Getting Started on a Nomadic Life (Ep. 12)

Transcript

Brock (00:00:00):
My name is Eileen. Hi, and I'm Brock. And we're from digital drifters.net. And you're listening to Travel Feels Life.

Drew (00:00:19):
Hello everybody, and welcome to Travel Fuels Life, the show we share stories, tips and inspiration to help you live a travel lifestyle. I'm your host, drew Hanish, and what's it like living those first few months with a decision that you made to sell everything, buy a plane ticket, and start a life as a digital nomad? Well, my guests today are in that very position right now, and they've been kind enough to share some of their experiences with us. Things like the challenges of finding wifi, dealing with visas, keeping up with your business, and the day-to-day experiences of living in Costa Rica as your first adventure. So from my home here in Greenville, South Carolina, it's time to jump on the worldwide web and head south of the border to Costa Rica with Eileen Valencia and Brock Boer of digital drifters.net. We're going to see what it's like getting started on the nomadic lifestyle. Hey guys, welcome to the show.

Brock (00:01:21):
Hey, drew, thanks a lot for having us.

Drew (00:01:23):
So Costa Rica, that is a interesting place to get started. How long you guys been down there?

Brock (00:01:29):
We arrived the day after Christmas. We actually had a Christmas Day red eye from LA into San Jose, so we've been here for about five or six weeks now.

Drew (00:01:42):
Okay. All right. And have you spent a lot of time exploring or have you kind of been just in your own little area?

Brock (00:01:50):
Yeah, we originally thought that we were kind of going to stay a month somewhere and then go to a different place and stay another month. But there's just so much to see in this country that it's hard to stay in one place for more than, I don't know, a few days, five to seven days. So we've probably been hopping around on average every three to four days. We did stay in one town for two weeks, and that's because Eileen was, I was a volunteer nurse at one of the clinics there, so we kind of had to be tied down. But other than that, we've just been bouncing and bouncing and bouncing around. So we finally made it to the most southern point that you can in Costa Rica. So Panama's our neighbor right now.

Drew (00:02:35):
So what have you loved so far about Costa Rica?

Brock (00:02:39):
I think the thing that I love the most is just the culture of it and the people here and they just completely are just welcome you and just are so loving and caring and really do care about you. It's so weird. Just Airbnb, the host that we've had, just go above and beyond to make sure

Ilean (00:02:59):
That you're enjoying their country and it's amazing to be included.

Brock (00:03:04):
So when you say hi to someone, or when you say bye to someone or you ask someone a question, how are they always respond with Puerto Vida, which means pure life. Oh, basically. So it's like, Hey, how's it going Puerto Vida? See you later. Yeah, Puerto Vida,

Ilean (00:03:19):
If you don't even know what they're asking you in Spanish, all you have to say is Bud Vida. And they just know.

Drew (00:03:26):
Oh good. I'll make a note of that. I wonder if this works in Mexico too. I'm going to Mexico next week, so

Ilean (00:03:33):
We'll probably look at you. You're crazy.

Drew (00:03:35):
Yeah, they might. So anything to totally unexpected in your journey so far? Something that you just, you're like, wow, I didn't really see this coming?

Ilean (00:03:47):
I think that one of the things is that we had taken a two hour bus ride. I mean, that's how we've been getting a around so often is through the bus bus system because it's so inexpensive. And we finally got to the Airbnb while we had to carry our luggage down, and it was probably about a 30 minute rock a walk, and I had a wheel luggage and I had to wheel it, and you hit every single rock on the way. And then we got there and we were just drenched in sweat. I mean, at this point you just have to be okay with being sweaty 24 7. But we finally got there and I was like, oh my God, yes, maybe ac, no ac, no electricity, no plugs. No outlets or anything, no light. It was unbelievable. It was different, but you kind of learned to love it. And we kind of expected to be off the grid, but that was the most off the grid that we've been besides for camping.

Brock (00:04:53):
Yeah, I mean I guess the most unexpected part was the journey and the difficulties of getting to those places. And it's, in hindsight, it makes sense, but traveling in a lot of places around the world, those luxuries just aren't here. They're in other parts of the world.

Drew (00:05:14):
So what brought you to the idea of just giving up all the comforts of home and slimming down to the bear essentials and hit hitting the road like this?

Brock (00:05:25):
I think it was twofold. It we'd reached a point where we were just over the expected lifestyle in the us go to work, come back, relax for an hour, and then you have all of your chores and all of that, and then all of the payments, rent, car payments, student loans,

Ilean (00:05:47):
Just things you get. I mean, these are adult things, these are things that you have to do. And we just kind of looked at each other, we're like, but why do we have to do it? And I think from there we kind of just decided. So in September in 2017, that was when we had to decide are we staying? Are we leaving? And when we were in Phoenix, we needed to renew our lease, and we just decided, Nope, let's not renew anything. We're about to take a trip to Spain, and we just didn't had no plan from that point. We sold our furniture, we sold our cars, we got rid of, I'm going to say 90% of our clothes. Everything that we have here with us is basically everything that we own.

Brock (00:06:35):
And then I also think that for me it was like I was over being a consumer in society and using so many things and single-use plastics and all that kind of stuff that gets lumped together and the normal lifestyle in the us. And I think transitioning to a travel lifestyle real was really appealing for us because it cut down on a ton of those things that we were concerned about as far as impacting the environment.

Drew (00:07:10):
So when you're traveling, are you taking water bottles with you and that you can reuse or, this is a good example, I'm going down to Mexico and I'm thinking, well, I could take a water bottle with me, but the first thing they tell me is that you shouldn't drink the water. So how do you work that logistic out?

Brock (00:07:31):
Luckily, a lot of places in Costa Rica have good tap water. So we've been refilling our,

Ilean (00:07:39):
What is it? Our Nalgene? Yeah. Or not, I'm sorry, not Nalgene, the hydro flak. Yeah.

