March 28, 2024 • 52 mins
This week on the podcast, we’re chatting with Nathan Aguilera, a longtime friend and recurring guest, to discuss his 10-year journey as a digital nomad and food blogger. In this episode, Nathan shares his experiences visiting nearly 70 countries across five continents, managing an online business, and launching a new project targeting LGBTQ+ nomads. The conversation spans topics such as the trials and joys of digital nomadism, the impact of the pandemic on travel blogging, finding community on the road, and Nathan's tips for aspiring nomads. They also delve into broader themes of safety for LGBTQ+ travelers, adapting to changes in the blogging industry, and the importance of connecting with locals. Nathan highlights some of his favorite travel destinations, including Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and Madrid, mentions his worst airline experience, and much more. We hope you enjoy it!
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(00:02):
Hello, and welcome to the WorldWanderers Podcast, a proud part of the
Wanderbarn podcast network. I'm Ryan,I'm Amanda, and we're your hosts.
We're a traveling couple and digital nomad'staking you on our adventures as we explore
locations, destinations, and careers.Enjoy the show. What's up everybody,
(00:22):
and welcome back to the show.Today, we're excited to bring you an
interview with longtime friend and friend ofthe podcast recurring guests, Nathan Aguilera from
Foodie Flashbacker. Yeah, and Nathanhas been traveling the world full time for
ten years, which is one ofthe reasons we were really excited to catch
up with him. We are hittinghis ten year travel anniversary, so really
(00:44):
fun to chat about that. Andduring the past ten years, he's visited
nearly seventy countries across five continents,all while running a successful online business which
Ryan mentioned called foodi Flashbacker. Andhe currently spends most of his time between
Argentina and Mexico during the winters andtravels around Europe in the summers, So
at the time of recording, atthis point of time, Nathan is fully
(01:06):
nomadic. We were able to catchup with him in Brazil before he jet
set it off to South Africa,where he currently is, and I think
he's coming back to North America orSouth America at some point soon. And
we were really excited to chat withNathan about what the last ten years has
looked like, what it's been liketo build an online business. And he's
also just started a new project calledGay Digital Nomads, which is a community
(01:32):
for LGBTQ plus nomads and remote workers. So we're really excited to hear more
about that and you can learn moreabout how you can check that out and
follow along and all that good stuff. So this episode of the podcast is
jam packed with goodness. It's reallycool to hear from somebody who's just been
traveling for so long while making moneyall over the world. So hopefully you
(01:53):
guys enjoy. Nathan, Welcome tothe podcast today. We're really excited to
have you here with us. Thankyou so much for having me back on.
Yeah. Absolutely, And where inthe world are you joining us from?
I am currently my last day inFlorida, Napolis, Brazil. Amazing.
That's a that's a place that wewent back in on our big backpacking
(02:15):
trip in twenty fourteen that we've wantedto go back ever since. I'm curious,
what do you think about it?And for me, it's like not
love, Like I don't think I'llbe rushing back here anytime soon. Yeah,
it must be the same for us, because it's been ten years and
we haven't gotten back. We didn'tfind enjoy it when the first week I
(02:38):
was here, we had we camefor a beach vacation, and then the
weather was terrible. It was rainingevery day. So now it's sunny,
it's nice out, it's beach weather, so that that's made a big difference.
But yeah, it's fine. Iremember we were kind of like grinding
it out on like shitty buses forlike a month in Brazil, and we
got to Floridapolis and we're like,we're in heaven. Just awesome place on
(03:00):
Earth. I think it's just likea lot more chill than other places in
Brazil. It feels like a littlebit safer. And I remember we kept
going to those like what was itlike pay by kilo food places. This
is like you got to remember tenyears ago, we were like major backpackers
and so we just like like stackso much food in like our little boxes
(03:23):
for Akilo and it was so cheapto eat. Those places were still popular.
I was hanging out with my Brazilianfriend in Sal Paulo, and that's
where he wanted to go for lunch. Oh nice, that's awesome. Well,
I was just looking to see whenwe caught up with you in the
podcast last and it was almost exactlytwo years ago. It was like end
of January twenty twenty two. Wemust have talked to you a little earlier
(03:46):
than that because I would have beenextremely pregnant with baby Loo. But you
were on like month ninety one ofyour six month trip, and so I'm
curious, two years later, whatwhere are you at with this trip,
because you're still going strong. Thisis month one twenty This is my ten
year anniversary February twenty fourteen. Ileft the States setting off on this six
(04:08):
month journey. I'm on that's incredible, and so maybe you can just give
us I know you go so manyplaces, but just a high level overview
of maybe like what the last twoyears of look like. I think we
know, but maybe catch listeners upon like what you've been up to specifically
over the last two years, andthen maybe we can go more into like
the whole ten year thing. Well, the last couple of years, I
(04:28):
mean, I've been spending I've sloweddown a lot. I mean, as
you guys know, I've slowed down. I used to bounce around city,
you know, cities quite quickly,but now I'm doing one two three month
stage. The past couple of years. I'm still going to Europe every summer,
and largely the last couple of yearsin Mexico and Argentina when I'm not
in Europe. Mm hmm. Yeah. It seems like you've This was your
(04:48):
second winter in Argentina, right,second winter in Argentina, and I already
booked my same apartment that I justleft to come back to in December of
this at the end of this year, so it'll be three consecutive winters.
Nice. That's awesome. That's amazingto hear. And so any plans of
like slowing down or what is whatdoes it look like for you being like
(05:11):
ten years on the road. Ikeep saying I'm going to slow down,
and then I keep making other plans. Yeah, I mean I think definitely
I'm kind of slow. I'm slowingdown a bit. I've been talking more
and more about doing maybe four threemonths around the world stays like maybe some
Mexico from Argentina, some Europe fromAsia. Like blocking out into four three
(05:32):
month segments is kind of what I'maiming towards at the moment. That sounds
pretty cool. I feel like,I like that Mexico's in there because that's
where we are at the moment.So I like that, you guys,
And you also know my moms retiredin Mexico, so you know, of
course I want to get some momtyme then every year. Yeah, it's
like my Amanda and Ryan and thenmom next of course, and my mom
(05:55):
might even be living in you guys, in the same city, so that
would be very convenient. That wouldbe super con for you. Then we
know, we'll like for sure seeyou at least for as long as you're
here. Yeah. And so Nathan, do you what's you kind of feel
like coming up kind of realizing like, hey, ten years ago, I
set out on this big adventure.You've you know, really like lived and
been all over the world. Whatare kind of the vibes as you you
(06:18):
approach ten years? Wow, Imean, in some ways it feels like
it's not been ten years. Itfeels like it's gone by pretty quickly,
and I've been so many places andI've seen so many things, but there's
so many places that I still wantto go in, so many places that
I haven't been. And you know, then in other ways, I'm like,
this is like almost a quarter ofmy life that I've been at this,
(06:40):
and that feels pretty crazy. It'sa complete decade that I've been,
you know, on the road,moving, living full time, on the
go, so it's pretty you know, I don't know. I just feel
like time is kind of a weirdthing. Part of it's flown by,
but then in another measure, it'slike a quarter of my life I've been
doing this. Yeah, that's crazyabout I feel like we were having this
(07:01):
like because I was mentioning that backpackingtrip we took in South America, and
that was like we were on thatten years ago, and I feel like
that's been really surreal, I think, at least for me to think about,
like how much has happened in thattime. So I'm curious for you
if you look back on like yourselfin you know, February of twenty fourteen,
(07:25):
like would have been some of themajor I guess like life changes,
life shifts that have kind of happenedthrough this, through this period and through
your travels. Well. I meanwhen I left, I was I was
supposed to be on a six monthtrip and I was going to sort out
whether I wanted to go to lawschool or not. So this whole thing
was like a little bit of afigure out yourself, figure out your life.
(07:47):
So I never made it to lawschool. I figured out. One
of the big things is I figuredout I don't want to be an attorney.
I think now I really prioritize.I don't know that I can ever
go work for anyone else again.Found out that I need to be working
for myself. I need to bedoing my own thing, for better or
for worse. You know where therehave been lots of ups and downs running
my own business. Running your ownbusiness on the road is super challenging.
(08:11):
But I have figured out. Youknow, one of the big things is
I think. I think I'm moreI think I don't know how to phrase
it. I not that I amI don't know what the word is.
More entrepreneurial than I thought. Iam more ambitious than I thought I might
be. I felt my before mymy life path was always going to be,
(08:33):
you know, working for someone else, working in an office, punching
a time clock, getting two weeksof vacation per year, And I've definitely
sorted out that that's not my lifepath. Yeah, that's a really cool
realization to have, especially, likeI guess, not too like quote unquote
like laid in life. Like it'snot like you were nearing retirement and then
you're like, oh, I actuallydon't want to do this anymore. It's
(08:54):
like you were able to figure thatout. I guess in your early thirties.
Yeah, early thirties. It's definitelynot the career path I thought I
was going to be on. ButI don't know that I could ever go
work for someone else ever again.I think I would be a terrible employee.
At this point, You're like,I actually take two and a half
(09:16):
hour lunches and I fly on Fridays, so and I need all summer off
to go be homeless in Europe.Yeah, maybe not the best for working
for somebody else, But I thinkthat's really cool that you've been able to
like go out I'm assuming, well, maybe you can tell us in twenty
fourteen, did you just have likesix months of savings that you were kind
(09:39):
of like planning to use on thistrip, or like what did that look
like for you at that point.I actually didn't work the first two years.
So I've been working on the roadfor eight years. The first two
years I had this savings and investments, and I was able to make it
work. You know, I soldeverything in my house, I sold my
car. At one point, Iwas working you know, three or four
jobs in Oklahoma City saving up moneyfor this. So I had a pretty
(10:03):
decent little mess egg when I left, and I was able to make that
stretch for two years, and thenI was running out of money and also
one a big thing. You know, after two years on the road,
I was feeling like I was travelingwith no purpose. And it can be
fun, you know, it canbe fun, but you know, you
need you need something to do onthe road. It can't be like a
vacation every day for you know,ten years or something like this. I
(10:26):
needed a goal, I needed apurpose, I needed something to do.
So that's why I started the website. Yeah, and on one of our
previous episode, we talked through quitea bit about the website. But how
has it kind of evolved from whenyou started to what you're focused on now.
Well, when I started out waslike a one man team. It
was just me trying to do everything. And I think one of the things
(10:48):
in this business that it's very frustratingfor me that, you know, you
have to be good at so manythings social media, writing, editing,
marketing, sales funnels, you know, all these things. You need to
be good at all of these things, or you need to outsource, and
you need to work with people whoare better at these things than you are.
So, you know, I don'tknow when we talked last if I
(11:09):
had a team or how big myteam was, but since then, you
know, it's grown. We haveprobably about five people working on the site
full time in this moment, anda lot of freelance people in one off
and freelance writers and things like this, So the business has grown. You
know, it's not just me tryingto do everything anymore, which I'm quite
(11:31):
appreciative of and grateful for, becauseit was impossible. It was too much
for one person to take on.Yeah, I think especially like to grow
as well, because I think,and tell me if I'm wrong. But
when you started, you were reallyfocusing on like creating kind of like listicles
about places to like eat and restaurantsand that type of thing with places you
were going pretty specifically, right,Yeah, it was just me going to
(11:54):
a city and then writing about,you know, my top ten favorite restaurants
and changed my island or something.So it was pretty limited about how much
content I could create by myself becauseit was just me writing about my own
travels. But now we're hiring freelancewriters. We have a bunch of American
writers, we have some international writers, so you know, it's not I
(12:15):
guess that would be another big changes. I don't even really consider the site
a blog anymore. I think theblog is kind of one person's narrative to
one person's firsthand travel stories. It'sreally grown into more of a travel resource.
