Let’s start by asking, where were we exactly one year ago?
Well, we had just joined Location Indie, the online community of like-minded travelers journeying through the world and creating location independent businesses. A community helping each other to succeed through education, support, and camaraderie.
Logistics of Going Location Independant
We had already bought our one-way plane tickets the previous summer of 2017, to the region of the world we had fallen in love with – the Yucatan Peninsula. We had told all of our closest friends and family about our plan to travel the world longterm, beginning in Mexico, for 2 or more years depending on how things went.
- Vaccinations for Yellow Fever, Typhoid Fever
- Scanning important paperwork like our passports
- Getting travel credit cards with no international transaction fees and rewards points
- Selling Nate’s car
- Moving out of our apartment and into Nate’s parents house for 3 months to save more money
- A phase of minimalism. We got rid of most of our furniture and excess clothes, dishes and random things stuffed away in drawers
- Getting comprehensive insurance for our film and camera equipment
Inspiration and Focus
Cassie also got Heath Armstrong’s inspirational Sweet Ass Journal and on January 1st began writing in it every day. She wrote about what she was grateful for, what her big dreams and goals were, her 2 daily tasks to help achieve those big goals, along with stuff she could give away to create more space in her life for freedom while simultaneously benefiting another person.
Volunteering Abroad
We both started reading The Volunteer Traveler’s Handbook by Shannon O’Donnell and taking a few notes and tips on how to pick an equitable and morally responsible volunteer organization abroad. (Read more about the mistakes we made and what we learned here).
Nate was communicating with one environmental volunteering organization he had found online that looked really great. Of course, we now know it would not end up working out for various reasons, but looking back it feels fateful because it’s what got us to Merida. The place we have loved living for almost ten months.
Go Plastic Free Store
Nate also dove into the conception and beginning stages of our online store Go Plastic Free. Figuring out things like website design, digital marketing research, SEO and getting the right distributors with quality plastic free products became a great learning experience.
Nate was also wrapping up multiple gardening projects for long-time Portland clients for his old company Native Gardener.
Filmmaking for Native American Youth
Cassie was in the pre-production stages of a two and a half month long after school program at Chemawa Indian Boarding School in Salem, Oregon. From designing an engaging curriculum to procuring a committed student crew, she was creating a documentary production class. It was her second year teaching film there.
Her focus was on making the art of filmmaking and storytelling accessible to indigenous youth, putting the camera in the hands of native kids whose voice seldom reaches the world. It was a profoundly rewarding experience for her.
Wrapping Up Work
12 months ago Cassie was also wrapping up her day job at a medical office where she had worked part-time for four years. It was sad to say goodbye, but it was another step propelling the dream of traveling forward.
While wrapping up jobs we were also preparing for a huge transition in our lives. We knew everything was about to be different. This fact made us both extremely excited and equally nervous. It was frightening because we were leaving the known for the unknown – that deep mystery of possibility. Like an epic mountain in the distance, the time was
The Biggest Milestones and Wins of 2018
So what happened in 2018? I think our biggest milestone, our biggest WIN was making the decision to go location independent and then taking the leap! Packing all of our things – complete with hiking shoes, a portable mosquito net, 2 heavy duty backpacks, and our top filming gear and laptops, we headed off into the great unknown.
What have been our greatest highlights of going location independent? See below!
January 2018
- We made the decision to jump ship about 4 months prior when we bought our one-way tickets to Cancun
- We knew there was no turning back and planned for our move abroad
- Got rid of most of our stuff
- Moved out of our apartment
- Worked hard and saved money to make the leap
- Lived with Nate’s parents in Portland, Oregon and saved more money
- Sat down one cold winter January morning thinking about what our mission was and how we were going to share that with the rest of the world. We came up with about 10 names and after many hours settled on Native Nomads with the mission of helping Native people and native habitats around the world. We chose nativenomadlife.com
- Set up the first steps with the Native Nomads website! Built the site, picked the name and our mission and what that meant to us
- Began wrapping up our work for our individual companies and were close to the end
- Got the cats their vaccinations so they could travel out of the USA to Mexico!
February 2018
Cassie’s birthday. We started to go plastic free with walks around our home picking up plastic on our walks. Cassie went to Nashville to visit her best friend Erin and help her shoot interviews for a documentary!
