Where in the World is Mike Sager Now?

The backstory: Mike Sager wrote in the September 2012 issue how after years of living as a postman in Wenatchee, he made the move to live fulltime in Ecuador where he founded a real estate business just as North Americans began moving to that Central America country.

- Mike Sager

Call me a gypsy, vagabond, wanderer, nomad... any of those monikers would fit like a glove.

My recent transplant has some wondering what’s going on... and I don’t mean liver or kidney.

I recently made a major move from Ecuador to Portugal this past June.

I still love Ecuador, but it has, unfortunately, lost some of its luster in the last couple of years. It is still a great place, but for some unknown reason Portugal popped up on our radar early the previous year and now it is “home” for the foreseeable future.

I liken it to Ecuador, but a bit more refined, well maintained and the cost of living is incredibly low for the most part (well, except for the 5 euro a gallon gas). It also has a ton of things to do compared to our last home.

We made the leap/move with “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” attitude. We are living in Portimao in the Algarve province.This is the southernmost costal area and is extremely popular with all of Europe as a vacation spot.

For me the big draws were a major music scene with tons of places to perform live music and a world-class motor speedway just 20 minutes away. I am still addicted to speed (the velocity kind) and with a place you can legally go 180 mph it held huge appeal since I seldom did more than 65 mph in Ecuador and no world class-race track to “get my fix.”

The cool thing about race tracks are there’s always an ambulance nearby, everyone is going the same direction as you and no police hiding behind the Beer Marquis with a radar gun. What more could you ask for?