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Seniors Traveling Internationally on A Budget – Our Exciting Life Plan!

Good Golly its Holly!
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Seniors Traveling Internationally on A Budget – Our Exciting Life Plan!

How Our Plan Took Shape for these active seniors traveling internationally on a Budget – The Itch is Real…

As active seniors traveling internationally on a budget we think we are ready for this exciting life plan! We’ve been living on a loose budget for years stateside so international travel shouldn’t be any different? You think? Yes, there are naysayers but we aim to prove them wrong!

[UPDATE as of November, 2023: Today, late in 2023, we still cannot believe we have been able to put a plan into place & follow it. We’ve been to Central & South America, Asia & now presently we are on the continent of Africa! Can you believe it? All because of our budget! Yes, you can travel year round on a budget & you do not have to feel you are being cheated on anything! Back to the article, we’ll catch up later in newer blogs. Thanks for following!]

As active seniors traveling there are a lot of things to take into consideration! We are on a set budget. I know you are probably already of hearing that word – budget but I’ll warn you now that you will hear it again & again in my posts. We need to play our cards right & do some homework before we start our grand adventure. Where do we want to start?  Do we want to travel abroad or out of country? Do we want to put roots down along the way for our new home? Where would we want to move abroad? Are we nuts? Maybe, a little. We believe that prior proper planning will prevent any unforeseeable mistakes, we hope! We know there may be road bumps along the way, however, we do anticipate that but nothing we cannot handle. We hope to share both our good & bad experiences with you along our grand adventure. Just maybe by following us you will be inspired to take the steps to become the next active seniors for international travel!

Believe me, we do not take this lightly. As we learn along the way, we will be able to pass those lessons on to you. We may find that at some point we may have to amend our plans. Again, you will learn as we go on this quest we have set out for ourselves.

Your mission, should you accept it, is to begin following us, sit back & enjoy the adventures with us. Will an interracial senior couple traveling be happy living outside of the states? Oh yeah, we truly believe so but to be totally up front we know as seniors traveling there are specific things we need to consider. Let’s see what we can find!!

American Expats Living Out of Country

It was not that big of a surprise to us that moving out of the country is not a ‘new thing’.  What did surprise us was the number of seniors who do actually move out of country. Here are some interesting tid-bits about expats.

According to the World Atlas, millions of Americans live outside of the U.S. Twenty out of every one hundred travelers becoming an expat are over sixty years young! When you think about it, the economic benefits of living outside of the U.S. can be very beneficial especially if you are living on a tight budget as most seniors do in the U.S.

The top countries for American expats to move are Mexico, Europe, Canada & then Southeast Asia. Mexico & Canada make sense as they are border countries to the U.S. with easy access. Italy, Germany, France & the U.K. are the most popular European countries for American expats. Now India & Philippines being the most popular SE Asian countries is, to me, surprising but I think that is because not everyone moves for the same reasons.

Marriage, relationships, politics, economics & work are just reasons that play into a move to a foreign land from your home country. For us, the ongoing racial issues in the states played a large part on our desire to explore our options outside of the states.

Back to our Plan for this interracial couple Traveling Internationally

Remember when you were 20 years young & you thought your parents were old because they were in their 50s? Then when you turned 40 [I did!] I thought hmmm 65 is old. Now that we are over 65, I think how silly. We both feel like we are just starting over again! Yes, we are seniors & I don’t mind saying that at all! Seniors get discounts folks! My sister-in-law Sweet Mary introduced me years ago to Dairy Queen senior discounts! LOL. I digress.

We are in good health & continue to work on keeping it that way with daily exercise, walking, biking & in general just trying to eat healthy. Like most seniors over 60 years of age, we live on a set income & just need to be sure we can financially afford to make this escape. To do this, we have to put a budget & plan into place to make it happen!

Just the fact that we are at those retirement years, traveling internationally as a mixed race senior couple, leaves a lot of things to worry about that younger travelers may not. We have to be healthy & financially able to take care of ourselves separate from our families in the U.S. We may be hopping country to country – its not like we can just call and say hey ‘can you come over to help’. You know what I’m talking about. We knew we had to be both – healthy & financially stable – to make this escape. We needed to finalize our Plan to make the big adventure happen. This was in 2017 with a five year time frame to make it happen.

Where will we travel to find our piece of Paradise as an interracial senior couple?

Of course our main concern is the acceptability of an interracial senior couple in the country we land in. This travel blog is a way to connect & to share our photos & experiences once we get on that flight for whatever foreign country we have decided to visit or possibly move. The Big Guy & I have been blessed with coming into these retirement years & not being bogged down in a whole lot of debt. Paying off credit cards is not easy but such a feeling of satisfaction once it is done! It’s just not comfortable to us to gain debt once the old debt is paid off. Make sense?

