Ep 6 Leslie
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Kalie: Leslie, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast today. I'm really excited to chat with you because we're gonna talk about Madeira and all things of this Portuguese Island, and of course a lot about Portugal as well. But as we get started, tell me where did you move from and who did you move with to this island?

Leslie: I moved from Chicago, Illinois in the United States, and came here with my husband who retired, and then my adult son is 22.

Kalie: Okay, so Chicago to a little island in the Atlantic Ocean. How did you get there?

Leslie: Well, obviously my husband and I were looking at where we could afford to retire. We went through the process of trying to figure out what our dream was and how we could make that dream happen. Based upon us. I'm younger than my husband. I wasn't actually ready to retire.

However we went around in circles and ended up on the island of Madeira because it has oceans and mountains and lots of walking. I'm a horticulturist, so lots of plant material and things to do. That would interest the both.

Kalie: Awesome. Okay. We're gonna talk about things to do in a minute, but I am curious to know what other locations were on your radar when you were looking of places to retire to?

Leslie: So the other locations were Ireland, spent some time there, spent some time on the Isle of Man, which is another little island that we fell in love with years ago. Spent some time in Spain looking at Málaga down along the coast. And then of course we had friends who were looking at going south. So Mexico, all of that is very common, but we were looking at Costa Rica and Ecuador, which is really where I thought we were gonna end up, just because it's quick and easy to get back and forth to the United States.

Kalie: Okay. And had you visited Madeira before actually moving?

Leslie: We did, we came when we did a five week scouting trip, but we pretty much fell in love with the island. Went through all the process, covid hit, so we were stuck and unable to come and visit and make our final decision. So when we came on our scouting trip. Literally, we already had the house prepped ready to sell, so the house went on the market the day we returned from our trip, all of our visa had all been put together. The packet was ready to be shipped off the day we returned. So within 24 hours of coming back from our scouting trip, we pulled the trigger on everything.

Kalie: Okay. And did you retire before moving or you still worked a little bit and then retired later?

Leslie: Nope. Retired literally two weeks before we physically moved here.

Kalie: and was the plan always for your son to come with you too?

Leslie: The original plan was for him to go ahead and we were waiting for him to finish college and go through that whole process and get out into the world on his own. And then with Covid, a lot of different things changed and the dynamics changed with regards to what he was doing his schooling.

And then of course, My husband Alan didn't wanna wait, and so finally we said, since you are not ready to go out into the world and take it by storm, can you come to this little island with us? Cuz we're gonna all go there and just take it by storm together.

Kalie: And he was okay with that?

Leslie: We struggled with it yet first he was like, I haven't done, my thing in Chicago yet, as a grownup and.

And then he thought about it for a while and he came back and he's like, you know what, this will be a fun adventure. I can go and get an EU passport live in Europe for as many years as he so chooses, finish his schooling. And and we promise that he can always go back to Chicago any day that he, so chooses.

Kalie: Okay. Aw, that's so great. So then how long have you guys been living in Madeira?

Leslie: we've been here a little over a year.

Kalie: All All right. And you guys have a YouTube channel, don't you?

Leslie: We do.

Kalie: What's it called?

Leslie: It'll be fun.

Kalie: Okay. And what kinds of things do you do on that channel?

Leslie: We talk about retiring to Little Island in the middle of the ocean. We take people on adventures and on walks and things to do to see the island. We try to introduce the island to people as well as we speak a lot to retirement and trying to help people make that decision to pull the trigger and agree that they can retire. So many of us don't have all of the back pensions and as much money as we would like to have had when the time came. And so it's really can be a hard choice as to do you keep working another few years or do you go ahead and pull the trigger and is there a way to do it?

Kalie: Okay. And you guys feel like the cost of living there, it's still very doable on a moderate pension, moderate retirement?