Brock (00:07:43):
We have a couple hydro flasks and we basically have those out ready to use at any point, and we just basically fill up wherever we can. Obviously in places like Mexico, it's a little harder to do that from a tap, but over here they have really big six liter gallon jugs of water. So in very rural areas we'll buy those and then fill up our bottles with that. And in a way that cuts down our use of a bunch of different plastic bottles.

Drew (00:08:20):
So how do you handle the rest of travel in terms of has, of course the intention is to stop creating such a large carbon footprint, but then when you are traveling around, how do you minimize, for instance, if you hop on a jet, jets are probably one of the worst polluters. What does it change your travel style in terms of what transportation you take or how long you stay in places? How does that all work out?

Brock (00:08:52):
I mean, when it comes to going from continent to continent or to an island or whatever, it's almost impossible to get around flying. But once we're in a country and in a country for a while, kind of like Costa Rica, we've made it a point to use buses as much as we can. And compared to using, using two cars in the US every single day, our footprint is way smaller and we're not traveling every day. So we're using a bus maybe every three, four or five days. And then when we're in a certain place, we're usually walking around.

Ilean (00:09:31):
Yeah, that's usually how we kind of get around town or we rent bikes.

Drew (00:09:35):
Yeah, definitely working your end, you're getting your exercise in at the same time,

Brock (00:09:41):
Then we don't need a gym membership either. Yeah,

Drew (00:09:44):
There you go. So you mentioned Spain, so was Spain the first place that you went?

Ilean (00:09:50):
No, I mean we had done some traveling before, so during, when I was in nursing school, between every block I would have a 10 day break. And that's kind of when I fell in love with traveling is Brock was able to be able to take me on some of these trips. And I had never traveled before. I think I'd gone to Rome and Poland before with my dad, but other than that, I'd not been anywhere international really. And that's kind of where he opened my eyes to traveling. And Spain just happened to be, we found a flight for 300 bucks round trip and we're like, we're doing it.

Brock (00:10:29):
Well, Spain. Yeah, Spain was the first step in transitioning into this nomad lifestyle because that's when we moved out of our two bedroom townhouse, sold everything. And that's basically when we had no attachments anymore.

Drew (00:10:47):
I mean, it sounded like you sort of moved around a little bit before then. You mentioned Phoenix and I, you mentioned in the email to me living in Hawaii, was that all prior to your getting out there and starting to become a little bit more nomadic?

Ilean (00:11:06):
So how went? So we didn't renew our lease in that September and we went to Spain. And at that point I had started looking into travel nursing. So with travel nursing, you basically just go to whatever hospital around the country that they need you in. So right after Spain, we went to Houston. That was my first assignment, and it was really rough. It was hard. And I told my recruiter, I am not going to go anywhere unless you get me Hawaii. And she did so nice, nice. I said, I'm not going to work somewhere that I don't really feel passionate about. And of course, who doesn't feel passionate about Maui? So that's where we went. So that's where we went. And with contracts, you only get a three month contract, so I renewed until I couldn't anymore. So after Hawaii we were like, all right, next on our list is Costa Rica.

Drew (00:12:04):
So Maui was your detachment, but you went there with a job already?

Ilean (00:12:08):
Yeah, well, we had visited Maui before, and that was the first, that's how I knew I wanted to live in Maui. It was the first place that I've left that I cried and I told Brock, I can't leave here. I said, we are going to move here. And I kept saying, we're going to move here, we're going to move here. And I kind of believed it, but then I made it. I needed to make it happen. And then once we got there it we knew that this was one of the best decisions that we'd made.

Brock (00:12:37):
I feel like it was a good step into our current lifestyle because it was basically the farthest place you could get away from mainland us, it's the us but it's not really in a lot of different ways. It's very similar to Costa Rica. The cultures are very different, but as far as the mentality and way of life, it's very similar. And then I had always dreamed about spending several months in Costa Rica, so that was just kind of like we were able had the funds and everything after Maui. So we just decided to take the plunge.

Drew (00:13:18):
And so now Brock, you actually have your own business, is that correct?

Brock (00:13:24):
Yeah, I started a mapping business in Phoenix about six years ago. So I've been able to work remotely for quite a while now, but it's recently got to the point where I can be very nomadic in a way, as long as I have a wifi connection basically.

Drew (00:13:46):
Okay. Well, and so with the travel nursing and with you having your own income stream coming in, I mean, do you feel like the security level is a lot higher for you guys because you do have these money generators that are already out there that kind of free you up to allow you to go?

Brock (00:14:08):
Yeah, I think that it's a few different things. Definitely I'm able to work and generate some type of income while we're traveling, but Eileen was going to nursing school and then she started her first job in Phoenix. And then after that is when we had our Spain trip, and then we went to Maui. And at that point, it's like her career was finally established and she kind of had more direction in what she wanted to do. Would you say the same?

Ilean (00:14:39):
Yeah, I

Brock (00:14:40):
Agree. And then it was just at that point where everything just kind of aligned and yeah, we just went for it.

Drew (00:14:50):
This is interesting for me because I own my own business. I'm entrepreneur and starting a second business now with the podcast. And when I think about the ability to be able to disconnect and go to another country, I think about the logistics not being that hard in terms of me getting to that other country, but then it's all that other stuff of dealing with how you're paying your taxes on your business and where your business is registered and making sure you're keeping up your citizenship. How do you deal with all of those things?

Brock (00:15:24):
In a way, I think it's similar to how I was handling it in Maui. Technically my business is still in Arizona, paying taxes in Arizona, all of that. It's just being able to be connected and handling all of the minor issues with the business is the biggest hurdle, I guess.

Drew (00:15:47):
Yeah. So do you have emergencies that come up? For instance, we were talking about scheduling this interview and the question of wifi came up and whether you'd have wifi or not. And then you had the situation where you didn't have wifi and you were totally disconnected. I mean, is your business able to sustain something like that where you may have to go for five days without an internet connection?