March 2018
Cassie visited her mom in Pacific Grove, California. She also got to be a part of the Media Institute for Social Change as a featured filmmaker for a dinner where she talked about being a Native American filmmaker and her latest documentary for the class she was teaching at Chemawa Indian School with Native youth. The clip she shared was very well received.
Cassie had her premiere for the film at Chemawa Indian School and the kids LOVED it. We got home, packed for two days and finally set off for the trip! It was a whirlwind week. Flew into Cancun and took the bus to Merida where we stayed for a few days exploring, before our volunteering project in April 🙂
April 2018
Failed volunteering experience, but we found Merida. We explored Merida, visited cenotes (natural sinkholes), Maya archeological ruins, the beach, museums and had the time of our lives. First Mexican plastic beach cleanup was on April 4th. Lived in an Airbnb and met our kind host Laura.
Made a prototype bag for Go Plastic Free. Apartment hunted. Visited the gold city of Izamal. End of April headed to the grand market (Lucas de
May 2018
Found an apartment, moving into our first place in Merida and exploring the new area. Got fast internet installed. Explored the Maya ruins of the Puuc Ruta and got to the see the cave where the ancient Maya lived before they started formal cities thousands of years ago.
Headed back to Portland to pick up the cats. On the way had a long layover in Houston and did another plastic cleanup on the river after the Hurricane of 2017. Saw friends in Portland for the weird auto drag race. Nate did his first job in Portland while living abroad. Cassie did a baby photo shoot for Allison. Saw family.
Flew back to Merida with the cats successfully, though they were a little scared. Volunteered at a local animal shelter in Merida.
June 2018
Started to volunteer with Yucatan Giving Outreach and learned how to teach English at
July 2018
Nate flew back to Merida from work in Portland. Then we flew to Guadalajara for a tree planting with a new environmental community! Learned to explore new parts of Mexico. Explored Guadalajara and Tequila, Jalisco, Mexico and loved it. Saw our Portland friend Ati in Guadalajara for dinner. Cassie got bit by a puppy at our
August 2018
More hot weather in Merida so we successfully found an outdoor pool and gym membership at Fiesta Americana, starting our fitness on the road. Sean came to visit. We went to Casa Rosa
Then Cassie went to the family reunion in North Carolina. As soon as she got back we went to Holbox Isle (north of Cancun) for our 6th year anniversary and swam with the whale sharks.
Our digital nomad friends Dario and
September 2018
Started taking Spanish classes with Michel at the beginning of September (after meeting him at the restaurant he works at in Santa Lucia, Merida). Our friend Megan and her husband came to visit. Saw the Maya
Met with a Maya family (our friend
Interviewed Kimmy Suki of Yucatan Giving Outreach. Met the writer Rachel and her boyfriend of Hippie in Heels blog. At the end of September, we went to Palenque and San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas. Hung out in real life with our Location Indie friends and members Jillian and Chris in Palenque. (They’re amazing artists and as of now live in Guatemala – check them out here.)
October 2018
San Cristobal de las Casas trip. Felt at peace and grounded in Mexico.
Met new local friends and started doing interviews with local business owners who were making a positive impact in the community. We interviewed Mauricio the owner of the socially conscious shoe company in Merida called Tags. We interviewed Dr. Carlos for a video for his nonprofit. We shot behind the scenes footage for Yucatan Giving Outreach at the Breakfast charity in Merida.
We flew to Minneapolis for a long weekend to shoot the annual Misophonia conference (our 5th year). We got the gimbal for the camera! We also met up with a Location Indie group for our last day along with our longtime Portland friends – Dylan and Ashley – who now live there 🙂
On our way back we headed to Tulum for a few days and enjoyed biking, the ruins, the ocean, and a cenote. Loved exploring the place that brought us down in the first place. Started thinking about the possibility of moving to Tulum.
Our friend Location Indie Jason Robinson came to visit. Experienced the full week of Hanal Pixan (the Maya/Yucatecan version of Dia de
November 2018
We were honored to attend a very traditional “Pib” (underground oven) ceremony at the end of Hanal Pixan with a Maya family that our friend Mauricio knows. We met a new friend Jenita randomly who happens to know Location Indie co-founder and Zero to Travel Podcast host Jason Moore (she was interviewed on his podcast). Our friend Heath Armstrong and friend visited the Yucatan and we showed them around
Shot behind the scenes footage for Yucatan Giving Outreach’s Chica for Charity Polo tournament. Met with Kaila, a local masseuse we had befriended at Fiesta Americana, and started setting up a website for her as a local entrepreneur. Went on a cenote trip in Homun with our Spanish teacher Michel and his family. Attended a famous local festival at the Merida fairgrounds with Juls. Had Thanksgiving in Merida with Jenita and her friends (who were new to Merida and the expat life).
