Don turned 65 in October 2007 and thoughts of wanting to retire and travel more began to take precedence over his former enthusiasm for his work as a private-practice neuropsychologist. However, because of some very poor financial decisions we’d made a couple of years earlier he was not in a position to retire, so he recommitted himself to continuing to work until he was 70. By May 2011, now 68, he was almost at the end of his tether. He had begun experiencing problems with his heart and with his mental abilities. He had no enthusiasm left for his work, but could not see a way out of the dilemma: continue to work to maintain our current lifestyle and do a little travelling, or retire and live a very restricted life with little or no opportunities for travel. He was feeling constantly worried and anxious about money and financial security.
Don went to see a counselor and she suggested that he read Julia Cameron’s book, “The Artist’s Way” and begin the exercise of “Morning Pages”, which involves writing three pages every morning immediately after waking up, of whatever comes to mind. The purpose of this exercise was to put on external speaker, as it were, everything that was troubling him. On the second day of writing Don wrote “As I look back on the past few months I see that I’ve been in a place of despair and hopelessness without realizing that the depths of despair and hopelessness about the future have tainted my every waking and sleeping moment and have caused my body, heart and mind to malfunction.” On the third day of writing he came up spontaneously with an alternative solution to working forever to pay the mortgage: sell everything, invest the money that we would realize from the sale of our home, and go travelling until those funds run out, and after that start spending our retirement savings. When he told Alison about this she was immediately enthusiastic about the idea. As Don wrote “By the time we’ve spent all of it (in 10 years or more) we’ll have both written best-selling books and be living in a beautiful home by the ocean.”
So that’s what we did: we put our beautiful apartment on the market. It sold quickly, right at the peak of the Vancouver housing market that year, and we made more than we’d originally expected after paying off the mortgage and other debts. We sold our car and sold or gave away most of the rest of our possessions. It was an amazingly freeing experience. By September 2011 we had put our few remaining possessions into a 500 cubic foot storage unit and were ready to begin travelling in earnest. That fall we went to Italy and Spain. For the first time Don didn’t worry about how much we were spending, we just wanted to have the best possible time.
We had similar bucket lists, places we’d always wanted to see: Italy (especially Tuscany), spending an extended period meditating at Ramana Maharshi’s ashram in Tiruvannamalai, India, and exploring the island of Bali. We did all of these things and more in the first six months of our travels after we sold our home.
In the past two and a half years since we became nomadic we’ve also been to Sweden, made another trip to India, traveled all through Southeast Asia (including Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar), traveled around Australia, spent a few months in a seaside village in Mexico, and are currently spending six months travelling through South America, including Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador.
The greatest gift in all of this travelling has been the inner growth that has come about for both of us. Travelling all the time has taught us to be much more flexible in our thinking and much more accepting of whatever happens, regardless of the consequences. It has also given us a much greater trust in the wisdom of the universe: to trust that we are always being guided to whatever is next. The more we travel the more we appreciate that unseen hands are supporting us the whole way, and so we live by intuition, feeling the way by the tips of our fingers. We’ve learned the miracle and power of gratitude. We’ve learned that people are the same the world over and that openheartedness is almost always responded to with openheartedness.
Alison ArmstrongIn our sixties, (Don’s now seventy-two!) with apparently no other authentic option, my husband Don and I sold our car and apartment, sold or gave away all our stuff, and set off to discover the world. And ourselves. We started in Italy in 2011 and from there have travelled to Spain, India, Bali, Australia, Southeast Asia, Sweden, Mexico, South America, etc. – you can see the blog archive. We will continue travelling until it’s time to stop – if that time ever comes. So far it suits us very well. We are interested in how the world works, how life works, how the creation of experience works, how the mind works. As we travel and both “choose” our course, and at the same time just let it unfold, we discover the “mechanics” of life, the astounding creativity of life, and a continual need to return to trust and presence. Opening the heart, and acceptance of what is, as it is, are keystones for us both.
Interests: Alison – in no particular order: travel, figure skating (as a fan), blogging, photography, acceptance, authenticity, walking/hiking, joy, creativity, being human, adventure, presence, now. Don – the same except replace figure skating with Formula One motor racing.
To discover more read the article we wrote for Retirement and Good Living: The Gift of Travel. Also an interview we did with Nomadic Matt.