I don't even do hardly any ofthe writing on the site anymore,
so you won't find much from myperspective on the site. M hmm,
(12:35):
yeah, you're like fully CEO nowI try. Yeah, I'm actually think
I'm going to write just because I'mso obsessed with Buenesettas. I think I'm
going to write my Buene Setter's article. It's going to be kind of like
my love letter to the city that'slice. I like that awesome. Well,
you definitely need to talk about BuenoSida's food and steaks at some point
(12:56):
in this conversation. But I'm kindof curious for you now, kind of
today, when you're going somewhere new. So fruity flash Packers an awesome resource
for people going on their travels findingrestaurants to eat at. For you,
personally, when you're going somewhere new, how do you kind of like plan
out the places you want to eat, the experiences you want to have,
all that type of stuff. Well, places I want to eat a lot
(13:20):
of it. I'll just ask friendsthat have been there, or you know,
I'll start googling, looking for blognames that I recognize, that I
know and trust. I'll start goingoff with their recommendations. A lot of
time it's just going over Google Maps. Is kind of like, you know,
I'll find where my Airbnb is goingto be in that city, and
I'll get on Google Maps and juststart searching restaurants around there, things to
(13:41):
do, same thing, you know, what people have recommended to me.
Now, usually before I go somewhereon social media I'll say, you know,
I have a trip to Bueno Setta'scoming up. You know, just
look Buena SETAs if anyone has anyrestaurant recommendations or things to see and do.
And you know, I'm pretty fortunate. People usually jump and give me
a lot of great suggestions and I'mable to use as kind of like base
(14:05):
level planning. M M. Yeah, no, that's awesome. I feel
like too. We were just inWe're just starting to release our Argentina content
now, but we were just inBarloche together. So by the time this
episode's out, people will have heardthat. And spoiler alert, we had
terrible weather while we were there,and I was so grateful that you had
a list of restaurants, because Ithink if we hadn't had like some good
(14:28):
food to look forward to, ourtrip could have been a little bit of
a bummer. I don't even thinkwe needed that whole list. We just
kind of ended up going to thesame place quite a few times. We
had our regulars. Yeah, Imean, Barrelocha is very different from a
city than like than like Buenos Airesor Mexico City or something where when you
(14:50):
eat the same thing over and over, you're really missing out on other places.
I feel like Baroloche is like small. I feel like we hit a
good number of restaurants there on somegood places. Yeah, for sure,
you'll have to put together a blogpost on that maybe too, Cheryl Sheryl
the Good. Yeah, if ithasn't been published already, it's in production.
(15:11):
Nice, that's awesome. Awesome.Well, I think we should talk
a little bit about Argentina because Iknow we really enjoyed our time there.
We've got some content coming out aroundIt was last year, not so not
this previous like a couple months agolast year, but the year before that,
was that the first time you'd everbeen our sign? Yeah, the
first time I had gone to Argentinawas for Christmas of last year, and
(15:31):
so at that point you probably wouldhave gone to like sixty seventy plus countries
all over the world. What we'rekind of like, I guess, why
hadn't you got to Argentina before?And what we were kind of first impressions
when you did get there. Well, I mean it is very far and
flights were expensive. It's kind ofas far to get to and very rarely
do you see great you know,prices on flights to get there, but
(15:56):
I'd heard a lot of great thingsabout it for years. Everyone had said,
you know, it's very like,very European part of Latin America,
And when I went, yeah,I just thought it. You know,
it's gorgeous. I've heard a lotabout it. Safety. I don't ever
really feel unsafe in the city.It has Mexico City vibes to me,
or Mexico City has Bleen Seta's vibes. I don't know which one. But
(16:18):
the city's interesting, it's exciting,it's big, there's always something to do,
and from a food and wine perspective, you could never finish your you
know, list of places like recommendationsand suggestions. I've spent probably five months
collectively in Buen and Cettas now andI still have a massive list of places.
I haven't visioned it yet. Yeah, No, that's amazing. I
(16:41):
feel like, Look, we hadn'tbeen there for I guess, like nine
ish years by the time we went, and I was like, man,
this city is just I forgot howgreat it was because it had been so
long since we had been there.And I think also when we were there,
it was just like a very likeI guess unique time in Argentina's history
(17:02):
to be there because of the likeinflation with the dollar and just being able
to like, I don't like superaffordable if you can live off USD.
I feel like it was just likea very interesting time to be there as
like a tourist. Yeah, I'vetold I mean, yeah, of course
the value for money is insane aswell, But I've told people it's not
that it's the cheapest destination in theworld. You know, you can go
(17:22):
to Thailand and you live on likedollar pad Thaie, or be in Mexico
and live on two dollars street tacos. But for me, what I love
about wedns Eres is that you're ableto have very high end experiences for much
more affordable than you would in alot of other places around the world.
And you know the example I keepgiving people, we did an eight course
tasting menu with wine pairings and itwas fifty American dollars. Wow, that's
(17:45):
insane. So yeah, I thinkthat's when you know, yes, it's
affordable. Sadly for Argentinian people it'sbecause they're having like record inflation things like
this, but you know, youcan go more affordable places. It's not
that it's the cheapest country in theworld, but I think it's for me,
it's one of the better value countriesin the world. Yeah, absolutely,
(18:07):
Yeah, for sure. That's kindof what we were talking about as
we were doing our Argentina content.And it's it's it's such a it's like,
I guess, a complicated situation,feeling wise, because obviously, going
somewhere where your money goes further,as you know, American like you are,
a Canadian like us, is great. But then you also think,
like, how does this affect thelocal people, and you know, obviously,
(18:30):
yeah, the insane inflation is notsuper ideal for the local people,
but it seems like things have shifteda little bit. I guess you were
just there so you'd know a littlebit more than us, since you were
there quite a bit longer than us. But it seems like maybe the inflation's
shifting a tiny little bit heading intothis year. Yeah, And it's also
interesting when you ask, you know, what had taken me so long to
(18:51):
get down there, because when youhear about you know, record inflation,
and you know people how bad peoplehave it, you know, you think
it's going to be like Venezuela orsomething and you get down there and yeah,
you know, it's not great forthe people, and a lot of
people are in very bad situations orwhatever, but it's it's not some you
know, war zone or something likethey would have you believe. It's a
(19:11):
it's a gorgeous city and the peoplethere are in a not great situation,
but they seem to be really tryingto, you know, make the best
of it and work with what they'vegot. Yeah, we were talking about
this because I think, like youmentioned, you know, Buenos Aida says
like really like Mexico City vibes orvice versa, however you want to say
that. But I actually think MexicoCity has like I think we saw like
(19:34):
less you know, people living onthe street. I think there was like
less like garbage. I feel likeBuenosidas felt like kind of a cleaner,
almost like nicer version of Mexico Cityin some ways. And I say this
with like absolute love in my heartfrom Mexico City, because everyone listening should
know that I adore Mexico City,So no hate on that city. But
I think it's really interesting, likeyou said, when you hear like,
(19:56):
you know, one hundred and eightypercent inflation and an economic crisis, you
do think that things are going tobe like pretty bad when you're there,
And I think we never really likeexperienced that kind of from a tourist side
anywhere that we were in Argentina duringthis trip, which was really interesting.
I mean I honestly had a littlebit of like I was a bit like
(20:18):
is this a safe place to travelwith our toddler, because I feel like
that's something I'm very conscious about withlou now, is like we're not just
going to go somewhere because we wantto go somewhere, We need to think
about her as well. And Inever felt unsafe with her at all.
So it is like a very interestingthing and hopefully something people just keep in
mind if they're like reading you know, the news highlights that say those those
kind of scary words like economic crisisand stuff like that. Because yeah,
(20:44):
we had a fantastic time. YeahI heard a lot about you know,
I've not heard a lot about violentcrime there. The most I heard is,
you know, pick pocketing and snatchand grab her phones and things like
that. But I'm getting ready togo next week to South Africa, and
I've been warned so many times aboutCape Town, and I'm really hoping that
I get there and find kind ofa similar experience to like we didn't play
(21:04):
a centis where it's not as badas people would have you believe, because
people have kind of got me alittle nervous about Cape Town. Yeah,
I'm really curious, and I youknow, obviously hope that your experience is
positive, but I'm really curious tohear what you think and how you like
it and stuff. Is It's acity that's certainly on my list, But
again because of the things that peoplesay, I'm like, don't know if
(21:25):
that's the best place to go witha you know, a toddler right now.
So you'll have to let us knowbecause it gets on our radar,
but not somewhere we've actually planned togo. Well, I have a stopover
in sal Paulo on the way toCape Town, and sal Paoulo definitely to
me is I felt, you know, I felt it more than I do
in a lot of cities. ThatSal Paulo can be a little bit sketchy
(21:47):
in some areas. And I don'tknow if you saw a friend of mine,
she got robbed twice in twenty fourhours when we were there a couple
of weeks ago. Yeah, yeah, I saw that, and I was
like, it's it's crazy because whenwe were in Brazil, like yeah,
like ten years ago, it waseveryone said take your jewelry off, and
you know, people will like ripnecklaces off, and people will snatch phones
(22:07):
out of your hands. And wenever had any issues at all. I
mean, I guess we were prettycautious, but not terribly cautious. I
don't think, like we were stillgoing out in the evenings and we were
there for carnival, so we werepartying and stuff. We didn't have any
issues. And yeah, I sawthat through yeah, same friends, and
I was like, oh man,that's just like so scary. It just
gives you such bad vibes and that'slike the start of your trip somewhere.
(22:32):
It's a big reason we came downto Florinopolis as well. You know,
even though I said, like Ilike Florinopolis, I'm not in love with
it, it does feel very safedown here. Yeah, like a beach
town. Yeah, everyone is justkind of running around in flip flops and
bathing suits, super chill. Soyou know, it was a big reason
we had two weeks that we neededto work with down here, we decided
to leave South Paula and go somewherethat felt a bit safer. Yeah,
(22:55):
no, that definitely makes sense.Although, did you eat like your bodyweight
and sushi while you were in Sapollo? I didn't. I did my best.
Yeah, I think we did apretty big We made a big dent
in their sushi supply for sure,and we have two nights there on the
way back out. Nice, soyou've got more opportunities for more sushi.
I'm jealous they do. They dohave good Asian food there. I'll do
(23:15):
them that and surprisingly good. Wefound a really great Brazilian wahawk infusion restaurant.
WHOA, that's cool. What isBrazilian wahawk infusion? Like? What
does that entail? What were wehaving? We were having some kind of
wall hawk and dishes that they hadused some Brazilian spices on. And I
(23:37):
didn't really see a lot of Braziliancooking techniques, but they Wow, I
have to remember exactly what dishes wehave, but I think it was mostly
to do with like spices and things. They'd used Brazilian spices and what have
you thought? Overall of Salpolo floran uplist. Just being in Brazil and
especially like compared to Argentina. Whathave you thought of it from a travel
perspective. It's so for me becauseI'm so obsessed with Argentina right now.
(24:03):
You know, I want to givethis place, you know, a fair
chance, and I don't. Wewere talking about it offline. We haven't
talked about it here. We hadI'm not even supposed to be in Brazil
right now, We're supposed to bein South Africa. So we had a
bit of a travel flub, abig mess up, and I think I
just came in here kind of witha bad attitude. But Brazil was fun.
I mean, of all the placesI've been in Brazil, Florianopolis and
(24:26):
Iguazoo are my two favorites. Rioand South Paulo. I both felt like
you needed to have your guard upat all time. And for me,
it's a bit difficult to enjoy myselfwhen I'm in places where I'm constantly being
warned about how much danger I'm in. So if I were going to come
back to Brazil, it would probablybe Florianopolis. I like it down here.
