Building Communities and Embracing Local Cultures Abroad

Hey Nomads, welcome to Digital Nomad Stories, the podcast. My name is Anik Lassen and, together with my co-host, kendra Hosse, we interview digital nomads. Why? Because we want to share stories of how they did it. We talk about remote work, online business, location independency, freelancing, travel and, of course, about the digital nomad lifestyle. Do you want to know more about us and access all previous episodes? Visit digitalnomadsco. Alright over to Kendra for today's interview.

Welcome to Digital Nomad Stories, the podcast. My name is Kendra and I'm your host today. Today I'm joined by Harlow. He's an entrepreneur, business owner and he has different projects going on in Costa Rica and Colombia. Overall, I feel he has a really interesting story. So I'm happy to have you here, harlow, and maybe just start about introducing yourself and maybe you tell us a little bit about your interesting story. Welcome.

Thank you, kendra. Thank you for having me. So my name is Harlow. My backstory is well. A lot of people are asking where I'm from because I speak Spanish fluently and so, and they're really confused. So I tell them, like I basically just say, I was born in Germany, I was raised in El Salvador, I was educated in California and then I, at the age of 25, I started a dot com tech company and I ran that for about 12 years and then I sold the company, followed my dreams, built a retreat center in Costa Rica, and now I'm sort of a serial entrepreneur. I started skincare company eight years ago, that I sourced blue clay from my property, costa Rica, and back when I started actually my tech company, a few years after that, I started a travel agency, which has now become more of a travel services company, and I specialize in helping people travel to Latin America, travel, invest and in fact, I've been helping a lot of digital nomads as well relocate here. So that's what a bit about me. Wow, that's so interesting.

And if we have like a lot of things to take, so where do where? Where should we start? Maybe you tell us, yeah, like how everything that your digital nomads know you, when did it really start with your was building the retreat center? With your tech company, with your travel agency?

Yeah, you know, it did actually start with the tech company. It's started while, yeah, I guess when I would come down to, when I'd go down to Costa Rica for my, like, research trips, I would be working from there. So I take my laptop with me and, you know, I'd be working remotely. The concept of digital nomads back then wasn't really, you know, popular. We're talking about 1999, I guess between like nine I started the company, 98 and 1998. So, you know, I started traveling in the early 2000s at Costa Rica, both for my travel agency but also looking for properties, because I was basically looking to, you know, follow my dream and build a retreat center. So I started looking for places, you know where I wanted to be, actually buy the property. But, yeah, so that started back then, actually back in like probably the late 90s, early 2000s. And then when I started SF station this is the dot com, this is the San Francisco city guide that some partners and I started back in 1996. I would travel a lot to New York and to other places and so I wouldn't say was a really a digital nomad at that point. But I did go down to Argentina and Uruguay for about two months and so at the end of my. So we sold our company in 19, I'm sorry, in 2005, but we had a three and a half year earn out and so at the end of that earn out I had a lot more flexibility and so I was traveling a lot more and so I could work remotely. So what I was doing I was working remotely from, you know, countries like Argentina, uruguay, costa Rica, maybe going back there. I bought my property back back then or by then, and that's really more when, like I think, I was more of a digital nomad because I was in one place for a longer period of time, you know, using my computer, finding places that had good internet where I can get on you know, basically these digital, these zoom calls and be able to access. You know the internet, you know anywhere I was. So yeah, I'd say that's probably what.

I'm like curious if you say, like I'm not digital nomads. I mean, it's so easy to find internet everywhere to work remotely, but by the time, how was it like? How is there like a difference from now? I mean, you're like one of this early birds in that area.

Yeah, well, I'm 52 years old and so you know I've been around the block a bit and the back then, yeah, there wasn't a lot of, there weren't a lot of digital nomads and so tech was still in its infancy. In terms of like the dot com boom, you know, we had that basically in like the mid 90s and then sort of in the early 2000s they're really exploded. But yeah, back then it wasn't. I didn't run into a lot of other people that were actually working remotely and if they were, it was because they were either, like you know, international sales, you know people that were going on, they had to be there to work, but it wasn't. Like it is now where you can work remotely for a company in the States or wherever you know country of origin you're from and and still check in and log in from you know wherever you are, but you're working. You know you're working for, basically, a company based in your country. So, yeah, it's very different now than it was back then.