Brock (00:16:14):
Yeah, so we've been trying to plan, plan where we're at in off grid areas kind of over weekends and then in more, not so urban, but less rural areas during the week. And I pretty much just need to work three or four days a week to keep up. But the beauty of it is I don't have to be around eight to five during the day. I'll have a workload and then I'll do it maybe in the morning and then work on it again in the evening. And as long as I'm continually pushing out products throughout the week, I, I'm able to sustain the business.

Drew (00:16:55):
And Eileen, how does that work for you in terms of being a nurse? I mean, do you find that are tied to a particular spot, maybe that your job keeps you locked into a certain area for a certain amount of time to fulfill an obligation? Or how does that work for you?

Ilean (00:17:15):
So with travel nursing, well, I'm sorry, with nursing in general, so I can't technically work as a nurse here in Costa Rica because our licensing is different. So that's why I volunteered at one of the clinics for a couple of weeks. So right now I'm not working. I'm finishing my degree online. So I guess my job right now is just doing homework

Brock (00:17:38):
And back to a full-time student,

Ilean (00:17:40):
So back to a full-time student. So I kind of coordinate with him and let him know I have this project due, I need to get it done, and we need to have a good connection. One day we were in Drake's Bay and our connection did not work. So Brock needed to upload a map, and then I needed to upload my assignment or else I was going to fail the class. And we were fighting Who's whose project's more important?

Brock (00:18:05):
It's the priority.

Drew (00:18:07):
Oh,

Brock (00:18:07):
Is it income or is it education?

Drew (00:18:10):
Right. Yes.

Ilean (00:18:11):
So I ran to a cafe and it was just obstacle after obstacle. I ended up calling my sister in Texas, and I just, look, Megan, you need to focus. I need you to upload this to YouTube. It was like nothing was working. And finally I started at 8:00 AM and I finally got everything submitted by 7:00 PM It was a long day, but that's kind of what our biggest issue is, is just wifi. And you don't even think about that because wifi is so available anywhere you go in the state. So coming here is you just kind of

Brock (00:18:50):
Cherish. Yeah. You come to, yeah. Well, I mean, you come to expect these rough patches, the story she just told.

Drew (00:18:59):
Yeah. I guess what I sometimes will fall back on is having my cell phone and having a mobile hotspot on my phone. But that's not always reliable e either, is it?

Brock (00:19:10):
Yeah. Well, luckily we have T-Mobile and with our plan, we're able to have free international data. So many of the places we've been, we either get three or 4g, which the tethering is not amazing, but at least we're able to send emails and stay a little bit connected wherever we go.

Drew (00:19:32):
Yeah. So do you both speak fluent Spanish?

Ilean (00:19:38):
So funny because I'm Mexican and I'm very tanned because I lived in Maui and now I'm in Costa Rica, so I'm in the sun all the time. So everyone, every time they have a question, they refer it to me and I turn to Brock and I look at him and he answers and he talks white. He's so funny.

Brock (00:19:59):
Well, I actually did a study abroad in Costa Rica back in 2008, just for a month, but it was kind of the end of my Spanish studies in college to get my credit. So I had a pretty solid base in understanding Spanish and speaking Spanish 10 years ago. But then living in the US you just kind of lose it because you never speak it. But recently we've been traveling to a lot of countries that speak Spanish, so we've been able to practice quite a bit the last couple of years.

Ilean (00:20:36):
And I've been doing medical Spanish, which I mean kind of helped in the hospital, but if I just ask a random person for a urine sample, it's just not going to work

Drew (00:20:47):
The same way. Yeah.

Brock (00:20:50):
Well, and then you learn that Google Translate is a part of you. Yeah,

Drew (00:20:58):
I could see that. That constantly pulling the phone out and going, yeah, say that again. Okay, there we go. Yeah.

Brock (00:21:06):
Or just a new learn, new words. You hear someone say something and you have no idea what it is, and then later you just look it up on Google Translate and you're like, oh, that's what that is. Yeah.

Drew (00:21:18):
And see, it's funny for me because I took French all my life, I've been taking French, and then I took Spanish in college. And besides just messing up my French, the hard part about Spanish for me was that all the words seemed to run together. So I never could tell when one word was ending and the next one was starting. So that can be a challenge too

Brock (00:21:40):
For us, when someone in Costa Rica speaks moderate to slow, we generally have really good conversations with them just because we're able to catch all the words easier, but then when people speak very, very fast, it's a completely different ballgame.

Drew (00:22:01):
Okay. So I use this phrase a lot when I go to Quebec or to France, I say par, which means speak slowly, please. So how do you say it in Spanish?

Ilean (00:22:15):
Abla. How do you say slow?

Brock (00:22:18):
Depa?

Ilean (00:22:19):
Depa. Sio

Brock (00:22:22):
Four February. Yes,

Drew (00:22:22):
Bo board, which isn't going to work really well for me because even if they speak slowly, I'm still going to be going, what are you saying?

Brock (00:22:29):
Yeah.

Drew (00:22:31):
So there was never, ums, never really a fear factor for you guys in doing this kind of travel then. I mean, it just kind of feels natural to you.

Ilean (00:22:42):
I think I'm the one that has the most fear about it. I kind of look to Brock for confidence. I sometimes feel like I doubt myself and kind of doubt is this really what we should be doing? A lot of people aren't doing it. We have not really anybody to ask for advice and Brock's like, no, we can do this. And he's actually really good at talking it up and just being really good in encouragement. And then he said, as soon as we get to coach, because I mean, I kind of was nervous about coming to Costa Rica. I'd been here a couple of times, I loved it, but moving here is kind of a different thing. And I, I've expressed my concerns to him and said, I'm a little nervous, I'm going to leave my family again. And he's just like, once you get there, you're going to forget all of these feelings. And that's exactly what happened.

