Since you’re reading this story, you must be logged on to the site assisting escapes from our contemporary war-zones.  I’m not implying you live in or near downtown Fallujah, Gaza or Kabul in that context.  No, you could be a resident of any 1st World city and have reasons aplenty to at least examine the options for removal of self and (possibly) immediate family as far away as feasible from the undeclared and not-entirely-declared wars our governments and a society-gone-cabbage* (prefer to leave those delicious *bananas where they belong…) have us suffer. So what’s the problem?  Should you not already own a good-sized rotating Earth Atlas or a large enough printed Atlas of the World; then, as step 1. I suggest including your nearest Barnes & Noble on this week’s ‘to-do’ list.  Step 2: Spin the world for what its worth and wherever your index finger points to as it stops, is where you may decide destiny lies; or you can just pin the Atlas to your barn door and throw a dart or two…. People have gone about trying to fulfill their desire to escape in just such fashion.  On today’s Planet Earth it may not however be the most practical way to achieve one’s dream.  Apart from the risk of landing in the midst of a Tsnunami, or another urban sprawl of 40 million polluting vehicles, there are other minor impracticalities to consider – what happens if you pick an area where one or another sooper-power conducts or conducted their soo-necessary nuclear tests?  Or would one really choose to live within a zillion mile radius of a Nuclear Power Plant, Missile Silos, (as if we knew where they are..) or any source of present or potential high-contamination, as well as other sites of major strategic interest to an enemy?  The latter list could be lengthy and include your local pawn shop, friendly neighborhood bank, tax-office (ohhh), City Hall, possibly even McDonalds & Co-Emulators! (Explicable, for feeding the world such good-tasting crap).…Reluctantly, I must also suggest you consider excluding measured escape to splendid isolation in a Rainforest, or any other forest.  Of the few wooded areas left, most are in a process of enthusiastic depredation by men and men-made conditions, as anyone can easily verify on the evening news, wherever!    The understandable urge to move to the most remote place on this planet, leaves us with the simple choice of two poles.  I’m not referring to the good folks in downton Krakow, but to our North & South polar regions. Tempting thought at times, I admit – imagine, so close to Santa in a vast, still underpopulated expanse of seemingly clean air and water, the seductive thought of three-sleigh garages, snow men (why ever not snow-Ladies?) and loving huskies craving your attention!

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Here it seems, one may have stumbled upon the root, the pillar, the core of our planet’s dire realities….take note please – I suggest it is the simplicity, the ease, and yes, also the fun involved in our multiplication process, making it now so terribly, - possibly terminally perilous….(‘ it ‘ being Life on Earth!)

So where on Earth can one escape to, since the necessity or desirability of doing so becomes ever more pressing and clear to ever more folks?

Studying a web-site such as this and reading about others’ experiences beats throwing darts or making random choices, so at least you’re on the right track. 

A word of or two of caution now: Tempting as it may seem, do control the urge to jump onto the first cabbage* steamer and avoid being taken on Great-White-fishing expeditions by animated real-estate presentations, heavenly images and Northern Hemisphere marketing techniques.  Those downy procedures to sell you something you don’t really want have become universal, and for some reason you’re not usually shown the flip side of the coin prior to signing on the dotted line.

Remember, a Paradise may well have existed on this planet in pre-Jurassic times, it may still exist on other planets, perhaps even our moon, or it may exist in another dimension entirely…

In spite of the quandary, and in order to get us into more turquoise waters at long last (sigh of relief & keep the Prozac in the bathroom locker please), there are (still) a few places on our planet where life can be joyful and healthy, where some paradisical conditions do exist, at least when compared to our war-zones..

Having lived on a Caribbean Island since 1988, I now feel reasonably confident and humbly educated enough to publish my personal check-list with those conditions I believe need to be present for successful living on an island in this, the Caribbean area.  Some may be equally applicable when considering other island communities or places by the sea.

In order of importance (to me personally) then: (Further analysis of each item follows list!).

