oh now you caught my attention with "I know the tropical paradises", i'm interested tell me more. for example did you have any connections there or smth?
Incorrectly quoted ;-) Or I was unclear.
Paraguay is often referred to as some kind of tropical paradise as well (minus ocean, minus the fact that it technically is humid subtropics).
Esp. by shady creatures who prey on new immigrants and their money... ;-)
The ones you mentioned as possible targets I have no knowledge about - although some of the things might apply there as well.
When I moved here I had very little knowledge about the country and just a couple of Internet contacts. But then again my motivation was just: get the fuck out of that annoying crowded Europe and try something totally different in a warm country with relatively liberal immigration laws. So I was not "disappointed", but after a couple years you see many things with different eyes - compared to being there just on holiday or for a couple months like a digital nomad usually does.
Most "side effects" are climate related - problems with architecture, no matter what style you prefer, frequent thunderstorms (and usually unprotected crappy power grid...), massive stress for your electronic devices thanks to heat and humidity and voltage fluctuations, everything that you do not use daily is eaten by mold or ants, documents and the like rot away as they deserve it, but it is sometimes kinda problematic, many people develop fatigue/cardio related problems after a few years in this climate, friends who lived somewhere in the Bermuda region/Caribbean for several years could not stand the salty air any more, etc.pp...
The other part is people - again, being a tourist is quite different from living there (wherever "there" is). Local culture, but also the expat communities... there are very different kinds of expats/immigrants (e.g. here most are paranoid-aggressive whining chocolate chip cookies and other nationalist preachers) and it is a good idea to explore that a bit before you settle down in a country...
Best practice, looking at my own experience and several friends of mine:
become location independent with whatever you do for a living - start long-term traveling - start traveling more slowly after a "shortlist" of countries has formed - stay in interesting places a couple months each, preferable at least twice to test different seasons... only then maybe go through the hassle of permanent residence permits and the like...
P.S.: with so many people trying to "get away" somehow and the raise of the digital nomad movement you have expat / nomad groups on facebook for almost every country imaginable, following those groups for some time usually gives you quite some information about the reality of everyday life there. Sites like nomadlist.com etc. are useful as well when checking basic prices, internet quality, etc.
