It's not a slow car, it's a fast house

I am a little bit behind on blog posts.  So I thought it was time for an update on our current situation. We are currently in a small town in Southern Brazil 🇧🇷, called Canela. The weather is ideal here the shut downs are just starting to hit the local businesses and highways. We are well stocked with food (and toilet paper) and feeling healthy.

In a strange twist of fate and timing, we arrived here about three weeks ago (before things got surreal) to have some repair work done on the truck and camper.  When we knew we were going to have the work done, we rented a little house to live in.  We had to move every single item out of the camper for the repair work and his house offered the space to do that easily. We are in this rental until at least May 2.

After our rental period expires we have several options ahead of us in this region. We will not be leaving Brazil anytime soon, as surrounding borders are closed and countries are on full lockdown.  The global news may not be sharing all the details of how South America is handling this, but if you research it I am sure you can find information.  Most South American countries began by closing their borders and cancelling flights.  Then they closed public businesses and schools and cancelled all public events and gatherings.  Now most countries are closing their state borders and limiting internal travel.  In general, there is a full quarantine and people are being told to stay home.  We still have access to grocery stores, take out food and pharmacies as needed within this community.

Many travelers decided to leave their vehicles and fly home before flights were cancelled.  Some have chosen to stay where they were and wait to see what happens.  We had to weigh the local and national situation of this country. As we made our decision to stay here we considered supply chain, availability, historical response to disaster and also this countries’ self-reliance. Brazil has full scale manufacturing of all essentials, with little reliance on outsiders for raw materials or financial aide. We also considered modern health care services and availability of necessary products in this region.

Additionally, we considered the buying power of our US dollar here vs. the USA. The global economy is such that the US dollar is quite strong in the Brazilian market.  Even in the best of times, we cannot be as comfortable on our retirement pension in the USA as we can here in Brazil. Because we no longer have a home, we would need to rent a place to live and pay those related expenses.  That would be nearly impossible for us to do for the $15.00 per day we are paying here.  Another consideration is that while we are here we are contributing to their economy. We buy groceries, pay rent, order food deliveries, visit veterinarians and pay the bill for our camper repairs.  We hope that we are helping this community in that way.  And finally, as our truck camper is our only home- we can’t risk losing our vehicle if we violate the TIP (temporary importation permit) terms.  Those terms specifically caution against abandoning a vehicle in the country.

Every decision is based on the info at hand in the moment and what’s right for you and your loved ones.  We will, no doubt, revisit our decision and the possible outcomes, multiple times as the situation changes here.

While you are on your own version of #stayhome, you must be finding many new things to entertain yourself and your family. I want to see some inspiring or funny stories of the human situation so I ask you to comment below (or send me a message) with the answer to the following:

1– (if you’re staying home) I am now learning to…..

2– (if you’re going to work) The people that come in here are …..

3– (if you’re working at home) Tell me a funny thing your kids, spouse or pets did, but call them your coworkers….