Leslie: we do. It is very doable here on a moderate, middle income pension retirement. You can live nicely. You much better than you would be able to do. So in the States, if we did the traditional thing where you went to Florida, which would be very normal, we would not be able to live at the level with which we do here.

There are some of the costs of the course that have gone we all know.

Kalie: .And do you think that compared to like a Costa Rica or Mexico prices are about the same? Like in your research, were you able to find any of those differences?

Leslie: There. Yes, there is a lot of difference. It's going to be a whole lot cheaper in Ecuador than it would be, or at least another 20% cheaper in Ecuador And then Costa Rica, just a little bit more than that, but not a ton. Mexico, pretty much Mexico, depending on where you're going in Mexico, is probably about the same as here in madera.

Kalie: Okay. But you guys felt that pros and cons, like it outweighed going to Madeira and having the accessibility of Europe, or what was the reasoning

Leslie: The logic simply is it gave us the opportunity to go to Europe. We have lived our whole lives in the United States and been able to travel across, the big, beautiful expanses, but don't have the opportunity Obviously natural history in the United States, but we can't see the history that you can see here in Europe.

so it makes it very nice. It's easy to get back and forth from this little island

Kalie: Yeah, I wanna touch on that because I think a lot of people are worried about getting island fever or being a little too like out in the middle of nowhere. It's hard to travel. You can't get things as easily. So how do you guys feel about that

Leslie: Obviously it's concerned everyone would need to. Come and spend some time. That's one of the things that we do talk about on the channel a lot is if you are looking to come to Madeira, that you come and spend, as much time as you possibly can. We recommend, you know, a good month and a half, you can schedule so that you can make sure this island's gonna work for you We haven't had any trouble with island fever at all. Now the island it's a short hour and 20 minute flight to Lisbon, and it's a cost effective hour and 20 minute flight to Lisbon. So you can do, we can do, you can find tickets for $45 to go to London. From this island. Now you're not gonna take a bunch of luggage with you.

You're not, you're not gonna sit in a fancy seat, but that's all right. You can get on the little air bus and go all around Europe and to Great Britain and spend some time. Probably the most expensive thing is getting back to the states.

Kalie: How long of a flight is that? And I'm assuming it's not direct. You have to go through Lisbon or somewhere

Leslie: You can, there is a direct flight that goes from Madeira to jfk. So if you happen to be from Long Island, , I mean it's pretty convenient, of any place else and you're gonna do a changeover someplace. A lot of people do choose to fly to J F K and then take a flight out of JFK straight into Madeira, or we always choose to just fly into Lisbon and we can go straight from Lisbon back to Chicago

Kalie: Okay, so actually a lot of options, it's just some of them are pricier than obviously if you were popping over into a European city.

Leslie: Correct. It's not terrible. the Other thing is, years ago we had the opportunity to check out the Hawaiian Islands, which those islands, they truly are out much further than this And so it's a big back and forth when you're doing Hawaii and it's very expensive, unlike here.

Kalie: Okay. Now being in on this island, it's close to the northern part of Africa too. Have you guys explored that yet?

Leslie: No, we haven't. But it has been on the list, and part of our original channel was we used to always scream that we're living on an island off the coast of Morocco because it sounded so cool.

Kalie: Yeah, great. So you'll definitely have explore that. But it's nice that it's accessible to, like, it's easy to get into Europe, but then also you do have Morocco in the northern part of Africa that you can explore as well. So a pretty good location for an island, right?

Leslie: Yeah, absolutely.

Kalie: Okay, so let's talk about what there is to do on the island and why you guys love it so much, and what you guys showcase on your channel. So for those that are worried about, , like island fever . Do you think that you could run outta things to do there ?

Leslie: it doesn't hurt that I'm a horticulturist and that Allen , you know, spent his life as a mechanic, had his own shop, all that kind of thing, and he brought his car with him. So the island is a volcanic island. Obviously not active, but because it's mountainous, you're going back and forth through the mountains when you're driving. windy, Part of that excitement could be scary if you are afraid to drive on the roads because it is very much abyss. You know your car's going to the edge, and if you go over, there's no forgiveness.