(24:48):
The beaches are really nice. There'ssome good seafood, really chill vibe.
It's really fun on the weekend whenwe went out for the weekends,
tons of locals, you know,outside playing volleyball, eating, eating seafood
on the beach. It's a goodvibe. I probably would steer clear of
South Paula in the future carnival.I would go to. My Brazilian friends
(25:11):
tell me it's more interesting outside ofRio and less dangerous outside of Rio.
But I don't want to scare anyoneelse on Brazil and I don't want to.
I don't want to seem like I'mtalking bad about it. Like everyone,
it is cool, it's fun.Everyone should come, especially with Floridnopolis
and Iguazoo is one of the moststunning places I've seen in all my travels.
Yeah, yeah, iguasu still islike probably the most spectacular waterfall I've
(25:33):
ever waterfalls I've ever seen in mylife. It's just, yeah, just
incredible. I would certainly go backthere again. And the Brazilian side was
nicer than the Argentinian side, sothey've got that. Yeah, they got
the better views. Yeah, sowe put together a little like we don't
have to do it as like aspeed round or anything. But we put
(25:53):
together a little bit of a listof things to ask you about, a
sort of highlights over the ten years. If you're up for it, of
course. Okay, So the firstone is I think this one's just like
impossible, but you can blame Ryanfor that best meal you've had in the
last ten years. Go the bestone singular meal? She was one meal
(26:19):
in the last ten years. Well, I think that I was in Florence
one time and I had this wildboor ragoo, and so anytime asked me,
anyone asked me about my best meal, that's usually the one that comes
to mind. It's like wild boarragoo and the sauce was cooked almost more
(26:41):
like a gravy. And I rememberwhen they brought me this big plate of
pasta, and they brought me youknow, those kind of flat, skinny
Italian breadsticks that go with it,and I was like, oh, I
don't need pasta and bread six.I was like, that's like, you
know, that's a lot. Andthen by the end I was like scraping
the sauce off the plate with thosebreadsticks. So I think if I had
to think of one out of youknow, having had a lot of really
(27:03):
great meals. It's wild boar ragouin Florence. Okay, nice, I'm
impressed that you were able to pickthat that quickly. Honestly, what about
what about worst meal? Does onecome to mind? Oh? Worst meal?
I think when people know that youwrite about food, sometimes they think
you want to do like Fear Factoredition, where you want to eat like
(27:25):
crazy bugs and stuff, And that'snever been my I don't. I don't
want to eat cockroaches. I'll tellyou the one thing I've ever refused to
eat. And I felt very Youknow, you want to go somewhere and
you don't want to be culturally intensive, and you don't want to come off
as like, you know, abad Western person. Where but that bollute
and Philippines? Have you had news? No, we both refuse to eat
(27:49):
it. We both politely declined.Yeah, I politely declined as well.
Was hanging out with some locals andthey were offering to buy it for as
we were hanging out on the beach, and I was like, no,
no, no, no, no, thank you very much, But you
know that's something I don't want totry. I've heard it's actually delicious.
Our mutual friend Grace and I'm travelingwith. He really likes it, but
(28:11):
it's just something I didn't care totry. Yeah, no, that's fair.
Okay, what about and maybe thisis more relevant to the places you've
stayed longer term, kind of morelike you know, living in But where
do you feel like is like you'vehad the best quality of life? Oh,
Mexico City, I think has tobe way high up there. Mexico
(28:32):
City is kind of the bar thatI'm comparing a lot of other cities to
early days of my website when Iwas kind of bootstrapping it and trying to
start start out. I think changedmy Thailand was a perfect place to bootstrap
a new business. Most recently,I don't know what their winters are like.
I've never been there for the winter. But I do love Buenda Status
(28:56):
right now. It's a favorite ofmine and I could. I think I
could live in Madrid. I loveI love the life in Madrid. Yeah,
those are some some great, greatchoices. Yeah, all right,
Spain overall, just anywhere in Spain, Melia, most places in Spain.
(29:22):
I loved everywhere in Spain. Malliga'snice to visit. I don't think I
could live there shut out too,Tim. Yeah, next one. So
imagine you're gonna get you remember,like men in Black, they had those
scanners and they just like flash peopledelete your memories. So you're gonna get
memory washed for the past ten years, but you get to keep one travel
(29:44):
experience as a memory. Which memorywould you keep? Oh wow, I
mean clearly my trip with you guysso far. Yeah, I couldn't get
he said it. I would sayvery recently. We just did my you
guys know Brock, my best friend. We did his fortieth birthday trip.
(30:07):
We did the multi coast at Italy, and I just don't know how that
trip could have gone any better.And it was a group trip, which
I don't always love. There's toomany moving parts, and you know,
inevitably there's going to be someone that'syou know, a Karen or difficult to
please. We had none of thaton this trip. Like, the trip
was amazing from start to finish.It was so much fun. That part
(30:29):
of Italy. A lot of peoplekind of dump on it because it is
so touristic, and I mean itis very touristic, but I for a
reason, you know, it's stunning. We had amazing meals, we had
beautiful days, we had great wine. I think probably that would be one
nice. Yeah, that's an awesomeone. I was kind of wondering if
you might pick that one, atleast of recent ones. Okay, if
(30:52):
for the rest of your life somebodysaid you can only stay in one continent,
like, can't go to any othercontinent until the day that you die,
which one would you stay in?Wow, that's a hard question,
is if we say yeah? BecauseI mean, who's counting in the continent?
Is an American style where North andSouth are two different continents, or
(31:15):
are we counting the America's as onecontinent? Let's put them together for this,
I think to compete with Europe,let's consider the America as one thing.
Okay, I think I would probablyhave to in this moment, this
moment of my life. If you'dasked me a couple of years ago,
it would have been Asia. ButI think in this moment of my life,
(31:36):
it would be the America's because Buenasaidas in Mexico City, it has
Mexico and then of course still accessto the United States where my friends and
family are. Yeah, that makessense, that makes sense. I think
feel like North America would probably bemine. Yeah, Asia would be cool.
There's so much stuff in Asia,so many countries. You could even
(31:57):
do istanbul Yo, Thailand. Istill haven't been in Japan. I must
go, Like I was going tosay, a life without ever going to
Japan again, what would I doyou need to go? When you guys
asked me earlier, like you knowyou still thinking of still full sea ahead
or slowing down or whatever. Everytime I think about slowing down and like
(32:20):
signing a lease, it's like,oh, but you still haven't been to
Japan. Like I feel like Japanis hanging over me. Whence you go
to Japan, then you can signa lease and you can like get a
dog or something. Yeah. Yeah, But I mean when I mentioned him
earlier, I mutual fund Grace andhe says, you know, you're just
moving the goalpost because after Japan,it's going to be something else. You're
going to come up with another reasonto not want to settle down, because
(32:42):
I mean, there's always something elseto see, right, Like you'll discover
another country that other people talk aboutand that has a great food scene and
stuff. So I feel like Grayson'snot wrong. There's a bunch of them.
There's a bunch of places I stillwant to go, but I feel
like Japan is a huge nonumber one, and then behind it there's a you
know, distant number two's for otherplaces. South Korea I'm dying to get
(33:06):
to. Mm hmmmmm yeah. SouthChrea is awesome, awesome. How about
the sketchiest but still fun place,the most sketchy but still fun place.
Sketchest but still fun. Oh theChun King Mansions in Hong Kong. Have
(33:31):
you guys been partaken from the outsidenot the inside? Okay? Yeah,
the murder capital of Hong Kong whereI stayed not once but twice. Yeah,
okay, So I think vang Vianin Loao comes to mind for me.
Oh yeah, yeah, that wasanother one. That was That was
(33:52):
another one I thought of. Yeah, yeah, we went like back in
the like two Bean days too.Were you there when they were doing the
two being still? I was therewhen they were still trying to make the
tubing happen after everyone had knew nowthat tubing was no longer happening. Okay,
yeah, yeah, they had kindof a watered down version of it
(34:13):
for the people that showed up stillhoping it might be a thing. Okay,
well we went when it was likefully fully slide bacterial infections. I
feel like I'm really glad we wentin our early twenties, and I feel
like if I went, probably atany other chapter of life, I just
would have been disgusted. Yeah.We just floated down the river and they
(34:34):
kind of like threw us beers ontoour floating. It wasn't anything that wild.
Okay, all right, next questionis easiest place to connect with locals?
Wow? Easiest place to connect withlocals? I really like. I
mean, and you know, I'mfully aware that it has a lot to
do with them everyone speaking English,but that I find Filipino people so nice.
(35:01):
Have you guys been to the Philippine? Yeah, I know you guys
have been. We've been there.At the same time I thought Philippine,
I thought Philip Yeah, yeah,but that's the only time we've been,
though, so I feel like weneed to go and explore a little bit
more. They were super nice,they were fun. I remember I didn't
love Manila the first time I wasthere. It was just this crazy big
city. And then the second timeI was there, a bunch of local
(35:22):
people took me out to like aroast pig and craft beer festival, and
everyone was good. Everyone was afun time. But other than that,
you know, I'm partial to Mexicobeing half Mexican myself, I think right
now, I kind of just reallyconnect with Latino culture, and I find
myself more and more spending time aroundlike Latino culture. Yeah, for sure,
(35:45):
Mexico definitely comes to mind for meas well. I feel like every
year we've been here, it's likesomebody invites us to like their family's host
for Christmas. Like it's just Idon't know, people here are so welcoming.
I agree. Yeah, I'm partialof all. Right. Next question,
Yeah, next question is best datingscene? Well, I mean,
(36:06):
there's a reason I love Buenos Aiasso much right now. Buenos Aias is
a super fun city. Mexico Cityis a super fun Madrid. Kind of
all all other places I earlier namedas a place, I'll tell you the
one that surprised me, the onethat I was incredibly fun for dating that
I had not heard anything about beforeI got there, was Lima, Peru.
(36:30):
Oh okay, yeah I didn't.I know nothing about their dating scenes,
So that's cool to hear, Yeah, Lima Peru. I was pretty
blown away by that because I hadn'theard anything, you know, good,
bad, or indifferent. I hadn'theard anything about that, but yeah,
Lima, Lima impressed me. Okay, awesome. What about best vacation destination?
(36:52):
Mm, Bali. I mean Ithink we're organizing the same group that
I mentioned earlier that we were onthe Malfy Coast trip with. We're organizing
a Bali trip is amazing, youknow, anywhere Thailand, Bali, Philippines,
some of these like very tropical whitesand beaches, turquoise water, palm
(37:15):
trees. You know, that's yourstyle of vacation. I think Southeast Asia
is hard to beat. Yeah's Iwas thinking Europe as well. That was
the other thing that came to mind, Like Croatia, Italy and where you
talked about Italy those places as well. Yeah, I thought these places for
different reasons, Like a lot ofa lot of Europe has like pebble beaches
(37:36):
and you know, like even Ispent my birthday trip doing like a Croatia
island hopping thing and a lot oftimes the water was quite cold. So
I love Europe and you know,I spend a lot of time there,
but for different reasons. It's theyhave some nice beaches, but I think
the beaches in Southeast Asia are hardto beat. Okay, cool, that's
awesome, all right, Well,I think that that concludes the any other
(37:59):
ones the top of your head,Off the top of my head, what
about the worst airline or sketchiest flightexperience? Oh, YETI Airways and and
Nepal. Yeah, I didn't evenhave to think about that one. That
(38:23):
one's like seared in my mind.I remember we were standing in line to
get on that flight and we weregoogling, like YETI Airways or whatever,
and we noticed that it had beenlike previously blacklisted from flying. And we
asked our guides. We're like,we're like, whoa, this says like
YETI Airways is previously blacklisted. Hegoes, oh yeah, but it's okay.