I can imagine. And also it might be like harder to build all your businesses on every mode level.

Yeah, well, back then you didn't have, I mean, internet was a lot slower. You still dial up in a lot of places, right, it's hard to believe, fatem that now with digital nomads, I mean the way it is now, I think one of the first things that digital nomads look for is a really fast connection, and so back then you were lucky if you were able to stay online. You know you get bumped off and you have to dial back in and there weren't a lot of places that actually had Wi-Fi either. Wi-fi wasn't something that was really common. You'd have to go into certain cat like internet cafes and actually, you know, like you'd have to hard hard line into their, into their network with your computer, where they might have their own little Wi-Fi network, you know, within that cafe. But it wasn't like it is now where, like here in Medellin, you've got, you know, like commercial centers like Tessoto, where you can get Wi-Fi just for free, or you walk into, you go to any airport now and there's Wi-Fi. So it wasn't like that back then.

So I can see also that you have like so much experience, and now I see like why you've built also the travel agency for digital nomads. We talked a little bit before about it. Maybe let's elaborate on it, because I feel it's quite interesting. So what's exactly the troll agency about?

It's called Tico Guide Travel and Tico Guide Travel started off as mainly a travel services company for Costa Rica travel. So the word Tico is colloquial for Costa Rican and so Tico Guide means, like you know, the guide to Costa Rica, you know travel. But I expanded over after a few years. I started attending these travel shows, these travel conferences, and I started connecting with other you know other tour operators in other countries and I was interested in expanding my kind of my service, you know, to other countries or in terms of like send clients to other countries. It started off mainly as, like, what are called FITs these are families and individual travelers or small groups, so we do small groups of friends or even corporate groups and then the digital nomad services happened sort of really like, maybe like the last few years, where I was contacted by certain people like specific you know clients or friends that wanted to like relocate part time to places like Medellin or to Costa Rica or, you know, argentina or somewhere you know some city that you know was popular for digital nomads, and so I started doing that. And then now I'm actually contracted by a company called Under 30 Experiences. They have a group coming in actually tomorrow here to Medellin and I'm going to be hosting them. So I'm sort of like their local manager, concierre. I do a lot of logistics on the back end with them as well with the company, but I'm sort of the front end on the host in terms of like the digital nomads that are coming, sort of like the year abroad program, that, or year it's called year. It's a company that Selena bought recently.

Yeah, I heard about it. I met them, but I don't know the name right now.

Yeah, I think it's called year abroad or something like that, but it's very similar smaller company but the same concept where they did a pilot in Costa Rica did really well. So now they have a group coming here to Medellin. Their parent company is called DNT, so digital nomad trips. So I've been subcontracted out. My agency has been contracted out to be sort of like their in-country Concierre and local manager, and so I'm doing for this company. I do it for individuals, but obviously it works better when I'm doing it for larger groups or a collective group of people.

Great. And what would you say is like because now in like another world, there's no digital nomads, so for them it's like quite interesting. And what is that? Because it feels like we go to a new place and it's so hard to find logistics to understand the place. So what is exactly the service that you are offering with this travel agency? So you're all nice and I have a true for them Right?