You're going to go over

and that will be the

end of you , but it's fun. That's

Kalie: It's fun. It's fun. I hear it's awful driving there. That's what everyone says. When we visited I was like, I've read so many horror stories of people driving, so I don't wanna But do you drive or, Alan just always drives.

Leslie: Allen drives. And a lot of that is simply, I haven't bought a car yet since we got here. We his 1970 bug and we drive it all over the island. So people say, can you get it to the top of the mountain? And can. Can we have a whole bunch of people in it? No

Kalie: I am.

Leslie: we're not gonna get there.

But we can take the little car anywhere. He loves to drive. So driving's just not an issue. We have driven it on a we have a theory when you're driving on the island of Madera one, and it's, it is very fine if you get panicked or whatever, people stop in the middle of the road and it's okay to, it sounds silly, but if you're lost or you're afraid, just calm down. Stop. Obviously not on the highway, but stop. And, figure out where you're going and what you're doing and then keep going. People will just go around you. They won't get upset. Like in the States, they would get upset with you, but if that road has lines across it, meaning lines that are dug in the concrete, that means don't drive on this road.

It's that steep, because those lines are the.

For the car, or if there's stairs in the center of the road. . Yeah. If they've had to build stairs in the middle of the road, then you probably don't wanna drive your car on it.

Kalie: Gotcha.

Leslie: because it will feel like when you're going, it feels like your car will literally tumble over backwards as you're going.

It's like being on a roller coaster. When you go up on a roller coaster, it feels like that, but it feels like you're just gonna go ahead and go backwards,

Kalie: my gosh.

Leslie: So those are the

ropes you don't wanna be on.

Kalie: Do you guys have a, like a plan if the bug ever gets stuck? Like you have stuff you keep in your trunk just in case, or just you'll call someone

Leslie: our advantage is Allen's a mechanic.

Kalie: Oh yeah. So he can figure it out.

Leslie: There's not a better mechanic on the island. I, I take mine with me everywhere I go, but it works that it works that way. When we lived in Chicago, when we lived in Tennessee, you know, no matter where I've lived, that has been an advantage in life.

So,

Kalie: Okay. So has he always had this car and it had to go with you guys or have you had a lot of cars and this was just his favorite? Or why this car and what was it like getting it over there?

Leslie: He has had this car longer than he and I have been married. So the car was coming in, whether or not I was coming was a whole different story. So the car was coming, but to get the car here, bringing the car, shipping a car from the United States is not the most cost effective endeavor on the planet.

So it is not necessarily something I highly recommend that you, you bring a car. However, this car is in mint condition and it was his baby and he had bought it, and he's had many cars in his life, but this is the only one he ever kept.

Kalie: That makes

Leslie: it was coming

Kalie: Well, speaking about him being a mechanic, has he found it hard to find parts or tools or anything on the island stuff that he needs to actually maintain the car?

Leslie: So when he packed up the car, he obviously had a garage full of mechanics tools that he got rid of. He kept the pieces he needed the most, the tools he needed the most, and packed that in the car as it came. So, and he could pretty much do anything he needs to do to it. And he had pulled the engine and completely redid all of that before we came just to be sure. we also have met people as soon as we got here that have their own garage with a lift in it that he could borrow if he needs to. He hasn't needed to, but if he did need to, he could. So you asked another part of the question, but

oh parts. Well, realistically the car's German, so we brought it closer to home and we just ordered parts from Germany.

Kalie: Yeah. That's funny. That makes sense. Okay, so this little bug is driving all around the island and what are you doing? Where are you going on the island?

Leslie: I'm a horticulturist. I love nature. We, the island is filled with a couple thousand miles worth of levada, which are, water. It's how water moves from one side of the island to the other. The north side of the island is, where all the rain goes and they moves the, the water from the north side to the south side, which is where the main cities are that everybody lives.

