We hadn’t planned on being back in the Pacific Northwest this year until mid-August (just about now). Our Mexico residency was up for renewal (or conversion, rather) beginning in late July, and my dad had hip surgery scheduled for early in the summer.
But in early May, I was starting to feel uneasy about staying in Mexico into the rainy season [again], and letting another Oregon summer [mostly] pass us by. I also wasn’t sold on converting our temporary residence into permanent residence. This was the main reason we were dragging our feet in Mexico and not heading north.
Our Euro-African Journey (So Far...)
When we applied for our temporary residence four years ago, we hadn’t seriously considered the possibility that, four years later, we’d still be in Mexico, and as such, would qualify for converting to parmanente. It wasn’t really ever in the cards, and yet, here we were.
And…here we were planning (and very much looking forward to) leaving Mexico indefinitely. In many respects, permanent residency outside of one’s home country is nice to have in one’s back pocket, especially for people like us. But it is not without its downsides.
We’d been mulling over several ideas for post-Mexico life and eventually narrowed it down to two primary options: The first involved trading in the RV for a smaller and more agile 4WD vehicle and heading back south to Costa Rica. However, with permanent residence in Mexico, we would no longer be able to drive a foreign (e.g. U.S.) registered vehicle through Mexico…for the rest of our lives.
The other issue is that, well, converting to permanent is a lot of money. Once Lori and I get our cards, it would be for life. But the boys would need to renew every four years (lots more money!) until they’re 18.
I aired my concerns with Lori and she agreed that converting to permanente at this time didn’t exactly make the most sense for us. The road was quickly running out in Mexico. We had lived there for the better part of five years and spent the past 16 months seeing everything we wanted to see. It was either time to settle down somewhere in Mexico or move on. We chose to move on to something new.
Deciding on that something eluded us for a while. We enjoyed our six weeks exploring the American Southwest in the RV and finally returning to Roseburg, where our RV journey began in March 2024. In all that time (and the month since we’ve been back), we never considered repatriating back to the U.S. We’ve been living overseas more or less continuously for nine years and can’t imagine moving back to the U.S. right now.
So what next, then? One aspect of our RV life that we knew we wanted to continue was the boys’ homeschooling/ roadschooling/ worldschooling. The boys have really taken to it and seem to be thriving in that environment.
Our time in Mexico was coming to an end, but if we could continue teaching the kids, traveling, doing work on the side, and keeping costs as low as we can, we wanted to continue that sort of lifestyle somewhere else if possible.
Is it possible to transplant what worked in Mexico to other places? And if so, where would that be? Central America seemed like a logical next step. After all, the boys are fluent in Spanish, and we are all partial to the warm weather of the tropics and beach life.
Lori had another idea. “What about Europe?,” she asked. “Nah, too expensive,” was my initial reaction.
We both agreed it would be awesome to be able to capitalize on the boys’ interest in Europe, particularly Noe’s borderline obsession with the United Kingdom. But was there a way to travel slowly while keeping costs low in Europe?
We did a bit of research, drew up a budget, and made a plan. One of the big things that makes our lifestyle possible is that we haven’t carried any debt since we paid off the last of Lori’s grad school six years ago. We busted our butts to make that happen, living frugally and counting every dollar we spent.
We’ve also managed to save up a nice little “boat kitty”, and the interest we make off of that is a decent paycheck in itself if we ever need to draw on it.
To make Europe work for one to two years, we would need to stay fewer places for longer (cutting costs on lodging/rent, as well as transport), and living in a place where we can cook most of our meals at home.
We would also need to balance our time in the Schengen Zone (most of the EU) with time out of the Zone, as U.S. citizens are allowed up to 90 days there for every 180 calendar days.
And, the countries we choose would need to be on the lower end of the cost spectrum. No Germany or Switzerland this time around unless we’re doing short trips. We’d be looking at Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Greece, with time out of the Zone in Morocco and Turkey.
Because Noe’s an Anglophile, we can’t pass up the opportunity to dip into the UK. But it will likely only be for a few weeks until our budget starts begging for mercy.
With the decision made, we purchased one-way tickets from Portland to Lisbon in October and are getting excited for the next adventure. Besides that, nothing’s set in stone. It’ll be an iterative process and an experiment of sorts.
So there you have it—we’re heading across the Pond in about six weeks.
If you’re the least bit curious how this all pans out, be sure to check in from time to time and keep an eye out on the Hammock Hoppers Facebook page, etc.
I also have a ton of posts coming online soon from the rest of our time RVing in Mexico, exploring Arizona, Utah, and Nevada, and our time soaking up the summer in the Pacific Northwest, so stay tuned!
