After many months away, I logged into escapeartist.com, a website specializing in providing information to ex-pats looking to retire abroad. NO WEBSITE! Instead, up popped “This webpage is not available”. What?? I tried numerous subpages on the website with the same result.

OK so I googled “real estate escape artist” and on the first page of hits is: Escapeartist.com scandal – which linked to the article below. Early on, escapeArtist was informative with articles that read “real”.

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Escapeartist.com scandal
Panama’s Escape Artist Roger Gallo in Legal Trouble
rogergallo.gifAnother scam promotor bites the dust. Panama never acted against him promoting real estate fraud, making money on scams and working as an unlicensed real estate broker, but the Argentinean courts are somwhat more efficient, it seems. A press release, from one Paul Hoffman in Panama, reads:

SAN RAFAEL, ARGENTINA, February 05, 2006 – Roger Anthony Gallo, the American owner of the expatriate website, EscapeArtist.com, was the subject of an order issued today by a local court in San Rafael, Argentina, seizing all of Mr. Gallo’s real estate holdings in Argentina. The court, after receiving evidence of Gallo’s indebtedness and his refusal to pay his creditors, ordered his property seized. The court, under the procedures for such matters set by Argentine law, granted Gallo six days to provide the court with proof of payment of the debts. In the event that Mr. Gallo continues his refusal to pay his debts, the court will auction the properties and the auction proceeds will be used to pay the creditors.

Mr. Gallo, who has styled himself as an international real estate expert, had moved to Argentina after leaving the Republic of Panama where he was accused of being involved in a large land development fraud, selling real estate without a license, and making libelous claims and creating false reports in regard to the investigative reporter who exposed the fraud. Gallo’s Argentina creditors have expressed their concern that Gallo may attempt to make a similar attempt to discredit them, and they are now seeking a court order to prohibit such action.

Hoffman Reports is a publisher of insider information for American expatriates living and working in the Republic of Panama and other Central American countries.

Well, well. Noriegaville is trying to get the court papers. Meanwhile, we did receive communications from worried people in Uruguay, where Gallo tried or is trying to set up shop after the Argentina debacle. To be continued….

http://www.noriegaville.com/bochinch…from=&ucat=11&

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I found many of the articles on Escape Artist interesting and considered purchasing property in Central America. In purchasing property I would always find a reputable local agent to navigate the purchase minefield and help identify properties. It is sad to see what was one of the premier websites for foreign travel and living “turn bad”. I doubt the site was initially intended to defraud, but the lure of easy money can be very persuasive.

Ron

While researching long term rentals in Italy, I discovered this website, www.longtermrentals.com.

This website is different. While most sites list vacation rentals by the day and week, longtermrentals specializes in monthly rental listings. I have not yet used this website, but it does look promising. I’ve found rentals from a 1 bedroom flat to a 10 bedroom farmhouse and everything in between. The search tool is easy to use, though you have to know the region and the town you are interested in.

We will not be travelling for another year or so. If any of you do use this resource, please post your experience on the travel forum.

Ron

To keep expenses down while travelling, I recommend renting long term if you can. It beats hotel rentals and you’ll be out and about most times anyway. For those time you do take hotel rooms, this video is helpful. http://www.today.com/travel/book-it-5-ways-get-better-hotel-room-rate-2D79437638

I’ve been “away” for a while, took a road trip in our new car. We’re closing in on retiring in a year and a half and should have much more to say about travel destinations and the good and bad experiences we have along the way.

somehow I came across an interesting blog for travelers: http://solotravelerblog.com/

This presents information for single men and women considering traveling alone to somewhere or anywhere. This is a daring thing to do, traveling alone. I think many, perhaps most American tourists would never consider solo travel. This is for the adventurous Is that YOU?

American news presents a skewed view of the world. Hunter Thompson as crazy as he was, was not far off base using “fear and loathing” as a banner. News in the United States uses fear mongering to sell the evening news. On the whole, people internationally are warm and friendly, if self motivated. But I digress.

Check out solo traveler.

Ron

A project to complete a portion of the Bay Trail has been approved by the City. Cool. While searching the web, I happened upon www.railstotrails.org and from there www.traillink.com.