Hundreds of years ago, slaves built these waterways into the island and there are pants next to them everywhere. So you can walk a couple thousand miles worth of these pants. Some of them are, because it's water movement, it's a slight dip, so they're fairly flat. The actual walk is. You gotta get up there to it.

So you might have to hike up to it or drive up to, and then you can just walk for miles and miles and miles. They're absolutely stunning. They go through the cities, through, you know, through the different valleys overlooking the water , through the mountains. It's just fantastic. Every view is amazing.

Kalie: Sounds like a hiker is paradise.

Leslie: It really is cuz there's, there's also Vereda walks, which are the only walks or the walks that would be without a , levada. And those can be hikes, true hikes. So heavy duty hiking. , There's hikers come from all over the world to come and hike here. It is absolutely stunning. But the beauty of the levada walks is even as you age, you can

still do them.

Kalie: Yeah, that's what I was gonna

ask. There's lots of different of how hard it is.

Leslie: Yes. , and because it's all mapped out as this, it's an island. These have been here for years. They're maintained by the government, so they're, in pretty good shape. Not that they aren't abyss. I mean, you are standing on the edge of an abyss a lot of times, walking on a 12 concrete. So you're not, you're probably not bringing

your daughter

Kalie: Yeah, we didn't do, we did like a Jeep tour when we when we were there. So someone drive us around to the pretty places, cuz yeah, we're not doing that stuff with her. The stroller would not work.

Leslie: No, this kind of thing. It's, it, but it is lovely to do and it's well worth doing if you get to come to as your family ages up a

bit.

Kalie: Yeah, that definitely makes

sense

too.

Leslie: it's safer, but there are, it's well mapped out. And because it's well mapped out, you can literally say, I would like, easy, moderate, hard.

I wanna do aita walk, I wanna do a lavata walk. I want to be in the city. I want to be near wherever I'm staying. And you just punch all that into the little WalkMe app and you're off

and running.

Kalie: Ooh, let's talk about this app. Tell me about it.

Leslie: It is there's a couple different apps, but this particular app is, app was designed by some people that island. And it maps all the different walks here. It has full write-ups. It maybe something washes out. So you, they'll have a, an closed.

It'll have the marked. There's all kinds of information that they keep on it. It's done through g p s. So no matter where you are on the island, it's active, you can see And I like using the, there's an all trails map that you can do as well, but I like using the walk me simply because, you, it's, you're supporting the.

Kalie: And if there's any sort of emergency can you can get in touch, they can GPS you like, know where you are

Leslie: yep it's built right into, it's built right into the app. Even. Obviously your phone can take care of that, but it's built right into the app too. Right at you just hit the button and they'll send help, for a fee. They'll send help. It does cost money.

Kalie: Yeah. But I mean, I guess it's probably worth it if you need to use it. Right. It's nice and convenient, so yeah, that's a great idea for an app.

Leslie: , it's , pretty fantastic. When we first came , the first place we stayed, the, the host of , the place that we were staying, literally, it was on his checklist. He's like, he handed us a checklist when we walked in the door in a bottle of wine and said, have a good time, And we did, we followed it, and we really enjoy it.

Kalie: Awesome. Okay, so speaking of wine, obviously Portugal's known for wine, but Madeira is known for a certain drink as well. Well, they have a couple drinks.

Leslie: The drinks are poncha and obviously Madera Wine, which you know, as everybody always likes to tell you, when they were signing the Declaration of Independence, they were drinking Madera wine,

Kalie: Mm-hmm.

Good little fun fact,

Leslie: whether they had. Too much of it or not, we don't know but anyway, so Poncha is a rum drink because the island was originally, this is where sugar cane was brought up from South America and was was done here on this island and then went into Europe from there.

