It Was A Dream Of Mine

World Schooling - Family Travel

Blonde as the Lannisters, dad passing us on the uphill part of the hike with a kid strapped to his chest and another one on his shoulders.

Getting to the top of the hill he attempts to take the kiddo off his shoulders, but he screams not wanting to walk any further. Dad leaves him on the shoulders and continues the hike.

On the move with screaming or happy kids (depends on if they’ve had their ice cream).

We’ve ran into this family a few times in Peru.

Dads from England, Moms from Wisconsin they met in Moscow and lived there the past 10 years.

They’ve got 3 kiddos, I don’t know there ages but they’re all under 4 for sure.

They sold everything they had except for a few suitcases.

Packed up their lives.

Moved to South America to back pack.

They’re 4 months in now and going strong.

Talking with them a few days ago, they had two main take aways about traveling with kids.

• It’s opened their social experiences up a ton, the kids make friends with locals and want to play at parks.

• It’s changed the dynamic of sketchy areas, when they’ve been in sketchy spots the second people see the kids or they have the stroller they fist bump them and it’s all smiles.

Super cool to see them out here with the family making this happen.

Huuuuuanchaco!

Our Taxi dropped us off on the side of the road, we were driving into town and I saw the sign Point Break Hostel “Stop here” I said.

“Gracias” I say paying him 25 sols.

Walking up towards the hostel, we don’t see an entrance to the courtyard. Me being me I say c’mon let’s look for another, I don’t like it (😅 was probably a nice spot).

We heard My Friend Surf Hostel was a good one from a local at our last spot in Chachapoyas.

We find it around the block, they have a cool hippie van pop-up surf shop out front. A guy standing outside asks if we want a room, then disappears for a moment.

A few minutes later he reappears out of a side door next to the restaurant with a women.

“45 sols per persona” she says, “45 sols each?!” I say giving her a hard time.

“Can we see the room?” I said and she takes us up two flights of stairs and around some narrow balconies. This is tough because the stair cases and the balcony are narrow, it’s tough because we have skateboards attached horizontally to the bottom of our backpacks, making it to wide to properly fit between any of the walls and railings…

We awkwardly shimmy through this experience, say hi to some people smoking weed on the deck on our way up. Room looks fairly chill, Kate looks at me “Should we take it?” and me being me… “No I don’t like it” (😂) (rather stubborn ”taurus” sometimes…) but hey, the energy felt off from the start with the people working there.

We’ll chalk it up to cultural difference…. What can I say, I’m used to southern hospitality

Now, pressing onwards we look at the map to find ATMA, it’s the hostel I saw on HostelWorld and secretly wanted to check out the whole time.

So… we end up walking a mile with our backpacks through town, starting off through the alleys with the sun baking down on us, then we make it oceanside which has a breeze as we continue walking.

A local starts talking to me, he says “Are you going to ATMA” (I guess it was that obvious). He tells us it’s just past that big building down the road, then tells me to go to “Muchik Surf Shop” I thank him, then he keeps talking to me about going back to “Gringo Street” (where My Friend Hostel was) and telling me about the other hostel options in town. Me getting annoyed because I haven’t slept the night, and have my heavy backpack still on my shoulders, cut into the conversation and say “Thanks I gotta go” quickly turning away from him. (he later tries to sell me weed and cocaine….beach towns huh)

Coming around the final corner we see it, success.

Coming into the hostel, it’s a nice courtyard and vibe, I dig it. The owner Paul returns from showing someone to their room, he’s a European that met a girl here 10 years ago and now has two kids. Nice guy.

He asks if we have a reservation, we don’t. He said they only have a private room available, that’s perfect. It’s 90 sols he says, but I opt-out of giving him a hard time. Oh wait, we get 10% off on 4 nights and 20% off on 7 nights… I say we’ll probably be here for a month, he seems happy about this and says he’ll have to move us around in rooms (because the hostels constantly fully booked, and has other people on long term stays)

He says we’ll start with a week, but keep the room blocked off if we wanna stay longer. Showing us around the hostel they have a Tortuga outback, it’s huge… He says the name and he doesn’t know what it means but he was told that was his name when he got the hostel.

We go to our room and pass out for 16 hours… no joke haha

Checkout ATMA Hostel here!
https://atmahuanchaco.com/

Animals be like Pokemon

The Tortuga is really someone that makes this hostel, he has a morning routine coming out of his den he yawns and looks at the world for like 10 minutes, then heads straight to his food bowl, if it’s full he chomps down, if the staff haven’t filled it yet (with lettuce, orange, grapes, mango, cucumber… he eats good) then he waits there for the food to come.

Oh yeah, you can sit there and hand feed him if you want.

He’s got a routine out here, he’s kinda a fitness nut…. He does about 100 laps around the backyard throughout the day, and tries to break thru the gate.

Lots of street dogs here, I call it “Street Meat”.

One of the dogs gets excited every time he sees us walking or going for a run and comes to join us down the street as if we were walking him, sometimes he leaves us for other tourist. I’m guessing gringos feed him so he knows.

They have some Sea Lions here, I encountered a wild one in the ocean while on a surf break, he was making noise. I’d say barking but I know that’s what Seals do and I don’t know what you call it for a sea lion - Roaring?

Also saw 2 dead ones on the beach….

Honestly getting pretty tired of how much trash is on the beaches down here, it’s really bad when you’re paddling on a surf board and your hands hitting plastic bags or wrappers. I pocket what I can usually, but I can’t do it in a wet suit.