Good question. I mean, yeah, it is logistics, it's a simulation into the culture as well. I think it's really important. So the orientation includes not just like points of interest and like, okay, here's a grocery store, you can see, here, it's like your gym, but like here's the cultural nuances or here's the you know the things that you should and shouldn't do when you're in this particular country, for example, in Colombia and we were here in Medellin you know you don't want to slam the car doors. You know, when you're getting in and out of car door, out of a car Like, that's something that it seems really kind of odd to especially Americans, that they're really used to slamming car doors, especially the big, heavy doors, and they know these big American cars. But Colombians have a very, very interesting relationship with their vehicles and they consider them almost like a family member and a lot of these cars are like toy cars anyway. So they're really, you know, doors are really thin and so things like that. Those are some really small example, but there's other cultural things that I think you know are important that people should know about before they come or when they come, so that they don't find themselves, you know, in an awkward situation socially also. Safety is really important, especially, you know, in some of these countries that are foreign to a lot of people. They may not speak the language, but they might not understand certain things, it might be overly confident, you know, when they come here. But then, you know, you just got to be careful wherever you are. I mean, I, you know, I was in San Francisco for 20, over 20 years and I got to say there I feel more, you know, not afraid, but I feel more concerned about myself in certain neighborhoods than I would here in Medellin, although here, you know, there are certain things that people have to watch out for, and so those are some of the things that we talk about that go over, you know, sort of the safety protocols. You know there's a saying here is you know, know that a papaya, know that papaya means don't get papaya, which means don't, don't leave, don't have your phone out while you're walking around, or don't make it obvious that you know you're going to get robbed, like don't, don't give them a reason basically for you to like, you know, to get robbed. So the biggest crime here is petty theft, and you know, but it happens everywhere in the world. I mean, you go to Europe and you got little gypsy kids and they run, you know they'll come around you and they'll basically pit-bucket you, so but that's exactly why, you know, people like me are here to like, help people, to let them know, like, hey, these are some of the tactics, these are some of the things that they do. I mean, there's other things. You know, some of the dating apps now here in Medellin there has been, you know, issues with like men getting robbed by women. That needs to be addressed and talked about, especially for like the men, you know, digital men, men that come here. So those are the things that, like you know, typical travel agencies not going to tell you or they're just going to book your you know your ticket or your hotel or whatever it might be your Airbnb, but they might not get into like the more, like the more specifics, and so, aside from just that, I'm also kind of like their local friend and then I connect them with other people that I know here and I've been coming to Medellin and living here part time for about 10 years and I'm a very, very big networker. So I know a lot of people from all different like sort of social classes and from different you know types of industries, and so if somebody, if there's a nomad who needs, like, dental work, I'm like, I know I got somebody for you, you know, I got the right clinic. Or I could send you like a couple different clinics and get different quotes. If somebody needs dry cleaning or they need whatever, you know something, something specific, I can, you know, I can recommend it. I mean, that's a really small one, but you know things like medical, dental. They need their passport. They get their passport stolen. How are they going to get that, you know, renewed or get a new one? So those are, those are things that I think those services are are invaluable in many ways than just sort of like someone who's just going to like book your trip and not really be there for you, kind of like, you know, not necessarily hands on all the time, but just they're accessible and being a helpful, you know, sort of like person that's also digital nomad and understands what needs they have.

Yeah, thanks for never waiting, because I feel you talked about all those things that make like a headache to us digital nomads, like almost cultural things. So, for example, the taxi example, yeah, for me, like they, they prefer to close the door, the taxi driver than me closing the door, you know.

Yeah, what'll happen too is like if you slam the door on a taxi cab driver, he'll get really upset and if you're not familiar with the city he's gonna. He's gonna take the longest route possible to run up to meter, and so that's happened before. It happened to me. I mean that's I'm speaking from experience and and, and then someone told me, like, don't slam the car doors. I'm like, oh, okay, now I understand why. You know, and it's also etiquette, you know, it's just being courteous, and that's one thing about Medellin and Columbia that I think people don't realize how courteous and how nice people are. You know, colombians, and especially the bices here, are so nice and you know, and you just want to, you want to just reflect that on them. You know A lot of foreigners come here, not a lot. I mean, I don't want to generalize, but you know there's an arrogance, especially for Americans. You know North Americans nice to see for North Americans, because I am the one. Although I wasn't born in in the United States, I did spend some time there. But there is that typical, classic North American arrogance and if you bring that type of you know attitude here, it's not gonna work for you really well, and that's one of the things we also I also talk about it sort of like again, the cultural simulation how to really, you know, connect with, with the people here, and people are so friendly here that you don't want to be. You Don't want to be a jerk, you know, you want to. You want to show your best side. Anyways, I'm sorry to interrupt you.