So this is where the sugar cane was originally produced. And so sugar cane is what you produce rum from the island. Obviously has a, is a temperate zone. So citrus does grow on the island and that's what poncha is. It's fruit or oranges and lemons mixed with honey , or sugar cane Honey. , which is what it would originally be.

They use regular honey today, and rum, and it's about a 50 50 mix. So it's a very, very strong, you get this little bitty drink and you think, oh, this is so tasty. Oh, have another, you might wanna question that.

Kalie: Be careful

Leslie: Be careful.

Kalie: Now and locals drink this as well. It's not like a touristy

Leslie: No, we have local drink this as well. It's lovely and they make all different kinds all different, they use all different kinds of fruits to make it for you. And they're handmade. I mean, they make them, they don't pre-make it. So when you go into the little bar and you order a poncha, it may beat 10, 15 minutes before they bring it to you because they literally are squeeze the oranges lemons and, and go ahead and make your

drink

and be fresh.

Kalie: Nice and fresh. Yeah. Okay, so those are the drinks. what's the island known for as far as food goes?

Leslie: Food. Scabbard Fish, of course, which is a big, huge, ugly fish, looks like a great big black eel with huge teeth. It's very scary looking and it lives That was a volcanic island. It doesn't really have sloping beaches that go down into the water. It pretty much is a mountain that pops out of the water.

So the depths of the water is very deep around the island. So there's these fish that live so far down in the ocean that they've never had one up here alive. And it's a scabbard fish. So they catch 'em and by the time they get up, they're dead from the deep, the pressure of the water, the pressure changes in the water, so they're already dead, so no one really knows what they look like.

They live so far down anyway.

Kalie: Whoa.

That's

Leslie: No, it is crazy. Anyway, they're scary looking and they're white fish when they, they're black and scary looking, and they're white fish and they serve them with a Madeira and banana, which is a smaller banana than what we're used to in the states, and it's not as sweet. So it's stays just a little bit firmer and the, and you eat that with the fish.

It's heated. And it is awesome. Absolutely dynamite.

Kalie: This is something that locals eat as well.

Leslie: Absolutely. And they have Lapis, which is like a. You know here, I always say it wrong. We always tell people, well, you know, it's a barnacle live with garlic and butter on it. And who doesn't like garlic and butter?

Everything here is garlic and butter. I mean, if they can serve it with garlic and butter, they have bola de coco, which is bread that's served with garlic and butter, lapis, garlic and butter fish with bananas and butter and on it. You know, I mean, if it can have garlic and butter, it's like an the states. If we can put bacon on it. It's good here. It's if they can put garlic and butter it, it'll be served.

Kalie: Yeah, so it's interesting because it's a Portuguese island, but they really have their own flare and differences between like what happens on the mainland.

Leslie: They do, they have festivals. It's a very small island with lots of little bitty towns, but they have festivals. There's a different festival every week of the year, almost. and you just go, you know, you will never get bored. That takes you back to not getting bored. Obviously, you'll never gonna walk your 2000 miles worth of levada you know, in the time that you're here.

Well, I guess you could, but you're probably not going to

Kalie: a lot.

Leslie: and then you also have a festival every, every single week there's another. To go and be involved in. And they're all different for different reasons. Culture like Carnival obviously is, , what's going on now. , And you know, wine festivals, flower festivals, poncho festivals, rum festivals, sugar game festivals, pocco festivals, , you name it, they have a festival and all the little towns are such fun to go to, you know. it's a big deal and everybody's all up in the news. , you're not gonna get bored here. It's, I mean, you you can get bored here if you so choose, but I mean it real, it would be a choice

Kalie: Okay. Do you need to know the language there or is it easy to find these things in English and communicate in English.

Leslie: Interestingly enough, Because the island for many, many years has been, , visited by the British, English is widely spoken. , Obviously it is a Portuguese island and Portuguese is the main language, however, Almost everybody speaks English except for, you know, as you get older in age, , they may speak Portuguese, but that's all right.

