Apartment Living, Airbnb Style

 My theme for this year's A to Z Challenge is The Expat Life. My husband and I began our expat journey in February, 2010, when we sold everything and moved to the Lake Atitlan region of Guatemala. There was a break when we moved back to the States six years later. 

Unfortunately, he passed away in 2018. Two years later, I returned off and on to the expat lifestyle. Eight years later, I am all in. On my own now, missing him, but still spending the majority of my time out of the country.

Many Americans and Canadians, impressed by how cheaply they can buy homes in Latin America (LATAM) promptly invest in property. Bruce and I never did that, choosing not to be tied down in that way. We rented some lovely homes, one especially we never wanted to leave. This was our cozy nest of an upstairs apartment in Comitan, Chiapas. 

None of these were found online, mostly by networking with local folks. 

To the right, is a beautiful home I found with networking locally, when I returned to the single, expat life. It had 3 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, patios and gardens, large kitchen, dining room, living room. Rent was $500 a month in 2021. Near the beach. I didn't figure I'd ever leave. I lasted 4 years.

Now I find my places online, most commonly through Airbnb. I look for affordability, cleanliness, positive reviews, location, weather, and the responsiveness and gentility of the owners. You can tell a lot about a person with back-and-forth messaging and asking the right questions. 

I really don't need a house or anything fancy. I'm fine with a well-proportioned apartment.

Currently, I'm in an upstairs apartment that has everything I need, plus a few things I don't need but really like: A corner desk, a dining room table, air-fryer, full-size fridge, and stove with oven, specifically. It's in a nice area of a nice city and costs me $700 a month. 

I like it well enough that I plan to return next summer. The owner is happy about that and offered me a significant discount on the rent.

In ten weeks, I'm leaving this city and going to another Airbnb in another location. I get restless and don't like to stay in one place too long. Four to six months is my absolute limit, even if I like a place. Even back home close to my family, I barely last 4 months. 

A person never knows how they will react to loss of a spouse, their beloved companion of many years. But usually within a year, one finds out. For me, it was this restlessness, this inability to settle in any one location, regardless of how ideal it may seem at first.

 Fortunately, I was already very familiar with the expat life, and it wasn't difficult to pick up where Bruce and I had left off.