We have never been that couple who had to keep up with the neighbors with newest electronics, vehicles, latest game machines, etc. You get what I mean. Really, once we were committed to the mindset that living on a budget could make our Big Adventure of traveling [or moving] to foreign countries come true, the word budget developed a whole new meaning! We knew if we worked together we could reduce even more spending to make the goal of world travel a dream come true for us. This is now.

International travel as interracial senior couple becomes part of our life

The Big Guy was selected to work in the Middle East from 2006 to late 2011.

The Big Guy in Middle East.
The Big Guy in Afghanistan.
Children of the Middle East conflict.
Afghanistan children & soldier.

I was able to meet him once or twice a year for a vacation for me/R&R for him. We visited foreign countries that we never would have been able to except for his job. I won’t lie, the countries I met The Big Guy in were more of destination vacations.

Let’s just be honest, we decided an international destination sounded nice. Though we are not big spenders, we were able to see some sights on budget.

That was our introduction to world travel as a couple & it opened our eyes to how sheltered we were in our own little piece of the U.S. There was so much to see in other countries, culture, sights, amazing people, the list goes on and on. We wanted to see more!

Between the two of us we have visited over 25+ countries; UK, France, The Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, Thailand, Italy, Turkey, Greece, San Salvador, etc with OUR last trip being to Poland in 2015. Some of the countries visited were by way of our jobs at various times. Now that we are older, we are looking for a place that will provide a peaceful & friendly environment for seniors like us.

Then The Big Guy’s Middle East mission was completed & he returned home

Once his mission was complete, he was back home & our international meet ups were for a while at least put to rest… We didn’t sit home & not go anywhere but budget was a big factor for any travel plans. A trip to Rome in 2012 with Jordan [one of the girls] was awesome, another short trip to San Salvador later that year & finally Poland in 2015 ended our international travel or so we thought.

We would continue to chat & reminisce how much fun we had riding the elephant ‘with an attitude’ in Thailand, taking the Bosphorus Riverboat Cruise in Istanbul, walking the ruins in Greece, etc. We have such fabulous memories from every country we have visited.

I think we were asking ourselves could we live in a foreign country? Was that an unreachable dream? That’s really when I started researching the possibilities.

The Big Adventure Plan for this Interracial Senior Couple to Travel Internationally on a Budget Starts to Take Shape

The itch was there. The research showed me that I was not alone. I found numerous online stories of expats which prompted us to start watching travel shows – you know the ones showing folks moving to a foreign country to live as an expat overseas. We would look at each other & say “why can’t we do that” or  “we could live there” or “man that trip was awesome”, secretly thinking we could do that. At the end of one of these conversations late 2016, I made the statement “we keep talking about moving to another country, let’s make a plan and do it!” Well The Big Guy smiled the biggest grin & this is where it all began.

Initially, we thought we wanted to be expats living Thailand. We just fell in love with everything about Thailand… Phuket had been a dream vacation for the two of us. The culture just wrapped its arms around us & we felt like we really could belong there. So at the beginning – Thailand was our main goal.

We started looking outward to countries that neither of us had seen & that held an interest for both of us. I researched for best countries for American expats to live & found gold. F/B & YouTube were full of info. Just do a search for the country you are interested in & see what pops up in the forums.

Reality set in and we realized this might take a little more work. Wherever we moved, there would be certain criteria that we deemed necessary for us to be comfortable & it had to be on point with our budget.

Additional Things We Had to Consider to be ready for International Travel:

I love spirals and should have bought stock in the company…yep, there were a lot of things to take into consideration. Many sheets of paper have been wadded up, tossed to the trash to get a clear picture of what we needed to happen to make this Adventure come to reality – smoothly. Allow me to get you up to speed on our present day thinking or the culmination of our 2017 “five year plan”.

2017 – initial notebook contained a short “To Do” list – make sure passports are up to date, which vaccines are required for which country, etc.  Also, started scratching down names of countries that intrigued our wandering spirit. Had to take close look at finances, etc.

2018 – started researching online for other expats living in foreign countries & getting familiar with their sites. Researching visa requirements for a few of the countries we had listed previously on Bucket List. Our plan to be sure all debt was paid off at take off was a little harder. We both are on track to minimize spending.

2019 – things are looking really good! The Big Guy is thinking we could possibly get the house on market late fall or winter of this 2019 year! Yikes, that is too soon for me I tell him. I have to close my business, get rid of décor, find new connections for my realtors, etc. I’m freaking out a little – this is too fast!

In November 2019 we decide we’ll put house on market Feb or Mar of 2020. We will still be ahead of our original move of 2021 but it will give me time to do what I need to do to close my staging business by end of December, 2019. Wow, a lot of work but its done!