Brock (00:23:36):
Yeah, I mean, generally that's what happens when you're traveling internationally, is you kind of have these unrealistic doubts and then once you get there, you completely forget that that was even a problem in the first place.

Drew (00:23:51):
Yeah. It's funny because when I was in Hawaii, and this thought comes across my mind every once in a while, and I think this is just our programming as traditional Americans that I was thinking, should I be here? I mean, I should probably be home behind a desk working and doing stuff there. Yeah. Am I doing something wrong? I mean, it really does feel awkward and kind. Yeah, you're breaking the rules.

Ilean (00:24:21):
Yeah. It's kind of like you feel a little guilty at some points too. I don't know why, but I feel like that now. But then I kind of have to say to myself, we worked really hard to get here. And Brock just one year when we just started dating, I remember he was so miserable and he said, I'm going to make my own business. And I said, okay, yeah, do it. I support you. And he worked his butt off to be able to do what he's doing now, and he really earned it. And I worked so hard to be a nurse, and I saved up enough money with a bad assignment, and I was able to accumulate a little bit of money to be able to do this. And I think, I mean, feel like a lot of people would love to be doing what we're doing, and I wish they could, and I want everyone to experience the world, but I mean, I feel like we're doing what we're supposed to be doing. Right.

Brock (00:25:17):
Well, yeah, I'd second that.

Drew (00:25:19):
Yeah, just breaking that paradigm, I guess. And the younger generations seem to be doing it. The older generations I think look at it, what? What's going on? But I, I had that same thing with my dad when I was switching jobs all the time. I mean, I was a serial job jumper. I would go six months and work this career and six months and work that career. And there were completely different things. And he had spent his whole life working for the police force, and he said, why do you keep changing jobs all the time? But now that's sort of a normal thing. We see that everywhere. So I think it is just a matter of breaking down the barrier and you guys are blazing a trail that other people I'm sure would like to learn from.

Brock (00:26:07):
Yeah. My dad is the same way. He's worked at the same company for, I think he's pushing 40 years at the same company in Michigan, and I was also a serial job candidate, and then I started my own business. So I'm just, I've kind of completely deviated from what I was used to in my family, what my family did with their careers.

Drew (00:26:36):
It's interesting because I think we share that in terms of, I think what happens is when you're working for other people, you're always working under their rules. But once you actually conform your own company and do things the way that you feel like they need to be done, it's a lot more easy to be loyal to that concept than it is to

Brock (00:26:57):
Yeah, it's an entirely new world. Mean you break that and then you basically think you can really do anything.

Drew (00:27:06):
Yeah. Do you have a contingency plan or some kind of a safety net if all of a sudden you go, oh, crap.

Brock (00:27:14):
I mean, I think that we basically started this expecting that we weren't going to allow ourselves to go back to that lifestyle, and we were going to try to do anything possible to keep it going, but we also really loved Maui. And that could also be an option for us to go back. And

Ilean (00:27:38):
I think if we're going to have a place that we're going to settle down, okay, we can't do this anymore. There's not one place in the mainland that we both agree on in terms of weather. Like Brock hates the cold, and I'd like to experience a little bit of snow once in a while, but that is just, we just butt heads on that. So Hawaii just happened to be something that, all right, we can both agree on it. And I mean, I can get a job there whenever I want just from working there so long, so I have a job if I want it. So I think if for some reason we can't do this anymore, I guess we're going to have to go back to Maui.

Drew (00:28:18):
Oh, the struggles

Brock (00:28:22):
Terrible place.

Drew (00:28:24):
Could you see yourself maybe finding you just land in the country that you go, wow, this place really resonates with us, and why not just stay here? Yeah.

Brock (00:28:33):
Yeah. I mean, I think we've felt that way about Costa Rica already. We could stay here for a very long time, but we also have that pull of needing to see new places. And that's the whole point of why we're doing this, is seeing as many places as we can, acquiring as many experiences as we can, meeting as many people as we can. And then maybe when we get tired of doing that, then we can decide, yeah, this one place is perfect for us for a long time.

Drew (00:29:07):
So how long does your Visa stay active in Costa Rica? How long can you stay there?

Ilean (00:29:14):
So technically it's only 90 days, but we were kind of working our way around that. So basically when we went to the airport, actually coming to Costa Rica moving here, we didn't have a flight and we can't let you on the plane unless you show us a flight. So we're like, oh my God. So we booked a quick little, like the cheapest flight we could find to Florida, and we had to show 'em. Then we just canceled that as soon as we got to Costa Rica,

Brock (00:29:44):
Just a southwest flight just because it's refundable. Okay. But our plan is, the 90 days is over at the end of March, but we're going to go over to Chile for about a month and see Patagonia, Easter Island. And then I have some friends in Santiago that we're kind of going to use as a base station. And then after that, we're probably going to come back for, I don't know, maybe another 90 days.

Drew (00:30:14):
Tony,

Ilean (00:30:14):
Come up with a new game plan.

Drew (00:30:16):
Right. Now, you mentioned a lot of places in South America. Is that the main area that you have the most curiosity about at this point, or can see yourself traveling in the future to the other continents?

Brock (00:30:32):
Yeah, I think we really want to see more of Europe.

Ilean (00:30:37):
We just met some crazy Brits here, and we actually became really good friends with them. So they're like, anytime you're in Europe, let us know and we're all going to do a trip together. So I mean, that's one of our big drivers for going to see more of Europe,

Brock (00:30:53):
But we're very open-ended with how we're doing this. And that's a good example of why we can't really stick to any hard plans is because you may meet people on the way and then they're like, Hey, come visit us over here, or Come with us over there. So we want to have that flexibility and just go wherever the opportunity is at that moment in time.