(38:45):
They're back on the list now.It's not a problem. Some of
these places never even get on thelist to be blacklisted. Oh my god,
so sketchy. The whole thing wasso sketchy. The I remember the
flight attendant, they can have allof the drinks and like what you know,
those metal office like filing cabinets,like the four drawer filing cabinets.
(39:07):
Yeah, they had one of thoselike bungee cord into the walls, and
once the plane took off, theytook the bungee cord and like opened the
drawers or the metal filing cabinets andthey just came down the aisle with like
a two liter of coke under onearm and a two liter of sprite under
the other arms, the whole thing. We was one the only time I
(39:28):
think it might be the only timeI've applauded when the plane landed. Yeah,
just because we didn't know it wasa fifty to fifty crap shit.
They're frequent flyer is if you survivedten flights, you get an eleventh tree.
Oh my god, I don't knowhow I'd rolled the dice on that
place ten times. Yeah, thatsounds like, Oh put that in my
(39:51):
memory as a place or in mymind as an airline not to fly with.
I remember we took a plane fromme it was Anoy to Luang Prevang
in Lao in like twenty eleven,and there was like no safety announcements.
The tray in front of us didn'tgo up, It just like fell down.
And would stay down and it waslike a tiny little plan. I
(40:14):
remember thinking like, oh, thiswould be like a good plane you'd see
in like a documentary about twenty oneyear old backpackers dying. Remember one time,
I honestly, I remember one timein Vietnam when I was like kind
of a novice scuba diver and Iwas gonna go scuba diving and I got
all like kidded up and everything.I was by myself, there's no one
(40:36):
else, and they were saying like, uh, do you want to do
you want to die? Master togo down with you? And I was
like, yeah, that'd be great. It was gonna send me, send
me down with like a take fullof air and their best wishes like we'll
be here later, have fun.Yeah you want someone to go with you?
That's hilarious. Okay, that givesme one more question to add to
(40:59):
this list. Where's the place thatyou've scuba dived? Because I think you've
scuba dived in quite a few places. Uh yeah, that's another easy one.
That would be the Ko Kimoto NationalPark in Indonesia. And before that
or we had done Sipadan diving,which is kind of regularly voted number one
best diving in the world, andit was amazing. It was you know,
(41:20):
I can see why it makes numberone, but we all were kind
of blown away by Kimoto National Park. Best diving I've personally ever did.
Amazing. That sounds awesome. Yeah, I remember when we were in Asia
last so twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, we were trying to see if we
could like squeeze in getting over toSipadan to do that, but it just
didn't end up working out. Butnow, yeah, Kimoto National Park sounds
(41:45):
really really amazing. I feel likejust in general, it sounds like a
really cool place to go. Andthen the scuba diving obviously being great is
a is a bonus. Sipadan Nationalor Sipadan is amazing because I stayed It's
the only time I've ever done this. It's a repurposed oil rig. It
used to be like an offshore oilrig and they turned it into a dive
(42:05):
platform. So I like slept fora week on this like abandoned oil rig
or something, and we went divingoff of it every day. That was
that was cooler than a lot ofthe dives we did, and tip it
in just for that experience, andI guess at one point, like pirates
had come on board the platform.So every night we had like the Malaysian
military like it comes. They enteredwith like big guns and they slept overnight
(42:30):
on there to make sure pirates didn'tcome on board. It was pretty crazy.
Oh wow, that's intense. That'squite the experience. Well, I
think that concludes our list. Didyou have any other questions? Yeah,
that's so good. Okay, speedaround. Yeah, well thanks for participating
with that, and then I wantto talk. I want to talk about
the new project that you're working on, but I think maybe before we get
(42:52):
there, I'm just quickly curious,like what it's like to, you know,
run a website slash blog into anbecause I feel like this industry's just
gone through maybe like a bit ofa roller coaster ride since you started.
Like I feel like there's been kindof the glory days of making lots of
money, and then obviously the pandemicwas challenging, and it seems like things
(43:13):
came back around and you know there'sups and downs based on quarters and all
these things. So anyways, I'mcurious, so you can tell us since
this is kind of your livelihood,Like what's it like to be the owner
and founder of a website these days, like a profitable website. You know,
it's definitely difficult in this moment.And when you say, like,
(43:34):
you know, glory days and thenpandemic, mine was actually my best ever
came after the pandemic. I thinkthere was a big surge of people that
were ready to start traveling as soonas they could. So my best numbers
came after the pandemic. And thenit's just so volatile right now with Google
constantly changing the algorithm. In thismoment, yeah, we're pretty down and
(43:58):
it's pretty frustrating, but you knowwe've been down before. I'm hoping that
things are going to read dound quickly. And that's why you mentioned a new
project earlier. That's why I startedthis new project that we can talk about.
But yeah, in this moment,it's pretty difficult. It's frustrating,
but you know, like I saidearlier, I is this or maybe go
(44:19):
work for someone else, which Idon't want to do. So we're just
figuring out how to make this work, how to pivot and work with what's
going on. Yeah, yeah,well, I'm sorry to hear that things
are down, but I feel like, as with everything, I feel like
it kind of cycles around. Sohopefully that's the case with kind of the
website industry as well. But yeah, tell us about what you're working on.
(44:39):
Tell us about this new project you'vegot going on. So we just
launched the website just went live.We could go for Gay Digital Nomads.
We're trying to form a community forgay LGBTQ plus remote workers around the world.
Nice, that's awesome. I wantto hear more about like what the
(45:00):
entails and you know, all thattype of thing. But maybe you can
just tell us quickly, like whatthe website is where people can go to
find them Gay Digital Nomads dot com. That's the website and the Instagram.
You can find us on both placesat Gay Digital Nomads. Amazing and kind
of what's the if somebody is like, you know, I guess like LGBTQ
(45:21):
plus and they are interested in becominga nomad or they are a nomad and
looking for more you know, similarlike minded people, Like what does the
or what is your kind of planwith the community to kind of support them
and what are you kind of buildingout for for the community. Yeah,
exactly, as you said, it'seither resources for people that are current LGBTQ
(45:44):
remote workers or digital nomads. Sowe're going to have things skity guides.
You know, it's broadly a lotof the considerations are the same for any
digital nomad, but I think especiallywith LGBTQ people, we have an additional
concern for things like safe that alot of other digital nomads and they may
not have to consider. So we'regoing to build out some city guides and
(46:05):
some resources. And for anyone that'sconsidering becoming a digital nomad, you know,
how to become a digital nomad,what kind of job you should be,
what kind of jobs you should belooking for, things you can do
to sustain yourself while traveling full time. And we're hoping very soon to start
running some retreats, some masterminds,maybe a conference at some point. I
(46:28):
think the first thing we're going totry and get off the ground will be
our retreats. Nice amazing. Anypotential locations that you have that are top
of mind for you, some ofthe cities you already mentioned, maybe I
think the two places right now whereI feel like I could deliver the most
value. Probably the three places wouldeither be Metato, Mexico, Buenos Aires,
(46:49):
Argentina, or Court of ire To, Mexico, just because I've spent
so much time in all three ofthese places that I feel like I could
really over deliver on an experience thatI sell people nice. That's amazing.
Well, you'll definitely have to keepus posted on when like all of that
info is live and when you've gotretreats. Will be happy to share around
(47:09):
with our community. But I thinkthat's really exciting. I think it's it's
great for people to like have thiscommunity. I think there's always like obviously
every single person has like sort ofa different demographic, different likes an interest,
and I feel like it's always niceto connect with people who are like
you know, you just know youhave something in common with them outside of
(47:30):
maybe like just being in the sameplace or wanting to travel or something like
that. So I think that's reallycool. Plus it is interesting especially being
I think in a heterosexual relationships somewhos you don't realize that there's a lot
of places around the world where it'sstill illegal, which I don't know how
you feel about like traveling to thoseplaces. But I know we've got a
(47:51):
couple of gay friends who are like, I don't want to go somewhere where
it's like illegal to be me Likethat just doesn't feel good. So definitely,
you know, good for people toknow what places are like safest for
them and where they're most welcomed andthat type of thing. Yeah, it's
interesting because you know when you hiton both things when you say illegal but
also the most welcome, because Ithink some of that I hadn't realized until
(48:13):
we started putting together our articles.You know, a lot of things we're
focusing on right now a typical digitalnomad concerned you know, affordability, Wi
Fi and things like this, butwe're also factoring in safety for lgbt P
LGPQ people and some places that Ilove. You know, Bali, Indonesia
(48:34):
is actually they have some pretty antidiscriminatory gay laws on their books, but
Bali is quite welcoming. Thailand,I think, is you know, one
of the most gay friendly places inthe world, and they actually don't have
gay marriage. You know, they'rethey're very accepting as a culture and as
a people, they're very welcoming.But you know, the laws on the
books aren't as gay friendly as Ithought they might be. Yeah, that's
(48:55):
interesting. I'm glad that you canprovide those resources to people because they feel
like there is like i know,maybe if somebody has never been to Thailand,
maybe they're planning, you know,a trip there, maybe they're turned
off by the fact or assume thatpeople are like, you know, not
going to be very welcoming because it'snot legal to be married there. But
you know, your experience has actuallybeen that they are a very welcoming people.
(49:17):
So it's a reminder that like peoplearen't always there, like governments and
regulations and vice versa. Yeah,for sure, that's amazing. Is there
anything else you want to share withus about that project? Anything else you
want listeners to know about that withwhere you're at with it right now,
Well, you know, like Isaid, the website went just went live.
(49:37):
We're publishing a lot of content rightnow. We have a big content
plan. So if this is somethingthat anyone's interested in, go jump on
the mailing list to stay informed.Awesome, very cool, And I'm assuming
that's just access on the website.Yeah, yeah, if you go to
Gaate Digital nomads dot com or onour Instagram, you can find the mailing
list on either one and that's whereas we roll out retreats, conferences or
(50:00):
masterminds or anything like this, we'llbe announcing all of those on the mailing
list. Very cool. We willmake sure there's links to all of that
in the show notes. And whereelse can people connect with you, Nathan?
Where can they find you? Followalong with your your travels, your
food experiences, all that good stuff. Foody flashpack I'm most active on Instagram
(50:21):
Foody Flashpacker on Instagram, and ofcourse, you know, like I said
earlier, the site is less ofa blog. Foody Flashpacker dot Com is
more of a travel resource. Butto follow along with my personal travels,
it'd be on Instagram as where I'mmost active, Yeah, for sure.
And I will say that if youguys, anyone out there listening needs like
food recommendations or restaurant recommendations for acity that you're going to, I feel
(50:43):
like my first usual action is tosee if you have a post on it,
because there's always great recommendations on there, So we'll make sure there's a
link for that as well. Yeah, thank you. The Buenos Attis one
should be coming out in the nextcouple of weeks, and that one's going
to be a great resource. Theseare my my favorites of the favorites of
the favorites. I had to whittleit down because there are so many places
(51:05):
I loved there, but I didn'tthink anyone wanted like my top seventy four
restaurants, So trying to whittle thisdown to, like, you know,
the best of the best of thebest amazing. Well, I know you
gave us pretty much all the placesthat we ate while we were there,
and everything was delicious, So I'msure that that'll be a great resource.
Yeah, and it should be theYeah, we're gonna we'll add a link
(51:30):
to it to the show notes forthis episode, because this episode is going
to come out probably in a monthor so. High yeah, yeah,
and then that posted to be liveby then as well. Perfect. Well,
Nathan think thanks so much for yourtime. It's been awesome catching up
now. Thanks for having me onwith this is time number three, right,
third time? Yeah, yeah,third times? Yeah, thanks for
(51:52):
having me back on. Of course, thanks for listening to this episode.