No, I was just like recapping, because I think there was so much valuable information in Like for listeners. Like, really, this cultural integration, what you said, that we need to take care of, all talks and logistics, like yeah, I need to go to a dentist, so it's so happy to always have this. Or what like, maybe every summer. Wise, like, what are the things we need to have in mind when we go, like, to a new country, you know, to really settle their Fugitino much, to feel well? to welcome to not have this feeling of anxiety over worms, like lonely. So meet people who are like it's like like minded people, create like your community, but also connect to the locals, understanding their culture, behaving in their way. A Figure out all your logistics that some point can come so you are like really like it easy, you're not spending like too much time and investment effort on it. I don't saw all those legal issues. What would you say like is now? We talked about Columbia. You gave a little bit insights, but you're like between Columbia and Costa.

Rica.

Can you share, like some someone thinking about right into Costa Rica.

Sure, well, costa Rica is very different from Columbia in the sense that Costa Rica most people go there for the, for the beaches. They go there for, like the. You know the nature and the beaches. San Jose, which is a capital, isn't particularly a night city. I mean, you know, my father was born there. I mean my back history is also that you know, my grandfather built a business in Costa Rica, so it's kind of my connection to Costa Rica. But I don't want to talk about Bad things about San Jose, but I got to say that like it certainly isn't Medellin, and so most of the digital nomads that are going to Costa Rica or either go into like places like no, sara, santa Teresa, maybe tamarindo we call it tamagringo because we'll kind of it's well to gringo, where they go down to like Dominic Al and you know, maybe, maybe San Jose, but not I wouldn't say like it's not, it's, it's not a big attraction. Digital nomads who I, I see the go to Costa Rica want to surf, they want to, like you know, be on the beach, they want to do yoga, so it's more of that kind of vibe and Costa Rica has lent itself to that type of lifestyle and so any digital nomads are listening to this right now, who are looking for that type of lifestyle, are gonna, you're gonna finding Costa Rica. Now it's not cheap, you know, especially in Osara, santa Teresa, and so these other destinations. You know, over the, over the years has become quite expensive. But there are places like Salinas that are out there, you know they were network of Salinas in Costa Rica, and so people work out of Salinas or they live out of Salinas or they, you know, get Airbnb's or long, longer term rentals, depending on how long you're gonna be there for. But Costa Rica is certainly, I think, the cell of Costa Rica, is it's the nature, right, and being in, immersed in nature. Another destination I mentioned was mental Antonio, mental Antonio, kepos, which is there was a national park there that is very popular. So my experience with, like, digital nomads who are in Costa Rica are there because they have a, they have an affinity to do something that they, you know, they can't maybe do here or they can't do in the city, which would be like surfing, hiking, maybe scuba diving, although scuba diving did only really places to do it in Costa Rica, like off of a Vita and maybe up in the Guanacosta area, in the Guanacosta area, but you know more like water sports and and eco, eco activities amazing and yeah, like I mean it's also.

You need to know about these countries before you decided, for this is also important to know what we need. You know, I was just some days in Ecuador now by the beach in. Montana and I feel like, oh, maybe it's like time for me to leave me to yin, because now, at the time to be living by a beach, you are living in a city, so we are just. That's a beauty of the flexibility we can have in the white and Together with this, I feel there's always this thing about being a digital nomad that we need to be brave and courageous To really able to listen to our needs and not compare to perfect expectations. And, as you said in some point, you started following your heart To make all of this happen. And I want to elaborate a little bit on this because I love it like, if we are Wisdom with, we have this wisdom within us and when we are really able to listen, and Especially for us at digital nomads, it's like a gift that we can follow our heart Thanks to the screw that we have. So what was there? A little bit your story about. Because you told in the beginning. Then you follow your side for the linear.