Drew (00:31:20):
We, we'll talk a little bit about your selling everything, because I know one of the things that I changed in my life was this need to buy things. I have a good size house and I'm going out and I'm buying a dining room table, and then I'm finally buying some furniture for the front room. And I'm, every time I buy something, I look at it and I go, okay, well, I have it now. I, i's it not really fulfilling me, but it's here, it looks, I don't live in an empty house. But then when I shifted and started traveling and seeing things, it's like, oh, well now this is great. I mean, I don't really bring anything home with me other than memories and photographs, but it's feels so much more fulfilling. But I still look at all this house full of furniture and I go, how would I ever drop all of this stuff and hit the road? What was that like for you guys?

Ilean (00:32:22):
I think it was kind of hard, I think mostly for me, just because we just got a new place together where we just decorated everything. Everything was new because it was our new life together. And so everything that we had bought was less than a year old, and I was having a hard time detaching, so I was like, no, this is my first couch. No, just little things, but honestly, why do I have an attachment to a couch? Why do I have an attachment to this lamp? It makes no sense. But I think that was the hardest part was just realizing, why do I need this? Why do we need two TVs? We have excess of everything. And I think that's some of the things that we're taught growing up, get a big house and try to fill it up, and why do we have to do that?

Brock (00:33:15):
Yeah, it doesn't really make much sense to us in general, really.

Ilean (00:33:19):
So I think once we were able to, I guess, just realize what the bare necessities are, we have clothes on our back, we have some shoes, what else do we need? I'm not going to be able to take this couch to Costa Rica with me. Just little things like that. I guess just coming to terms with the fact that we don't have to go with what society kind of teaches us. And I think that's one of the biggest lessons that we've learned is we're different from other people and we don't have to follow the same role, so let's just do what makes us happy.

Brock (00:33:53):
Well, and I think as you travel more and more, you come, like you said, you come back with these new experiences, new understandings of wherever you go, the people, the culture, the environment. And then you come back to your home and you're sitting in there and you see your things and it just doesn't, the comparison isn't the same anymore. It's like you're thinking more about buying that next flight than the next thing you're going to put in your house. And what, what happened with me over time was I just thought less and less of items and more and more of where am I going to go next? What am I going to exper experience next?

Drew (00:34:40):
So when you're taking your possessions around that you have now, you mentioned it as a suitcase. I'm thinking you at least have two suitcases.

Ilean (00:34:50):
So I have a carryon and a backpack, and yeah,

Brock (00:34:55):
I have a 65 liter osprey pack and a 45 liter backpack. So I basically do the double backpack carry with the 65 on my back and then the 45 on my chest,

Ilean (00:35:11):
And then my backpack when I can't. I'm just too tired to carry my stuff is my,

Brock (00:35:19):
But I mean, we already, all right, just being here a little over a month, we feel like we have too much stuff.

Ilean (00:35:25):
We've actually gotten rid of some of our stuff since we've been here. Just the stuff we are carrying around. We had this soccer ball when our friends came, so we all kind of came, did a big trip, and our friends left and we had the soccer ball still, and Brock was just being a hoarder, just carrying it around. It was just such a pain in the ass. And then finally we were on one of the buses, and this little boy, I just happened to sit next to him and he was just laying his head on my shoulder and just smiling at me. He was just the cutest thing. And we just started talking to him and Brock said, Hey, do you have a soccer ball? And he is like, no. And Brock's like, okay, well, do you want a soccer ball? And he said, yeah, he was just his face split up just from a soccer ball, just things that he kind of just take for granted. And he was just so happy. And that was really nice to be able to do that for someone. And then I went through my stuff and I was like, I have not worn this clothes yet since I've been here, and I thought I would. And so I just got a bunch and I just went and dropped it off at one of the churches. I assumed that they'll be able to pass it out to some people that might need it.

Brock (00:36:36):
I just think as we progress in our travels, we gain a better understanding of what we really need, what we prefer to have, and what we really don't need. So I think maybe in a couple months we'll have maybe 25% less stuff. I think it's just going to keep getting smaller and smaller as time goes on.

Drew (00:37:00):
Well, I can promise you, when I was younger, I used to have this thing where not only was I a serial job jumper, but I was a town jumper as well. I moved from North Carolina up to Philadelphia, and then I moved out to Texas. And in all of these moves, and even when I lived in North Carolina, I moved four or five times, I soon realized that I kept getting rid of things because it is a hassle to have to move that stuff around. And then what you do is every time you're packing those boxes, you're going, man, I'd like to pack a few less boxes next time. What can I get rid of?

Brock (00:37:41):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Drew (00:37:43):
What happened over time was that I just got to a point where I had an optimized collection of stuff. It was a perfect collection of just enough for me to be able to move it from place to place. Nothing I don't need. And so maybe that's how it's going to work out for you guys.

Brock (00:38:01):
And especially with the climate we've been in. I mean, we just wear shorts and a t-shirt or a swimsuit and a shirt. Yeah. And it seems like we're wearing the same three or four items all the time.

Drew (00:38:16):
I was going to say, this is the advantage for you guys too, that you're, when you're staying in one place, you could go through a season or two with the same kind of clothes. And whereas when I went to Hawaii, but I flew out of here and it's 40 degrees, and then there it's 70 degrees, and then I go to Las Vegas and it's 40 and 50 degrees again. I mean, your suitcase becomes bigger out of necessity just because of all of the changes in temperatures and stuff.

Brock (00:38:44):
Definitely. And the only reason why we have two bags of piece is because we have some cold weather items for when we go to Patagonia, but right now we're not using any of that.

Ilean (00:38:56):
So it's kind of just the space that we could have, but we can't get rid of our winter stuff. We just have to lug it around everywhere.

Drew (00:39:05):
Yeah, that's the, well, Patagonia should be awesome. Well, I'm trying to figure out, is Easter Island, how do you go about getting to Easter? I'd love to go to Easter Island, but it's very isolated.