Have been following a couple expats/nomads living in Thailand, Portugal & Mexico that are awesome about their experiences, etc. Embassy listings are a great place for collecting information once you decide which country you want to visit &/or move.

by late 2019 we decided maybe April, 2020 would be good date to list house. House is ready. Cleaning out closets. Interviewed realtor… Then  Covid-19 hit & everything shut down as you all know.

By Late 2020  The good new was even though Covid initially slowed our plans, we were able to get house on market during the boom of December 2020.

Bucket List – Must Haves for Countries

As we checked off various aspects of our to do list, our Bucket List of countries started growing but still looks doable! It seems our idea of moving to just one specific country is now to see how many countries we can travel inexpensively. We are thinking bouncing from country to country on visitor visas is more what we really want to do. Thus, our Bucket List of the best countries for expats to live is becoming more of a list of cheap foreign countries that we can just visit, land for 3-6 months & then move on to the next on our list!

In the meantime, our Bucket List is getting tweaked. The new updated plan was to build a Bucket List of inexpensive countries to put on our “to travel” list. Once that list is done, we can tweak that list down to countries that we both agree are economically agreeable to our planned budget & entered as our official Bucket List.

1] I had wanted to revisit a different area of Greece but we didn’t agree so it is off the list. I’d been to UK, France, Holland & Belgium in my prior life and would have loved to visit again with The Big Guy but European countries just don’t appeal to him.

After much conversation, we agreed that Central & South American countries would be a great starting point for us. SE Asian countries pretty much finished off our list. A couple other countries are still in discussion phase. Ha.

2] Secondly, we made a Cheat sheet of items that would have to be considered to make our visit/move to a particular country smart. UPDATE: Oct. 2020 We go into more detail on this in our “Top 20 Issues to Research When Considering A Move Abroad” though it would be pertinent for travel abroad as well for really any age traveler.

3] Next was the 5”x7” index cards with a country name printed across the top & the list of items [#2 above] we deemed as important to research before we made any final decisions.

4] As we do our due diligence on our proposed countries we are getting down to final Bucket List!

Stay tuned and lets see how this rides out.

Obtaining A Bank of Georgia Bank Card Was Super Easy!

Good Golly its Holly!
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Obtaining A Bank of Georgia Bank Card Was Super Easy!

We had been in Batumi, Georgia for four months & was asked to join an online group of international travelers that live and work in Georgia. During one of the group discussions they were talking about how easy it was for foreigners to set up bank accounts. The owner of our first rental unit worked at a Georgian bank, so we contacted him to inquire about setting up a bank account in Georgia. Based on the information he provided, we thought it might be worth our time to get a Bank of Georgia bank card. In talking to the banker, we had a choice of banks, Bank of Georgia, TBC & TeraBank, he suggested Bank of Georgia because it was the largest bank.

The main reason we wanted a local bank card was to avoid getting hit with the foreign transaction fee whenever we used our U.S. bank card. (Georgia is one of two countries we’ve traveled that has hit us with int’l fees). Although the fees were not that much we were charged every time we used our U.S. card & pennies do add up!

Bank of Georgia Application Process

The receptionists at the front desk of the Bank of Georgia we visited spoke English which helped with clarity when we stated what we were looking for. They gave each of us a two page account application to fill out (we were not allowed to have both names on one account) & return to them.

Although The Big Guy & I set next to each other when filling out the papers, we did not compare answers! REMEMBER THIS!

Once we had the docs completed along with our Passports in hand The Big Guy was sent in one direction & I in another. Along with our passports, they asked for our local address & Georgian phone number which we had both. She explained the difference in three plans they offered & we both chose the middle which allowed 3,000 GEL transfers a month with no additional fee. The package comes with two cards – the Yellow Plus card (which also earns store rewards) & Bank of Georgia Mastercard (international use) on the same account which makes it super easy to track your spending for budget purposes!

Bright yellow PLUS card with Georgian script and an American Express logo in the corner
Bright yellow PLUS card with Georgian

Fifteen minutes after walking in I had my Bank of Georgia Yellow Plus card in hand & was told to come back in three days to pick up the personalized MasterCard.

Bank of Georgia Mastercard
Bank of Georgia Mastercard

Meanwhile, I kept glancing over at The Big Guy who kept giving me those shrugs that said ‘I don’t know what the heck is going on’. When finished I walked over to sit with him. The lady behind the desk was furiously typing into her computer & offering no comments other than printing out documents & handing him 3 or 4 sheets for his signature (I only signed once?). After about an hour, she finally gave him a Yellow Plus card & Mastercard, with no additional instructions.

