We are so happy you are here! We are Cassie and Nate Goodluck-Johnson, a husband and wife who just began venturing through the world longterm on a quest to step out of our comfort zone, immerse ourselves in local culture, and do our best to leave the world a little better than we found it through volunteering, both humanitarian and environmental. Our intention is to travel with purpose.
We’re excited to bring you a little of everything we love, woven together here, including:
It was on one fateful car ride coming back from the Coba Mayan ruins, sun setting over the horizon, where we spoke freely on our dreams of travel and the possibilities of trekking off the typical course most couples in their 30’s consider taking. We had been on a two week vacation in Tulum and fell hard in love with the land, sea, people and lifestyle that we saw all around us. After talking about what we would do if we moved down there, what just seemed like a passing, idol dream would soon become a reality whether we knew it or not. There was a deep calling to go on an open-ended, longterm journey. To go into the unknown not knowing exactly what the adventure would hold or how it would unfold, but we just felt it in our gut. And it felt right.
We officially took the plunge and decided to embark on our “adult gap year(S!)” a few months later in August 2017, when we bought our ONE WAY plane tickets to Cancun, Mexico to depart our then home of Portland, Oregon on March 27th, 2018. We decided to live in the Yucatan Peninsula for a at least six month, then venture down to different countries in Central and South America after that, taking our time along the way.
We’re not going to say it was easy leaving our life behind in Portland, Oregon. First of all we realized just how much STUFF we had accumulated. Things that had been stuffed in drawers to never see the light of day for days, months, years. Packing up all of that stuff and giving it away to friends, family, Goodwill or putting it out on the street. Some stuff we were fortunately allowed to store in the attic at Nate’s parents’ house (thank you Marsha and Paul!). We tried to sell some of our stuff, but not much sold – except a few larger items such as Nate’s beloved truck.
Our apartment had been a haven for us for over four years in Portland. We were in an adorable apartment in a highly sought after Laurelhurst neighborhood in Southeast Portland. We lived on “bike highway” and down the street from the drop dead gorgeous Laurelhurst Park. There were impressive restaurants, bars and shops in walking distance. We made friends with all of our neighbors. Our favorite things were seeing live music, sipping on delicious northwest brews, hiking up the Gorge, going camping in the woods, or riding on Petalpalooza bike rides through town. Portland is truly awesome.
Portland is Nate’s hometown, and his parents and sister live there too. Picnics at the park, dinners at their house, concerts on the lawn at Edgefield and simply having them in our lives on the daily was wonderful. We had many amazing friends, collaborators and clients we had met and bonded with over the years too. It was hard to say goodbye.
We got rid of most of our stuff, stored some of it, then set aside a small amount of it in backpacks and suitcases for our trip. We moved out of our apartment in December 2017, moving in with Nate’s parents to save money and expedite our process of leaving Portland over the course of the next few months. The deadline of March 27th stood out in everything we did.
We wrapped up many of our jobs while also saving as much money as we possibly could. We got all of our vaccinations, read up on safety and precautions for longterm travel, and applied for the best travel credit card options. We bought a Lifestraw, heavy duty backpacks and hiking shoes. We got our cat’s their “pet passports” and vaccinations and paperwork ready for flying to a new country (Mexico). This was a decision that shaped much of our travel style, which is slow paced. We said our goodbyes and hugged all of our people tight. Our chapter in Portland was coming to a close.
Our hope and goal is to pull together our varying interests, skill sets and passions into one vehicle and drive that purpose into our travel experience, while documenting that experience here on Native Nomads blog. We are humbled to by the fact that what we will learn and receive from our experiences with those people we meet on the road is priceless. To never stop learning and growing is our motto.
Our plan to record the journey – the ups and the downs – through film, photography, writing and social media – has been a work in progress. We want this blog to be a platform to share and hopefully shine a light on an unconventional travel story with the purpose of stepping out of our comfort zone, immersing ourself in local culture, integrating wisdom (which we expect will be different than anything we are accustomed to) with the intention of leaving the places we travel to a little better than we came to.