If you want more, make sureto check out The World Wanders Insider,
available on Patreon at Patreon dot com. Slash the World Wanderers. For show
notes, head over to the worldwandersdot com. Find us on social media
(52:13):
at the World Wonders Podcast, enjointhe private Facebook community at World Wandersacommunity.
For travelers, you can always getin touch with us at info at theworldwanders
dot com. And if you enjoythe show, don't forget to subscribe and
leave a review. It really helpsus find new listeners. See you next time.
Hello, and welcome to the WorldWanderers Podcast, a proud part of the
Wanderbarn podcast network. I'm Ryan,I'm Amanda, and we're your hosts.
We're a traveling couple and digital nomad'staking you on our adventures as we explore
locations, destinations, and careers.Enjoy the show. What's up everybody,
(00:22):
and welcome back to the show.Today, we're excited to bring you an
interview with longtime friend and friend ofthe podcast recurring guests, Nathan Aguilera from
Foodie Flashbacker. Yeah, and Nathanhas been traveling the world full time for
ten years, which is one ofthe reasons we were really excited to catch
up with him. We are hittinghis ten year travel anniversary, so really
(00:44):
fun to chat about that. Andduring the past ten years, he's visited
nearly seventy countries across five continents,all while running a successful online business which
Ryan mentioned called foodi Flashbacker. Andhe currently spends most of his time between
Argentina and Mexico during the winters andtravels around Europe in the summers, So
at the time of recording, atthis point of time, Nathan is fully
(01:06):
nomadic. We were able to catchup with him in Brazil before he jet
set it off to South Africa,where he currently is, and I think
he's coming back to North America orSouth America at some point soon. And
we were really excited to chat withNathan about what the last ten years has
looked like, what it's been liketo build an online business. And he's
also just started a new project calledGay Digital Nomads, which is a community
(01:32):
for LGBTQ plus nomads and remote workers. So we're really excited to hear more
about that and you can learn moreabout how you can check that out and
follow along and all that good stuff. So this episode of the podcast is
jam packed with goodness. It's reallycool to hear from somebody who's just been
traveling for so long while making moneyall over the world. So hopefully you
(01:53):
guys enjoy. Nathan, Welcome tothe podcast today. We're really excited to
have you here with us. Thankyou so much for having me back on.
Yeah. Absolutely, And where inthe world are you joining us from?
I am currently my last day inFlorida, Napolis, Brazil. Amazing.
That's a that's a place that wewent back in on our big backpacking
(02:15):
trip in twenty fourteen that we've wantedto go back ever since. I'm curious,
what do you think about it?And for me, it's like not
love, Like I don't think I'llbe rushing back here anytime soon. Yeah,
it must be the same for us, because it's been ten years and
we haven't gotten back. We didn'tfind enjoy it when the first week I
(02:38):
was here, we had we camefor a beach vacation, and then the
weather was terrible. It was rainingevery day. So now it's sunny,
it's nice out, it's beach weather, so that that's made a big difference.
But yeah, it's fine. Iremember we were kind of like grinding
it out on like shitty buses forlike a month in Brazil, and we
got to Floridapolis and we're like,we're in heaven. Just awesome place on
(03:00):
Earth. I think it's just likea lot more chill than other places in
Brazil. It feels like a littlebit safer. And I remember we kept
going to those like what was itlike pay by kilo food places. This
is like you got to remember tenyears ago, we were like major backpackers
and so we just like like stackso much food in like our little boxes
(03:23):
for Akilo and it was so cheapto eat. Those places were still popular.
I was hanging out with my Brazilianfriend in Sal Paulo, and that's
where he wanted to go for lunch. Oh nice, that's awesome. Well,
I was just looking to see whenwe caught up with you in the
podcast last and it was almost exactlytwo years ago. It was like end
of January twenty twenty two. Wemust have talked to you a little earlier
(03:46):
than that because I would have beenextremely pregnant with baby Loo. But you
were on like month ninety one ofyour six month trip, and so I'm
curious, two years later, whatwhere are you at with this trip,
because you're still going strong. Thisis month one twenty This is my ten
year anniversary February twenty fourteen. Ileft the States setting off on this six
(04:08):
month journey. I'm on that's incredible, and so maybe you can just give
us I know you go so manyplaces, but just a high level overview
of maybe like what the last twoyears of look like. I think we
know, but maybe catch listeners upon like what you've been up to specifically
over the last two years, andthen maybe we can go more into like
the whole ten year thing. Well, the last couple of years, I
(04:28):
mean, I've been spending I've sloweddown a lot. I mean, as
you guys know, I've slowed down. I used to bounce around city,
you know, cities quite quickly,but now I'm doing one two three month
stage. The past couple of years. I'm still going to Europe every summer,
and largely the last couple of yearsin Mexico and Argentina when I'm not
in Europe. Mm hmm. Yeah. It seems like you've This was your
(04:48):
second winter in Argentina, right,second winter in Argentina, and I already
booked my same apartment that I justleft to come back to in December of
this at the end of this year, so it'll be three consecutive winters.
Nice. That's awesome. That's amazingto hear. And so any plans of
like slowing down or what is whatdoes it look like for you being like
(05:11):
ten years on the road. Ikeep saying I'm going to slow down,
and then I keep making other plans. Yeah, I mean I think definitely
I'm kind of slow. I'm slowingdown a bit. I've been talking more
and more about doing maybe four threemonths around the world stays like maybe some
Mexico from Argentina, some Europe fromAsia. Like blocking out into four three
(05:32):
month segments is kind of what I'maiming towards at the moment. That sounds
pretty cool. I feel like,I like that Mexico's in there because that's
where we are at the moment.So I like that, you guys,
And you also know my moms retiredin Mexico, so you know, of
course I want to get some momtyme then every year. Yeah, it's
like my Amanda and Ryan and thenmom next of course, and my mom
(05:55):
might even be living in you guys, in the same city, so that
would be very convenient. That wouldbe super con for you. Then we
know, we'll like for sure seeyou at least for as long as you're
here. Yeah. And so Nathan, do you what's you kind of feel
like coming up kind of realizing like, hey, ten years ago, I
set out on this big adventure.You've you know, really like lived and
been all over the world. Whatare kind of the vibes as you you
(06:18):
approach ten years? Wow, Imean, in some ways it feels like
it's not been ten years. Itfeels like it's gone by pretty quickly,
and I've been so many places andI've seen so many things, but there's
so many places that I still wantto go in, so many places that
I haven't been. And you know, then in other ways, I'm like,
this is like almost a quarter ofmy life that I've been at this,
(06:40):
and that feels pretty crazy. It'sa complete decade that I've been,
you know, on the road,moving, living full time, on the
go, so it's pretty you know, I don't know. I just feel
like time is kind of a weirdthing. Part of it's flown by,
but then in another measure, it'slike a quarter of my life I've been
doing this. Yeah, that's crazyabout I feel like we were having this
(07:01):
like because I was mentioning that backpackingtrip we took in South America, and
that was like we were on thatten years ago, and I feel like
that's been really surreal, I think, at least for me to think about,
like how much has happened in thattime. So I'm curious for you
if you look back on like yourselfin you know, February of twenty fourteen,
(07:25):
like would have been some of themajor I guess like life changes,
life shifts that have kind of happenedthrough this, through this period and through
your travels. Well. I meanwhen I left, I was I was
supposed to be on a six monthtrip and I was going to sort out
whether I wanted to go to lawschool or not. So this whole thing
was like a little bit of afigure out yourself, figure out your life.
(07:47):
So I never made it to lawschool. I figured out. One
of the big things is I figuredout I don't want to be an attorney.
I think now I really prioritize.I don't know that I can ever
go work for anyone else again.Found out that I need to be working
for myself. I need to bedoing my own thing, for better or
for worse. You know where therehave been lots of ups and downs running
my own business. Running your ownbusiness on the road is super challenging.
(08:11):
But I have figured out. Youknow, one of the big things is
I think. I think I'm moreI think I don't know how to phrase
it. I not that I amI don't know what the word is.
More entrepreneurial than I thought. Iam more ambitious than I thought I might
be. I felt my before mymy life path was always going to be,
(08:33):
you know, working for someone else, working in an office, punching
a time clock, getting two weeksof vacation per year, And I've definitely
sorted out that that's not my lifepath. Yeah, that's a really cool
realization to have, especially, likeI guess, not too like quote unquote
like laid in life. Like it'snot like you were nearing retirement and then
you're like, oh, I actuallydon't want to do this anymore. It's
(08:54):
like you were able to figure thatout. I guess in your early thirties.
Yeah, early thirties. It's definitelynot the career path I thought I
was going to be on. ButI don't know that I could ever go
work for someone else ever again.I think I would be a terrible employee.
At this point, You're like,I actually take two and a half
(09:16):
hour lunches and I fly on Fridays, so and I need all summer off
to go be homeless in Europe.Yeah, maybe not the best for working
for somebody else, But I thinkthat's really cool that you've been able to
like go out I'm assuming, well, maybe you can tell us in twenty
fourteen, did you just have likesix months of savings that you were kind
(09:39):
of like planning to use on thistrip, or like what did that look
like for you at that point.I actually didn't work the first two years.
So I've been working on the roadfor eight years. The first two
years I had this savings and investments, and I was able to make it
work. You know, I soldeverything in my house, I sold my
car. At one point, Iwas working you know, three or four
jobs in Oklahoma City saving up moneyfor this. So I had a pretty
(10:03):
decent little mess egg when I left, and I was able to make that
stretch for two years, and thenI was running out of money and also
one a big thing. You know, after two years on the road,
I was feeling like I was travelingwith no purpose. And it can be
fun, you know, it canbe fun, but you know, you
need you need something to do onthe road. It can't be like a
vacation every day for you know,ten years or something like this. I
(10:26):
needed a goal, I needed apurpose, I needed something to do.
So that's why I started the website. Yeah, and on one of our
previous episode, we talked through quitea bit about the website. But how
has it kind of evolved from whenyou started to what you're focused on now.
Well, when I started out waslike a one man team. It
was just me trying to do everything. And I think one of the things
(10:48):
in this business that it's very frustratingfor me that, you know, you
have to be good at so manythings social media, writing, editing,
marketing, sales funnels, you know, all these things. You need to
be good at all of these things, or you need to outsource, and
you need to work with people whoare better at these things than you are.
So, you know, I don'tknow when we talked last if I
(11:09):
had a team or how big myteam was, but since then, you
know, it's grown. We haveprobably about five people working on the site
full time in this moment, anda lot of freelance people in one off
and freelance writers and things like this, So the business has grown. You
know, it's not just me tryingto do everything anymore, which I'm quite
(11:31):
appreciative of and grateful for, becauseit was impossible. It was too much
for one person to take on.Yeah, I think especially like to grow
as well, because I think,and tell me if I'm wrong. But
when you started, you were reallyfocusing on like creating kind of like listicles
about places to like eat and restaurantsand that type of thing with places you
were going pretty specifically, right,Yeah, it was just me going to
(11:54):
a city and then writing about,you know, my top ten favorite restaurants
and changed my island or something.So it was pretty limited about how much
content I could create by myself becauseit was just me writing about my own
travels. But now we're hiring freelancewriters. We have a bunch of American
writers, we have some international writers, so you know, it's not I
(12:15):
guess that would be another big changes. I don't even really consider the site
a blog anymore. I think theblog is kind of one person's narrative to
one person's firsthand travel stories. It'sreally grown into more of a travel resource.