• Value! (Psssst, don’t tell everyone…) Let’s be rational, - if you can`t afford to live on St. Cripes, then what’s the point of hanging out there, - roughing it in a cave?  There aren’t any!  In my case at least, evidently value,  needed to come first….
• People!  Friendly, good natured, kind, smiling people! OK, you can get smiles in war-zones, but do they come for free…? 
• Friends!  Real, true friendships are as or more important than love – in fact they are love, without the other bit!
• Climate!  Lots of bright sunlight, clear skies day & night, pleasant breezes!
• Weather!  No extremes, nor hot nor cold, nor in regular hurricane path areas!
• Geographical Stability! As far as possible I like to sleep well at night, prefer to avoid known seismic hotspots, tsunami & volcanic regions, potential mud-slides or avalanches! Oh, and hungry Anaconda!!
• Personal Safety and Security!  But of course one avoids high-risk crime areas, drugs & trafficking!  Check local crime statistics, live in an as secure as possible environment – unless partial to Russian-type Roulette!
• Health Services! One should analyse the level of professional health services available locally, anyone can fall ill or suffer an accident!
• Air, Water and Food!  The better the air & water quality, the healthier you’ll be & remain.  Same goes for the fresher & uncontaminated the food supply!
• Political and Monetary Stability!  I would not deliberately choose to live in Parador-type societies with mad rampant revolutions every six months.  A Revolution now & then’s ok, hopefully one like Carnival in Rio.  Currencies are of less concern, unless zyper inflation is raging as in Zimbabwe. As an expat or part-time resident you’ll keep your hard-earned cash in Fort Knox or wherever anyhow, right?  Right!
• Communications!  I say, the better, the better! (Easy come, easy go..) Then there’s the Internet (thank the Lord!), even for Banking…

• The Law! I prefer to live somewhere where I feel protected to a degree, with a dependable legal system & not where one can be carted off into the bushes at midnight, never to be heard from again or where the Judiciary wear T-shirts with the slogan ‘ support your local Judge - I just love Credit Suisse’ …. Escaping from a war-zone also implies one is sick of police-entrapment of all sorts, & that includes radar-speed-traps, parking tickets, CCCs, Big Brother’ Data Collection Services, Rainbow Terror Alerts , Swat, Squat, Sweat & Whatever- Teams, 24-hour sirens and so-forth.  Need I say more?  It also implies one will respect local Laws and traditions!!
• Taxes!  I just love paying taxes to governments who spend their citizens’ hard-earned money on no-future investments like Wars, Nukes & serious Burocrazies - don’t you also?  So what am I doing on a tax-free island?
• Island Beauty! (& beauties!!)  If in addition to the above, one can also live in great natural surroundings, find long, wide, uncrowded sandy beaches with crystalline warm ocean water, I certainly won’t complain!  Neither would I about the pretty girls..as indeed I haven’t!
• Island Exploration!  An island does need a certain geographical size as well as points of interest (mountains or hills) for exploration to provide variety & stimulate interests.
• History!  If present, provides cultural curiosity & traditions, such as local architecture, Forts, Castles, Museums, rich food variety & local pride!
• Modern Life! There are elements of contemporary life which I would prefer to have available, to take & to leave as required, not to be obtrusively present, but it’s good to know they’re there.
• A Project!  Having owned a sail boat, I have sailed, been a beach-bum (ok, just for about a month in a year, so not really the bona-fide, genuine sort), enjoyed the rum & the calypso, but none of that provided the kind of challenges I really needed. I needed a project & a place where projects are possible.

……..And thus it came to pass..The prevailing Winds brought me to these shores in ’88 and here I still am, reasonably content and reasonably healthy, I pray!

Margarita Island; (Isla Margarita) to be found some 25 kms off the northern coast of Venezuela, this large, Spanish-speaking, oil-producing country in South America.  There is more than enough data of all sorts available on the Web for me to repeat much of that here.  If interested, you can easily conduct your own in-depth research.  I’ll limit my story here to those salient elements which interested me and may help anyone planning a move or looking for smart choices.  Being part of a large, modern country has both advantages and the opposite.  Among the plusses are Culture, the availability of merchandise, building materials, skilled & unskilled labour, comparatively low building costs, fresh food & fruit from the mainland, a huge interesting country to explore (just think of the Amazon & the Andes regions), modern communications, ferries, airlines & those advantages a modern economy can offer.

