Dec
Rounding Up Our First Year As Location Independent Professionals
Hands up if you’ve been following this blog (or a form of it) right from the beginning of our journey way back in February this year…. Any hands up? Nope, didn’t think so!
If you did, you’d know that it started out as not much more than a review of the apartments we stayed in and the places we’d been. What a difference a few months make, eh?
Our first year as location independent professionals is almost at an end and I thought I’d do a visual round-up of our first year as LIPs and pick out some of our snaps from each of the places we’ve lived this year…
First up was Panama…didn’t speak the language, had all the wrong clothes and far too much stuff but we loved it and made some fantastic local friends there. The picture shows Casco Viejo (aka Casco Antiguo) which is a world heritage site and my absolute favourite part of the city.
Top Panamanian Tip: Always negotiate or confirm your taxi fare before you get in, there are no meters and whilst the fares are cheap, it isn’t uncommon for taxi drivers to try and overcharge foreigners. Around town, you should pay no more than a couple of dollars for 2 people to any other central destination.
Second stop was Buenos Aires. Not our favourite place although exceedingly good value and you really can live the high life on far less than it costs in most UK or US cities. The picture shows a Milonga band on a typical Sunday in the San Telmo part of town.
Top Buenos Aires Tip: Buenos Aires is a huge city, the underground train system is easy to use, dirt cheap and relatively safe. It’s limited in routes but great for getting round the main city centre and avoiding the traffic.
Thirdly, we spent a month in Toronto. One of those places where you can’t quite put your finger on why you like it, if you know what I mean. The picture however shows the monstrosity that is Niagara - the town closest to the Falls which is more like some kind of Disney park gone wrong.
Top Toronto Tip: The PATH system is an underground network of paths that let you walk around the city and avoid any bad weather. The system connects up some of the largest buildings and malls in the city.
Then there was Grenada…and the place we’ve spent the longest this year (5 months in total) which apparently now entitles us to call it ‘home’. Idyllic beaches, laid back atmosphere, voracious mosquitoes…almost paradise. This is our favourite beach bar on the island…
Top Grenada Tip: When it comes to food, you will save lots of money by buying locally produced goods. The soil in Grenada is some of the richest, most nutrient-dense and fertile soil in the world and any locally grown fruit and vegetables are basically organic. Avoid buying expensive imported goods from the supermarket and shop at local vendors instead.
A brief but fun-filled stop in NYC to help my Dad celebrate his 60th Birthday and a picture I’m really proud of - the grand old lady herself.
Top NYC Tip: Wireless internet access is common but if you’re trying to decide on one of the paid services (like Boingo), then the most ubiquitous one I found was T-mobile and their hotspots used in Starbucks which are, of course, everywhere.
And this post wouldn’t be complete without a picture of a LIP (me) turning 30 in June this year…
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Congrats on your first full year abroad, Lea! Your blog is a wonderful resource and inspiration for LIPs-to-be like me.
Congratulations on your first LIP year
Lots to be prouud of and lots of things learned
Where is the second year taking you guys?
@Mike - thank you for your kind words. Can’t believe we’ve been doing this for almost a year now! When do you think you’ll be starting your LIP life?
@jimdmcd - thanks too! This year we’re in Dubai for the first month (arrived yesterday), then South Africa for 3 months, then possibly Thailand (or maybe somewhere in Europe), then possibly back to the Caribbean and then….??!? We’ve only booked up until April (after South Africa), so guess we’ll see how we feel after that! Would love to visit Yosemite at some point…when’s the best time of year?
Congratulations on your travels and your first year as an independent World traveler. Or is it World living.
Notice I have a new site. It is just getting going and we have a lot of changes to do. Trekking Around is going to be about our travels for a year living aboard a boat while traveling the Great Loop of North America. We are very excited to get going.
We are still trying to figure out how we are going to fund this trip, but that is just a minor detail for us. We are really more concerned about purchasing a boat, and learning how to navigate the Great Loop.
We are in the process of writing a business plan for our trip. One of the ways we are going to raise money is to look for sponsors. Why would people sponsor us? We are going to get a boat that runs on diesel and convert it to BioDiesel. This is very important to us. We want to do this trip with low environmental impact and we want to show people that it is not hard to do. We want people to know that Biofuel especially BioDiesel is not something that garage mechanics are doing trying to save the environment. We want to show people that this is a simple and easy solution to a lot of pollution, especially in North America.
I will be using my experience in engineering, and my degrees in physics and mathematics to conduct a year long 5000+ mile experiment in BioDiesel efficiency.
Didn’t really want it to sound like a commercial for us, but we are both very excited.
And again, congratulations, and thank you for being an inspiration for us.
[cork pop]
Here’s to success, the first year of many to come, and life on the road.
Cheers!
- Greg
@Coach Kip - nice new site and very interesting aim with the biofuel experiment…
@Greg - corks popping indeed
Great resource you have here and always good to run into other laptop warriors around the world!
How long have u guys been on the road? You might want to check out this article about extreme telecommuting as well…
http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2007/08/01/100138820/index.htm?postversion=2007073106