I don't even do hardly any ofthe writing on the site anymore,
so you won't find much from myperspective on the site. M hmm,
(12:35):
yeah, you're like fully CEO nowI try. Yeah, I'm actually think
I'm going to write just because I'mso obsessed with Buenesettas. I think I'm
going to write my Buene Setter's article. It's going to be kind of like
my love letter to the city that'slice. I like that awesome. Well,
you definitely need to talk about BuenoSida's food and steaks at some point
(12:56):
in this conversation. But I'm kindof curious for you now, kind of
today, when you're going somewhere new. So fruity flash Packers an awesome resource
for people going on their travels findingrestaurants to eat at. For you,
personally, when you're going somewhere new, how do you kind of like plan
out the places you want to eat, the experiences you want to have,
all that type of stuff. Well, places I want to eat a lot
(13:20):
of it. I'll just ask friendsthat have been there, or you know,
I'll start googling, looking for blognames that I recognize, that I
know and trust. I'll start goingoff with their recommendations. A lot of
time it's just going over Google Maps. Is kind of like, you know,
I'll find where my Airbnb is goingto be in that city, and
I'll get on Google Maps and juststart searching restaurants around there, things to
(13:41):
do, same thing, you know, what people have recommended to me.
Now, usually before I go somewhereon social media I'll say, you know,
I have a trip to Bueno Setta'scoming up. You know, just
look Buena SETAs if anyone has anyrestaurant recommendations or things to see and do.
And you know, I'm pretty fortunate. People usually jump and give me
a lot of great suggestions and I'mable to use as kind of like base
(14:05):
level planning. M M. Yeah, no, that's awesome. I feel
like too. We were just inWe're just starting to release our Argentina content
now, but we were just inBarloche together. So by the time this
episode's out, people will have heardthat. And spoiler alert, we had
terrible weather while we were there,and I was so grateful that you had
a list of restaurants, because Ithink if we hadn't had like some good
(14:28):
food to look forward to, ourtrip could have been a little bit of
a bummer. I don't even thinkwe needed that whole list. We just
kind of ended up going to thesame place quite a few times. We
had our regulars. Yeah, Imean, Barrelocha is very different from a
city than like than like Buenos Airesor Mexico City or something where when you
(14:50):
eat the same thing over and over, you're really missing out on other places.
I feel like Baroloche is like small. I feel like we hit a
good number of restaurants there on somegood places. Yeah, for sure,
you'll have to put together a blogpost on that maybe too, Cheryl Sheryl
the Good. Yeah, if ithasn't been published already, it's in production.
(15:11):
Nice, that's awesome. Awesome.Well, I think we should talk
a little bit about Argentina because Iknow we really enjoyed our time there.
We've got some content coming out aroundIt was last year, not so not
this previous like a couple months agolast year, but the year before that,
was that the first time you'd everbeen our sign? Yeah, the
first time I had gone to Argentinawas for Christmas of last year, and
(15:31):
so at that point you probably wouldhave gone to like sixty seventy plus countries
all over the world. What we'rekind of like, I guess, why
hadn't you got to Argentina before?And what we were kind of first impressions
when you did get there. Well, I mean it is very far and
flights were expensive. It's kind ofas far to get to and very rarely
do you see great you know,prices on flights to get there, but
(15:56):
I'd heard a lot of great thingsabout it for years. Everyone had said,
you know, it's very like,very European part of Latin America,
And when I went, yeah,I just thought it. You know,
it's gorgeous. I've heard a lotabout it. Safety. I don't ever
really feel unsafe in the city.It has Mexico City vibes to me,
or Mexico City has Bleen Seta's vibes. I don't know which one. But
(16:18):
the city's interesting, it's exciting,it's big, there's always something to do,
and from a food and wine perspective, you could never finish your you
know, list of places like recommendationsand suggestions. I've spent probably five months
collectively in Buen and Cettas now andI still have a massive list of places.
I haven't visioned it yet. Yeah, No, that's amazing. I
(16:41):
feel like, Look, we hadn'tbeen there for I guess, like nine
ish years by the time we went, and I was like, man,
this city is just I forgot howgreat it was because it had been so
long since we had been there.And I think also when we were there,
it was just like a very likeI guess unique time in Argentina's history
(17:02):
to be there because of the likeinflation with the dollar and just being able
to like, I don't like superaffordable if you can live off USD.
I feel like it was just likea very interesting time to be there as
like a tourist. Yeah, I'vetold I mean, yeah, of course
the value for money is insane aswell, But I've told people it's not
that it's the cheapest destination in theworld. You know, you can go
(17:22):
to Thailand and you live on likedollar pad Thaie, or be in Mexico
and live on two dollars street tacos. But for me, what I love
about wedns Eres is that you're ableto have very high end experiences for much
more affordable than you would in alot of other places around the world.
And you know the example I keepgiving people, we did an eight course
tasting menu with wine pairings and itwas fifty American dollars. Wow, that's
(17:45):
insane. So yeah, I thinkthat's when you know, yes, it's
affordable. Sadly for Argentinian people it'sbecause they're having like record inflation things like
this, but you know, youcan go more affordable places. It's not
that it's the cheapest country in theworld, but I think it's for me,
it's one of the better value countriesin the world. Yeah, absolutely,
(18:07):
Yeah, for sure. That's kindof what we were talking about as
we were doing our Argentina content.And it's it's it's such a it's like,
I guess, a complicated situation,feeling wise, because obviously, going
somewhere where your money goes further,as you know, American like you are,
a Canadian like us, is great. But then you also think,
like, how does this affect thelocal people, and you know, obviously,
(18:30):
yeah, the insane inflation is notsuper ideal for the local people,
but it seems like things have shifteda little bit. I guess you were
just there so you'd know a littlebit more than us, since you were
there quite a bit longer than us. But it seems like maybe the inflation's
shifting a tiny little bit heading intothis year. Yeah, And it's also
interesting when you ask, you know, what had taken me so long to
(18:51):
get down there, because when youhear about you know, record inflation,
and you know people how bad peoplehave it, you know, you think
it's going to be like Venezuela orsomething and you get down there and yeah,
you know, it's not great forthe people, and a lot of
people are in very bad situations orwhatever, but it's it's not some you
know, war zone or something likethey would have you believe. It's a
(19:11):
it's a gorgeous city and the peoplethere are in a not great situation,
but they seem to be really tryingto, you know, make the best
of it and work with what they'vegot. Yeah, we were talking about
this because I think, like youmentioned, you know, Buenos Aida says
like really like Mexico City vibes orvice versa, however you want to say
that. But I actually think MexicoCity has like I think we saw like
(19:34):
less you know, people living onthe street. I think there was like
less like garbage. I feel likeBuenosidas felt like kind of a cleaner,
almost like nicer version of Mexico Cityin some ways. And I say this
with like absolute love in my heartfrom Mexico City, because everyone listening should
know that I adore Mexico City,So no hate on that city. But
I think it's really interesting, likeyou said, when you hear like,
(19:56):
you know, one hundred and eightypercent inflation and an economic crisis, you
do think that things are going tobe like pretty bad when you're there,
And I think we never really likeexperienced that kind of from a tourist side
anywhere that we were in Argentina duringthis trip, which was really interesting.
I mean I honestly had a littlebit of like I was a bit like
(20:18):
is this a safe place to travelwith our toddler, because I feel like
that's something I'm very conscious about withlou now, is like we're not just
going to go somewhere because we wantto go somewhere, We need to think
about her as well. And Inever felt unsafe with her at all.
So it is like a very interestingthing and hopefully something people just keep in
mind if they're like reading you know, the news highlights that say those those
kind of scary words like economic crisisand stuff like that. Because yeah,
(20:44):
we had a fantastic time. YeahI heard a lot about you know,
I've not heard a lot about violentcrime there. The most I heard is,
you know, pick pocketing and snatchand grab her phones and things like
that. But I'm getting ready togo next week to South Africa, and
I've been warned so many times aboutCape Town, and I'm really hoping that
I get there and find kind ofa similar experience to like we didn't play
(21:04):
a centis where it's not as badas people would have you believe, because
people have kind of got me alittle nervous about Cape Town. Yeah,
I'm really curious, and I youknow, obviously hope that your experience is
positive, but I'm really curious tohear what you think and how you like
it and stuff. Is It's acity that's certainly on my list, But
again because of the things that peoplesay, I'm like, don't know if
(21:25):
that's the best place to go witha you know, a toddler right now.
So you'll have to let us knowbecause it gets on our radar,
but not somewhere we've actually planned togo. Well, I have a stopover
in sal Paulo on the way toCape Town, and sal Paoulo definitely to
me is I felt, you know, I felt it more than I do
in a lot of cities. ThatSal Paulo can be a little bit sketchy
(21:47):
in some areas. And I don'tknow if you saw a friend of mine,
she got robbed twice in twenty fourhours when we were there a couple
of weeks ago. Yeah, yeah, I saw that, and I was
like, it's it's crazy because whenwe were in Brazil, like yeah,
like ten years ago, it waseveryone said take your jewelry off, and
you know, people will like ripnecklaces off, and people will snatch phones
(22:07):
out of your hands. And wenever had any issues at all. I
mean, I guess we were prettycautious, but not terribly cautious. I
don't think, like we were stillgoing out in the evenings and we were
there for carnival, so we werepartying and stuff. We didn't have any
issues. And yeah, I sawthat through yeah, same friends, and
I was like, oh man,that's just like so scary. It just
gives you such bad vibes and that'slike the start of your trip somewhere.
(22:32):
It's a big reason we came downto Florinopolis as well. You know,
even though I said, like Ilike Florinopolis, I'm not in love with
it, it does feel very safedown here. Yeah, like a beach
town. Yeah, everyone is justkind of running around in flip flops and
bathing suits, super chill. Soyou know, it was a big reason
we had two weeks that we neededto work with down here, we decided
to leave South Paula and go somewherethat felt a bit safer. Yeah,
(22:55):
no, that definitely makes sense.Although, did you eat like your bodyweight
and sushi while you were in Sapollo? I didn't. I did my best.
Yeah, I think we did apretty big We made a big dent
in their sushi supply for sure,and we have two nights there on the
way back out. Nice, soyou've got more opportunities for more sushi.
I'm jealous they do. They dohave good Asian food there. I'll do
(23:15):
them that and surprisingly good. Wefound a really great Brazilian wahawk infusion restaurant.
WHOA, that's cool. What isBrazilian wahawk infusion? Like? What
does that entail? What were wehaving? We were having some kind of
wall hawk and dishes that they hadused some Brazilian spices on. And I
(23:37):
didn't really see a lot of Braziliancooking techniques, but they Wow, I
have to remember exactly what dishes wehave, but I think it was mostly
to do with like spices and things. They'd used Brazilian spices and what have
you thought? Overall of Salpolo floran uplist. Just being in Brazil and
especially like compared to Argentina. Whathave you thought of it from a travel
perspective. It's so for me becauseI'm so obsessed with Argentina right now.
(24:03):
You know, I want to givethis place, you know, a fair
chance, and I don't. Wewere talking about it offline. We haven't
talked about it here. We hadI'm not even supposed to be in Brazil
right now, We're supposed to bein South Africa. So we had a
bit of a travel flub, abig mess up, and I think I
just came in here kind of witha bad attitude. But Brazil was fun.
I mean, of all the placesI've been in Brazil, Florianopolis and
(24:26):
Iguazoo are my two favorites. Rioand South Paulo. I both felt like
you needed to have your guard upat all time. And for me,
it's a bit difficult to enjoy myselfwhen I'm in places where I'm constantly being
warned about how much danger I'm in. So if I were going to come
back to Brazil, it would probablybe Florianopolis. I like it down here.
(24:48):
The beaches are really nice. There'ssome good seafood, really chill vibe.
It's really fun on the weekend whenwe went out for the weekends,
tons of locals, you know,outside playing volleyball, eating, eating seafood
on the beach. It's a goodvibe. I probably would steer clear of
South Paula in the future carnival.I would go to. My Brazilian friends
(25:11):
tell me it's more interesting outside ofRio and less dangerous outside of Rio.