The ladies at the front counter stopped us as we neared the exit & asked if we needed help setting up the online banking app. Thank God they were on it because we would have made it home & pulling our hair out trying to set up the banking app. Once out the door we compared notes as to why why why it took him so long in the process?? What alarm was triggered that she needed more than an hour for him to do what took me less than 15 minutes? Did the color of skin make a difference in the process?? OR was it something else? Well, for all his wisdom & intelligence, under the heading “Source of Income” on the Application he had written ‘the source of his pension‘ where I had written ‘pension’? HMMMMM. All his speeches about KEEP IT SIMPLE, came to a SQUEAKING HALT. We believe his adding the source of his pension set off an alarm that caused over an hour more paperwork.

I had been given a page with wiring instructions from our bank to this card. Using Remitly to transfer money from home account to Bank of Georgia account cost us $1.99 per transfer. After having used the cards for a couple months, they have been really easy to load & use – definitely saving us some money! Both cards have a four year expiration date & the bank cost of the use of the cards is 10 GEL a month or $3.79 USD (today’s conversion rate). Plus, adding both to your Wallet insures you are always covered!

Using the cards is where things get interesting- – the Yellow Plus card is an American Express debit card & not accepted at every location, but the majority of the locations that do accept the Yellow card has given an extra discount to certain purchases. We have seen discounts as high as 20% at some places & FYI the discounts have already more than covered the 10 Gel monthly fee.

One more benefit of the Yellow Card is you can use on the city bus. It cost us .70 GEL which in today’s conversion is .27 cents from point A to B!

Conclusion

This is the only country we have visited so far that allows a visitor to obtain a bank card. All in all we have been extremely happy with using the cards. When you are a senior couple traveling on a strict monthly budget pennies do add up!

Batumi, Georgia – Our Surprising & Amazing Cost Of Living!

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Batumi, Georgia – Our Surprising & Amazing Cost Of Living!

Batumi, Georgia’s cost of living was just what our budget needed! We were uncertain about our decision to travel across the Atlantic Ocean to the Eastern European country of Georgia but we are so happy we did! After much research, we decided on the city of Batumi, the second largest city in Georgia.

The country of Georgia offers visitors from many countries the ability to stay 365 days on a passport & medical travel insurance that covers their stay while in Georgia. After traveling to countries that only were allowing us 30, 60, 90 & even 180 day stays on our U.S. passport, we were excited about traveling to Georgia. We figured with 365 days we could actually get a feel for the country’s culture & the real cost of living.

Two seniors traveling international on a small retirement pension may sound a little crazy to well, most of you. No, I’m not talking about the travel sounding crazy, I am talking about life on a strict monthly budget. Traveling from country to country requires a certain amount of financial sacrifices that is not for the weak at heart.

This article will dive into a discussion about some of those financial sacrifices or choices we are forced to make to maintain our lifestyle! Let me get back to our decision to travel to the country of Georgia in Eastern Europe. Our research showed that the country of Georgia used their own currency called the GEL or Lari, which allowed us to have a little greater spending power with the U.S. dollar. We compared in our research the cost of living between the coastal city of Batumi & the capital city of Tbilisi. The smaller city of Batumi would be 15% more economical than living in Tbilisi in working class neighborhoods. Since we had never been to Eastern European, we were excited to know how our small pension & strict budget would perform in an Eastern European country. Has it delivered? You be the judge! Here is how our budget worked out for us!

Batumi Housing – monthly budget allotment of 27%

The average monthly Batumi housing in off-season (Oct to Mar) can cost between $350-$900, depending on number of bedrooms & how close you are to the beach. Batumi’s tourist season explodes from April – September & rent can increase by an average of 40%. We budget 27% of our pension for housing, therefore the off-season prices were well within our Budget.

The Big Guy & I work as a team with our financial matters. We discuss our wants, needs & budget regarding any travel or housing. I am in charge of housing arrangements & the Big Guy handles international travel. I stay out of his lane & he stays out of mine. With that being said…Finding economical housing during off-season can be done, but there are challenges. Many places will not include utilities & essentials like bathroom supplies, kitchen ware for cooking, etc.

Renting Locally in Batumi

There are also risk involved with paying cash & personally I don’t like those headaches. I could have found more economical housing but I pay extra for the convenience of of knowing if it is as advertised & “if not” I can get my money back to go somewhere else. We have certain things we want when we rent a place to stay, such as working hot water & working heat or A/C, so as long as it is within budget, I look at Airbnb’s, which I realize are more expensive than renting directly from an owner or real estate agent. I have dealt with direct rentals from online websites, owners & real estate agents. I am offered lower rentals, but utilities & sometimes maintenance fees are separate payments. Bottom line those low rent prices may come with sometimes hidden fees that actually make the rental equal to or greater than paying for an Airbnb. You do you!

These Are Our Neighborhoods of Choice!

