkability and Weather
Walkability and Weather are simply a more significant consideration than we thought it would be – we are able to walk further and do more when it’s not as hot and humid. Simple fact, we’re old and out of shape and we are trying to do this without renting a car. You wouldn’t think a couple degrees would be so significant but 82 degrees and 50% humidity compared to 86 degrees and 75% humidity is the difference between a pleasant day out and a miserable, sweaty, always-on-the-edge-of-an-argument day out. Humidity is a much bigger factor than I would have ever guessed. The difference, in fact, between “77, feels like 77” (currently in San Jose) or “84, feels like 95” (currently in Puerto Viejo)
In general, what we’re learning here is that we don’t want to retire to a remote tropical beach paradise. Big cities, which we thought we’d avoid, might not be as bad as we initially thought. This journey is about exploration, not just of the world but also of ourselves and our lives. We are learning LOTS.
Navigating Logistics and Budgetary Considerations
Before committing to the schedule change, we had three major considerations to sort out: accommodation adjustments, a pre-booked shuttle, and the additional costs because we already paid for our accommodations here in Puerto Viejo, blowing our February budget. It’s too late to save ourselves from the choices we made for Dec/Jan but I was kind of hoping to get back on track budget wise
Once we committed to change the schedule the logistics weren’t super hard – Step one was to see if our previously booked hotel in San Jose could take us a week early so we wouldn’t have to make another move. Not the biggest concern because we also had the option, due to our decision to book accommodations we can adjust, to simply and affordably just choose a different hotel entirely if the original couldn’t accommodate us. This wasn’t as smooth a process as it could have been due to a glitch on the third-party website.
When Sandra logged in and viewed our San Jose reservation it showed us checking in Feb 9th and out on Feb 12th as planned. But when she clicked the ‘change dates’ button the new page showed us checking in on the 8th and out on the 11th – that’s a glitch. When she selected the 2nd through the 12th it showed no availability. If she created a new reservation from the 2nd through the 9th it worked fine. She reached out to the hotel and explained what we wanted to do and they eventually said they could do it and our cost for the whole stay was now $648. Except that if we just did the two separate reservations the total was $563 – so that was a non-starter for me.
We got that booked (as two separate stays) but while she was struggling through what should have been a simple process, I started looking at alternate locations. I found the exact same room on a different platform at less than $500 for those dates. So there’s now a chance that budget conscious Jeff will cancel both existing reservations and rebook through a different site. More likely, though, we’ll just move entirely. Within a 10 block radius of that place are several other options in the sub-$500 range.
Since the original stay was only 3 nights we hadn’t put a lot of effort into searching out lower cost options. Now that it’s 10 nights, well, an extra $10 a night actually matters. If we can have an equivalent stay for $450 by moving a few blocks, that will certainly work for us. That $100 savings will cover several days worth of groceries and 4 or 5 or even 10 blocks won’t add significant inconvenience or cost to us moving about the city.
Especially if the city has a fully functional metro system and cheap ride-share options. When we were in Panama City I was shocked at the costs for ride share. Our first trip was a few miles and it was under $3; I don’t think you can get a car to SHOW UP for $3 in the States. Last time I was in a taxi in the US it was $5 just to get in and sit down and then the meter started running from there.
We had to change the dates for the shuttle between Puerto Viejo de Talmanca and San Jose. Likely not a big deal because it runs twice a day on a regular schedule so we knew that would be okay +/-. Worst case scenario most likely would be having to shift a day one way or the other. In the end it took one email to the shuttle company to ask if we could change and I had a new confirmation in my inbox within 10 minutes. Cannot praise Caribe Shuttle enough for their customer service; all my dealings with them have been pleasant and efficient. (Not that I don’t have comments for them. In a later post we’ll talk about the one employee at Bocas del Toro who almost got us sent back to Boquete instead of on to Puerto Viejo as well as the complete goat rope that was our border crossing. But their office people are fantastic, LOL)
Exploring mindset shifts regarding expenses
The more difficult factor in the equation (for me specifically) was the extra cost. Booking for a full month here in Puerto Viejo got our rate down below $30 per night and it’s prepaid through Feb 9th. The extra 7 nights in San Jose is a new, out-of-pocket expense and there is zero chance of getting any refund on the place we’re leaving early. And even still, finding a place in San Jose for 7 nights for less than $45 a night puts us in accommodations we’d probably rather not experience. A hostel or room with shared bathroom or a neighborhood where we’d have to be constantly on guard. We’ve aged out of both of those scenarios.
Sandra was gently reminded me that this is a mindset issue and I should probably release my inner Elsa. We aren’t budgeted to a strapping point – in other words, if we go a bit over budget we won’t wind up sleeping in a tent on the beach – but we do need to be responsible with our money. This isn’t a vacation, this is our day-to-day life and these sorts of decisions are going to (hopefully) be coming up for YEARS. We have a monthly budget as guidance but the annual total will be where the rubber hits the road. If we overspend on restaurant food one month, can we make it up later and keep the ANNUAL number where we’re happy? Same with accommodation and every other category.
The other reality of the budget is that our budget was mostly based on guesses so the real goal for the first year was to spend as little as we were comfortable with and then reevaluate. While there are people traveling the world for $2k per month, they don’t dine out much and they don’t do many activities. We like restaurants and we like visiting museums and things. Most of the people we follow are on a budget of $4k or more per month and no one seems to be struggling to stay busy or fed. In order to stay below our target number of $3,300 there are things we need to pay attention too.
We’d like to hear from you
Navigating changes to our schedule involves a lot of conversations that happen ‘behind the scenes’, whether you’d like to see more of this kind of post, you’ve faced similar challenges or have unique tips to offer, we’re eager to hear your thoughts and perspectives!!