Also please check out our Adventures in Wonderland blog.
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It's so great to read about your experiences here. Even though I read Don & Alison's blog a lot, it's funny how a little jolt ran through me when I got to the end of "things we've seen and done." And I as all "I remember that post about riding a boat under the falls in Argentina." As if in some way I had experienced it with you. :)
Oh I remember that post *and* that boat ride! It was pretty exciting. Good to hear you felt as you'd experienced it too!
What a marvelous inspirational couple Don & Allison are. I've been following their blog now for close to a years. A better travelog cannot be found. A better inspirational site cannot be found. They are a treat to read. So happy to see them featured here.
Thanks so much Paulette for your wonderful compliments!
Hi Don and Allison,
I am incredibly excited to read about your travels. I am a 70 years young woman and although I spent summers in Europe and Israel when I finished my first and second years of teaching, it's been almost 50 years that I really traveled. I have wanted to spend a year in Europe for many years, but financially couldn't do it. I was going to try to spend a month in Nice this summer, but it would be a strain financially as well as psychologically. I always had the fear that if I wait, I might become sick and not be able to do it. When I came upon your story and blog, I was hit with the light. What I will do is to wait till next May, save my money and really spend the year. Thanks for an incredibly inspiring story~~
Hi Leni, Don and I were delighted to read your comment, and very excited for you. You must feel wonderfully free to have finally made the decision and set an intention in place. Don't let anything talk you out of it! "Life's too short!" I can't recommend enough to write, over the next year particularly, when you get disheartened or doubtful - just get all that out on paper so you can be free of it. And then as you write further the good stuff starts to come. I wish you much courage and much joy. You're doing the right thing. Blessings and happy travels.
Alison
Hello There, I hope you are well. My husband and I are returning to Brazil for a visit and then going to Ecuador. I have been reading your Ecuador posts. Can you please tell me what cruise ship you were on? Any suggestions or hints? We will be in Galapagos late October and early November. Thank you so much. Jamie
Hi Jamie - The ship is Galapagos Legend, run by Klein Tours. I was going to put a link to their website in the blog post but it appears to have been hacked by something Russian. Hopefully they will discover it soon and fix the problem.
We paid just over $4000 each (including airfare from Quito) and booked through http://www.galapagosislands.com
If you Google Klein Tours you’ll get a link to their website, but I’m not sure I’d recommend it. It went to something Russian and I had to shut down the computer. Other than that it doesn’t seem to have done any harm. Fingers crossed. This was nearly 2 months ago so maybe it's okay now. galapagosislands.com is fine and offers many alternatives for tours of the islands, including those run by Klein Tours.
One thing we loved about going in March is the water is really warm at that time of the year so we didn't need wetsuits for swimming. You can Google for best times re climate and water temp. Also our ship provided wetsuits at extra cost. I don't know if this would be available on smaller boats.
Suggestions/hints - depends on how 'rough' you're okay with, and how seaworthy you are. We chose the biggest ship available because we wanted something stable. You can go by yacht with only 16 people if you want to. We did have some 'hanging around' time with the change of passengers mid cruise (each segment with the Legend is a 4 day cruise) but we were okay with that.
Hope all this helps
Cheers, Alison
Hello Alison,
I'm hoping to visit Tiru in the next 3 weeks or so and stay for up to 3 months. I really appreciate the time you've taken in your blog to introduce us to the sites and sounds there and I'm very excited to be going :)
You mentioned that you had some friends Bhakti and Ram who helped you find an apartment and the like. Are you comfortable providing their contact information or could you direct me to others who may share the same credibility and could help me locate an apartment comparable to the one you and Don had?
Any direction would be appreciated.
Thanks again for your insights. I hope you're feeling well :)
ps. I posted a comparable request to you a week ago or so but I can't find where I posted it to see if there was a reply. Sorry if I've duplicated :)
Jamie Ans
Orillia, Ontario
Hi Jamie, I will email our friends and see if they would comfortable with me sending you their email address. I'll let you know.
I haven't received any other request from you so that's a bit of a mystery.
Anyway I'll email you to let you know what our friends say. (Your email address comes to me with your comment)
Hope you have a wonderful time in Tiru.
Alison