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Did you look at the videos and see their home (or compound, rather)? I think they probably paid about $20k for their 2.5 acres. I found a real estate site on line and a house bigger than theirs on a bigger lot had a $600k asking price. Also I understand if you can speak Spanish you can get property for about 1/3 what people that don't know better from the states pay.
Anyway, they've been there for just a few years and have built this gorgeous place with an outdoor screened in bedroom. They have a separate yert for Yoga and it looks like they have a building where there is a steam room/sauna and probably their colon hydrotherapy unit since they are firm believers in keeping their insides as clean as can be to insure good health.
From what I understand, the cost of living is cheap but setting up a home is expensive. Furniture and appliances are expensive. Matt Monarch's kitchen, while it is ginormous and they have staff helping them with their garden and their baby, has appliances that look very dated.
The only down side that I can see is they can't get lemons there. They have to use limes. Also it is a 1.5 hour hike from the nearest airport to the town. Although there is a nice ocean front inn nearby where the owners are willing to meet people at the airport;pick you up, bring you to the inn and help you get acclimated etc. as well as bring you back to the airport when you head back.
Yes, very nice "hacienda" they have there. I noticed when I was in Peru for a time that some things were dirt cheap (mostly essential sorts of things) and other things were outrageous (mostly luxury items).
One thing I will say is that I really did relate to the "attitude" about life in general that the common person had down there (I'm not talking about the mega-wealthy or dirt poor -- just the average person). They see things very differently than the "average" person here in the states see things. Things were much less hectic and much more laid back. That's my personality type as well, and so our "balls to the wall" society has never appealed to me or been a very good fit. "Serenity" and simplicity is something that I cherish above most anything else (and simple aesthetic beauty in design). And that's not our way in the US at all.
On the other hand, there are certainly downsides. The political climate (at least in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Peru) is a bit iffy. I could see myself in a setting as in the videos as far as lifestyle, but I'd always be worried about the political situation (but then again, I'm damned worried about it here anyway). Again, from my own research, I'd be more prone to go to either southern Chile, northern Coastal Chile, or Uruguay. But if the political situation in Ecuador would magically become a guaranteed stable situation, I would definitely be open to a place like Vilacabamba. As you said, it's definitely a nirvana-ish setting... sans the politics. And I'd love to speak primarily Spanish -- I get very little practice these days and I find Spanish (and French) to be far more logical (and regular) in structure.
There is no such thing as a "zombie apocalypse". You are not going to be one of a few survivors in the world and get to make your own rules.
It's just such a nice fantasy though, isn't it? All the stupid, annoying, people, the "parasites", the ones that annoy us so much, the "golden hordes" doing away with each other over the course of a few days, leaving the rest of us smart, informed and "prepared" people to live in peace in a world that's a cross between Little Home on the Prairie mixed with the few desirable technologies we would still like to have at our disposal; we "chosen" ones taking the country back and living in peace and harmony again...
What I don't think will happen is that there is some "event", some undeniable event, that is going to say to us "this it it! this is really it! the flag has gone up! the lights have gone out!". That absolute certaintity is what a lot of people seem to be waiting for and expecting. Look around you. I wouldn't wait too long.
It's just such a nice fantasy though, isn't it? All the stupid, annoying, people, the "parasites", the ones that annoy us so much, the "golden hordes" doing away with each other over the course of a few days, leaving the rest of us smart, informed and "prepared" people to live in peace in a world that's a cross between Little Home on the Prairie mixed with the few desirable technologies we would still like to have at our disposal; we "chosen" ones taking the country back and living in peace and harmony again...
What I don't think will happen is that there is some "event", some undeniable event, that is going to say to us "this it it! this is really it! the flag has gone up! the lights have gone out!". That absolute certaintity is what a lot of people seem to be waiting for and expecting. Look around you. I wouldn't wait too long.
But how about a slow descent? I think that's already happening. The world may not blow up, but it seems it could fizzle out. I think it has been.
Of course, it has always been a cyclic sort of thing and there have always been ups and downs. It's all a matter of how lucky or unlucky a given person or group is. I think we are on the unlucky side of history right now. I know for a fact, although things weren't perfect, my father's generation and perhaps my grandfather's were actually on the lucky side of history. I lived through "their years" as a child. There is really no comparison to where we are now.