Brock (00:39:18):
So the best city to fly from is Santiago. It's about a five, five and a half hour flight. And we haven't even booked our flight to Santiago yet, but I was every other day looking at flights from Santiago to Easter Island, and they usually range from 800 to over a thousand round trip just from Santiago. And all of a sudden, a couple weeks ago, one morning I found it for 2 75 round trip a piece. Wow. And as soon as she woke up, I was like, we have to buy this now or else we're not going to be able to go. So I booked the flight. We have that set. We just have to find our way to Santiago. And then the very next day, I just looked out of curiosity, and that same flight jumped to about eight or $900.

Drew (00:40:16):
Wow. Yeah. Timing is everything.

Brock (00:40:20):
Oh yeah.

Drew (00:40:21):
So what do you guys do in your free time? Are you kind of adventurers, you doing sightseeing? Are you like to try food? Or is it just meeting people your thing that you get the most out of your travels?

Brock (00:40:37):
I think all of the above. Just being deep in the culture, eating local food, talking with local people. We like to hike. And Eileen's a pretty good surfer. I'm terrible, but surfing surfing's a big thing here.

Ilean (00:40:56):
I think so. I mean, right now after we're done here, we're going to meet our Airbnb hosts at one of the restaurants and buy 'em a couple of beers. And while we watch the Costa Rica game together, just so being a part of, they welcome you, their family. We've hung out with our other Airbnb hosts. He made us dinner and he made us breakfast and he took us out surfing. It's just people here are just so in the us. I don't think I've ever met an Airbnb host, honestly. But yeah, I just thought of that. But here we've met all of them and they're all so welcoming. And just the other one that we just stayed at that we just left from, she owned a restaurant and she said, Hey, do you see those kayaks in the front? They're yours if you want to go out. So we just had a free kayak, huh?

Brock (00:41:42):
Yeah, the last morning we just took those out in the bay and for maybe an hour and a half and kayaked until we had to move on to the next town. So I think as we go places, we don't really have any expectations of what we plan on doing. We just kind of get there and then see what the thing to do is there. And then as people suggest things, we kind of just, where we've become, yes. People, we just say yes to almost everything.

Drew (00:42:12):
Oh, that's fun. Yeah. So talk about then, you've talked about Airbnbs. Is that how you normally travel about, what are the other things you do to keep your costs down?

Brock (00:42:25):
Yeah, I mean, I've basically been using Airbnb, booking.com, just kind of seeing what's out there. And we generally stay below $50 a night as far as our budget goes.

Ilean (00:42:39):
But it's nice here you can find nice rooms for 20 bucks a night,

Brock (00:42:43):
A $50 Airbnb in San Francisco would probably be laying on the grass in the backyard or something, but you get your own cabin with a bathroom and sometimes ac, and it's just the place that we just stayed at, it was $40 and we had this unbelievable view of the bay, probably one of the best views in the town. And it's just insane the quality you get for the price. And then traveling around bus tickets or we've never paid more than $5 for a bus ticket for a three or four hour journey.

Ilean (00:43:26):
Tomorrow we're taking, so tomorrow we have to make our way back up to Monteverde, which is 12 hours,

Brock (00:43:33):
Probably 12, 14 hours.

Ilean (00:43:34):
12, 14 hours. And so you could take a taxi and it'll be over

Brock (00:43:39):
Probably $300, three bucks

Ilean (00:43:41):
For, or you could rent a car for what, one 30 probably. But we're going to take a bus for five bucks and it's going to take five to 10 bucks, literally all day. But I mean, that's how much money that you're saving just there. And I mean, it'll be nice to just look at the city and it's so fun just riding with the locals and just this is how they travel, so why can't we travel like this?

Drew (00:44:08):
Yeah, exactly. It's funny because I complain about Greyhound endlessly. I've written non Greyhound a couple of times and I go, okay, these people are so disorganized. But I think your mindset changes, as you say, when you're in another country and you can accept things that are harder to accept here in the us.

Ilean (00:44:30):
Yeah, I think it's just like, it's okay for them. This is how they travel, so what makes me better? Why should I travel on a bus with air conditioning? They don't do it, and it's just life for them. So we're just trying to be a part of the culture. And if they're doing it, we're doing it.

Brock (00:44:49):
Yeah. I mean, because at any one phase in the trip, we do something out of the box of the norm here we kind of disconnect from the whole point of why we're doing this.

Drew (00:45:02):
So I hear a bird behind you, is that what I'm hearing?

Brock (00:45:07):
At about 5:00 AM every morning, all the birds get nuts.

Ilean (00:45:11):
Yeah. It's kind of nice just to hear the birds and No, a lot of the other towns traffic that we've been in, they've just been Heller monkeys, just four in the morning. It sounds so scary. And they wake you up and keep you awake pretty much starting at 4:00 AM So it's so nice that we're just hearing a bird.

Drew (00:45:33):
So you have to tell me, because you lived in Maui for a while. I was in an Airbnb on the big island of Hawaii. I've never seen so much poultry walking around the roads. No, but

Ilean (00:45:43):
The chicken.

Brock (00:45:44):
Yeah, wild, wild chickens. And

Ilean (00:45:46):
They're protected. It's so funny. No one just gets 'em and cooks, they're just hanging around. They're just like,

Brock (00:45:54):
It's almost like an indigenous bird. It's

Drew (00:45:57):
Crazy because in the morning, well, I was, luckily the Airbnb host had posted that there are these frogs that will make a really loud noise all night. And she was giving all of these different ways that you could kind of cover up the noise. She left earplugs. She had a big fan that you could put on that would drown the noise out. But the roosters, there were 12 roosters over in this cage pen right next to me and right outside my window. And luckily I was still on East Coast time, so I was waking up at four in the morning every morning. So I was getting up before the roosters, but man, once they started going,

Ilean (00:46:39):
They don't

Brock (00:46:39):
Shut up. There are plenty of chickens and roosters here as well. Yeah,

Ilean (00:46:43):
So, so weird. Cause that's where we just left from Maui, and we thought that was so weird. And then we came here and it's the exact same thing.