Part of this unconventional travel plan has been to stay in each place we go for several months, in order to match up with sustainable and ethical volunteering programs and be able to make a stronger impact by really getting to know the community we are entering.
Always very inspired by The Zero to Travel Podcast, we heard an amazing interview with Shannon O’Donnell about volunteering around the world and how to do it in a conscientious and impactful way. We started researching volunteer projects in Mexico and Latin America. It seemed daunting to find the perfect match, but we kept looking. What we were searching for was a variety of programs focused on ecological research and restoration, with humanitarian work with local communities and specifically indigenous communities. For more about the volunteer projects we are currently working on go HERE.
Cassie has been a filmmaker since the age of 8, dedicated to her craft in pursuits of narrative short films, collaborations on independent features, a short stint in Hollywood to work in the television industry behind the scenes, and most recently starting her own small production company – Goodluck Productions – where she produced short videos for clients as well as longer documentary films for specific projects and stories.
One of those doc films took her and Nate to India, following a yoga pilgrimage in 2014. Most recently she directed and produced a 45 minute documentary about “Native American high school students from over 60 tribes in the USA who come to Chemawa Indian Boarding School seeking to move beyond generational issues such as poverty, substance abuse and historical trauma on the reservation, often battling homesickness and outside stigma, in order to learn, grow and empower one another to succeed in their very own “Home Away From Home,” with her Native American film students and filmmaking friend Sandy Carbaugh at the school. The filmmaking program she created has meant a great deal to her. Cassie is half Navajo (Native American) and feels strongly called to connect and collaborate with fellow Native community and artists, calling attention to indigenous matters and culture.
Nate grew up in Portland Oregon. Growing up surfing on the Oregon coast he thought that studying hospitality at the University of Wisconsin would give him the opportunity to surf the world and work at the same time. Unfortunately, life does not go as planned and his hospitality career of 60 plus hours a week did not give the opportunity to live that dream. In 2012, after returning to college at UCLA, he changed his career to Landscape Architecture.
Nate behind Native Gardener in Portland, OR
Starting a Native Habitat Restoration company in his Hometown called Native Gardener. Where he focused on historic replantings of the Willamette Valley. That gave him a new passion for life creating habitats from degraded landscapes bringing back native birds bugs mammals and plants to the area they once inhabited. Currently traveling and working with non-profits that work with habitat restoration or sustainable food sources. His passion continues but also has incorporated a plastic-free lifestyle to help keep the environment clean and lesson the footsteps of traveling on the local environment.
We made it to Merida, Mexico! Although we originally came here for an ecological volunteering project 45 minutes outside of Merida, it didn’t work out (see our vlog about it HERE), but we ended up falling in love with Merida and staying here for the time being! After staying at two lovely airbnb’s for a few weeks, we found a cheap one bedroom apartment in the historical Centro Merida, and we’ve been having a blast getting to know this incredible, culturally rich city, as well as all the beautiful natural places surrounding it. Check out our vlog about Merida HERE.
Merida is also probably the friendliest place we’ve ever been. We’ve made new friends through our expat coffee club we attend every week, just meeting people at events or at coffee shops and restaurants we regularly go to. Check out our blog and our vlog about Merida, the Friendliest City in Mexico.
If you are interested in volunteering abroad like us, please check out our article “11 Things To Double Check Before You Volunteer Abroad.” Learn from our mistakes and see why finding the right volunteering fit might change your life for the better.
We’ve met many new friends while volunteering with Yucatan Giving Outreach, including the incredible founder and director, Kimmy Suki. Yucatan Giving Outreach is an amazing nonprofit that assists over 1,200 people in the Yucatan state around Merida, including orphanages, soup kitchens, shelters, elderly homes and one dog shelter. Check out our video – “Yucatan Giving Outreach In A Nutshell” here. We are fortunate to be working with them teaching English to underprivileged children at a soup kitchen called Renecer in Merida. Full promo video coming soon!
