uk_grenada

Like Grenada, the Cubans are very nice people. The unique property of Cuba is its hate for America and the disrespect for their dollar. You cant use it legally, and if you change it for the tourist currency you will be ripped off. Using the local currency is a revelation, one can buy a quality cigar for 20US equivalent in tourist money, or a box of 25 for the same product with a different label for the same money in local currency.

The apparent poverty is real but its more about the lack of western goods, electronics and expensive jeans than a lack of food healthcare or education.

scot47

"Hate for America" is hardly surprising. Look at the way successive US regimes have favoured Batista and the forces of Reaction !

Hasta la Victoria Siempre !

Gordon Barlow

I'm wondering if Aidan (the Thread Starter) ever came to a decision on where to go. My advice to him is not to commit to anywhere, until he's checked out a number of Islands. Scot47 always has good advice, and his kind words about Cuba and Cubans are on the money. Of course these days it's hard to get around, but if Aidan's intention is not to retire for another couple of years then there's plenty of time to suss the islands out. Even the places that one wouldn't want to live in (Haiti and DR spring to mind, and I've heard bad things about the USVI) are worth visiting for a week or two.

I've been in Cayman for 43 years now, and when my wife died I chose to stay here instead of going to Norway where my son and grandchildren live. I'm used to this place, and can tolerate all its bad bits. But its native people don't really welcome foreign residents, which rather rules it out for retirees looking for a welcome!

uk_grenada

I do get the feeling that some people are into this sort of stuff vicariously.

Lots of people dream of living where they holiday, without having a clue about the realities of life outside a hotel. On another site, one sometimes sees people asking about holidays for strange reasons. Ive had bloggers who effectively want to write about here, or are actually being paid to write about here, without bothering to visit, and so need to get some info they cant find online. I scammed one once by inventing a fictitious new attraction, it was written up in a travel site, complete with their review of it, more than once ive seen reviews of places long closed...

Ive also seen travel agents asking for info for clients under the guise of asking for themselves, and people who just want to travel without moving 'can you please write me a detailed 7 day itinerary for an active couple from ....'

Gordon Barlow

True enough! And we don't know if anyone else on this site is reading this particular thread. Never mind, it doesn't hurt to put our opinions out there. At least readers will be glad to hear from us who live here.

StillSearching

We are still searching for a better place to live. I would advice to research places as much as possible ahead of your visit there. Make a spreadsheet for recording pros and cons from your perspective about each place you consider.
-Taxation (Foreign Income tax?, double taxation?)
-Requirements for permanent visa
-Main Language (do you want to learn e.g. Spanish)
-Health Care rating
-Natural disasters (hurricanes are getting stronger; earthquakes)
-Crime Level rating
-Education
-Preferable Places to Live
-Ecological problems (air quality, lack of fresh water; industrial pollution of soil and water, sargassum, jellyfish)
-Cost of Living
-Corruption
-other CONS and PROS

As a US citizen, you will be paying taxes to the feds no matter where you live. Before moving out of US, establish a residence in a no-state-tax state, like Texas or Florida for at least one year before you exit the mainland because you definitely don't want to pay state taxes. You don't need to move there, but only to establish the residence there.
As a US citizen, you can live in US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. There is high crime in Puerto Rico; NRA works hard to sell guns there as much as possible to everyone. Also PR is overpopulated. Both have huge debt and high poverty level. I have an impression that locals don't like mainlanders for an obvious reason- they are colonies.
Find a bank in the US or UK which doesn't have ATM withdrawal fees and increase a weekly withdrawal limit to what you like.
Keep in mind that practically no country wants to open a bank account for an US citizen until one gets a permanent residence in their country.

Stay in a country for at least 6 months- e.g. 3 months in winter and spring (no hurricane time) and then 3 months in summer and fall, experiencing hurricanes- and meet with people, and explore different areas of an island.

The world is changing and new opportunities arise.
Hope it helps.

scot47

I would suggest Cuba but Uncle Sam has had an embargo on that State for 60 years.

uk_grenada

Why would you imagine, give their antipathy to the US, that Cuba allows any american passport holder without cuban descent to live there ? The whole tourist industry enjoys ripping americans off and generally hassling them.

scot47

Given the way that DC has treated Cuba, are you surorised ? My post was in jest.