Drew (00:46:51):
Yeah, well, you never have to worry about finding food right? All over the place.

Brock (00:46:55):
And then we're the place we're at right now, we're throwing our organic compost just on the side of the house, and then these chickens come up and eat the scraps. Oh,

Drew (00:47:04):
Wow. So have you ever run into, I mean, it sounds like, although you say you don't do a lot of planning, it sounds like you at least know where you're sleeping the next night.

Brock (00:47:15):
Yeah.

Ilean (00:47:16):
I mean, I feel like a lot of the times we've just been booking the Airbnb the day before. Yeah, the day before.

Brock (00:47:23):
But I mean, there's so much availability here that it's almost impossible not to find a place. So that's kind of luxury in itself is that we can be really easygoing with where we're going to stay the next day, just we don't have to worry about the planning phase.

Drew (00:47:41):
So how does that work with a couple, figuring out where to go next? Is it much easier because nobody knows what the next place is going to be like, so it's just easy to agree or you guys ever have a Oh no, I'd really rather go there or hear kind of a discussion.

Ilean (00:48:00):
I feel like, honestly, I just don't even try because I have no idea where I am. I know that we're at the southern tip because Brock told me a million times the Southern tip. It's just so funny that he maps for a living because I am so directionally challenged. It's unbelievable.

Brock (00:48:22):
I would fear for my life if I gave her the reins on that

Ilean (00:48:27):
We, we've talked about maybe me trying to plan and being in charge of everything, and I just feel like I would book things way off the Airbnb in a completely different town that we're in and just, I am fine with him taking the reins and it, that's I, it's so weird because I like to be in control. I like to know where we're going, what we're doing, where we're staying. That's the type of person I am. And since I've been here, it's just so nice to just not have to worry about it and just, all right, I'm going to get on a bus tomorrow for 12 hours. I guess. That's fine.

Brock (00:49:02):
I think we're always on the same page of what we want to accomplish in the next place. Things we want to do, what we want to see. But I'm basically a hundred percent in control of what's next.

Ilean (00:49:18):
I mean, he knows exactly what I'd like to do and what I probably wouldn't like to do, which isn't, I guess, very much so. We have so many options. So I kind of just trust him just because he likes to do research about the places that we're going to go and things that we should see. So it's kind of nice to not have to worry about that. So if he likes to do it, then that's on him. And

Brock (00:49:39):
Plus you're okay with doing nothing all day. So

Ilean (00:49:42):
Yeah, I could seriously just watch my shows online.

Drew (00:49:48):
There you go. Yeah, we were talking before we started the interview about when you didn't have wifi and then you got to a place where you had really good wifi. It's like hoarded all of your shows, get them all downloaded as quickly as possible. Yeah,

Brock (00:50:04):
I think that's one of the conflicts we have here is that I've kind of detached from everything. I don't watch any shows. I don't watch the news or I don't keep track of the news in the US

Ilean (00:50:16):
Here, but I need to know what's going on with my housewives this week.

Brock (00:50:21):
So we're always butting heads on that.

Drew (00:50:24):
But you stay connected through social media at all, or how do you keep in touch with your family and your friends?

Ilean (00:50:31):
So both of our family, so we have a group chat with his family, his parents, and then we have a group chat with my family. So they've all downloaded WhatsApp, so it helps us a lot here. And so we can just do video calls and we'll do Marco Polos and stuff. So I feel like we talk to them

Brock (00:50:48):
A lot or just send pictures. I send my parents pictures, just a lot of pictures with no text, just so they know that we're onto our next place and what it looks like and all that.

Drew (00:51:00):
They know you're still alive. They always want to know you're doing okay. Yeah.

Brock (00:51:04):
Yes. Limit, they're

Ilean (00:51:05):
Worried. I think the thing with both of our families, they just kind of got to realize, okay, I mean this is rock and island. This is what they do now. We're not living the traditional lifestyle. And I mean, of course they'd love for us to be home with them as much as they can, but they have come to terms with the fact that this is what we want for our lives. And I mean, they're proud of us, which is awesome.

Drew (00:51:28):
Yeah, that's great. It's great to have that support. Absolutely. So if somebody's wanting to get started and do this, what little nuggets of wisdom would you give to somebody who says, yes, I'm ready to detach from my normal everyday lifestyle and get out there and start to travel?

Brock (00:51:52):
I would say first you just have to drop all expectation of what you had in your previous life. Nothing is really going to be the same again. And that's the beauty of it as far as if they need to sell things. I think you kind of just have to detach from the hope that you're going to get a certain amount of money out of stuff. It's more about getting rid of it in time as opposed to how much money you're going to get out of it.

Ilean (00:52:26):
I think. Yeah, just like you said, you just have to go in with different expectations. What you're used to in the US or wherever you're from is going to be completely different than here in Phoenix. Brock and I would get in huge arguments because Brock in 120 degrees outside would love the air condition at 78. And our fight was about air conditioning. That was the biggest argument. And cause I need to be cool all the time. And here literally right now, I'm just sweating. I'm okay with that. And it's so weird just to have to switch your mindset of whatever the locals do here, that's what you should be okay with. And you shouldn't have any expectations and just, you have to just put yourself in their culture and really think, if you're actually doing this, not a lot of people are going to get to do this. So you really just have to think to yourself and just stop and just be like, wow, this is my life right now. I am able to do this. And just be grateful and just enjoy every second that you can of it. No, no matter how hot you are.

Brock (00:53:37):
Yeah. I mean we also, we have low points. It's not beautiful all the time. Yeah, no, we have our struggles and we have our moments where maybe a little doubt creeps in of what are we doing? Maybe we should go somewhere else or go back to Hawaii or something. But then you get through those rough times and then another reward comes your way in the travel and it makes it all worth it in the end.