75 Hard

No alcohol

Drink 1 gallon of water

Take 1 progress picture

Read 10 pages (non-fiction)

Stick to a healthy diet (no cheat meals)

Two 45 minute workouts (one of which must be outside…yes surfing counts)

75 day challenge

Mess up once, restart.

Seems pretty simple, it’s supposed to be more of a mental toughness and clarity challenge.

We started it when we got here, today marks day 12 which they say is the hardest day.

Kinda wack doing it while traveling and being around all kinds of food (lots of ice cream and pastries)

On our second day we were doing a workout on the roof baking in the sun, I had a minor case of food poisoning (I ate raw chicken from a street vendor, and continued eating it…my fault) but pushed through, I was queasy for about 5 days, it took a moment for my appetite to return.

Anyway, not any partying for us currently, but it feels great being on a nice routine here… and… well… feeling good, like really good!

Macbook Air

Walking down the street he’s saying something to me in Spanish, ending with Amigo, “No entiendo” I say as we keep walking and then he says “weed” and grabs my hand sliding me a joint.

”Oh, gracias” I say slightly surprised and keep walking.

He’s been standing outside a ceviche restaurant trying to get us to come and eat when we walk by, we’ve seen him everyday the last week.

Continuing our walk I smile and look at Kate “That was business 101 right there” I say, she laughs.

“That’s the equivalent of a free lead magnet online, where you give away a free guide in exchange for any email address online. It plays on the rule of reciprocity, meaning if I give you something for free you’ll feel slightly in debted to buy something from me in the future” I say smiling to myself.

Next time we want ceviche, we’ll be going to his spot. Gotta appreciate the hustle & entrepreneur spirit regardless.

Being here I’ve been working some long hours, but hey, with this Copy Writing project I make a months salary here in a week. So it gives me the opportunity to build up my online portfolio, and be able to continue it full time back stateside if I want.

Also I’ve been working with a startup company which is cool, the energies been great and I’ve been on calls everyday with the team pretty much. I’m learning a lot through this project and getting killer practice so I’m pretty stoked on it! I wasn’t really looking for a career, but this opportunity may turn into just that the way it’s going.

It’s been a dream for me for so long, being able to work from my computer or remotely around the world. I knew people did but maybe I didn’t fully believe in myself that I could. It’s not always easy, but then again if we view it as the same hours I’d be working back home, and just being able to live my normal life in different towns and countries it’s pretty chill.

It’s a good opportunity to get on your feet in countries that are much cheaper to live in, for instance I can get an apartment for under $500 a month here, and can go eat in restaurants or work in coffee shops and still spend less weekly than I would on groceries from Trader Joes (well maybe not Trader Joes, but any other grocery store… I do miss TJ’s…) something that would be much harder to sustain in early stages state side.

I’m still pretty shocked at how well it’s coming together, but I guess that’s what uncanny delusional faith in yourself does.

It’s really amazing the power we have this day with the internet, it makes it so accessible to expand to new places you can live. It is nice working with people in person, but having the flexibility if you’d prefer living elsewhere is quite amazing, once you start to get involved in the world of it, you realize a lot of opportunities open up and there’s need for a lot of work.

Scared AI’s gonna end those jobs? It won’t, it’ll only be a tool to make you more efficient if you learn how to use them.

People where scared tractors would end work for farmers - it just made them for efficient.

That’s a wraaap!

Speaking of wraps…

I honestly wasn’t very impressed with the food in Huanchaco.

But I have 3 suggestions if you come.

1. Sophies Arepas, she’s just south west of the market. I can’t remember the name of her shop, but it’s a whole in the wall, you’ll see it. She has amazing Arepas and Empanadas for 2,50 sols (that’s $0.69 since for reference) she’s also an extremely sweet Venezuelan lady (every Venezuelan we’ve met has been extremely kind, the Political situation of their country is really sad). She also has a very sweet daughter that hangs out under the counter in her cubby, she’s learning about The States in school currently and really wants to go! Make sure to tip her well if you go, she’ll try to give it back but don’t let her, hopefully she can take her daughter to The States one day.

2. Pizza, that’s the sign outside on the sidewalk. I can’t remember the name of it, but it’s across from the Futbol field with 4 small tables out front and fake redbrick to make it look like they’re in a pizza oven. The pizza’s great, and the workers are really nice.

3. La Mamas - It’s in a hallway next to the pizza joint, if you want something a little nicer she has a rotating menu, and amazing pasta on it. A Bolognese and Fettuccini that was the best we’ve had down here, and honestly some of the best I think I’ve ever had. Super nice staff also, and an upscale yet chill vibe hidden off the main street.

We may have a change up in plans, I think we’re skipping Machu Picchu (it’s an excuse to come back right?) and flying from Lima to Patagonia while it’s still ski season, we’re itching to ski and it seems good down there right now. Not positive yet, but we’re leaving this hostel two weeks early to start making out way towards there!

It’s a beautiful world y’all, and just cuz you’re “traveling” doesn’t mean you have to be on the move, if you want to work while doing it you can continue as if normal life and just experience the different cultures - hell I grew up in Orlando Florida and barely did the tourist stuff. I’d say that’s true for most peoples home towns. It’s only tourists that do the tourist stuff, if you want to feel the culture you can just live your life and continue some work in a different environment.

Cheers,

Eliot