Colonia, Uruguay
My second home is in a small town of 14,000 people in Uruguay. It’s large enough to have all the basic businesses and services, but not large enough to be impersonal. Again, the primary concern of tolerant, supportive people is a major attraction.
Buenos Aires is right across the river, providing a buoyant economy to the small, antique town, even when Argentina is experiencing crisis times. Yet it remains “a country apart” and is largely unaffected by the Argentine economic rollercoaster. Uruguay produces 90% of what it consumes and exports only 10% of what it produces, so it’s able to be independent of international crises, as it was during the two world wars. Uruguay is also rich in rivers and farmland and produces an excess of all-natural food. On the other hand, the economy is chronically sluggish and it’s a poor place to seek employment or open a business.
Uruguay is south of the equator, which means that, if there’s nuclear war in the northern hemisphere, Uruguay will be minimally impacted by fallout, since the southern hemisphere has an independent weather system from the northern hemisphere.
It therefore has a different set of advantages and disadvantages from the Cayman Islands. As a “Plan B”, it may therefore be preferable to “Plan A”, depending on what befalls the world in the future.
Cafayate, Argentina
But, there’s also a “Plan C” – ironically, located in Argentina. The town of Cafayate is in the extreme northern province of Salta, so far away from the disorganised and underfunded government in Buenos Aires that it largely ignores diktat from the Capitol. Cafayate is a small town (about 13,000) where living expenses are quite low. This means that for the well-heeled, everything is inexpensive, but it also means that this is not a good place to seek employment. Additionally, locally-available goods are generally on the basic side. Someone seeking an escape from a crisis elsewhere, however, is likely to enjoy a decidedly peaceful existence here.
But Cafayate has an unusual and interesting advantage, in that, years ago, the foresighted Doug Casey created an upscale community just outside of the town, which has a golf course, polo, an excellent hotel and property for sale on which to construct luxury homes. La Estancia de Cafayate is populated by very interesting and largely libertarian people of many nationalities. For this reason, there are, in essence, two Cafayates. The two enhance each other and residents of La Estancia enjoy the unusual benefit of an upscale community, yet low day-to-day expenses.
In each of the above possible choices, the objective is to provide as content and untroubled a life in a time of great potential crisis as can be found.
For someone who is retired, but may soon lose his 401 K and social security to an economic collapse, a better choice might be to move to Quito, Ecuador. Rent a corner bodega and turn it into a trendy coffee shop for the tourists. You’d live a modest life, but would be well looked-after and enjoy a peaceful existence.
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