StillSearching

Spoiled by living in places with clean air for most of our lives, my husband and I realized how important clean air is. Why would you pick a country with high level of air pollution in your retirement when you have a choice to pick a healthier place? Bad quality air is a risk for cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer's disease and lung cancer.

We would love and can stay in several countries, but because of horrendous air pollution there, we won't. I am not talking about cases like recent fires in AU, Russia, or west coast in the US. I am talking about constant industrial pollution, polluting vehicles, and also seasonal pollution when burning fields for the next crop, which is a horrible practice poisoning people around and contributing to climate change. Several Asian countries now burn recycled plastic in the open air because they don't want to invest in proper equipment. As a result, horrendous pollution of the air and waters. This plastic comes from developed countries. If they are so developed, why don't they develop technologies for processing their own trash?

Here is information on AQ for Cuba: https://www.iamat.org/country/cuba/risk/air-pollution

What is usually done with trash and plastic on the beautiful tropical islands? They burn it in the open air or dump it in the water. You inhale dangerous pollutants and you get these pollutants and microplastic through food supply eventually.

Regarding embargo- Isn't it unfair and cruel to punish the whole country for more than 60 years because American-owned Cuban oil refineries were nationalized without compensation? Oil companies take a risk to do business in other countries and they need to calculate this risk in their business model. Cuban people have been suffering already at full extend under Castro regime and it is simply cruel to add embargo to their suffering. It is shameful and stupid. The US did the same with Haiti- embargo on sugar put the whole country in poverty. It is a big list of impoverished countries thanks to the US and flood of the refuges as the result.

uk_grenada

You clearly do not understand the realities of living on small or impoverished islands. Many forms of so called green waste disposal are neither viable or are actually detrimental.

While theres a lot to gain with power generation from wind [which is actually better than solar for a lot of the caribbean] so called environmentally clever ideas like electric vehicles are actually a bigger disaster for these places. None of this is new - look at the danish work done for the maldives in the 60's. How does a poor rural economy safely deal with 150kg / 1000 lithium or cadmium batteries?

While i recognise the sexiness of saying microplastics, try instead saying micro silicons or micro metal oxides or micro isotopes. all of these have been around for ever. Accept it, micro plastics can be measured, but measuring their potential harm - nope - they are actually pretty harmless. Look to pollutants that are actually known and pretty much proved to damage people and animals, like estrogenic chemicals [bisphenols for example] or oils or fertilisers or sewage, fix those then get esoteric...

StillSearching

If I didn't list all the aspects of the environmental damage on the islands, it doesn't mean that I don't understand the realities of life on the islands. I live on a bigger island and we have the same issues you mentioned. All the pollution problems you mentioned are true. It is very devastating that there are no affordable for poor islanders solutions to deal with the destruction of the islands. One solution, which some countries started implementing, is closing up some tourist places for tourism or limiting the crowd by increasing price or creating a waiting list. More and more islands become overbuilt and this leads to destruction of natural resources.
Solar energy is now cheaper than diesel. I guess wind turbines don't do well in hurricanes? So why don't islands switch gradually to solar if it is cheaper?

StillSearching

This is why life on the islands needs to be much more expensive than it is now. Whatever they can't recycle needs to be shipped to the land to the recycling facilities. It costs.
Customs charge up to 70% for imported items. Why part of this money is not allocated for shipment recyclable materials somewhere where they can be processed? Instead all trash is piling up on the islands or being burnt. It is not sustainable.

uk_grenada

Firstly big wind turbines are not concerned by hurricanes. The design of those used in the north sea is 175mph winds, which at sea [where the wind farms are] is an occasional hazard.}

Solar power is more expensive than wind power, so long as you have wind, and of course wind is a 24/7 phenomenon. Both are important, but think about it - more energy is consumed after work - at night or in the evenings... Electrical storage is of course buit in - but only a fraction of production can be stored. So in the tropics - certainly in the trade wind areas of the caribbean, wind wins.

Recycling of dangerous materials is never going to happen on small islands. Customs charge are just taxes, we all know where they might end up. Do other countries want our waste? Yes if we pay them lol... This is why waste goes to poor countries - they get paid for it.

StillSearching

Yes, agree- a combination of wind and solar would be cheaper than diesel.
Right, this is an unfortunate side of recycling- people need to demand from their governments to implement sustainable solutions. But most of the people are ignorant about this and poison themselves.