Yeah, well, that's so. For digital nomads who actually work for a company, it's a little different, because you know they're still working, unless they're doing something they really truly love to do for that company, then they're following their heart. However, you can still follow your heart by maybe, like you know, going to a country where you can live a lifestyle that you love, and so you're following your heart doing that, where you know you can go surfing. Or if you're in, let's say, you're here in Medellin, you know you can go cycling. I'm a big cyclist. That's one of the reasons why I spend a lot of time here is I have a road bike here and I do a lot of cycling. I also love to play squash. I grew up playing squash and the squash court says one in my building here. So following your heart can be in different ways. You know, in my case, I'm an entrepreneur, I'm a business owner, so I kind of, you know, I either fire myself or I fire myself. Right it's. You know I'm not, I'm not, I'm not checking in or, you know, clocking in like most people have to. But if you're a digital nomad who has to do that, then following your heart, what it really means? More like maybe following the lifestyle you want and being around the people you want to be around. Maybe you know, like creating the quality of life that you want to create around yourself for those who have the ability to. You know, work remotely for on their own, or follow your heart. In terms of like you're a digital nomad in the sense that you're an entrepreneur, so you're building, you know you're, you're running your own business remotely, or maybe not necessarily remotely. Maybe you start a business here in you know Medellin or wherever you are. But yeah, I think that, like, I think more and more people are looking or trying to find purpose in their life, and I think the whole COVID thing, you know, where people were kind of like locked into their homes or they couldn't leave or they were started to have to work from home, I think it shook people up a lot and then it gave the chance for people to like think about, like okay, well, I don't necessarily have to go into the office or I don't have to like commute in my car for an hour or two hours a day to get to working back, and so I think that conversation with digital meds, in terms of like cutting down some of the things that you don't like to do in your life and actually welcoming in more things that you love to do in your life by following your heart or by like opening yourself up to like, a better quality of life. And that's one of the reasons why I'm here. Medellin provides a much better quality of life for me than in San Francisco does, now, at least. I mean, obviously, I think if I was, like you know, a top executive at Google or Facebook or, you know, had my own company like that and made a lot of money, I could have a nice quality of life in San Francisco. But even then, like I lived in Noe Valley, which was one of the most affluent neighborhoods in San Francisco. My rent was pretty decent because I had rent controls. I've been in there, I was in there for a long time, but you know, one of my you know neighbors is Mark Zuckerberg. He lived a few blocks away but still, like, even in the valley, you had homeless, the problems with people, like pooping in the streets, the needles. You know your cars your car gets broken into and so that kind of quality of life I mean you You're living in, like you know, multi million dollar houses and you're paying high rents and I guess I wasn't paying that much, but people are paying high rents there. Those of you who are listening or you know, maybe living in services school know this. I mean, you're paying probably like thirty forty percent of your salary to rent or to your mortgage and your crossing your fingers that every day walk out in your cars and broken into, and so those are things that I think a lot of different nomads especially the younger, I would say, like the millennials and you know, those who are more flexible, don't have kids Are looking at like, hey, I can, I can work remotely, like I do I was doing, maybe during coven and, as long as my company is okay with that, you know, I'm gonna go to medellin or I'm gonna go to costa rica or I'm gonna go to wherever you know. I think that A lot of the nomads, if they have to be on a time schedule with their companies, they're looking at this side of the world. But there are a lot of digital meds who work, you know, like in asia, in other parts of the world. Now it's a little more complicated with the time zones if you've got to be on calls and stuff, any kind of clock in a certain hour, but I'm yeah, I think we're seeing more people just like there, maybe the idea of like living in san francisco or some of these cities that are that were once really beautiful. I think maybe there is a chance to be back, to go back to their, their beauty, but they really run down. There's a lot of problems with drugs and crime and that I think for a lot of people, lot of you know, in this case, digital nomads like well, I'd rather pay less money in rent, live in nicer city or a city like many gene, where I get better quality of life more affordable. You know, obviously, like you know, you gotta build up a new network of friends because maybe you're leaving, like, leaving your community, and that's really difficult to do. A lot of, a lot of people have a really difficult time with that. That's one of the main reasons. What don't travel is there, you know, leaving their family and friends, especially if they're coming down here for like the longer periods of time, like six months or a year. I think if you're coming down for a month it's a different story, but if you're coming down here for like, then you know that's a big decision to make. You're moving out of your apartment, you're putting stuff in storage, you know, or you're subletting. Hopefully, that's what I was doing for a long time. I would sublet my apartment in ove valley for more and I worked it out with a landowner or the landlord and so I'd actually get make money when I would sublet it, and I imagine a lot of digital nomads can do that or have done that and are doing it now. So, like places like New York, san Francisco, la, where the rents are really high, you can rent out your apartment maybe even slightly higher than what you're paying your mortgage for your or your. You know your rent and you can live down here for like literally like half the cost of what it costs. You live in the States, at least half, I mean. Many is a little more expensive, but you know, in some cases it can be even cheaper.