We prefer to stay in working neighborhoods such as this for an example. The exterior aesthetics of houses/apartments may not be what many middle class westerners are accustomed to seeing. Our ‘adapt and improvise’ may not fit your desires at first glance on the outside, most used as Airbnbs are beautifully renovated inside. We personally loved walking the streets wondering what these houses would say if they could talk. Although Batumi is booming with new apartment high rises on it seems every corner, there is just something magical in the older homes. What I a am saying ‘you cannot always judge a book by its cover’!

Typical laundry day in Batumi neighborhoods
Typical laundry day in Batumi neighborhoods

Groceries – budget allotment of 13%

The average monthly grocery expense in Batumi, Georgia for us came in right at budget every month. Based on what we needed some months were much lower than others while other months were right at the tip of the budget. Shopping in an open-air market for locally grown fruits, vegetables & meats cost considerably less than shopping at the major super markets like Carrefour or Goodwill where you can buy specialty imported brands. We stayed within our budgeted amount by cooking at home a majority of the time & shopping at the open air market for our fruits or vegetables as needed.

Grocery shopping in Batumi is a hit or miss experience, both when it comes to finding some of the fresh vegetables that we like to use when cooking & especially when it comes to “customer service.” We used two major supermarkets, Carrefour (Black Sea Mall location the best) & Agrohub (best for fruits/vegetables) when we were not shopping at open markets. Each store carried items the other did not so we used both about the same. Street vendor offer the best selections of fruits & vegetable at are big savings from the Super markets stores.

Fresh fruit & vegetable stand in Batumi, Georgi
Fresh fruit & vegetable stand in Batumi, Georgia

During mandarin season supermarkets charge about 5 Lari a kilo, while the open air markets charge about 3 lari a kilo. We saw cherries ranging from 7 Lari per kilo to 15 Lari on the same day but in different neighborhoods of the city.

Dining – budget allotment of 5%

The average cost for us to dine out at a simple local restaurant in Batumi was about $7-$9 USD. A fast food lunch or occasional dinner out for the two of us about $20-25 USD but those were maybe two or three times per month. You could easily spend more at the tourist specialty restaurants. We don’t dine out that often & during our six months in Batumi we stayed under the 5% we budgeted for dining out.

Now I included dining out & coffee shops together. Honestly, we spent most of our budgeted amount going to coffee shops which sometimes might include a breakfast, snack or small meal with friends. Prices ranged depending whether you were in tourist area or local neighborhood. Our favorite coffee shop had to be Greejeens, because the Big Guy is a coffee snob & they had his favorite selection of coffee beans!

Barista helping Horace with coffee beans
Greejeens Barista helping Horace with coffee beans
Typical coffee prices
Typical coffee prices

Cellular Service – budget allotment of 3%

Our Average monthly cellular service including added phone storage was 3% of our budget which included two phone plans for us. Since Magticom (Magti) seemed to have the most reliable & extensive network it was our choice for a Georgian number. (Silknet [Geocell] & Cellfie mobile are both budget-friendly). Magti was easy & we added to our Bank of Georgia card for auto payment of $34 USD for the two of us for the last six months we were in Georgia.

At the beginning of the year we had started using Mint Mobile for our stateside cell phone service, but their international service coverage fees are unreasonable for our budget. Luckily we were able to take advantage of their special sign-up offer of $15 USD a month per line for unlimited service. Combining Magti & Mint packages that makes our total cellular service per month $68 USD coming under our budgeted amount.

Travel/Medical Insurance for Georgia – budget allotment of 17%

Next to housing, medical insurance is one of our biggest & necessary expenses with a budget of 17%. There are two entries under this heading – Travel/Medical insurance & Medicare. With both programs it still came under the Budget Allotment of 17%.

First the travel/medical insurance for Georgia.

The country of Georgia recently passed a law requiring all foreigners to have medical coverage prior to entering the country that must be valid through their stay in the country. Remember when I told you that the Big Guy was responsible for travel, well insurance is also in his lane. The Big Guy is all about ensuring that we contribute to small businesses in the local economy. When we arrived in Georgia, we had coverage for international travel medical insurance from a major insurer within the United States. Prior to that policy lapsing, the Big Guy renewed our medical Insurance through a local Georgia company that provided the required amounts including legal & translation coverages while in country. (Don’t ask me the reason he felt we needed legal services). The savings we got in purchasing a local travel medical insurance helped to keep us under our budgeted 17%.

Second part is Medicare insurance for U.S.

Thankfully, both of us are keen on keeping up with our health. While traveling outside the United States our Medicare does not cover routine or emergency medical care which does suck. If needed, you will generally be required to pay 100% of your international medical bills out-of-pocket & then make a claim against your Travel/Medical above. We have had to do that & it worked just fine. This is what irritates me – we are required to pay our monthly Medicare insurance at a rate of $202.90 USD. We are paying $405.80 per month for insurance that is worthless outside the U.S. At some point, I see us settling down in our peace of paradise & dispensing with the Medicare!

