I have more, or less, been a Permanent Traveler all my life, though not realizing it formally until the last few years.
I started my life in southern California. By the time I was a year old, my folks had moved to South Africa. All my brothers and sisters were born there. This was during the time that it was still part of the British Commonwealth and an apartheid. By the early 1960's, we had returned to the US. (Yeah...I'm an old fart! But, it's never too late to learn and experiment with new things. Right?) So, my first 6 years of school were actually in the British schools in South Africa. In my heart, those are my roots because of the time there during my formative years. I, sadly, haven't been back since; though, I plan to in the next couple of years before some old family friends pass on.
I pretty much spent most of my life in the US. Moved around quite a bit though. I did spend a couple of years in Rota, Spain in the early 1970's because I was stationed there with the US Navy. Believe it or not, the only time I stepped onto a ship while in the Navy was while I was stationed in Rota. I helped carry aboard a portable bar made in Morocco. Otherwise, I spent more time at sea as a kid traveling between Cape Town and New York (3 different times).
Those trips between Cape Town and New York did afford me the opportunity to go ashore at St. Helena Island. That is the island to which Napoleon was eventually banished and guarded by the British Navy. That is also where he died and was buried. Unfortunately, I was pretty young. So, what sticks out to me were the 125+ year old tortoises (which means that they would have been around when Napoleon was alive).
My adult life has really been as a jack of many trades and a minor master of some. After the Navy, I've been a grocery clerk and assistant manager, a zanjero and purchasing manager for 7th largest water district in California, a truck owner/driver, a merchant marine, a salesman of insurance and investments, and I'm sure I've missed several others that aren't coming to mind (mostly because they were explorations and not really money makers).
You might guess that I'm "retired." It was as I approached "retirement" that I realized that I might have Social Security for a few years, but it wasn't going to last. It was the cutback in 2007 in the trucking industry and the eventual loss of my truck and trucking business in early 2008 that I realized that I needed to have a better understanding of economics, politics, and eventually changed into an anarcho-capitalist.
With that came the realization that I needed to plant flags around the world...and I needed another passport at the very least. That was about the time that my father became bedridden. So, I ended up delaying everything until he past away.
It wasn't until early last year that I finally started to put into practice the things that I've learned. Three years ago, I went to Santiago, Chile to attend a workshop put on Simon Black of Sovereign Man. I fell in love with the country and its people. So, last year, I came down to Reñaca to put in the time necessary to qualify for permanent resident. This year, I'm in Valparaiso in a 21st floor apartment overlooking the bay and the eastern part of town. As I write this introduction, I am mostly waiting on the process to runs it's course through the immigration system. I basically have about two months left to wait on the process to complete. I plan to acquire a Chilean passport as soon as I can. And, depending on how dictatorial they get, jettisoning the blue passport.
You'll remember I mentioned I was getting Social Security. I can live on those funds, but that is about all I can do. It became pretty obvious that, if I wanted to do the traveling that I'd like to do and the investments that I'd like to do, the planting of flags that I'd like to do, that income wasn't going to do it. So...now it's time to get internet-based income going so that I can afford to do the things I've dreamed of doing.
Ciao for now!