Rails to trails is an orginazation that supports the conversion of railways into hiking and biking trails throughout the United States. I believe that trains are optimal for long haul transportation, and do not support converting right of way between major cities into bicycle routes. Practically nobody will be bicycling between San Francisco and Chicago on a converted railroad right of way. However there are literally thousands of spurs or old and practically defunct city and town railways that are perfect targets for conversion to trails. Rails-to-trails is an organization that supports such conversions.

The organization also provides maps of local trails in your area sutable for a morning or evening stroll or a longer bicycle ride. Looking at the San Francisco Bay Trail, there are large portions of the trail that are complete, and many pieces of the trail that are not yet connected. The goal is to provide a walking path around the San Francisco Bay. I guess the Golden Gate Bridge is the “trail” across the gate.

The traillink website is great. It can be difficult to find exactly what you are looking for the first time, but in general the information is there.

Apparently just visiting the site was sufficient for the site to garner my email address! I’m told that for a fee a company can contact Google with “cookie” information gathered from a website visitor and Google will provde the email address of the visitor. Rails-to-trails sent an email to me (as Ron!) asking me to join trails-to-rails. Well, geez. There is no annonymity on the web, none.

In this case I welcomed the request to join. This is the kind of outfit I enjoy supporting and I “signed up”. The minimum donation is $18.00, which is very little.

This reminds me of an experience I had with the Sierra Club and “open space” some years ago. After saying I might be interested in joining I was asked to meet at Kings Grade Road (??) with a few Sierra Clubbers to promote open space at a wine and art festival. OK, no problem. I went and had a good time at the festival for a bit. Then we did canvassing to garner support for additional open space. There were two open space areas that could be connected if a few parcels were converted to open space. Cool. I learned a lesson that afternoon. What the Sierra Club was attempting was to take people’s land and convert it to open space through eminent domain. I actually spoke with two fellows who owned some of the land the Sierra Club was attempting to grab. Were they PISSED! I would be pissed too.

Needless to say I did not join the Sierra Club. For all the good they have done for California and for me, I could not associate with the people who misrepresented what they were up to that afternoon. It’s time for me to research how that conflict played out.

In any case: I support rails-to-trails and I only wish they could convert the high-speed rail to a trail before it is built up the peninsula. There is no need to run a high speed rail through residential areas. Use it for long haul city to city. We already have bullet trains on the peninsula, but this is a rant for another day…

$18 bucks, support rails-to-trails. Check out trails in your neck of the woods.

Ron

A shout out to Bushtracks, Sonoma Ca. This is the outfit we used to book both our safaris on recommendation. Our good friends go “on safari” every year and book through Bushtracks.

These guys are great. They will customize a trip/itenerary for you. The difference is, they do not fit you into the safari, the fit the safari to you. Our guides in many cases were and are world renound.

Bushtracks is not a discount safari outfit. They specialize in customized intimate experiences in bush camp settings. The food is five star and the accomodations are comfortable and visually stunning. You are at the whim of the wildlife; there is no guarantee that you will see any furry animals on any day or at any camp. This is true wherever you go, unless you want a herd of land rovers encircling the “captive” wildlife.

What Bushtracks will do is provide a customized experience for you. They are reasonably priced: you can spend less on a self drive and you can spend more, much more. In my experience, they provide a small intimate group setting with 2 to 4 other couples in many cases. You explain what you want and Bushtracks will provide options.

These guys are great. You will find cheaper, and you get what you pay for.

Ron

Trustworthy travel resources are golden. It is so easy to waste hours researching a travel destination, or to be burned by bad information. Where you stay can make a get-away unforgettable or one you would rather forget.

One of my go-to resources for lodging is VRBO, vacation rental by owner. www.vrbo.com. I have not used VRBO extensively, but the few times I have, I have not been disappointed. In general the owner’s photos and traveller’s reviews tell the story. I highly recommend VRBO to establish a baseline for non-hotel accomodations anywhere in the world.

I am not affiliated with nor do I represent VRBO. I just happen to like their website and I’ve had 100% great dealings with owners who post there.

Ron