We filmed a short promotional video recently – to help raise funds for Fundación BAI – where it premiered at an event called ‘Taste of Merida’ in March 2019. Our friend who volunteers with Fundación BAI, was the one who connected us with Dr. Carlos, the executive director. Fundación BAI is an organization that helps people with HIV in the Yucatan with treatment, therapy and medical, as well as campaigns to educate the public and high school youth about HIV, proper protection, non discrimination and treatment available. They are an amazing organization and a catalyst for positive change!
We interviewed Dr. Carlos, and some of his team over the last few months as well as shooting some footage at a local event where they presented about condoms. It has been a very rewarding experience for us to be able to help spread awareness on their cause and the life-saving work they do in the community. Check out our video here! And if you’re interested in becoming a sponsor of the volunteer video work we do, you can check out our updated Patreon page here.
We are taking Spanish classes, doing our best to practice everyday with every encounter. When we’re not at the computer working, we spend most of our days walking everywhere, drinking coffee, eating delicious local foods and bumping into countless, amazing cultural events, festivities and amazing opportunities to see and hear Latin music and dancing. We typically always have our camera in hand.
Everyday we pinch ourselves that we get to live this dream. We plan to move to the Tulum / Caribbean side of the Yucatan Peninsula sometime in the near future, but we aren’t in a hurry. Again… slow traveling. We would love to work for a habitat restoration project, within the mangrove forests along the coasts, or a turtle sanctuary, or similar. We also plan to organize a big beach plastic clean up near Merida on the gulf coast, but for now enjoy doing plastic cleanups on our own on walks around town or whenever we go to the beach or parks.
We’ve got some big travel plans in store for the summer of 2019 including Bali, Thailand and some more Southeast Asian countries, TBD. After that we will return to the Yucatan and see where is next for the fall of 2019…
We cannot get over how beautiful it is here. Going on day trips to see cenotes (natural freshwater sinkholes – there are over 1,000 in the Yucatan), countless beaches, flamingos, wildlife and Maya ruins never ceases to completely keep us in perpetual awe of this magical land.
We are also fortunate to have the support of our family, friends and wonderful “Location Indie” online network that we are members of. Here is an excerpt from Location Indie’s page:
Back in the day, we had a hard time finding other people looking to travel more and work from anywhere. Through our experience running location independent businesses, we discovered that the key to happiness and success was having a like-minded community of friends to lean on for support, advice and to share some laughs with. That’s why Location Indie was born.
We have found a number of great new friendships (all online, I know you’re thinking, really?!) through this amazing network and couldn’t recommend them enough if you are also looking to go location independent. Cassie and Nate are both a part of their own mastermind, a small group of motivated individuals who get together to talk weekly over Skype about business and travel goals, wins and struggles. It has been amazing to see the growth we’ve both experienced through weekly accountability.
We’ve also been lucky enough to meet several of our Location Indie peeps in real life – including a MexEx Conference in Querétaro this last February 2019! We shot video and testimonial interviews with several of the participants which we will be editing together soon into a promo film for their network and conferences! Here we are on a hike up Peña de Bernal in Querétaro state from a drone’s perspective 😉
We want to inspire adventurers who want to be more environmentally and humanitarian conscious on their travels. Traveling on your own terms while discovering your passion for different ways of life, understanding new cultures around the world and helping to make a positive difference in the places you visit in small or bigger ways (even if only online for now). We hope to help promote open and friendly mindsets through travel that is outside of the box. While also traveling with a smaller carbon footprint and a larger positive impact in the world.
Maybe you are feeling “stuck” in the treadmill of life in a fast paced, modern, and monotonous world. Maybe you are feeling like there is more to life and are ready to venture outside of these boundaries, but aren’t sure how. Our greatest hope is to inspire you through our own stories to courageously step outside of your comfort zone, into the unknown places and experiences that are calling you now.
We are so happy you are here and hope that you continue to be a part of this caravan! Please make sure to SIGN UP on our email list so you will receive our newsletters with our latest happenings. Thank you for being here!
xoxo~
Cassie and Nate
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