On 1st May Graham and his partner Casey returned to Bocas and we collected them in town after they had had a chance to do some shopping for their first week of supplies.
We spent a couple of days going through the house and island, covering matters such as maintenance of the solar system, rain water collection, chickens, boats and much more. I think they were a little overwhelmed at how much there is to learn about looking after an off-grid island.
With the handover complete Vanessa and I spent a last couple of days with neighbours Bill and Janis, saying our goodbyes to friends and neighbours on a last Sunday visit to Rana Azul, our favourite restaurant in the jungle.
Three days of travel then took us to Bocas Town, then via water taxi and a couple of buses to San Jose in Costa Rica. Our first flight to Fort Lauderdale went without a hitch, but extremely slow service at Florida Immigration meant we missed our connection to Dallas by quite a significant margin.
Thirteen long hours at the airport dragged by, and we only just managed to get aboard the evening flight to Dallas as the last two standby passengers. If we hadn’t got on that the next one was early the next morning.
My friend Sue collected us in Dallas, and we spent a comfortable night in her spare room – much more preferable to a night on the benches at FLL airport. I met Sue in late 2008 when travelling through Oklahoma on my 100 goals journey. More details on that adventure in my book “A Life Sold”.
We feel that our adventure really begins this morning. Sue and her friend Daphne are going to show us some of Dallas, then we head south to Houston where we plan to buy an RV. We have an outline itinerary covering the next three months or so, but aim to remain as flexible as possible, wishing to see where the road will take us.
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