When I was 15, my dad and I took a trip to Los Angeles that changed my life. We didn't have a set agenda, and since we were staying down the road from the University of California, we took a campus tour.
01.02.2025 - 14:31 / insider.com
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Stephen and Joanna Vargha, a married couple who moved from North Carolina to Cuenca, Ecuador, in 2020 after retiring early. Cuenca is located in the Andes mountains and has a population of about 600,000 people. Their interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Stephen: I heard about Cuenca, Ecuador, as a place to retire way back in 2010. I checked it out for a week in 2011 and visited some people I knew there. But I was only 53. So I put it in the back of my head.
In early 2019, my work was taking a toll on me physically and mentally. I had worked at a television station in North Carolina for over 37 years. We already had a retirement house in a small mountain town in North Carolina, so we decided to move there.The plan was to leave my job and look for a one at half the pay because we could afford it. But after several monthsI couldn't get a job.
We also realized the Affordable Care Act coverage was going to cost around $1,900 a month for the two of usand we were too young for Medicare. I didn't work my butt off for four decades to give my hard-earned money to the insurance companies.
Then Joanna goes, "Let's move to Cuenca." This is a woman who had never been there, doesn't like big cities, grew up in a town of maybe 75,000 people when she left. I was like, "Are you sure?" But that's what we did. So I decided to retire at 61 when we moved to Ecuador.
Joanna: I retired around the same time at 56, and before that worked for an auto insurance website.
We started talking about moving to Cuenca in May of 2019. We visited in September and looked at places. We moved in January 2020 and just barely missed the pandemic lockdown.
Stephen: You make friends so easily here. I've visited 29 countries, and I can emphatically say that the people in Cuenca are the friendliest people I have ever met.
Joanna: We have made so many dear friends here that we would never have back home. We would've had to stay working and been too busy. Now we do three-hour lunches here just catching up and having fun.
There are so many things to do here, including art events and going to restaurants. There are lots of musical events. We have a free symphony and it's fabulous.
Stephen: Cuenca is becoming more of an international city. It's considered the arts capital of Ecuador and is called the "Athens of Ecuador" because of its culture and education.
We speak a little Spanish, so we try to respect their culture and speak Spanish when we can, but some people here also speak English.
Stephen: There are an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 foreigners living in Cuenca, mostly from the US and Canada, with Europe at a distant number three. Facebook groups are a great way to meet people and
When I was 15, my dad and I took a trip to Los Angeles that changed my life. We didn't have a set agenda, and since we were staying down the road from the University of California, we took a campus tour.
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This is part of Why I Moved, a recurring series about Americans building a life abroad.