Transportation in Batumi – budget allotment 4%

Let me be clear that we do walk a lot & Batumi is a walkable city. I might even dare say you could walk from one end of the city to the other but if you aren’t a walker you have a choice in transportation. City Bus, Mini Bus, Yandex, Bolt, Taxi, Maxim are modes of transportation in Batumi but we used Bolt. Using the City Bus was very easy & inexpensive to use with our Yellow Plus card. It uses a one on/one off price of .70 GEL which is equal to .26 USD per person. Now that’s a bargain! Only con is that it took us on our longest ride an hour & 18 stops to get to our destination but if you aren’t in a hurry…go for it. Most of the City Buses are clean & electric with a/c! The 4% allotted to Transportation was more than enough & under budget!

We attempted to use the taxi & asked for a price to our destination. He looked at us & said 10 GEL which equaled to $3.77 USD – we said ‘no thank you’. Ordered a mid size Bolt & the cost was 4.70 GEL or $1.77 USD. We also think that Bolt is much safer than the local taxi service for several reason that I will discuss in another article, Needless to say we stick to Bolt here in Georgia. We have discussed using Vanilla Sky, the Georgian Train or the Georgian Bus for our move to Kutaisi but unsure at this point. They all seem reasonable for us.

Miscellaneous Costs in Batumi

Russian manicures cost me $35 USD & was the best manicure! Gel didn’t chip & my nails have never been in better shape! I don’t think I will ever be happy again with an American manicure! This salon was in ‘tourist’ area so the price reflects that.

Fresh Georgian bread out of the oven from street vendor cost $1.13 USD (3 GEL for two huge pieces)! We usually ended up munching on the warm bread while walking home. OH, and I was told by baker how I was to carry them – no dropping them in my shopping bag. Ha!

Buying fresh bread in Batumi
Buying fresh bread in Batumi, Georgia

Fresh fruits/vegetables from street vendors can save a ton on groceries.

Parks, Boardwalk, Sunning on beach, Plane Spotting – Free entertainment!

Beauty Salons are on every block. Keeping my white roots blond (including trim, blowout & a cappuchino) cost me $77 USD every 6-8 weeks. This entry is covered under our Personal Allotment of 4%. Other expenses might be shaves for The Big Guy, mani/pedis, misc clothing, etc.

All in all, Batumi, Georgia….

Batumi was pretty good to us. Beautiful country but I think Batumi is a little touristic for my blood during the summer months. Is it worth a return trip for us? Definitely! For now, we are continuing our fascination with Georgia for a visit to Kutaisi for a couple months & then possibly Tbilisi.

We Have Landed In Beautiful Batumi, Georgia!

Good Golly its Holly!
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We Have Landed In Beautiful Batumi, Georgia!

Upon landing in Batumi, Georgia, our first impressions were of what are we stepping into? Where’s the pretty we heard about? I don’t know the exact reason we decided to check out Batumi but we were getting to a little to comfortable in Quito, Ecuador & our time had run out. Two years in South America in near perfect year round warm weather was amazing but we were not ready to settle – yet! As the Big Guy would tell me repeatedly there are other countries we should check out. How about a country that has four seasons & easy on the pocket? Were we mistaken when we decided to jump across the water to the farthest point of Europe?

A Little History of Beautiful Georgia

BLACK SEA – Georgia is a small country that shares a border with Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia (shares the longest border to the north) & the gorgeous Black Sea. While you can swim along certain of the sea coasts it is noted to check safety precautions for that country. At depths below 150-200 meters the water is dangerous with hydrogen sulfide, pollution & strong undercurrents making it dangerous.

Black Sea on Map
Black Sea on Map

As dangerous as the Black Sea can be to swimmers it is beautiful to the eyes! We were amazed at the different colors & patterns on the rocks!

Black Sea with pebble beach in Batumi, Georgia
A calm day on the Black Sea with pebble beach in Batumi, Georgia
Assortment of colors of rocks on Black Sea, Batumi.
Assortment of colors of rocks on Black Sea, Batumi

The beautiful New Batumi Boulevard boardwalk along the Black Sea is 7km long where you can see various sports areas, restaurants, workout equipment, etc lined with tall trees on one side & the Black Sea on the other. There is also another path for scooters, bikes, etc.

Horace on boardwalk
Horace on New Batumi Boardwalk
Batumi Tower
Batumi Tower

Walking along the board walk & side streets, you can see how fast the New Batumi is growing with tall apartment buildings, hotels, casinos – showing a stark difference between the old & the new.