I really like, like the thought you are talking about this quality of life we can choose and I want to use like this, this moment, because I feel human being. It's normal that we always want more and more and more, so, also for us and also the listeners, that we should acknowledge and be grateful for us that we chose this life, that we can choose the quality of life we want. I think that's something beautiful could give and we are sometimes forgetting about it. And just this, deciding like what do I want to my surroundings, how do I want to create the day, where do I want, where do I want to be and everything, and then just adapt to this and exactly, I feel that's nice if we talk about that. You mentioned this difference between like a digital, normally, who has a fixed contract, or digital to normal Boss you know, like an entry point that they are still.

Right Between.

Right, right.

Yeah, I think that quality of life so much consumption happening in the United States and Europe and other places where people feel like the only way to be happy is to have things right. And then you come to countries like Medellin where you see people and they don't have a lot, you know. I mean, I'm, we are, I'm in an affluent area. I, you know I'm. I actually live in a nice area. I like it because it's safe and I love the views and it's successful to a lot of the things I like, you know. But people are generally more happy, you know, with less things because it's like less clutter, less things to worry about. I feel like maybe a lot of the digital nomads will see that when they, you know, when they start traveling and the quality of life or their happiness becomes you know. We can talk about happiness to, but quality of life is really tied to happiness because you know you can become more happy when your quality life gets better, you know, and things become more accessible in terms of, like it's cheaper to go to the gym, you know the food you get better quality food can get organic food here for a fraction of the cost we get it for in, you know, let's say, san Francisco, and so that helps people, you know, I think, become better Terms of like more productive as well. I think you're more productive, you know work wise if your quality of life is better, and so, yeah, I agree. I mean that's one of the main selling points I think are the main kind of Buzzwords I hear a lot with people when they are like I'm I'm looking to make a change in my life, I need a better quality of life, and I'm like, okay, yeah, like you'll find that in places like Costa Rica and and I would like to add to this quality of life, to the fetus you said, also the people we surround ourselves with, because I feel like sometimes maybe back home.

You're like trap in a circle of people with maybe another mindset than you. Like you know they're like acidity, not, but you can just choose the groups wishing you want to connect with. Like many people who are traveling on your, just like with the local. Like you can choose this group like I mean he and me to him. There are so many different communities you know for playing for. So what do you have, like my woman? So like you can choose between conscious people, business people and, yeah, like this also adds to our quality of life, the people we surround ourselves. And, as you just said, and I can't serve it, you're like a super good networker. So maybe for you it's a nice question, because I also get another time this question, but I feel alone. I don't know like how to meet new people when I'm like coming to a new place. What would you recommend this moment to start? creating your community.

