One year ago today I began my new life as a full-time FIRE nomad. My mother dropped me off at the Wilmington, Delaware Amtrak station, where I took a train to Newark, New Jersey to fly to Seville, Spain, my first travel destination.
Now, one year later, I’m sitting in a hostel in El Chaltén, Argentina. Over the last couple weeks I’ve been thinking a lot about how far I’ve traveled, literally and figuratively. I’ll apologize now for how rambly this post is going to get. I’ve spent time in eight countries and four continents (Antarctica counts as a continent but not a country…?). I’ve taken 26 planes, eight trains, seven boats, and seven long-distance buses. I’ve been to the far north in Alaska, the far south in Antarctica, and the Middle of the World in Ecuador. I’ve gone from a one-bedroom condo full of “stuff” to one suitcase and a backpack. I’ve slept in 12 apartments, seven hotels, six hostels, two boats, spent 12 nights camping, stayed with friends/family four times, and spent one night in an airport. I don’t even know how to begin calculating the miles/kilometers I’ve traveled.
Looking back on the year though, I first think of the people I’ve met before the things I’ve seen. And sometimes that goes hand-in-hand, as I remember experiencing something with a new friend I met along the way. Like the new friends I made at language school in Seville, who decided to make a day trip out of giving me a ride to my next destination, Ronda. Or the woman I met on the bus from Cuenca to Baños, who had only planned to stay there three days to my ten, but extended her stay and switched to my hostel and made my time in Baños more memorable for having someone to share activities and meals with. And the friends I made on a free walking tour in Medellin, one of whom joined me for another free walking tour in Comuna 13, the other who I joined for a local futbol game…where we both got COVID. How about the time my friend from language school in Buenos Aires met me in Bariloche for a week, including a couple day-long road trips? And the women I met up with in Puerto Montt to drive and camp along the Carretera Austral— a part of Patagonia I had been planning to skip before they invited me to join them. I could not have learned so much about mezcal and hamburguesas without the Nomadic Matt group tour I did in Oaxaca. And the couple of staff members from the Antarctica expedition ship who I ran into on the Las Torres trail in Torres del Paine, who were spending their time off in Puerto Natales and were always up for a drink or dinner, or trying to watch the new Avatar movie in Spanish (I got the gist of it, but still not clear on some of the details). And my last day of this first travel year, joining a couple of women sharing my hostel room at 1am to hike up to see Mount Fitz Roy at sunrise; something I wouldn’t have done alone for safety reason.
And then I think of the things I’ve seen and done, and realize that it has only been a year! If I was still working full time, it would have taken another decade at least of regular vacations from work to check off the things I’ve done in this year: study Spanish in Spain AND Argentina, hike Cerro Castillo, Las Torres and Mount Fitz Roy in Patagonia, walk on a glacier, white water raft in Futaleufu, go to Antarctica, go to Alaska, road trip the Carretera Austral, chase waterfalls in Baños, take my time exploring Sintra in Portugal, wake up for sunrises in Seville, Ronda, Bariloche, El Chalten, etc….
I put a post with a similar sentiment on Facebook and Instagram earlier today, and have received a variety of comments, from “Such an awesome year” and “I have loved following your travels” to “What an amazing life!” “So jealous and happy for you.” The latter are the ones that give me a moment of pause. I’ve received other comments like this over the year. I’m still figuring out how to respond to them, as well as what to say when meeting new people who ask how long I’ve been traveling, or what I do for work, or how I travel without working. I want to give them my life story, starting with how I sold everything and left to travel indefinitely, and how I was able to do this after learning about the FIRE movement. Most people aren’t actually that interested. But when I do receive comments from friends and family in the vain of those above, indicating that they think it’s cool…for me…but not something they would have the opportunity to do, I want to educate them about FIRE. I know how incredibly privileged I am that I grew up with good saving and money habits, and that I carry a passport that allows me entry into almost every country. But beyond that I am able to travel like this because I’ve saved and invested my money, I have paid off all my debt (including mortgage and student loans), and I travel on a budget. But I also don’t want to be that preachy friend forcing something on them that they don’t really care about.
So I leave this as an open invitation to any of them, and anyone really…ask me about FIRE! I am happy to talk about it, and more than happy to help you find your own way there. Send me a message, or check out the first few posts of my Toward Financial Independence series; which is still a work in progress.
What’s Next?
So as I often quote one of my favorite fictional presidents, Josiah Bartlett: What’s next? Travel-wise I only have a few months planned out so far for 2023; I’ll be in Patagonia for the first few months, culminating in hiking the 8-day O-Trek in Torres del Paine at the beginning of March.
After that I’ll return to the U.S. for the first time since August 2022, and for less than a week. Then I’m heading back to Spain to spend about 45 days walking 790km on the Camino Frances from St. Jean Pied-de-Port to Santiago de Compostela. In May I’ll head back to the U.S. again for about a month, including visits to San Juan, Puerto Rico for a conference and Boston, Massachusetts for my college reunion. And then…I don’t know! I haven’t decided where to go starting in June. I’ll need to be back in the U.S. in November and in December I’ll head to Southeast Asia, but I have about 4-5 months with no plans yet! I think I’ll choose my destination based on where I can get a good flight deal. I’m open to suggestions!
I have a couple other goals for the year. First, to walk 1,500 miles. The Camino will give me a good jump on that, and the hiking I’m doing in Patagonia will help, but overall I’ll need to up my walking this year. Last year I averaged about 2.6 miles per day (according to my Health app), which is about 950 miles for the year. Second, I want to actually publish some of the photos I’ve taken over the last year. I took over 20,000 pictures in 2022, and only published a few on this blog, on my photo website, on Instagram or Facebook. Most of those on social media were unedited, from my phone. I have so many more, better images I want to share. I’m also thinking of putting together a calendar or something like that…more research is required. Finally, I would like to put more effort into this blog. I only published 16 posts in 2022. I think I can do better this year! Ambitiously I’m telling myself I’ll publish one per week. So subscribe to see if I can do it!
Thank you to those who have been reading this blog so far; I know it is not as robust as some. As I said, I hope to improve on that. If you have questions you would like me to address, or suggestions, please leave a comment or send me a message. Here’s to the next year!
It was a great article, thanks for sharing!