But, then again, there are so many factors: economics, location, geography, social norms, and on and on. As for the "zombie" thing, that was a silly notion from day one, unless you are just looking for entertainment.
As for the "zombie" thing, that was a silly notion from day one, unless you are just looking for entertainment.
Originally, zombie or jumbee simply meant a man or woman whose brains were dead but whose bodies were in an animate state under the control of another. That seems to be the way that almost all people act. They believe their Hollywood entertainment masters who teach them what to think; they believe their foreign ruler when he decrees how they must think; they believe any government employee who gives them orders. Aren't all of these people zombies? I'd say that they are, at least metaphorically.
And aren't these people, the hordes, the reason we've built our retreats? Their masters won't come to rob and murder us. Those worthies will be enjoying life in government compounds.
There really are zombies; they're just not of the image that Hollywood has promoted.
I guess I'm taking "zombie" a bit too literally in the horror movie sense. Yes, in the broader or metaphorical sense... about 90% of the nation could be thrown into the "zombie" category. Which is pretty scary. Scarier than Night of the Living Dead for sure.
My opinion its eastern Kentucky if you're speaking east of the Mississippi. To the west you have the rest of the rural state, to the east you have the Virginia mountains, to the north you have west Virginia and the rural hills of Ohio, and to the south you have lightly populated hills of Tennessee.
It's necessary to move to your retreat as soon as possible in order to be well-established in the community and become known as a responsible and desirable neighbor. People who try to move to an area at the last minute will be looking at a bullet. It may be possible to purchase a retreat but only live in it part-time and still become part of the community. To do this buy an expensive place to let people know that you're a good sort. ...
I agree. It takes a lot of time to get setup and over the learning curve producing enough food.
Also keep in mind that much of the USA is drought-prone.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Happy in Wyoming
Originally, zombie or jumbee simply meant a man or woman whose brains were dead but whose bodies were in an animate state under the control of another. That seems to be the way that almost all people act. They believe their Hollywood entertainment masters who teach them what to think; they believe their foreign ruler when he decrees how they must think; they believe any government employee who gives them orders. Aren't all of these people zombies? I'd say that they are, at least metaphorically.
And aren't these people, the hordes, the reason we've built our retreats? Their masters won't come to rob and murder us. Those worthies will be enjoying life in government compounds.
There really are zombies; they're just not of the image that Hollywood has promoted.
Just look at the video footage showing masses of zombies leaving NOLA after Katrina.
But how about a slow descent? I think that's already happening. The world may not blow up, but it seems it could fizzle out. I think it has been.
Of course, it has always been a cyclic sort of thing and there have always been ups and downs. It's all a matter of how lucky or unlucky a given person or group is. I think we are on the unlucky side of history right now. I know for a fact, although things weren't perfect, my father's generation and perhaps my grandfather's were actually on the lucky side of history. I lived through "their years" as a child. There is really no comparison to where we are now.
But, then again, there are so many factors: economics, location, geography, social norms, and on and on. As for the "zombie" thing, that was a silly notion from day one, unless you are just looking for entertainment.
Oh, I agree with you ChrisC, as I almost always to. That's my point, it IS a slow descent; and I also think it's already happening, and has been for some time (maybe actually started about 30 years ago, just about the time I came into full adulthood, yeah for me), but now almost on a day-by-day basis, from what I see.
I just notice that a lot of people think there's going to be some "defining" moment or event, and I wouldn't wait for it. That comes from watching too much "zombie" entertainment, etc., which I do love myself. But that's fantasy, a metaphor perhaps for what's really happening, but fantasy non the less.
I too was born into the "wonder years". My parents and grandparents enjoyed the most prosperous times in this country; secure jobs, secure retirements, etc. My brother and I, both 1960's babies, were just marveling the other day at the neighborhood we grew up in, in an upper middle class suburb, where some kids' father's had blue-collar jobs, and yet only that one income was needed for the family to enjoy a good life, for the kids to go to college, a nice home, a pension at retirement, etc. Layoffs and foreclosures were unheard of. Gone are those times, or so it seems.
Yeah, we are the next ones to experience a "depression" era I'm afraid, cyclic maybe, only this time, it's different.
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