We are not on vacation

We woke to morning light muted by clouds floating across the tops of the steep hills that rise beyond the parking lot.

Soon the rain came.

We viewed it as time to catch up. I was working on a long list of changes and corrections for my most recent novel. I’m months behind in writing the next novel. We had hundreds of photos to sort. Long-distance business (taxes, car insurance, etc.) needed attention. Deb had a long list of health and nutrition seminars to complete.

The weather also gave my legs a day-off from tennis and hiking the beach.

The next day we chatted with an American couple we had met while playing tennis. They are here for two weeks. They viewed the rainy day differently: it had cut into their vacation. Of course.  All the visitors we talk with here in St. Martin are on vacation. We just happen to live here, as we did for three months in Hilton Head, or for a year in Hudson, Fl. As we will for three months in Portland later this year.

You could say we are on a roving vacation, or you could say we just move around a lot, that we are vagabonds.

Not having a permanent home (with no mortgage or utility bills or real estate taxes or property maintenance) means we can redirect that part of our budget to cover rental and travel costs. That makes it possible to rent a condo in St. Martin for three winter months.

Here is how it is working in St. Martin:

     One month’s rent for a furnished condo on Orient Beach: $1,960 (includes internet and all utilities)

     By comparison: One month’s rent for an unfurnished 1-bedroom apartment in a modest apartment complex in Raleigh (where we lived before we became vagabonds): $1,050. Electric, internet, cable TV, water & sewer, trash and renter’s insurance brought the monthly cost up to about $1,600.

     One-month car rental in St. Martin: 550 Euros (about $600) a month for a Kia Picante.

     By comparison: Our lease on a 2003 Hyundai Sonota is $333 a month plus $80 a month insurance. Last year we spent about $100 a month on gas. Average monthly cost: $513. (We plan to give up the car when the lease ends next year and make that money available for taxis, Uber and public transportation costs.)

     One-way airfare for 2 adults from Raleigh to St. Martin: $390

BOTTOM LINE:

Monthly cost for a furnished studio in St. Martin (for 3 high-season, winter months): $1,960+$600+$130 (a third of the airfare) = $2,690

Monthly cost for 1 bedroom, unfurnished in Raleigh: $1,600+$513 (car lease, insurance & gas) = $2,113.

So, if this were a vacation, it is costing us about $600 a month.