At the end of the month, we went to Portland for a week for two more jobs (a gardening/planting job and a yoga teacher training promo video shoot with our old clients), and of course a family reunion with Nate’s parents and siblings through the beginning of December.
December 2018
Ended our first calendar year abroad successfully! Kept dreaming and planning for living abroad long term and for 2019 travel and business goals. Tom Coz (Cassie’s college friend) came to visit Merida and went to the beach and ate a lot of tacos. Got ready for Cassie’s family to visit for Christmas! Saved a baby kitten who appeared in our tiny backyard and found it a new home (she’s doing great!). Got some behind the scenes footage for Yucatan Giving Outreach for a
Saw the beautiful Christmas lights walking around Merida. Had a wonderful Christmas visit with Family – showed them the highlights of the Yucatan (the beach, cenotes, Progreso, Merida culture, Maya villages, Temozon hacienda, Christmas lights and a
Conclusion
After
Back in Portland, we were happy. And we were pretty successful. We were also really comfortable in our apartment, our neighborhood, our family and friend life, and our work lives. We loved all the cool things Portland has to offer, like copious amounts of bike trips, gorgeous scenery, music, hiking, and delish coffee, food, and beer.
Why Leave?
But something still felt like it was missing…
When we first moved here we felt giddy – like two kids on a summer beach holiday. But over time it’s become a lot less like a vacation and a lot more like real life. The work has begun and the ideas, goals, and dreams are taking root after those initial seeds were planted many months before. Even though we’re slow traveling – we find new things every day. When we stay open to the big world around us, things seem to find us. Especially whenever we go on walks around this city of Merida!
Spirit of Freedom
The spirit of freedom, openness, joy, and curiosity has been the thread that ran through this past year.
Not that the year wasn’t without its hiccups and a few not-so-nice surprises here and there. Our initial volunteering project didn’t align with our needs and we had to change our plans and find another place to live at the last minute, Cassie got a kidney infection, Nate suffered a couple of stomach bugs, Cassie and her mom found a scorpion in our apartment one night when her mom was visiting, we lost power a couple of times (and A/C during the
But what would an adventure be without a couple of bruises and scrapes with the stories to go along with them?!
Openness to New Places and People and Gratitude
The biggest thing we have gained is a newfound sense of openness and awe about the world. Because the local people are so genuinely kind and welcoming in the Yucatán it has been incredibly easy. Because we’re away from a certain mindset of “keeping up” with everyone around us, busy looking at what everyone else has or is doing, we’re just embracing and celebrating the path we’re on right now.
Living in a new country longterm has taught us the invaluable lesson of being open to new ideas, cultures, languages
We’ve not only come a long way but we’re excited if not more excited about what’s to come in 2019. We’re stoked to keep exploring what’s around every corner as we travel around this big, wide world!
A Year of Creativity
Also, in the last year, we’ve had the opportunity to explore our own creativity and entrepreneurial ideas as a team. In Portland, we were also creative entrepreneurs, but we mainly worked separately. What traveling together long term has allowed us to do is focus all our energy on the projects that we’re passionate about with a lot more combined momentum together. It’s amazing how much you can accomplish as a team.
We spend most of our mornings writing, talking and brainstorming ideas, then putting those plans into action to make them a reality.
It’s been an epic year of freedom, growth, and travel for us!
Upcoming Year: 2019 In A Nutshell
Last December we sat down for a couple of hours with our notebooks and pens and went through Natalie Sisson’s amazing course Plan Your Ideal Freedom Year, which helped us put in motion some big goals, travel destinations and plans for the New Year. One of our ambitious goals is to send out a new blog post once a week and a new vlog once a week. We’re excited to accelerate the content for Native Nomads!
2019 Travel Destinations
We are planning to rent a car to visit Tulum, Akumal
Then we will be traveling by bus to Querétaro, Mexico for the Location Indie Conference –
We’re so excited for 2019 and we couldn’t have done it without our amazing, supportive community. Thank you for being here!