The minuses mostly gravitate around the popularity the island enjoys among mainlanders, especially during vacation periods…..but more are also moving to live here permanently, adding more pressures to local services.  Vacation time is the time when locals escape to other nearby islands, such as Coche, or Cubagua, or to the other half of Margarita, the peninsula of Macanao.  The important issue is there are escapes, quite easy and pleasant ones, even from here.  If you have your own boat, so much the better – there are dozens of wonderful escape routes to inhabited and solitary islands nearby, or if it pleases, the entire Caribbean…

Back to details, more about –

Value: If you can afford to pay $200 for an average meal without blinking; if you don’t even bother to read your check for $1000 dinner, terrific for you!  Although I’d like to mention how some of the nicest folks I’ve met here are precisely those you’d be unlikely to share a table with in St.Cripes.  They wouldn’t even be valets on that island.  Some of my gardeners & general helpers here are kinder, more genuine people than most of the stuffed watermelons I’ve had the ill fortune to meet at Langham’s,  W.1.   Now assuming you’re not Bill Gates, nor switched your savings into Microsoft stock (200 years ago!), nor a recent Powerball winner, then you may find $2.5 million Condo-Castles a shade beyond your (immediate) reach.  In my own case, those war-zones and my unpreparedness for total-war situations had left my financial foundations a trifle seismical, so I needed an island where a roof wouldn’t deprive me of the one remaining arm &  leg.

People: Margariteños are the BEST! Their origins - the local GUAQUERÌ indigenous population, by all accounts a placid, friendly bunch, (far nicer chaps than those warring Caribe’s on nearby islands..) - but forced to dive their hearts out by the conquistadors, ‘cause Margarita, Coche & Cubagua had great oyster beds with some of world’s finest pearls.  Poor Guaiquerì!  All that suffering just to keep their Majesties in Spain content…
As time passed, Margarita was settled mainly by folks from the Andalucia region of Spain, also usually a happy crowd, and today the result is a cocktail of friendly, helpful people who’ll go out of their way to make visitors feel welcome. 

I recommend: It helps to learn & speak Spanish!  It also helps to try to blend-in with local culture.  Observe how they dress, their habits and try to integrate rather than run around like an ill-kempt Gringo with long hair, long finger & toe nails, especially unclean ones.  Venezuelans are a sophisticated, educated culture (mostly), they love their beaches, they love to party & drink Scotch, but they’ll dress up for shopping, dining & a concert!  One sees Gringos - & I should mention that ANY Northener is considered a Gringo here, (usually meant affectionately)!  Occasionally one sees such a specimen in local, reasonably elegant commercial centers & restaurants, dressed & smelling as if the Woodstock-reject look were still THE afrodisiac way to be seen in London, Berlin or Toronto. 

When moving here, make local friends; integrate instead of seeking out other expats in those watering holes frequented solely by that segment. It’s ok to have expat friends, but if you ONLY hang out with them, why leave home?  You’ll never learn the language, you’ll never get to know the culture & miss so many great elements on this island & this country or continent.  I’ve never understood the penchant for expats to exclusively mix with their ilk, it can be so restrictive.

Friends: Perhaps I’ve been especially fortunate, having made better friends here, among the local population than anywhere else in the world. Hopefully others have or will be just as lucky.  I mean real, true friends, people who care, who worry, and who’ll assist in times of need.  In Europe and in the North generally, people are friends only as long as there is some advantage in the friendship for them.  The day one has a need, is the day they put out the gone fishing sign.

Climate: Average island temperature (year-round) is 27 Centigrade!  A pleasant Trade Wind breeze discernible almost permanently, but not usually an obtrusive breeze, like in some islands where a constant howl becomes a chronic pain.  Neither will you experience the levels of humidity found in many islands, where to get undressed may require a 911 call.  Just imagine that situation on a hot date…. The warmest months here are July-October, but even global warming has not yet affected Margarita noticeably.  I see temperatures here in July-August many degrees BELOW those in Europe & North America!!  You can come here to cool down…..

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