We don't speak Portuguese well, so we all just pantomime and, and you know, and, and then we're able to get sugar cake and bola de coco and rum and all of these things work out just fine. They, They actually speak English more here than when we were visiting Porto.

Kalie: Okay. And I think Alan was saying that there's a lot of cruise ships that go through there as well.

Leslie: There is the cruise season is , the winter months and , they come in, they just stay for the day for a few hours and then they leave. And every morning you can actually pull up a thing to see who all's in. , , Ports, which ships are gonna be in port. We've actually had friends come to visit on the ships.

Right. , So it's like, your friends are coming into town, let's go to port and pick them up, you know, that kind of thing. So that's kind of fun. Yeah. Silliness. , When they're in port, obviously it's busy in town, and then all the tours that go out on the tours for the day. and, but it's not bothersome.

Some, we were worried that it might be bothersome, cuz cuz there could be thousands of people. But the island is designed for tourism. I mean, it really is. This is how the people here make a living. Um, And we want them to make a living. It's a beautiful island.

Kalie: Yeah, that's great. So tourism is big, but they do a good job of spreading people out and doing different activities and things. So it's not overwhelming down there by the port

Leslie: They do. and and there's enough restaurants because they are totally prepared for for that level. There's that many restaurants here. , Just like in Porto, there's so many restaurants. When you're in the main part of the city, you you know, and I don't think we've ever even had to wait,

Kalie: So you've mentioned, okay, so Funchal obviously is the big city there, and then there's smaller towns. Do you live in Funchal or in one of the smaller towns?

Leslie: We live in one of the suburbs of Funchal. , Every time we go out on the island, we swear, but now we're gonna move to the north side of the island. Um, We have yet to do that, but we keep

Kalie: Why is

Leslie: If you think of. California, when you go to Northern California, how it's rocky and, and just stunningly beautiful.

Totally different kind of ocean and view to the water and how it acts than if you were in San Diego, you know, Southern California. Which is lovely for hanging out on the beach and laying out, that kind of thing. So the north side of the island is very rugged. , it can be wetter, right? , it's greener because that's where the water comes.

It's just stunning that the towns are small, but because the island has an incredible infrastructure that's been built up um, being a member of the E.U. , a lot of money has been funneled into this island. So the roadways and the systems here are literally, they feel sections of 'em are brand new. Yeah, we, we have stories of the, one of the first gentlemen that we met here, he was about 45, and he was talking about, he grew up on the north side of the island, which would be the side, the far side away from the big city. He had learned to, he had grown up in a one room schoolhouse and had a chalkboard as his template, a chalkboard and of chalk. Just like, you know, Laurel engels Wilder.

Kalie: Yeah. Uhhuh.

Leslie: It's like Little House on the Prairie, but he's only 45 and that's how his schooling was done. So the island with the infrastructure is totally different than what it was. , you know, we're talking 20, 30 years ago.

Kalie: Right. Yeah. Quite a shift. And then what's housing like there? What does it look like? , What are some things if people are doing a scouting trip that they should look out for? Cause I know people in Porto are always like, I hear the mold is really bad, So how do I make sure that doesn't happen? So with, , scouting, what are some tips and tricks with the accommodations?

Leslie: you know, if you're scouting cuz , you're looking to move here. Everybody tells you to live below the banana line. , Because the temperatures get colder above the banana line and it's just simply when they say banana line, that's the line where, , essentially the the weather changes. Just like, you know, you've moved from Florida to Chicago today.

, . But you can do it in a matter of minutes. , But as you go up, it's gonna get colder and chillier, and so therefore you have the chance of the mold growing in the house. , They don't have heating and cooling systems here. They do have them, do not get me wrong. It's just that traditionally they weren't built into the homes, so it's only the newest properties will have that Even the property that we are in is a, is a new high-rise or a newer. High rise, and we do not have heating or cooling in our, in our house.

Kalie: Is that ever a problem?

