I grew up in Los Angeles California and have been living in Latin America for the last 22 years. That should explain the title. This is the first in a series of posts about where I have lived. And why things just continue to get better. This part is an overview. (Note that I will add more photos but the older ones are on film and need to be scanned.)
I lived in Los Angeles until 1973. It was OK. That is, I knew where the crime was, learned very well how to deal with traffic and, well, didn’t know any better. But, in 1972, my employer was staffing down and offered me some options.
After evaluating the options (and the summer weather in Maryland) I picked Richland Washington. It was a good learning experience (no trees, always too hot or too cold, why nukes are not a good thing, …) but a few hears later my employer lost the contract there. I moved on — to Olympia Washington.
Olympia was another chance to learn things — particularly about government corruption. The difference was this time it was state government corruption rather than federal government corruption. I quit over being asked to lie in order for my agency to profit to the tune of $22 million at the expense of the taxpayers. The good news is that I made enough noise that I did save the taxpayers that money.
Richland was a one business town (nukes) and Olympia was a one business town (government). Now knowing about the inside of the nukes industry and the inside of state government, I put a lot of time into being an anti-nuke activist. But, eventually, I need to get back to making money. That inspired, in 1980, a move to Seattle.
In Seattle I worked for two decent private companies, learned all about UNIX and eased into my own business. Within five years my own business was paying the bills. We got into Linux and ultimately started Linux Journal which payed the bills for many more employees. Let’s just say, things were good with my work. But, the U.S. was going insane.
Due to a strange opportunity at work I went to Costa Rica in 1999. I was so impressed I went back a few more times. After five trips my conclusion was that living in Costa Rica was both possible and a good choice. In January 2002, I move there.
It was better than living in the U.S. for a lot of reasons but I though I could do better. Better, for me, was Nicaragua but there were “some issues”. One, call it “the mañana syndrome”, inspired a trip to Guatemala. That was back in 2011 and I am still here. Still not perfect but pretty close.
Future episodes will detail my adventures in Costa Rica, Nicaragua and Guatemala.