Category Archives: Personal Finance FAQ

Recently, my wife and I returned from nine weeks in Mexico, five in Playa del Carmen, and four in Puerto Vallarta. We were there to attend Spanish language classes so that we could become reasonably proficient and travel throughout Latin America and Spain without needing to stick to the heavily touristed regions in order to be with people who understood English. We also wanted to dip our toes into the water of longer term travel and see how we felt about being away from home for so long. My wife had never traveled for more than two weeks and I … Read the article

We are currently in Playa del Carmen, Mexico taking immersion Spanish lessons and classes. Playa del Carmen is a tourist city south of Cancún. You might have heard of Cancún. It is a frequent port of call for cruise ships and a very popular Spring Break destination. Playa del Carmen is the more laid back neighbor, although a stroll on the Avienda Quinta next to the beach may put paid to the notion of quiet and laid back.

While my wife and I just spent 12 hours over 3 days speaking solely in Spanish with our instructor about a … Read the article

I was recently in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico checking out options for Spanish language immersion schools. Ever since I was stationed in Germany, it’s been a goal to spend some time as an expat.

I did not realize that I was going to get a more fully immersive experience on this trip than I had originally planned.

I was there for eight days, primarily to check out a school and secondarily to poke around neighborhoods and see what life would be like if we decided to move down to Puerto Vallarta, even if temporarily. It was the second trip with … Read the article

Our 20th anniversary was coming up.

We’d had our COVID-19 vaccines, and we wanted to do something special. We’d spent our 10th in the French Riviera, staying in Menton, and checking out Monaco, Cannes, and the small towns dotting the coast.

Originally, we thought about doing a couple of National Parks, since enjoyed our time in the Big Bend National Park so much; however, the logistics of doing the National Parks we wanted to see in Colorado in a week’s time was challenging.

As a result, we asked our friend Kathryn Potter at KP Travel Group to suggest … Read the article

Recently, my wife and I were interviewed on the Amateur Traveler podcast about our experiences in the Big Bend National Park, Alpine, and Marfa, Texas. If you want to hear us recount our adventures with Chris Christensen, check it out!

If you like dark skies, wide open places, and uncrowded parks, then Big Bend National Park should be high on your list of U.S. national parks to visit.

Big Bend National Park is the 20th least visited national park in the United States, with around 450,000 visitors per year (though COVID-19 may skew the numbers higher for 2020 … Read the article