Get inspired: nomad travel. Sabbatical period of 10 months to get inspired by different places, people, and ideas for a new life.
Sabbatical period – Goals
- get inspired by what other people are doing, so maybe I can decide what to do next in my nomad fire life;
- rest, after 16 years working for the same company;
- quality time with my friends;
- health check up;
- read books that I haven’t had time to read while working;
- travel to some old and new places;
- get my “cedula” in Panama;
- go to a Nomadbase event;
- learn to live as a digital nomad;
- learn about new places to move and live.
7-Month Plan
I started with a 7-month plan in 2021 September to reach the goals proposed, divided in periods in my hometown and some trips to other places.
When in my town, I was planning to make a complete health check up.
One of these trips includes a Nomadbase event (I was planning the one which will happen in Central America, in 2022 January, they have mentioned Costa Rica).
In this trip to participate in the event, I was also going to Panama to get my “cedula”, which is the ID document used by the residents (I’ve got the permanent visa in 2019, but not the “cedula” due to Covid travel restrictions).
In a nutshell, the plan was:
- 2021 September: São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro;
- 2022 January in Panama and maybe Costa Rica, if the Nomadbase event happens there;
- a month living in Jampa (João Pessoa);
- a month living in Canoa Quebrada;
- the rest of the time in my city, Fortaleza.
Rest
Rest when I was at home and also travelling.
I mean “rest” as opposite of working, no obligations neither deadlines.
Spare time to take care of my health, practice some hobbies, and have quality time with a lot of close friends.
Health
By health, I mean a balanced diet and a sports routine.
Tried to maintain these things even travelling.
During the pandemics time, I remained isolated at home and just worked.
I decided to postpone all the routine health exams, then I had many small problems to solve, fortunately, nothing serious, but a complete health check up was needed before starting my new nomad life.
Books
I read these books in 10 months to, in some way, get inspired by them.
Most of them are available in Amazon bookstore, and can be read in Kindle version.
Books in English
- “Culture Hacks: Deciphering Differences in American, Chinese, and Japanese Thinking (English Edition)” – Richard Conrad
- “Work: A History of How We Spend Our Time (English Edition)” – James Suzman
- “Attention Factory: The Story of TikTok and China’s ByteDance (English Edition)” – Matthew Brennan
- “Sapien Ethics: Who We Are, Why We Are Here, and How We Can Live Better (English Edition)” – Mark F. Godin
- “Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones (English Edition)” – James Clear
- “Debt: The First 5,000 Years, Updated and Expanded (English Edition)” – David Graeber
- “The Complete Software Developer’s Career Guide: How to Learn Your Next Programming Language, Ace Your Programming Interview, and Land The Coding Job Of Your Dreams (English Edition)” – John Sonmez
Books in Portuguese
- “O poder da china: O que você deve saber sobre o país que mais cresce em bilionários e unicórnios” – Ricardo Geromel
- “Deep Web: Investigação no submundo da internet” – Alessandro Barreto, Hericson dos Santos
- Volta ao Mundo: 407 Dias em 42 Países” – Thainá Cabral (in English/Portuguese)
- “Como morar em Portugal” – Eurodicas
- “Como morar na Espanha” – Eurodicas
- “Sonho mais ou menos Grande – 2022: Todos Podem Vencer!” – Bastter
Travel
Things, of course, happen different from planned, which turned the 7-Month in to a 10-Month sabbatical.
- 2021 September: São Paulo and Salvador.
- Postponed Rio de Janeiro to 2021 November, due to Covid;
- 2022 January: the place of the event at the end was Playa del Carmen, in Mexico, not Costa Rica. The airfare ticket prices for the flight Manaus-Panama was very high in January, then I decided to go to the next Nomadbase event in Europe, at that time they were mentioning Portugal or Spain.