Leslie: mm-hmm.

Kalie: no. I mean, we, I worried about it, you know, I thought that it was gonna be a problem, but it's not a problem at all. And because our building is, , a newer building, There's, there were a lot of building requirements during, the seven, you know, if you get back into the, something that was built in the seventies or eighties, they didn't have the same kind of regulations that they have today. , So those buildings can have a real problem that they don't have the right footers and so on and so forth in order to prevent the mold from wicking up. Into the buildings. See, the newer you purchase, if you're buying the newer property you purchase, the better the the building requirements will have been for that.

Leslie: And you will clearly know if you're gonna have a mold issue.

Kalie: Because you

can

Leslie: a

it's

already there. You're not gonna, there's not gonna be a surprise. These are concrete buildings. It's not hidden behind drywall in the wood because these are concrete buildings, which is different than we're used to in the states.

Kalie: Okay. And so you think it's not necessarily essential to have heating and cooling there

Leslie: Yeah, I don't think you have to have it.

Kalie: because the weather's pretty temperate.

Leslie: whether it is temperate, is there a couple times of the year that you might wish you had, you could flip on the air conditioner?

Kalie: Yeah.

Leslie: Or Yeah. There's a couple times in the winter where you're like, You know, you wish you had a heater, but you know, so on that day you have to wear slippers.

Like today I've got on a sweatshirt today.

Kalie: Okay. So a little cooler, but nothing crazy.

Leslie: and it's only because I'm inside. The buildings are built, so they stay cool inside. If I go outside, yep. I probably don't need it.

Kalie: Yeah. Yeah. Same thing in Porto too. A lot of people complain that it's colder inside than it is outside, but you're in a sweatshirt today and I'm in a short sleeve, so it's getting warmer here,

Leslie: There you

Kalie: So it just depends. It's not as bad

Leslie: Yeah. There's a couple times in the winter

where you're like, you wish you had a heater, but you know, so on that day you have to wear slippers.

Like today I've got

on a sweatshirt today.

Kalie: Okay. So a little cooler, but nothing

crazy.

Leslie: and it's only because I'm inside. The buildings are built, so they stay cool inside. If I go outside, yep. I probably don't need it.

Kalie: Yeah. Yeah. Same thing in Porto too. A lot of people complain that it's colder inside than it is outside, but you're in a sweatshirt today and I'm in a short sleeve, so it's getting warmer here,

Leslie: you

Kalie: So it just It's not as bad as it always appears. I think. Uh, people make it

out to be

Leslie: Right, exactly. Exactly. It's it's short-lived. Every once in a while you're like, oh, I wish I could just turn on the heater and take the edge off.

Kalie: yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Leslie: But that's it.

Kalie: Okay. So in your channel, you mentioned it a little bit earlier, you just pretty much showcased the island. You guys, what do you do? You go on hikes, you drive around. What kinds of things do you do on your channel? So we can send people over there.

Leslie: So we e everything. He has a subject, , each one has a subject. We'd speak to, something with regards to retirement or not being afraid or sometimes we're talking about visas or we're talking about, people have lots of questions with regards to silly things like driver's licenses, insurance, how do I find a realtor?

Just questions. So we answer those kinds of questions as we go. , We talk about how to put together a scouting trip, just whatever they want to know. It's a very simple saying, , but it really has to do with retirement. And it's, and I say retirement, but it's just literally creating your next adventure.

It doesn't matter how old you are, because you can come here and, whatever. Bring your YouTube channel and live on the island , and do it. So it doesn't matter what age you are.

Kalie: Yeah, that's becoming more common. People being able to work remotely or digital nomads. So internet's good there then

Leslie: Oh, absolutely. It's better here than it was when we were in Porto. We laughed. Um, the internet here is so good. It's amazing. Yeah.

Kalie: internet were you using in Porto? That it wasn't good?

