Considering moving to south america

[play2win]

I am thinking about taking 3 months, travelling around with a friend and settling in on a country we like the most.  Right off the bat we are thiking brazil, colombia and argentina.  We have eliminated bolivia, urugay and paragay.  Has anyone ever done something like this?  I have so many questions. 

Of course I would need income.  I would leave with a sizable chunk of change and have a job setup that I can telecommute to thus allowing me freedom.  I wont need anything but my clothes and a laptop.

Can people give me pros cons?  I am working on my spanish and my friend is a native speaker he also speaks Portuguese. 

Thoughts?

[whitey]

Play2win, if you can afford to do it, there are absolutely NO cons ...

Oh, except maybe you'll never want to live in the US or settle for an American Woman again!

I would urge you to do it.  My best friend has been able to spend 2-3 months in Colombia a couple times ... it was a life changing experience for him.  Heck, just going to Colombia for my first time for 2 weeks was a life changing experience for me.

Although I've never been, I would cross Argentina off my list.  Unless you've really got game, and are very fluent in Spanish, you'll have a tough time competing with Argentinian guys for the chicas ... or so I've heard ...

[play2win]

Play2win, if you can afford to do it, there are absolutely NO cons ...

Oh, except maybe you'll never want to live in the US or settle for an American Woman again!

I would urge you to do it.  My best friend has been able to spend 2-3 months in Colombia a couple times ... it was a life changing experience for him.  Heck, just going to Colombia for my first time for 2 weeks was a life changing experience for me.

Although I've never been, I would cross Argentina off my list.  Unless you've really got game, and are very fluent in Spanish, you'll have a tough time competing with Argentinian guys for the chicas ... or so I've heard ...

I think I will need to do it logically.

01) List of pros vs cons
02) Job that will hire me and allow me to telecommute (should not be hard i work in a specifalized field)
03) Get rid of my apt
04) Goto south america and travel around the countires i picked for 1 - 3 months
05) Move (I dont need much but my data and my clothes , everything else is replaceable).

Thoughts?

[utopiacowboy]

I'm glad that you eliminated Uruguay - I need to keep that a nice little secret.

[play2win]

I'm glad that you eliminated Uruguay - I need to keep that a nice little secret.

I heard it is extremely dangerous and there is not much to see there.   However I am now adding chile and peru to the mix.

[braziliangirl]

I heard it is extremely dangerous and there is not much to see there.   However I am now adding chile and peru to the mix.

I don't really think Uruguay is more dangerous than Brazil and Colombia... Plus it had great steak, great beaches and beautiful people (well, at least the guys ).

And there is at least Montevideo, Punta del Leste and Colonia to see there.

About Argentina, maybe it would be hard to get girls... But your dollars will be able to provide you a very good lifestyle (or a long time) there. Plus Buenos Aires is a very interesting city and there are many things to see and do around the country...

If you need help with (or want some tips about) any part of the itinerary, just let me know.

[play2win]

I don't really think Uruguay is more dangerous than Brazil and Colombia... Plus it had great steak, great beaches and beautiful people (well, at least the guys ).

And there is at least Montevideo, Punta del Leste and Colonia to see there.

About Argentina, maybe it would be hard to get girls... But your dollars will be able to provide you a very good lifestyle (or a long time) there. Plus Buenos Aires is a very interesting city and there are many things to see and do around the country...

If you need help with (or want some tips about) any part of the itinerary, just let me know.

My friend said argentinans are snobs (not sure how true that is).  Other places that have come up now are chile & costa rica.  we will see.  Tomorrow I will begin the pro & con list.

[Jeff S]

Uruguay more dangerous than Colombia?

Homicide Rates in the world (9 of the top 10 are in Latin America, #6 is South Africa.)

El Salvador - 1st
Venezulea - 2nd
Colombia - 7th
Brazil - 9th


Peru - 41st
USA - 42nd
Argentina - 43rd

Uruguay - 46th

Chile - 72nd (even safer than Canada and New Zealand)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_homicide_rate

Not much to see there? As Brazilgirl said: great beaches, great food, great weather. Montevideo is a terrific European style city with lots of very friendly people. It's like northern Argentina without the snobbery.

Whoever you "heard" that from was completely clueless.

If I had to pick one place in S/A to live, it'd be Montevideo. But as U/C says, maybe it's better to keep that little gem a secret.

[Researcher]

I think I will need to do it logically.

01) List of pros vs cons
02) Job that will hire me and allow me to telecommute (should not be hard i work in a specifalized field)
03) Get rid of my apt
04) Goto south america and travel around the countires i picked for 1 - 3 months
05) Move (I dont need much but my data and my clothes , everything else is replaceable).

Thoughts?

    Sounds good Play2Win.Not many cons really.I took off to Mexico for 3 months once and it was well worth it.I have some friends from Argentina and come to think of it they are a little "snooty" but they are good folks.But it's not like they or French or anything.heheheh


  Researcher

[Kiltboy1]

Just remember that going ex pat is nice and all but in my extensive travels, I have met many ex pats who after a while really do miss the USA and not all American Women are bad. I went the SA route because I was too buttfrigen ugly to pull a younger chica here. I will retire to Ecuador one day but there will be many things I will miss about the USA. I live in NC and this is as close to Gods country as it gets IMHO, and will be hard to leave, but my wife sacrificed for me and I will do the same for her one day. Best of both worlds is to do a 6&6 type lifestyle. If you have the means to do that, that would be the way I would roll.. Best Of Luck.

KB

[braziliangirl]

My friend said argentinans are snobs (not sure how true that is). 

Very true!

[Bob_S]

03) Get rid of my apt
04) Goto south america and travel around the countires i picked for 1 - 3 months
05) Move (I dont need much but my data and my clothes , everything else is replaceable).