Well, the good, the nice thing about Medellin, for example, and because the city it's really it's small enough that it's accessible, so, within, you know, a five minute to maybe even a 20 minute drive, you can get across town and you can go to like some of these like digital nomad networking events, and there's a lot of them, you know, and there's different types of events, right, or you can attend yoga classes or you can, you know, you know paddle paddle balls, really popular here now, so like depending on, and then they have C Clovey, c Clovey on Sundays and there's like different groups that do running groups or cycling groups, and I think you know initially there's a club here called Hash House and it's a crypto, crypto membership club, but they do on Mondays, I think on Wednesdays there's like open houses where you can go for free and you can meet, you know, people there, so there's a lot of networking opportunities. There's also festivals and all types of different events that happen in the city and, as long as you know, you can kind of plug into those or find out about them. You know you can attend some of those. Yeah, I would say, for people who are feel like they're lonely and they don't have someone you know or they don't. They don't, they feel like they might not be able to build a network of friends here. I would say that that's, you know, not the case. I think you just have to be a little bit more, get yourself out there, go to a few events on your own. You know maybe the first couple, but there's, you know, there's some co-working places like Selena's and the other some other ones here that actually do events all the time, and you'll meet people right away. You know, and you know it might not be your best friend right away, but you might, you know, you might meet some people that you kind of get along with. And then you guys go out. You know you go out for like coffee or we do. I do a Sunday brunch every Sunday. Me and my crew and our little group of friends. We get together for brunch every Sunday and it's not the same people every time, but it's like kind of like an open door of like. You know I think you've come before and I also do a Thursday night dinner, usually up at Mercer Organico, and so that's like also like an open door, kind of like. I just make it a Thursday night social, and so there's people like me who are doing those types of types of things where we're encouraging and open our doors up to meet new friends and to connect, you know, other digital moments to you know, so they can meet and network. And so I think tapping into that sort of those little pockets of like events and networking events is one, one great way of kind of like you know, finding like-minded people. Again, like, if you like to do yoga, great, then go to yoga classes here at 108 or some of these studios like Flying Tree and Laurelis. So that's one way, because then you're going to meet people that are like-minded If you liked, you know, fitness and do some of the fitness activities that Medellin's really famous for, like Ciclovilla and some of those things. But, yeah, I would say that's probably a good place to start.

Exactly, and how do people find about those groups? I would say you can find it like in. If you could just put Medellin or any other kind of where you want to be a digital nomad on Facebook and from there you ask people and they can invite you to do what they want.

Yeah, there's a bunch of WhatsApp groups. Right, there's actually there's an Insta for Medellin. There's an Instagram page that has like a link tree of all the WhatsApp groups that you can join, and there's a now there's like a thousand of them. I mean, there's like literally so many. You have one for everything, and so there's one for, like, I think it's many digital nomads awareness or something like that. So, like people who want to come here to do like plant medicines and things like that, you can join that group. There's one for yoga there's. You know, there's a whole bunch. So, yeah, I would say, like the Facebook groups, there are some Facebook groups that you can join. There's Instagram I can't remember what it's called but there's an Instagram page that has like a link to like all the WhatsApp groups. But then, yeah, once you get into the WhatsApp groups, then you're in, because then they're just going to get bombarded. I mean, your phone's going to get full. They have them all in Like, you know, photos and videos of there's so many events happening.

I would say if someone, if someone listen, I feel, oh, but I'm going like to Medellin soon. They just can reach out either to me or either to you. We will put all your information show notes, so then we can give the information before we close this. Do you feel any anything else you would like to have shared in this podcast we haven't talked about.

I would just say, for those of you listening out there who haven't done this before, who haven't gone to a foreign country to work remotely, I say do it, you know like find a way for you to like get things all settled at home where you can actually make that happen for yourself. Find the right place. Maybe do a little research beforehand, you know. I think again, like you know, quality of life, your interests, weather wise, to some people you know want to be in really warm weather. Some people want to be kind of like what Medellin has. We just sort of like climate, we're in a city of eternal spring, and so, yeah, I would say I would encourage you to take that step, to take that. And we're in the beginning of the year, so this is a good time to like talk about it and like be like okay, you know, you probably set some goals for yourself. What do you want to do this year? And if you're not happy with where you are, maybe in your living situation, then you know, if you can't get out of your job, maybe at least you can like work remotely. If that's something that's possible for you to do, then talk to your boss or talk to, or you need to talk to about, you know, working remotely or if you're already working remotely from home and you're just like I need to go somewhere else and do this, and yeah, then you have options. You just it's really about, like you know, put your mind to it and not being afraid, obviously taking precautions and being prepared and working and talking to people like me who have done it and Kendra, that you know we can help you along the way and then to handhold you where we need to. But then I think at some point you know, like most people that come here or come to Costa Rica or wherever they go, like they can assimilate pretty well and, and you know, or you join a group, you join one of these like digital nomad trip groups, or you know that's another way of doing it. If you don't want to come alone. There are companies out there that, do you know, organize digital nomad trips, and that's one nice baby step, so one way of doing it right.

and then or you do it on your own.