Old vs New Buildings, Batumi
Old vs New Buildings, Batumi

A Little Back History: The Kingdom of Georgia (1008 AD) was wrecked with Mongol invasions (13th Century), followed by Persian & Ottoman empire invasions…so in 1801 Georgia annexed itself to Russia for protection. After the Russian revolution of 1917 Georgia declared independence May 5, 1918 but that didn’t last long. The Soviet Union invaded Georgia again in 1921 & became Georgia SSR. Independence Day was April of 1991. At one point Georgia’s name was the The Republic of Georgia but then became just Georgia with Tbilisi as its capital with a population presently of around 3.7 million people.

2008 RUSSIAN-GEORGIA WAR Here is a history lesson we received from a Batumi resident. In 2008 Russia & Georgia had a 5 day war & when all was said & done, Russia took 20% of the country without much of a argument from Georgia. Russia deployed an estimated 70,000 military personnel to Georgia, while Georgia’s army only totaled 10,000 total personnel, so you can see the reason for the shortness of this conflict. The Russian-Georgian war was short, because Georgia did not have western military support (they were only offered humanitarian assistance).

GEORGIAN WINE If you are into wine, then you probably should already know that Georgia can boast of a 8,000 year history of wine making using large clay jugs called gvevri. Many of the Georgians, such as our friend Giorgi, has his own personal wine cellar for making wine. The cherry on top? We were invited to taste his Georgian Amber Wine along with an authentic Georgian meal. but wait, I’m getting off track. We learned there are also over 500 types of grapes in this country but only a hand full are used for making Georgian wine – red & white.

Horace & Giorgi in his wine making cellar!
Horace & Giorgi in his wine making cellar!
Authentic Georgia meal - satsivi with chicken, khachapuri, ostri, feijoa, salad olivier homemade by Giogi's mom & topped off with Amber wine!
Authentic Georgia meal – satsivi with chicken, khachapuri, ostri, feijoa, salad olivier homemade by Giogi’s mom & topped off with Amber wine!

Easy Passport Entry into Georgia!

Georgia allows 365 days on U.S. passport alone! What is not to like about that? At this point in time, country runs are allowed to renew your 365 day stay! There is a fine for overstaying though!

We watched videos & did our research deciding Georgia was a place we should look into. We knew there would more than likely be a definite communication gap but we didn’t let that scare us.  Affordability, diversity, cultures were the top draws of why we should visit. Now to find out if it delivers!

Photos Of Our Adventure Thus Far!

Normally, we are excited about diving into learning the basic greeting of a new language, but the weather just took the thrill of learning anything about the Georgian language all out unwelcoming which made not knowing any Georgian or Russian greeting that much worse! BUT that soon changed.

During our research on Georgia, we were aware that this Eastern European country would have a very small population of black people. To-date, we have seen five (5)!! We were not just outsiders that could not speak the language, we added an extra layer by being an inter-racial (Black/White) couple so we anticipated receiving curious stares. We soon learned how to say “hello” in Georgian & the site of dark skin turned from curious stares into looks of surprise & huge smiles when we would greet them in Georgian or Russian. Eventually, the warm smiles turned into people we didn’t know waving & shouting “Hello” to us in either the Georgian or English language.

Once we made it toward the end of February, the weather changed to slightly warmer temps & we were able to wander the streets to actually see how beautiful Batumi really can be.

Now we were told ‘do not get to excited yet as the weather changes day to day’. But when sun was out so were we.

Yes it is chaotic at times – figuring out the lay of the town & how to communicate in a language we had never had any experience with – Georgian, Russian & Ukraine humbled us immediately! We stumbled but with the help of our favorite coffee cafes baristas (and some very sweet people we have met) all were extremely patient with us, we have slowly started to add words to our vocabulary. As a side note, Georgia has one of the oldest language that is specific to Georgia only! The Alphabet Tower celebrates the Georgian language.

Georgian Alphabetic Tower
Georgian Alphabetic Tower

Away from the sea we found different ethnic neighborhoods in our walking adventures. The buildings have a definite personality & its own history & we thoroughly enjoyed these walks just guessing the ethnicity of the neighborhood.

Lady hanging laundry in Batumi
Lady hanging laundry in Batumi

Almost every store has English along with language of the business.

Store sign in English & Georgian
Cake Store

By time March rolled around temperatures were definitely warming up but again we were told don’t get use to these warm days as it can be cold as heck tomorrow so again we took advantage of the sun to explore. The European Square in Old Batumi is a must see fi you enjoy neo-classical architecture.

Madea & the golden fleece in Europe Square, Old Town Batumi
Madea & the golden fleece in Europe Square, Old Town Batumi
Europe Square in Batumi, Georgia
A corner of Europe Square in Batumi, Georgia
Europe Square, Batumi
Europe Square, Batumi
Sample of various wide sidewalks in Batumi.
Sample of various wide sidewalks in Batumi.
Europe Square, Batumi
Row of green public bicycles docked at a station on a sunny city street, with cars and shops in the background.
Bicycle Rentals Batumi
Ali & Nino
Has to on top of my favorites! Ali & Nino is a 8 ft metal moving sculpture on the what I would call the port end of boardwalk.

