My situation in 2016

I am living in South America - 6 months in Brazil in my own home, and 6 months renting in Peru - as an economic refugee! I can no longer afford to live in my home country having been made redundant at 56, so ventured to Brazil to see what it was like - and fell in love with a beautiful National Park area in Bahia state. It reminded me so much of many happy years spent in Southern Africa - the scenery, the people, the way of life - that I knew I had to move here.
Finding out that at 55 you can cash in private pension contributions to buy an annuity, and adding in the endowment policies I received as my share of a divorce settlement, meant I was able to purchase a small annuity, which thanks to annual rises, and a currently very favourable British Pound Sterling exchange rate, gives me just about enough to live on comfortably, but not extravagantly.
Initially I came as a volunteer while seeking a reason to gain permanence, and bought a house as opposed to renting, and that turned out to be a terrific idea. For around the same price as a garage in the UK I found a 4 bedroomed house on a large plot, in a quiet area just outside the town centre, but the view from the kitchen sold it to me!

From my kitchen window

My volunteer visa hadn't come through when I first came, so I entered as a tourist, and made two trips back to the UK in that first year - once when I found that there was paperwork missing on my visa application, and the second time to collect my 2 year visa (had to be renewed after the first 12 months). 

I soon found that 2 years voluntary work wasn't suddenly going to open the door to permanent residence, and my bubble was finally burst when the Federal Police told me my best (only!) options for legal permanence were to get married to, or have a child with, a Brazilian! Breaking the law and staying illegally can lead to permanence after 4 to 5 years when they have an amnesty, but doing everything by the book, and paying council and vehicle taxes mean you never achieve it!

So it was after almost 3 years - 2 years on a volunteer visa sandwiched between 2 tourist visas which allowed me 180 days in any year - I first went to Peru to spend 6 months there. Again I did some voluntary work with a local charity (Peru is not as strict on that matter - in Brazil you are not supposed to even do unpaid voluntary work as a tourist!) staying in a seaside tourist town in the North, and, though not as beautiful as the part of Brazil I live in, it was still a very pleasant place to spend 6 months in.

Huanchaco

I returned again the following year, though cut back my voluntary commitments, as I wanted to do some touring, and this time bought myself a motorbike, and covered 5500 miles (almost 9000 kms) round the North and East of Peru, from the coast to the Andes, and beyond into the Amazon basin!

As I write this entry, I am about to return to Peru for my third 6-month long stay, and am looking forwards to reuniting with my trusty bike and the open roads. 

Bike in Peru - Maranon Valley