Leslie: Oh, It was fine. It was fine. Don't get me wrong. It was fine, but we did and laugh. But then the other things we do is every time we go out on these things, unlike everybody else where they're so good at lining all these things up, we get in the car, we drive, so you'll always go on a drive to some part of the island.

We go through the sun and the rain. We don't try and hide it, it. Rain's here on our island, um, ,,and we go in a walk or we go into town and we walk through town. You know, It's just literally whatever the adventure of the day is, most of the time it's a walk or we visit a new little village, and let you let people take a look at it so they can see it as we talk about whatever the subject matter is for the day. Some kind of retirement, something

Kalie: Yeah, that is a lot of fun. Which is the name of the channel. It'll be fun. Is that your guys' motto? Has it just always been your motto in life? So when you created the channel, you were like, we gotta call it,

Leslie: No, we actually have a dog and her name is career and she doesn't, she's very heavy and she doesn't like to go for a walk, and so in Chicago, we would just try and make her walk to the mailbox and back when we would scream as we drag her down the driveway it, come on Greer. It'll be fun.

Kalie: That type, the name came about.

That's

so funny.

Leslie: I'm dragging this little dog. Come on. It'll be fun.

So there we go

Kalie: And your dog is with you still?

Leslie: Yeah. Yeah. She's still here and we still have to scream at her. Come on, Greer. It'll be fun. And she, she doesn't like to walk. We carry her on a lot of our walks. You'll see,

Kalie: Okay.

Leslie: you

Kalie: But she makes appearances in

your videos.

Leslie: She does make appearances in the video. Sometimes he says, you know, I'm just too tired.

I'm gonna stay home and have bonbons for the day.

Kalie: That's on a bad life.

Leslie: No, it's not. He has a good

life.

Kalie: Yeah. Ah, awesome. Okay. And then since , we've chatted a little bit how you were just in Porto, so we met up, Josh and I met up with, with your family, and I spoke with Alan there. And so we will have an interview about Madeira and a little more on our, , YouTube channel with Alan. So everyone will have to stay tuned for that. With some details about Madeira there as well. But we definitely wanna chat with you a bit more in depth about some of the fun, fun things that, it's a little harder on the videos to do, but real life stuff and we can chat about these on the podcast, which is nice.

Leslie: Yeah,

it is.

Kalie: Yeah. So any final, um, just tips that you would give people who are interested in Madeira?

Leslie: Oh one that they, if they want, they should come for a scouting trip. And this is gonna sound probably one of the tips that I think is the best that we didn't do, is if you truly are interested in viewing the island, then you know, when you come for your scouting trip, don't just go on your tours of the island, which you should do.

Everybody should go on a tour, rent a car, but also work with a realtor.

Kalie: Okay.

Leslie: you are gonna live there. So you wanna see the wonderful beauty of the island, but you also will need to understand what you can afford, you know, and what that looks like for you. And if you're a family, that would mean the schools and where you would live with regards to the school that you would want for the kids or from a mobility issue, whether you're close to the hospitals, that kind of thing as you age.

Kalie: Oh, that's great advice. So then, if people wanna get in touch with you to chat , how can They get in touch with you?

Leslie: They can, obviously come to the channel. In the channel. There's a link to our Patreon. They can get a get a join. That group there, which is, it'll be fun. patreon.com. It'll be fun. It's all very simple. They can send an email. , Our email is on the channel as well, which is, itllbefunretirement@gmail.com, But just come over to the YouTube channel. Everything is in there. I keep it all in the description to make it simple for people.

Kalie: Leslie at expats everywhere. We believe that living abroad transforms lives. So how has living in Madeira transformed your life?

Leslie: Oh wow. What a wonderful question. It has given us the opportunity to see things that we would've just have never gotten to do, , and to know that we weren't too old to do it. Life is short.

Kalie: Awesome. Well, Leslie, thank you so much for joining us on the

podcast

today.

Leslie: Thank you. I appreciate it.