As a couple who have worked hard our whole lives, we have also spent a lot of time focused on traveling. Even with our crazy schedules, Sean in marketing and consulting, Deb in health care, and raising two kids, we always made time to see what we could of the world. As we grew older, into and through our forties, and watched our kids move into adulthood and their own lives, we started imagining a life built around work and travel — the digital nomad life.
We love our work, but we wanted to flip the script on how we’d been living. Instead of the traditional working in an office and traveling to “touristy” destinations, we wanted to find a way to work in locations around the world and enjoy more authentic experiences. This is the ideal digital nomad life, and we’re finally here!
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Scouting
We (mostly Deb, the resident researcher) began looking into which countries would be best to visit to start figuring out where to start our journey. That’s the thing about scouting — you have to research where you might want to live and then go visit the place to see if you would actually like to live there.
We had a few criteria in mind:
We knew we wanted to live outside the United States. We’ve traveled the states extensively, and it was just time to venture beyond our borders.
It’s also so much less expensive to live in some places outside of the US!
We wanted to be able to use a foreign country as a home base / jump off point to visit not only that country but also surrounding countries. We’ve looked into Mexico, Ecuador, Portugal, Spain, Colombia, and Costa Rica, among others. Each offered its pros and cons and a few offered real promise for locations where we’d want to live for 3-6 months at a time.
After extensive research and a ton of traveling to amazing places (more on that in future blog posts), we targeted Cuenca, Ecuador as our initial home base.
Cuenca, Ecuador
Yes, of all our worldly travels, Cuenca is the location that cemented for us our decision to become digital nomads. Why?
- Great infrastructure
- Very friendly
- Uses US dollar
- Great reviews from other ex-pats
- Amazing food
- Fresh produce
- Community oriented
- Rich in history
Cuenca met so many of our criteria and more! The city is super expat-friendly. Recent estimates put the number at around 10,000 English speaking expats! We didn’t have to worry about calculating foreign exchange rates, and you can stretch your dollar further to live a comfortable life for the same price you’re barely keeping your head above water in most US cities.
And make no mistake, Cuenca is a city! With approximately 500,000 people living in this Spanish colonial town high up in the Andes mountains, Cuenca is a thriving metropolis. At the same time, it has a small-town feel, rich with both Incan and Spanish history, that you can’t help but imagine yourself living a quaint village life.
Our Trip to Cuenca, Ecuador
We took a three-hour flight from Miami to Guayaquil, Ecuador, which is on the coast of the country. To break up a long trip, we stayed overnight in Guayaquil before catching the morning bus that would take us on a four-hour bus ride (for just $19) up a windy road into the Andes to finally arrive in Cuenca. We could have flow directly from Guayaquil to Cuenca, but we wanted to experience the bus ride and see the countryside between the two cities.
Deb is not a fan of windy roads or heights, but she can confirm this trip was not too bad. And the views from above once you break through the clouds are breathtaking.
Upon arrival in Cuenca, we had booked a hotel room complete with a balcony overlooking the city and its main river, the Tomebamba, at the Hotel Victoria, a charming colonial building with only 10 or 15 rooms. We paid $90 a night for our fancy room, complete with a full, delicious breakfast each morning. You could pay less for a decent room with no balcony but the views were absolutely worth the price.
While there, we alternated between playing the parts of tourists and living like locals.
We ate local food, which was beyond spectacular.
But we jumped on a double decker, open-air tour bus to sightsee.
We also hired guides to take us to the top of the El Cajas national park and rode our bikes down through the mountains, visiting little villages that popped up along the way.
As avid hikers, we of course took a hiking trip to Lake Busa, where we got to visit a waterfall and enjoy wild and open nature.
Finally, we visited the Pumapongo museum, where we wandered through ancient Incan structures and gazed at rescued wildlife – so many beautiful animals!
Sean and Deb Go to Cuenca, Ecuador
Yes, we went, and we can’t wait to go back, and of course there’s so much more to tell you. And we will.
In the meantime, if you’re considering taking up the nomad life, we cannot encourage you to do it strongly enough. And Cuenca, Ecuador is a great place to start. You can get a digital nomad visa for one year, which can be extended to two years, so we plan to stay for several months, and maybe even longer.
Maybe we’ll run into each other wandering along the river walk, shopping in one of the markets, or racing down mountains.
We certainly hope so! See you on the road!