- Panama 2022 Februrary, including Manaus and Belém;
- a month living in Jampa (João Pessoa) – reduced to 15-day period in 2022 April, including Recife and Natal;
- one trip to Europe to go to the Nomadbase event in 2022 May: this changed too because the event was going to happen in Croatia. Then, I decided to include Berlin (as an intermediary destiny), and also to travel to La Côte d’Azur and go to the Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2022 when returning from Croatia to Portugal;
- a month living in Canoa Quebrada – reduced to 15-day period in 2022 July, the last trip;
- the rest of the time in my city, Fortaleza.
Transport
For each travel, there was, in my opinion, a better way to go.
Fortaleza – São Paulo arriving in Congonhas, flying Gol (I use their miles program Smiles too).
Take the “ponte aérea” flights from São Paulo to Rio de Janeiro and vice-versa.
Fortaleza – Manaus – Panama: I like to stop in Manaus, time flight is divided and also the time zone changes.
It also seems to me that it is cheaper to buy Manaus – Panama from Smiles rather than directly from Copa Airlines (I flew in Executive Class, and it wasn’t so expensive).
When returning from Panama, I included a few days in Belém.
To go to Jampa, I always fly first to Recife, enjoying a few days there. Then, I take a bus to Jampa (tickets bought at Clickbus website). This time, I also included a few days in Natal, coming back with a bus to Fortaleza.
To Europe, I like to take a direct flight Fortaleza – Lisboa from TAP.
To acquire TAP tickets, Livelo points helped.
I always use Lisboa as first and last city in Europe.
Inside Europe, I used Lufthansa and EasyJet, using Omio to compare prices.
Canoa Quebrada is about 170 km from Fortaleza, I use the regular bus (tickets bought at Buson).
Hosting
Primarily, I like to stay in hotels.
To make the reservation, I usually use Booking.
Due to a bigger period (15-day), I tested AirBnb in Jampa.
For the Nomadbase event, there was a special deal directly with Zora Hotel.
In Canoa, Pousada California has its own reservation website.
What is cool
Take photos: many images, some of them in this blog posts, most of them in travel photos.
Blog: the objective of Nomad Fire Life blog is to write about my journey to become a FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) digital nomad.
Have Fun: Nomadbase Live Croatia was learning with fun. Also, I have to mention Formula 1 Grand Prix de Monaco 2022.
Meet old and new friends: thanks, my dear friends, to be with me in my city and during the travels. I also made a lot of new nomad friends at Nomadbase Live Croatia.
What is new
Mistakes I’ve made during this sabbatical serves as part of a learning process.
I can classify some destines as travelling or trying to have a digital nomad life.
The first are the places I couldn’t write this blog, due to lack of resources (notebook basically) or time, and also because I was travelling.
There were places that I just took the mobile phone, not the best option to read or write a blog.
The second was more like working somewhere else, with travel in the second plan. These happened in Jampa and Canoa, places that I know for almost 30 years already.
I have a plan to move to Portugal some time in the future, live there for sufficient time to apply for a Portuguese citizenship, which open the Europe doors to Brazilians.
But I learned that this need to be carefully planned, as the average income in Portugal is low compared to the Real Estate average rental prices.
Conclusion: I really got inspired!
All goals reached, and more than initially proposed, I went to places not planned (the Europe trip).
At the end, I guess that I have better clues to where to go professionally. I really got inspired!
During the pandemics, working from home, I’ve developed an activities’ timetable, including 8-hour inside this framework (which has time to take care of my health, meet friends, do sports, etc.).
After I quit my job, this time turned to spare time I used to rest, take care of my health, do sports, have fun, meet friends, travel, and study, inside the same framework.
Now, as the sabbatical period ended, I intend to take half of the time available to develop my side projects I already started.
The other half of the time to study my professional field (Information Technology) and look for remote work (as a freelancer or a regular job).
References
- Work4Love.net: Travel
- Work4Love.net: Photo
- Guia de Destinos (in Portuguese)