Locals are definitely warming up to us & returning greetings which makes us feel like we are doing something right. We originally thought we would stay a couple months & fly to next stop but we are enjoying our time so we have decided to give it six months here in Batumi – three down, three to to! Lets see what the next three months brings us in Batumi?

OMG, Ecuador’s Cotopaxi Volcano is Breathtakingly Beautiful & Dangerous!

Good Golly its Holly!
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OMG, Ecuador’s Cotopaxi Volcano is Breathtakingly Beautiful & Dangerous!

It is difficult writing this because it is just impossible to put into words the breathtaking beauty & danger of Ecuador’s Cotopaxi Volcano really is & photos can’t do it justice! A couple of our Ecuadorian friends invited us for a drive to Cotopaxi wanting to share with us how beautiful it was. The day was cool but sunny & it was a great drive.

A Little Background About Cotopaxi

The Cotopaxi Volcanic mountain sits 51km south of Quito & is among the highest active volcano at just under 6,000m! It’s base width is around 22.5km! Since 2022 it has posed risks of eruptions which in the past have sent ash as far as Quito city. At 5,000m there is a glacier which could lead to mass flooding & erosion on northern settlements of Quito! Just saying, as beautiful to the eye that Cotopaxi is, it can be equally as dangerous.

Cotopaxi’s name is indigenous & means more or less ‘Neck of the Moon’ from its crater shape or even fiery nature? Culturally, Cotopaxi is considered sacred as a rain giver & home to Gods.

The Love Story of the Volcanoes

The Ecuadorians believe the volcanos have personalities as shown in this story told to us. The Cotopaxi volcano is “jealous” of the Rumiñahui mountain stemming from a traditional Quechua legend about the volcanoes of Ecuador.


There are several different versions of the love triangle/legend, but I liked this one the best. A neighboring volcano/mountain Rumiñahui is the one who reveals a secret love affair between Iliniza Sur (south peak) & Cotopaxi, even though she was the wife of Iliniza Norte (north peak). The Tattletale, Rumiñahui mountain discovered the affair & told Iliniza Norte (spouse of Iliniza Sur). The Conflict: This revelation led to conflict among the peaks.


In a different interpretation of this legend, Rumiñahui is seen as a tattletale & Cotopaxi’s “jealousy” is a common way to refer to this folklore. The Rumiñahui mountain itself is named after a loyal Inca general who hid the last Inca emperor Atahualpa’s ransom from the Spanish conquistadors.

As we got nearer to Cotopaxi you can see the clouds are deciding whether to let us take pictures.

Distant view of Cotopaxi as we get closer & higher.
Distant view of Cotopaxi as we get closer & higher.
Holly & Horace in front of Cotopaxi
Holly & Horace in front of Cotopaxi. Clouds as slowing clearing!

There is no one word for the beauty of Cotopaxi! It was simply just Mother Nature at her best!

Milly asking Cotopaxi to clear clouds for photos!
Milly asking Cotopaxi to clear clouds for photos!

Our Visit to Cotopaxi Volcano Park!

It is a popular “must hike” for those who get into climbing mountains with snow, ice, lack of oxygen, etc, you get my point? Since we were not in the least prepared to do that level of hiking, we viewed the majestic mountain from the base of the Cotopaxi National Park which elevated around 3700m.

Limpiopungo Lagoon at base of Cotopaxi
Limpiopungo Lagoon at base of Cotopaxi. Check out those dark clouds!

You can get amazing shots of the Cotopaxi from this lagoon at its base if the God’s allow. This is a path along the laguna near Cotopaxi, where you can see the Cotopaxi volcano with many people stopping to take pictures with the enormous snow capped volcano in the background. We walked along the lagoon on the hiking path until dark clouds peeked from behind the mountain, it seemed as if the Cotopaxi volcano was telling everyone it was tired of allowing people to play in its sunshine & the weather suddenly started to change. Sudden weather changes at Cotopaxi can be dangerous & the temperatures can go from warm sunshine to freezing winds, snow & rain in just a few minutes.

Our friends have been to Cotopaxi many times & know the dangers of these sudden weather changes at Cotopaxi. It seemed one minute we were warm & smiling – the next we were heading for the car to get down the road before the clouds let loose & boy did they. Within a few minutes, it was raining ice pellets on us in the midst of rain. it only lasted long enough for us to head back down the mountain when rain stopped, ice stopped & sun was out again. I guess Cotopaxi had had enough of the tourists for one afternoon!

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