Ilean (00:54:08):
And I think in the time that we're living in now with social media, obviously people aren't posting the negative parts of the trips. You just see all these people just living the life and just so happy. And these girls in bikinis are just having the best time. But that's not true at all. There's a huge story behind that. I just posted a picture, some pictures that we had, but the stories that were behind us getting there to get that picture is just way off. And obviously I'm not going to have time to explain everything, and I don't know if anybody really cares, but you just really have to think that it's not all what it's looks like

Brock (00:54:56):
When you also have to get rid of any comfort zone you used to have. Because if you're just stuck in a box as you're traveling, it defeats the entire purpose of why you're doing it.

Drew (00:55:10):
Well, I think you guys probably have grown to appreciate I do that some of the fun part of travel mishaps are that they teach you so much about yourself and about how you handle things and that you can overcome these particular obstacles.

Brock (00:55:30):
Exactly. I mean, I think when we'd have fights, when we lived in Phoenix, there were small issues that would cause a conflict over two, three days. But as we're traveling together, we don't have that kind of time. If we're upset with each other for two or three days, we kind of miss out on things that we want to do those days. So we've really learned how to get over,

Ilean (00:55:59):
How to get over and when he says we, he means me.

Drew (00:56:04):
So this is funny because I always hear people joking about first world problems, but in reality, you guys have seen the difference between first world and third world problems.

Ilean (00:56:14):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Brock (00:56:16):
So if she's having a first world problem, I fully remind her that it is a first world problem and by tomorrow she won't even remember the first world problem

Drew (00:56:27):
And wait till you get back to the first world because all of a sudden those problems will not be as pressing as they used to be, hopefully. Yeah,

Brock (00:56:35):
Exactly.

Ilean (00:56:36):
Exactly.

Drew (00:56:36):
Yeah. So where can people keep up with your adventures while you're traveling along?

Ilean (00:56:42):
So our Instagram pages, mine is at Eileen left, i l e nl e ft.

Brock (00:56:49):
And mine is at batches b a TC HN E ss.

Ilean (00:56:54):
And we're actually starting a blog, or our family kind of just urged us into doing it just because they thought like, Hey, you guys are living a kind of crazy life. And we didn't think so. I mean, yeah, I guess if you say it out loud, we are, but to us it's just kind of what we're doing with our lives. And they said, I think a lot of people would really want to know how you're doing these trips for so cheaply and they want to see your adventures. And I think that it would be really cool if you guys wrote it. So we kind of talked about it and we came to the agreement, you know what, and if anything, this is going to be a good way to just document our life this year. And that would be just really cool to be able to go to website and see that.

(00:57:37):
And one of the things we're going to be focusing on is just travel tips, just how we, how we talked about, we found that flight to Easter Island for how many, two 50 or two 70 or something. And just there's so many trips that we've taken for way inexpensive. Then you would think one time we took a trip to Norway from Houston for less than it was to go to Phoenix from Houston. Oh, wow. Which doesn't make any sense, but I mean, there's deals out there, you just need to learn how to do it. And we've kind of learned how to do it, and we are getting better at it, and we've made mistakes, but that's exactly what we want to include in the blog. And then we want to focus a lot on environmental conservation because living in Hawaii is completely different than living in Phoenix where we didn't really know about these things.

(00:58:28):
We didn't know about sea life, we didn't know about the pollution and the oceans until we got to Maui. And we're seeing these things and seeing the way that they're handling the situation. And even being here in Costa Rica, there are laws here to really protect the animals and to protect the oceans or just amazing. And we want to be able to write about that. And you don't have to move to Costa Rica. That's one thing we wanted to emphasize. You don't have to live by the ocean to help out. There are things that you can do at home that can help. And it's all of our job to save the planet and make sure it saves Beau. Beautiful.

Brock (00:59:07):
And you can see probably starting a week from now that we'll have that site up. It'll be called digital drifters.net.

Drew (00:59:16):
Okay, perfect. Perfect. Well, I'll post all of the links and everything to our show notes page as well, so everybody will be able to go out to travel fuels life.com/podcasts and look for this episode. And we should have the links out there as well. And if you guys have anything else going on, always pass those links over to me and I'll add 'em to the page as well. And I thank you guys so much for, first of all, reaching out to me through email and introducing yourselves and then introducing your lives because they're absolutely fascinating. And I think it's good for people. I mean, the whole idea of my show is to introduce people to concepts and get them thinking how can they travel more and what ways can they travel? And we hear a lot about the digital nomads and the people who are trying to figure out how to live life in other countries as expats and so on and so forth. So it's good to hear from, good to hear from people who are doing that. And I appreciate you guys giving me so much of your time.

Brock (01:00:22):
Well, we're happy to talk about it. And thanks for your time, drew. Yeah, it was great to meet you.

Drew (01:00:28):
And that closes out another week of Travel Fuels Life. Make sure to head to the show notes page of Travel fuels life.com/podcasts for episode number 12. And there you're going to find the links to Eileen and Brock's Instagrams as well as their website digital drifters.net. And if you're thinking of a nomadic lifestyle yourself and you need to find ways to optimize your travel packing, head to travel fuels life.com/shop where you can find some of my favorite travel tools, including that sturdy carry-on bag I like to use to go see the world and avoid baggage fees. It's an awesome bag. It's been all around the world and it is holding up just fine. So that site is an Amazon shop, and by buying through there, you're going to get a great way to show your appreciation for the guests that I'm bringing on the show. And I do get a small commission for the sales, but you also pay the same low price that you normally pay through Amazon. So it is a win-win. I'd really appreciate it and thank you for being a loyal listener. And until next time, have a great week. Safe travels and thanks for listening to Travel Fuels Life.