Why get rid of your apartment if you're just going to be gone for a few months?  If you're planning on trashing all your personal furniture and appliances anyway, I could see it.  Otherwise, it seems like a big hassle to rent a storage space, move your stuff in, cancel all your utilities, then scramble to find a new apartment and get moved in again just a few months later.  Surely you're not gonna save that much money over the cost of rent for just a few months.  Eliminate that from your to-do list and it makes going abroad for what is essentially a working vacation just that much more easy.

Though if you plan to be gone for 6 or more months, I could definitely see closing out your current residence.

[JimD]

I have a Dutch friend who lives in Colombia in a village in the mountains two hours north of Cali. Fourteen years ago he worked for the social security department in Holland. He was 45 years old and decided to go on holiday and traveled to Colombia. He traveled all around by bus and on the way down from Bogota to Cali he got off at Tuluá and made his way across the Rio Cauca to Riofrio. There he asked around for company for the night and they told him he should take the public jeep up the mountain to Trujillo where there was plenty of what he was looking for at a good price. He did and there he met a whore in a bar and fell so madly in lust that instead of spending the night he stayed a whole month with her. Not only was he in lust with the whore Blanca he was in love with Trujillo so at the end of the month he returned to Holland, quit his job, gave away his belongings, sold his house and returned to Trujillo where he bought a house and finca and lives happily to this day selling coffee from the finca. The whore went back to Cartagena to hook but there are plenty of village girls happy to keep an aging Dutchman company. So play2win I say go for it and you too can end up in a romantic storey like this one.

[mudd]

now thats a story,  heard of a similar one, but the guy went to mexico, and ended up staying in a small village in the mountains where a lot of europeans ended up. loved it and never went back to the  US.

[braziliangirl]

Here that happens on an island.

[Patrick]

Just have a good backup plan for a return.  As someone else said, many people end up missing home a lot after a while.

[Dave H]

Uruguay... Yes definitely cross it off your list!   If necessary, a few of us will volunteer to go there.

Argentinians arrogant...a la mierda! I have friends from Agentina...But, YES that is a true statement!   And they don't think their mierda stinks!

Dave

[robert angel]

I dunno-I haven't been to either place, but from the outside looking in, the Argentinians seem to be to South America what the French are to Western Europe...

[Bob_S]

I dunno-I haven't been to either place, but from the outside looking in, the Argentinians seem to be to South America what the French are to Western Europe...

Never been to either place either, but the Sept. 2010 issue of Smithsonian Magazine writes that "only Paris comes close to matching Rio in self-love", quoting Brazilian writer Eric Nepomuceno.

[Gavan]

I have been living in Peru for over four years now and it is OK. It is a lot of fun for a while, but I am starting to miss home a lot. I live in Trujillo (a smaller city in the North), but most foreigners prefer to live in Miraflores, Lima, which is almost like a first-world city. Peru has a LOT of crime, but it also has lots of interesting places to visit, great food and fun nightlife.

[play2win]

After much consideration, getting my passport & talking with various people it appears that I will start with Costa Rica.  I will spend one month this summer traveling through it and see if i like it.  If I like it I can start there and then I will already be in south america and it will be easy to travel around and figure out where to permanently stay.  Has anyone ever lived in Costa Rica?  Can they share there thoughts?  I saw there was another costa rica friend at the top but that one deals with looking for wives in Costa Rica where as I am talking about moving there.

Any help always appreciated!

[utopiacowboy]

You still won't be in South America if you are in Costa Rica. Close but no cigar. My daughter spent two years in Costa Rica up near the Nicaraguan border. She much preferred Nicaragua to Costa Rica.

[play2win]

I wish I could ammend the subject to looking to move to central / south america.  I have heard the best things about costa rica based on my research as far as how safe, the climate, what there is to do, cost of living, and how the women look (although a lot look light and I tend to like a darker look just not as dark as dominicans).  As I said it is a starting point.  Where I would really like to go is Cali or Melledin but I could see myself getting trouble very quickly.  I thnk Costa Rica provides a nice happy medium.

I appreciate ur thoughts though.  I will look at nicugragag once I get there.   Anyone else?

[PachucoBro]

After much consideration, getting my passport & talking with various people it appears that I will start with Costa Rica.  I will spend one month this summer traveling through it and see if i like it.  If I like it I can start there and then I will already be in south america and it will be easy to travel around and figure out where to permanently stay.  Has anyone ever lived in Costa Rica?  Can they share there thoughts?  I saw there was another costa rica friend at the top but that one deals with looking for wives in Costa Rica where as I am talking about moving there.

Any help always appreciated!

Be sure to do alot of homework before spending an entire month anywhere. Especially Costa Rica. I think it would be hard to fill 30 days of finding new things to do in Costa Rica. Not to say it is not a good place to retire or live, just that the island life is not very diverse as you might think.

Also, not sure who you have talked to, but unless you have gone global to get your information you should visit websites like http://internationalliving.com/ and others like it by searching Google for 'living internationally'.

Good Luck!

[play2win]

Be sure to do alot of homework before spending an entire month anywhere. Especially Costa Rica. I think it would be hard to fill 30 days of finding new things to do in Costa Rica. Not to say it is not a good place to retire or live, just that the island life is not very diverse as you might think.

Also, not sure who you have talked to, but unless you have gone global to get your information you should visit websites like http://internationalliving.com/ and others like it by searching Google for 'living internationally'.

Good Luck!

I will check out that site thank you.  I am looking for a place in south or central america that is safe, friendly to americans, has warm weather (no winter), beaches, things to do and beautiful girls, cheap living would be helpful also.

What are some of your suggestions?