So, yeah, that's. That would be like my closing thoughts on that.

And what is he like? You're quiet, like your secrets. What do you do to prepare yourself mentally for new destinations or whenever you're coming back?

to.

Colombia whenever you go to Costa Rica.

Yeah, well, if I'm going, yeah, if I'm going to somewhere new, then I'm doing a lot of research on that destination. I'm trying to contact and reach out to people that are there, find out a little bit about. You know what it's like living there. I've been going back and forth from Costa Rica to Medellin for 10 years now, so I don't really have to do any more mental preparing other than, like I got a nice little like a plant, you know, sort of like system down on how to do that. Clearly, you know. I mean I still rent here in Medellin. I own a big property in Costa Rica, got a retreat center there, so I have a proper home, but I've been spending a lot more time here and inside. So for me, the only thing I really have to prepare for really is like where I'm going to live when I come back here. Now I've been, I've been living in this apartment now for the last two years, but not full time, like I try to get it every time I come back, and so thankfully it's been available. I really like the area I'm in and I like this apartment and the rent is relatively, you know, is decent, but I would say that would be. One of the main things is, like you know, for me at least, is like when I come to Medellin, it's like I know I have a storage unit where I put my stuff when I'm gone, because I don't, I don't, I don't want to play, I don't want to play south full time, because I'm not going to pay rent while I'm not here and I'm not allowed to sublet it when I'm not. My only preparation is really like trying to figure out where I'm going to live when I come back and so I do usually will plan that out Maybe two or three months in advance, if I can. A lot of places maybe, won't you know, let me book it that far advanced, but yeah, that would say that's the main thing. I think you know where you live is really important to. We didn't talk about that like I mean, maybe you can be a, you could be a median, but you could be in, like you know, in a really bad neighborhood and you're not going to want to live in Medellin. You're going to, you know, you're going to have a very different experience and what you would living maybe in laurels or poblado or invigado or even so, but it's not which are kind of like the, you know, maybe maybe a little bit of a plan which is coming, but you know they go and over in those areas like no, you know, I mean some people do you know, and but it's typically not your typical digital nomad, you know might be like an army better, sometimes a little more, you know, a little tougher.

I would say like for me, like adding to this my things, like also then also having this flexibility to change plan, because we can like, like I'm more than going with the flow, what's happening? Because I can prepare so well, but then I don't know what's happening when I really arrive and how I feel. Well, that is something. I realized when I'm not like too much stressed about. It needs to work out like this I need to be in this community, but just knowing myself to get surprised by this new place. It's also sometimes a nice way to introduce these type and then to take time in the beginning for new conversations and not being like so stressed during the entire day.

Yeah, I think I think it's important to have a soft landing here. Or, you know, wherever you go, like a soft landing and a comfortable landing and a secure landing in terms of like you know, when you, when you arrive here, has someone who you can trust, that you know can greet you, kind of show you around. You know, again, that's what I do, that's what I do for a living, but you know there's, you can, you can find me to be friends that have already done it or already here. You know, I think a lot of digital nomads follow their other digital digital nomad friends, and so that's one way that you can, you know, you can have a soft landing here. It's like, if you know, already know people that live in Medellin and are already doing this, then you know, just follow, you know, basically follow their footsteps and and then they can kind of help you out. But there are, you know, professional services, services like mine, and, and they're certainly valuable in terms of like it there's a lot of value in in helping people that you know get here and you know kind of get set up and and anyways. So, yeah, so it's a probably my biggest recommendation would be like, if you want to. You know You're ready to do it. Then just get yourself you know, prepare to do it and then find the means to do it Wait.

Thank you so much for all the tips, recommendation, inspiration.

Yeah, been a pleasure.

I think now we are all well prepared for our next destination, overall for me. Thank you.

Right, you're welcome. Have a good weekend, okay, bye, bye.

And that's it for today. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate it very, very much. I would appreciate it even more if you could leave a review on Apple podcast for me. That way, more people can find this Podcasts, more people can hear the inspiring stories that we're sharing, and the more people we can impact for the better. So, thank you so much if you are going to leave a review. I really appreciate you and I will see you in the next episode.