But I don't want to scare anyoneelse on Brazil and I don't want to.
I don't want to seem like I'mtalking bad about it. Like everyone,
it is cool, it's fun.Everyone should come, especially with Floridnopolis
and Iguazoo is one of the moststunning places I've seen in all my travels.
Yeah, yeah, iguasu still islike probably the most spectacular waterfall I've
(25:33):
ever waterfalls I've ever seen in mylife. It's just, yeah, just
incredible. I would certainly go backthere again. And the Brazilian side was
nicer than the Argentinian side, sothey've got that. Yeah, they got
the better views. Yeah, sowe put together a little like we don't
have to do it as like aspeed round or anything. But we put
(25:53):
together a little bit of a listof things to ask you about, a
sort of highlights over the ten years. If you're up for it, of
course. Okay, So the firstone is I think this one's just like
impossible, but you can blame Ryanfor that best meal you've had in the
last ten years. Go the bestone singular meal? She was one meal
(26:19):
in the last ten years. Well, I think that I was in Florence
one time and I had this wildboor ragoo, and so anytime asked me,
anyone asked me about my best meal, that's usually the one that comes
to mind. It's like wild boarragoo and the sauce was cooked almost more
(26:41):
like a gravy. And I rememberwhen they brought me this big plate of
pasta, and they brought me youknow, those kind of flat, skinny
Italian breadsticks that go with it,and I was like, oh, I
don't need pasta and bread six.I was like, that's like, you
know, that's a lot. Andthen by the end I was like scraping
the sauce off the plate with thosebreadsticks. So I think if I had
to think of one out of youknow, having had a lot of really
(27:03):
great meals. It's wild boar ragouin Florence. Okay, nice, I'm
impressed that you were able to pickthat that quickly. Honestly, what about
what about worst meal? Does onecome to mind? Oh? Worst meal?
I think when people know that youwrite about food, sometimes they think
you want to do like Fear Factoredition, where you want to eat like
(27:25):
crazy bugs and stuff, And that'snever been my I don't. I don't
want to eat cockroaches. I'll tellyou the one thing I've ever refused to
eat. And I felt very Youknow, you want to go somewhere and
you don't want to be culturally intensive, and you don't want to come off
as like, you know, abad Western person. Where but that bollute
and Philippines? Have you had news? No, we both refuse to eat
(27:49):
it. We both politely declined.Yeah, I politely declined as well.
Was hanging out with some locals andthey were offering to buy it for as
we were hanging out on the beach, and I was like, no,
no, no, no, no, thank you very much, But you
know that's something I don't want totry. I've heard it's actually delicious.
Our mutual friend Grace and I'm travelingwith. He really likes it, but
(28:11):
it's just something I didn't care totry. Yeah, no, that's fair.
Okay, what about and maybe thisis more relevant to the places you've
stayed longer term, kind of morelike you know, living in But where
do you feel like is like you'vehad the best quality of life? Oh,
Mexico City, I think has tobe way high up there. Mexico
(28:32):
City is kind of the bar thatI'm comparing a lot of other cities to
early days of my website when Iwas kind of bootstrapping it and trying to
start start out. I think changedmy Thailand was a perfect place to bootstrap
a new business. Most recently,I don't know what their winters are like.
I've never been there for the winter. But I do love Buenda Status
(28:56):
right now. It's a favorite ofmine and I could. I think I
could live in Madrid. I loveI love the life in Madrid. Yeah,
those are some some great, greatchoices. Yeah, all right,
Spain overall, just anywhere in Spain, Melia, most places in Spain.
(29:22):
I loved everywhere in Spain. Malliga'snice to visit. I don't think I
could live there shut out too,Tim. Yeah, next one. So
imagine you're gonna get you remember,like men in Black, they had those
scanners and they just like flash peopledelete your memories. So you're gonna get
memory washed for the past ten years, but you get to keep one travel
(29:44):
experience as a memory. Which memorywould you keep? Oh wow, I
mean clearly my trip with you guysso far. Yeah, I couldn't get
he said it. I would sayvery recently. We just did my you
guys know Brock, my best friend. We did his fortieth birthday trip.
(30:07):
We did the multi coast at Italy, and I just don't know how that
trip could have gone any better.And it was a group trip, which
I don't always love. There's toomany moving parts, and you know,
inevitably there's going to be someone that'syou know, a Karen or difficult to
please. We had none of thaton this trip. Like, the trip
was amazing from start to finish.It was so much fun. That part
(30:29):
of Italy. A lot of peoplekind of dump on it because it is
so touristic, and I mean itis very touristic, but I for a
reason, you know, it's stunning. We had amazing meals, we had
beautiful days, we had great wine. I think probably that would be one
nice. Yeah, that's an awesomeone. I was kind of wondering if
you might pick that one, atleast of recent ones. Okay, if
(30:52):
for the rest of your life somebodysaid you can only stay in one continent,
like, can't go to any othercontinent until the day that you die,
which one would you stay in?Wow, that's a hard question,
is if we say yeah? BecauseI mean, who's counting in the continent?
Is an American style where North andSouth are two different continents, or
(31:15):
are we counting the America's as onecontinent? Let's put them together for this,
I think to compete with Europe,let's consider the America as one thing.
Okay, I think I would probablyhave to in this moment, this
moment of my life. If you'dasked me a couple of years ago,
it would have been Asia. ButI think in this moment of my life,
(31:36):
it would be the America's because Buenasaidas in Mexico City, it has
Mexico and then of course still accessto the United States where my friends and
family are. Yeah, that makessense, that makes sense. I think
feel like North America would probably bemine. Yeah, Asia would be cool.
There's so much stuff in Asia,so many countries. You could even
(31:57):
do istanbul Yo, Thailand. Istill haven't been in Japan. I must
go, Like I was going tosay, a life without ever going to
Japan again, what would I doyou need to go? When you guys
asked me earlier, like you knowyou still thinking of still full sea ahead
or slowing down or whatever. Everytime I think about slowing down and like
(32:20):
signing a lease, it's like,oh, but you still haven't been to
Japan. Like I feel like Japanis hanging over me. Whence you go
to Japan, then you can signa lease and you can like get a
dog or something. Yeah. Yeah, But I mean when I mentioned him
earlier, I mutual fund Grace andhe says, you know, you're just
moving the goalpost because after Japan,it's going to be something else. You're
going to come up with another reasonto not want to settle down, because
(32:42):
I mean, there's always something elseto see, right, Like you'll discover
another country that other people talk aboutand that has a great food scene and
stuff. So I feel like Grayson'snot wrong. There's a bunch of them.
There's a bunch of places I stillwant to go, but I feel
like Japan is a huge nonumber one, and then behind it there's a you
know, distant number two's for otherplaces. South Korea I'm dying to get
(33:06):
to. Mm hmmmmm yeah. SouthChrea is awesome, awesome. How about
the sketchiest but still fun place,the most sketchy but still fun place.
Sketchest but still fun. Oh theChun King Mansions in Hong Kong. Have
(33:31):
you guys been partaken from the outsidenot the inside? Okay? Yeah,
the murder capital of Hong Kong whereI stayed not once but twice. Yeah,
okay, So I think vang Vianin Loao comes to mind for me.
Oh yeah, yeah, that wasanother one. That was That was
(33:52):
another one I thought of. Yeah, yeah, we went like back in
the like two Bean days too.Were you there when they were doing the
two being still? I was therewhen they were still trying to make the
tubing happen after everyone had knew nowthat tubing was no longer happening. Okay,
yeah, yeah, they had kindof a watered down version of it
(34:13):
for the people that showed up stillhoping it might be a thing. Okay,
well we went when it was likefully fully slide bacterial infections. I
feel like I'm really glad we wentin our early twenties, and I feel
like if I went, probably atany other chapter of life, I just
would have been disgusted. Yeah.We just floated down the river and they
(34:34):
kind of like threw us beers ontoour floating. It wasn't anything that wild.
Okay, all right, next questionis easiest place to connect with locals?
Wow? Easiest place to connect withlocals? I really like. I
mean, and you know, I'mfully aware that it has a lot to
do with them everyone speaking English,but that I find Filipino people so nice.
(35:01):
Have you guys been to the Philippine? Yeah, I know you guys
have been. We've been there.At the same time I thought Philippine,
I thought Philip Yeah, yeah,but that's the only time we've been,
though, so I feel like weneed to go and explore a little bit
more. They were super nice,they were fun. I remember I didn't
love Manila the first time I wasthere. It was just this crazy big
city. And then the second timeI was there, a bunch of local
(35:22):
people took me out to like aroast pig and craft beer festival, and
everyone was good. Everyone was afun time. But other than that,
you know, I'm partial to Mexicobeing half Mexican myself, I think right
now, I kind of just reallyconnect with Latino culture, and I find
myself more and more spending time aroundlike Latino culture. Yeah, for sure,
(35:45):
Mexico definitely comes to mind for meas well. I feel like every
year we've been here, it's likesomebody invites us to like their family's host
for Christmas. Like it's just Idon't know, people here are so welcoming.
I agree. Yeah, I'm partialof all. Right. Next question,
Yeah, next question is best datingscene? Well, I mean,
(36:06):
there's a reason I love Buenos Aiasso much right now. Buenos Aias is
a super fun city. Mexico Cityis a super fun Madrid. Kind of
all all other places I earlier namedas a place, I'll tell you the
one that surprised me, the onethat I was incredibly fun for dating that
I had not heard anything about beforeI got there, was Lima, Peru.
(36:30):
Oh okay, yeah I didn't.I know nothing about their dating scenes,
So that's cool to hear, Yeah, Lima Peru. I was pretty
blown away by that because I hadn'theard anything, you know, good,
bad, or indifferent. I hadn'theard anything about that, but yeah,
Lima, Lima impressed me. Okay, awesome. What about best vacation destination?
(36:52):
Mm, Bali. I mean Ithink we're organizing the same group that
I mentioned earlier that we were onthe Malfy Coast trip with. We're organizing
a Bali trip is amazing, youknow, anywhere Thailand, Bali, Philippines,
some of these like very tropical whitesand beaches, turquoise water, palm
(37:15):
trees. You know, that's yourstyle of vacation. I think Southeast Asia
is hard to beat. Yeah's Iwas thinking Europe as well. That was
the other thing that came to mind, Like Croatia, Italy and where you
talked about Italy those places as well. Yeah, I thought these places for
different reasons, Like a lot ofa lot of Europe has like pebble beaches
(37:36):
and you know, like even Ispent my birthday trip doing like a Croatia
island hopping thing and a lot oftimes the water was quite cold. So
I love Europe and you know,I spend a lot of time there,
but for different reasons. It's theyhave some nice beaches, but I think
the beaches in Southeast Asia are hardto beat. Okay, cool, that's
awesome, all right, Well,I think that that concludes the any other
(37:59):
ones the top of your head,Off the top of my head, what
about the worst airline or sketchiest flightexperience? Oh, YETI Airways and and
Nepal. Yeah, I didn't evenhave to think about that one. That
(38:23):
one's like seared in my mind.I remember we were standing in line to
get on that flight and we weregoogling, like YETI Airways or whatever,
and we noticed that it had beenlike previously blacklisted from flying. And we
asked our guides. We're like,we're like, whoa, this says like
YETI Airways is previously blacklisted. Hegoes, oh yeah, but it's okay.
(38:45):
They're back on the list now.It's not a problem. Some of
these places never even get on thelist to be blacklisted. Oh my god,
so sketchy. The whole thing wasso sketchy. The I remember the
flight attendant, they can have allof the drinks and like what you know,
those metal office like filing cabinets,like the four drawer filing cabinets.
