dksuttle

I live in San Clemente, Manabi, Ecuador most of the year and from here my husband and I are embarking on an adventure. We plan to explore Ecuador in depth. Our first stop was Ecuador. Our next trip was to begin in Ecuador and continue on to Peru and Chili, but we have fallen in love with the landscape, the climate, the people and the life.

We found an attorney who speaks good English and with her help we have become residents.

With our residency finalized we can now only be out of the country for 90 days a year and that would have hampered our plans to travel South America from our home in Ecuador but it won’t stop us entirely.  We will keep on traveling. 

We bought a car and discovered that registering an automobile can be an adventure all it´s own. Stay tuned for more on that subject. 

We spent 25 years as self employed jewelers in Charleston, SC. We moved to New Mexico in 1998 and exited the rat race. We both worked a little in our new lives and then my husband retired in 2007, I followed in 2008. We are now free, free, free!

In May 2009 our house burned to the ground and we discovered the freedom of being unburdened by a lot of stuff we had been dragging around for years. Freedom really is just another word for nothing left to loose and we decided to think about it before we built another house or started buying a lot of stuff. So we rehabilitated our first cabin and found we needed a lot less than we thought. We have spent our time since the fire to consciously transform our lives.  That is an adventure that may last a life time.  

At 7:00 AM I am 18 years old (unless I let the grey haired lady in the mirror talk me out of it) ... at 9:00 PM I am 65. Not a bad way to spend the day.

As the adventure begins we are living on the checkerboard reservation in New Mexico at about 7500 ft. Our place in New Mexico is off the grid. That means we generate our own electricity, haul water and frequently get trapped in our home due to snow or mud. I much prefer to be trapped in the snow, it is prettier.

Since living in New Mexico I have worked at a one person branch of a credit union, a job that connected me with the community in what ways that felt meaningful. I later operated Tinaja Trading Post and Restaurant, the most brutal, hardest work I have ever done. I then spent two years as a correctional officer in a federal prision that held mostly Mexican nationals who were due to be deported after completing their sentences. That was the most fun I have ever had working for someone else.

Then I retired and found that I could really begin a whole new life. Here I am on the threshold of a second childhood, and lovin' it.

For several years I was involved in a Reiki healing clinic. An experience that was life changing. I am still intrested in Reiki and I still practice and teach from time to time.

After years of working on my stuff, I now feel relatively stuff free. And that in itself is a whole new kind of freedom.

I have fallen in love with Ecuador, burning tires and all.