(39:07):
Yeah, they had one of thoselike bungee cord into the walls, and
once the plane took off, theytook the bungee cord and like opened the
drawers or the metal filing cabinets andthey just came down the aisle with like
a two liter of coke under onearm and a two liter of sprite under
the other arms, the whole thing. We was one the only time I
(39:28):
think it might be the only timeI've applauded when the plane landed. Yeah,
just because we didn't know it wasa fifty to fifty crap shit.
They're frequent flyer is if you survivedten flights, you get an eleventh tree.
Oh my god, I don't knowhow I'd rolled the dice on that
place ten times. Yeah, thatsounds like, Oh put that in my
(39:51):
memory as a place or in mymind as an airline not to fly with.
I remember we took a plane fromme it was Anoy to Luang Prevang
in Lao in like twenty eleven,and there was like no safety announcements.
The tray in front of us didn'tgo up, It just like fell down.
And would stay down and it waslike a tiny little plan. I
(40:14):
remember thinking like, oh, thiswould be like a good plane you'd see
in like a documentary about twenty oneyear old backpackers dying. Remember one time,
I honestly, I remember one timein Vietnam when I was like kind
of a novice scuba diver and Iwas gonna go scuba diving and I got
all like kidded up and everything.I was by myself, there's no one
(40:36):
else, and they were saying like, uh, do you want to do
you want to die? Master togo down with you? And I was
like, yeah, that'd be great. It was gonna send me, send
me down with like a take fullof air and their best wishes like we'll
be here later, have fun.Yeah you want someone to go with you?
That's hilarious. Okay, that givesme one more question to add to
(40:59):
this list. Where's the place thatyou've scuba dived? Because I think you've
scuba dived in quite a few places. Uh yeah, that's another easy one.
That would be the Ko Kimoto NationalPark in Indonesia. And before that
or we had done Sipadan diving,which is kind of regularly voted number one
best diving in the world, andit was amazing. It was you know,
(41:20):
I can see why it makes numberone, but we all were kind
of blown away by Kimoto National Park. Best diving I've personally ever did.
Amazing. That sounds awesome. Yeah, I remember when we were in Asia
last so twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, we were trying to see if we
could like squeeze in getting over toSipadan to do that, but it just
didn't end up working out. Butnow, yeah, Kimoto National Park sounds
(41:45):
really really amazing. I feel likejust in general, it sounds like a
really cool place to go. Andthen the scuba diving obviously being great is
a is a bonus. Sipadan Nationalor Sipadan is amazing because I stayed It's
the only time I've ever done this. It's a repurposed oil rig. It
used to be like an offshore oilrig and they turned it into a dive
(42:05):
platform. So I like slept fora week on this like abandoned oil rig
or something, and we went divingoff of it every day. That was
that was cooler than a lot ofthe dives we did, and tip it
in just for that experience, andI guess at one point, like pirates
had come on board the platform.So every night we had like the Malaysian
military like it comes. They enteredwith like big guns and they slept overnight
(42:30):
on there to make sure pirates didn'tcome on board. It was pretty crazy.
Oh wow, that's intense. That'squite the experience. Well, I
think that concludes our list. Didyou have any other questions? Yeah,
that's so good. Okay, speedaround. Yeah, well thanks for participating
with that, and then I wantto talk. I want to talk about
the new project that you're working on, but I think maybe before we get
(42:52):
there, I'm just quickly curious,like what it's like to, you know,
run a website slash blog into anbecause I feel like this industry's just
gone through maybe like a bit ofa roller coaster ride since you started.
Like I feel like there's been kindof the glory days of making lots of
money, and then obviously the pandemicwas challenging, and it seems like things
(43:13):
came back around and you know there'sups and downs based on quarters and all
these things. So anyways, I'mcurious, so you can tell us since
this is kind of your livelihood,Like what's it like to be the owner
and founder of a website these days, like a profitable website. You know,
it's definitely difficult in this moment.And when you say, like,
(43:34):
you know, glory days and thenpandemic, mine was actually my best ever
came after the pandemic. I thinkthere was a big surge of people that
were ready to start traveling as soonas they could. So my best numbers
came after the pandemic. And thenit's just so volatile right now with Google
constantly changing the algorithm. In thismoment, yeah, we're pretty down and
(43:58):
it's pretty frustrating, but you knowwe've been down before. I'm hoping that
things are going to read dound quickly. And that's why you mentioned a new
project earlier. That's why I startedthis new project that we can talk about.
But yeah, in this moment,it's pretty difficult. It's frustrating,
but you know, like I saidearlier, I is this or maybe go
(44:19):
work for someone else, which Idon't want to do. So we're just
figuring out how to make this work, how to pivot and work with what's
going on. Yeah, yeah,well, I'm sorry to hear that things
are down, but I feel like, as with everything, I feel like
it kind of cycles around. Sohopefully that's the case with kind of the
website industry as well. But yeah, tell us about what you're working on.
(44:39):
Tell us about this new project you'vegot going on. So we just
launched the website just went live.We could go for Gay Digital Nomads.
We're trying to form a community forgay LGBTQ plus remote workers around the world.
Nice, that's awesome. I wantto hear more about like what the
(45:00):
entails and you know, all thattype of thing. But maybe you can
just tell us quickly, like whatthe website is where people can go to
find them Gay Digital Nomads dot com. That's the website and the Instagram.
You can find us on both placesat Gay Digital Nomads. Amazing and kind
of what's the if somebody is like, you know, I guess like LGBTQ
(45:21):
plus and they are interested in becominga nomad or they are a nomad and
looking for more you know, similarlike minded people, Like what does the
or what is your kind of planwith the community to kind of support them
and what are you kind of buildingout for for the community. Yeah,
exactly, as you said, it'seither resources for people that are current LGBTQ
(45:44):
remote workers or digital nomads. Sowe're going to have things skity guides.
You know, it's broadly a lotof the considerations are the same for any
digital nomad, but I think especiallywith LGBTQ people, we have an additional
concern for things like safe that alot of other digital nomads and they may
not have to consider. So we'regoing to build out some city guides and
(46:05):
some resources. And for anyone that'sconsidering becoming a digital nomad, you know,
how to become a digital nomad,what kind of job you should be,
what kind of jobs you should belooking for, things you can do
to sustain yourself while traveling full time. And we're hoping very soon to start
running some retreats, some masterminds,maybe a conference at some point. I
(46:28):
think the first thing we're going totry and get off the ground will be
our retreats. Nice amazing. Anypotential locations that you have that are top
of mind for you, some ofthe cities you already mentioned, maybe I
think the two places right now whereI feel like I could deliver the most
value. Probably the three places wouldeither be Metato, Mexico, Buenos Aires,
(46:49):
Argentina, or Court of ire To, Mexico, just because I've spent
so much time in all three ofthese places that I feel like I could
really over deliver on an experience thatI sell people nice. That's amazing.
Well, you'll definitely have to keepus posted on when like all of that
info is live and when you've gotretreats. Will be happy to share around
(47:09):
with our community. But I thinkthat's really exciting. I think it's it's
great for people to like have thiscommunity. I think there's always like obviously
every single person has like sort ofa different demographic, different likes an interest,
and I feel like it's always niceto connect with people who are like
you know, you just know youhave something in common with them outside of
(47:30):
maybe like just being in the sameplace or wanting to travel or something like
that. So I think that's reallycool. Plus it is interesting especially being
I think in a heterosexual relationships somewhos you don't realize that there's a lot
of places around the world where it'sstill illegal, which I don't know how
you feel about like traveling to thoseplaces. But I know we've got a
(47:51):
couple of gay friends who are like, I don't want to go somewhere where
it's like illegal to be me Likethat just doesn't feel good. So definitely,
you know, good for people toknow what places are like safest for
them and where they're most welcomed andthat type of thing. Yeah, it's
interesting because you know when you hiton both things when you say illegal but
also the most welcome, because Ithink some of that I hadn't realized until
(48:13):
we started putting together our articles.You know, a lot of things we're
focusing on right now a typical digitalnomad concerned you know, affordability, Wi
Fi and things like this, butwe're also factoring in safety for lgbt P
LGPQ people and some places that Ilove. You know, Bali, Indonesia
(48:34):
is actually they have some pretty antidiscriminatory gay laws on their books, but
Bali is quite welcoming. Thailand,I think, is you know, one
of the most gay friendly places inthe world, and they actually don't have
gay marriage. You know, they'rethey're very accepting as a culture and as
a people, they're very welcoming.But you know, the laws on the
books aren't as gay friendly as Ithought they might be. Yeah, that's
(48:55):
interesting. I'm glad that you canprovide those resources to people because they feel
like there is like i know,maybe if somebody has never been to Thailand,
maybe they're planning, you know,a trip there, maybe they're turned
off by the fact or assume thatpeople are like, you know, not
going to be very welcoming because it'snot legal to be married there. But
you know, your experience has actuallybeen that they are a very welcoming people.
(49:17):
So it's a reminder that like peoplearen't always there, like governments and
regulations and vice versa. Yeah,for sure, that's amazing. Is there
anything else you want to share withus about that project? Anything else you
want listeners to know about that withwhere you're at with it right now,
Well, you know, like Isaid, the website went just went live.
(49:37):
We're publishing a lot of content rightnow. We have a big content
plan. So if this is somethingthat anyone's interested in, go jump on
the mailing list to stay informed.Awesome, very cool, And I'm assuming
that's just access on the website.Yeah, yeah, if you go to
Gaate Digital nomads dot com or onour Instagram, you can find the mailing
list on either one and that's whereas we roll out retreats, conferences or
(50:00):
masterminds or anything like this, we'llbe announcing all of those on the mailing
list. Very cool. We willmake sure there's links to all of that
in the show notes. And whereelse can people connect with you, Nathan?
Where can they find you? Followalong with your your travels, your
food experiences, all that good stuff. Foody flashpack I'm most active on Instagram
(50:21):
Foody Flashpacker on Instagram, and ofcourse, you know, like I said
earlier, the site is less ofa blog. Foody Flashpacker dot Com is
more of a travel resource. Butto follow along with my personal travels,
it'd be on Instagram as where I'mmost active, Yeah, for sure.
And I will say that if youguys, anyone out there listening needs like
food recommendations or restaurant recommendations for acity that you're going to, I feel
(50:43):
like my first usual action is tosee if you have a post on it,
because there's always great recommendations on there, So we'll make sure there's a
link for that as well. Yeah, thank you. The Buenos Attis one
should be coming out in the nextcouple of weeks, and that one's going
to be a great resource. Theseare my my favorites of the favorites of
the favorites. I had to whittleit down because there are so many places
(51:05):
I loved there, but I didn'tthink anyone wanted like my top seventy four
restaurants, So trying to whittle thisdown to, like, you know,
the best of the best of thebest amazing. Well, I know you
gave us pretty much all the placesthat we ate while we were there,
and everything was delicious, So I'msure that that'll be a great resource.
Yeah, and it should be theYeah, we're gonna we'll add a link
(51:30):
to it to the show notes forthis episode, because this episode is going
to come out probably in a monthor so. High yeah, yeah,
and then that posted to be liveby then as well. Perfect. Well,
Nathan think thanks so much for yourtime. It's been awesome catching up
now. Thanks for having me onwith this is time number three, right,
third time? Yeah, yeah,third times? Yeah, thanks for
(51:52):
having me back on. Of course, thanks for listening to this episode.
If you want more, make sureto check out The World Wanders Insider,
available on Patreon at Patreon dot com. Slash the World Wanderers. For show
notes, head over to the worldwandersdot com. Find us on social media
(52:13):
at the World Wonders Podcast, enjointhe private Facebook community at World Wandersacommunity.
For travelers, you can always getin touch with us at info at theworldwanders
dot com. And if you enjoythe show, don't forget to subscribe and
leave a review. It really helpsus find new listeners. See you next time.
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