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On our way to the bus

This picture shows a perfect example of what kind of bus we are looking for, we found this one in Mexico City.

A roller coaster! Every morning when I wake up I open my inbox full of excitement. Who is becoming a part of the project today? Who is declining? Who sees the value in our project, in our dream?

We are following our intuition and for the first time ever I’m working super hard from morning till evening without looking at the time. Doing what I truly love, with ups and downs and learning everything step by step.

Right now we’re literally on the way to find the right bus, with a stopover in Mexico city. I need to get a new passport which takes three weeks before we can fly to Texas to visit the Cook side of my family in Austin. Here we will start looking around for busses, drive them and learn everything that needs to be known before we will buy the one that will become our home for the next few years. From Austin we will make our way to Florida where we hope to find the perfect bus, so we can ship it to Belgium.

This, however, is just a look into the future. Right now our mind is focussed on two other things; designing a new website and creating a crowd funding campaign. We are doing this campaign mostly because we need help not just to create a hostel on wheels, but to create a hostel on wheels with a high quality sustainable off-the-grid system. A normal wood stove for example isn’t so much better for the environment than a gas stove and solar panels don’t do much good without the right generators. These systems are big investments and they will make sure we can provide our guests with not just a comfortable, but also a sustainable chalet on wheels.

Creating a crowd funding campaign isn’t easy. Should we go for the all or northing option or choose the flexible funding where you get what you raised even if you don’t reach the goal. What kind of perks are people interested in? Which media should we contact and how do we get them on board?

In the meantime the hard work and research is starting to payoff and we can proudly announce that eight independent brands (Faction, Darn Though, Love Inc. Snowboarding, Templar Skis, Idris Skis, Misguided Fools, LN Beanies and Sandbox) are going to sponsor the Nomads Bus with their amazing products. We explicitly contacted independent brands because we believe our journey through the European Alps is the perfect opportunity to show the ski/snowboard community the variety of great independent brands out there. Every single one of these companies creates their products with love for the sport, design, quality and creativity.

To all of our European friends, we can’t wait to be back home and start the conversion of the bus!

icon-skype

The post On our way to the bus appeared first on Let's be Nomads.

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San Pedro La Laguna – A home away from home

This San Pedro La Laguna – A home away from home is written on Let's be Nomads.

So far our Central American adventure can easily be divided into two parts: The first part was all about discovering Mexico/Belize and Guatemala moving rapidly from one place to the next. Rapidly is still relative though, we stayed for example for two weeks in Tulum and even for three weeks on the island of Caye Caulker. However, this is the way we travel; if a place feels right we tend to stay a tad bit longer than the average traveller. Even in the very beginning of our world travels (more than over a year ago), we stayed for three weeks in Balen, only 60km away from our hometown Antwerp just because of the positive vibes the people of the town gave us.

The second part of our adventure started the moment we entered a beautiful room on the top floor of Hotel Colibri in San Pedro La Laguna. We rarely felt such a good energy in an apartment and almost instantly decided to rent the place for a month. The price was 1700Q and fitted nicely into our budget.

The mix of Guatemalans and Western people creates a very nice atmosphere in this town. Every day there is a big local market to get fresh food, there are a million of Spanish schools, where locals can teach you to speak Spanish at very affordable prices (even for our budget) and at night you can chill/party in a variety of nice Western or local bars. Take this all into account and it might be easy to understand why one month quickly turned into two months and a half.

Now, our visa for the CA-4 (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua) has ran out, so it is time to say goodbye. We are sure going to miss this place and at a certain point we were even considering extending our visa for another three months, but it is time to move on (also because our next project is more up North, but more on that later this month).

I want to end this post by giving you our top 10 of things to do on a small budget in San Pedro.

10. Fresh juice at the basketball court in the mornings at the market: 5Q (=0.70$)

9. Street food all over town: average of 10Q (=1.40$)

8. Chilling at Zoolas’ lounge and pool area: free

7. Walking the Finca road, after 30 min you are in the nature overlooking the beauty of the lake: free.

6. Jakuu: bar run by locals, they serve very nice coffee and Cuba Libres for 5Q

5. Staying a night in a hammock at the happy hippie hostel: 15Q

4. Fresh food at the local market: for example basil, mint, coriander: 1Q (0.14$), black corn tortillas: 1Q for four (=0.14$), fruits, veggies, meat…

3. Friendly quiz on Wednesday night in El Barrio: free, you can even win 800Q.

They serve excellent mojitos and fresh orange juices: both 10Q (=1.40$)

2. Private Spanish lessons at Mayab: 10 hours and two activities (Salsa, handy crafts): 300Q (42$)

1. All-you-can-eat brunch on Saturdays from 10am to 2pm in El Barrio: delicious omelettes, thee, coffee, fresh fruit, bacon, potatoes…: 40Q (=5.40$)

I sincerely hope you get the chance to visit this beautiful little part of our planet.

Mechico! Here we come!!

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

San Pedro La Laguna – A home away from home

This San Pedro La Laguna – A home away from home is written on Let's be Nomads.

So far our Central American adventure can easily be divided into two parts: The first part was all about discovering Mexico/Belize and Guatemala moving rapidly from one place to the next. Rapidly is still relative though, we stayed for example for two weeks in Tulum and even for three weeks on the island of Caye Caulker. However, this is the way we travel; if a place feels right we tend to stay a tad bit longer than the average traveller. Even in the very beginning of our world travels (more than over a year ago), we stayed for three weeks in Balen, only 60km away from our hometown Antwerp just because of the positive vibes the people of the town gave us.

The second part of our adventure started the moment we entered a beautiful room on the top floor of Hotel Colibri in San Pedro La Laguna. We rarely felt such a good energy in an apartment and almost instantly decided to rent the place for a month. The price was 1700Q and fitted nicely into our budget.

The mix of Guatemalans and Western people creates a very nice atmosphere in this town. Every day there is a big local market to get fresh food, there are a million of Spanish schools, where locals can teach you to speak Spanish at very affordable prices (even for our budget) and at night you can chill/party in a variety of nice Western or local bars. Take this all into account and it might be easy to understand why one month quickly turned into two months and a half.

Now, our visa for the CA-4 (El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua) has ran out, so it is time to say goodbye. We are sure going to miss this place and at a certain point we were even considering extending our visa for another three months, but it is time to move on (also because our next project is more up North, but more on that later this month).

I want to end this post by giving you our top 10 of things to do on a small budget in San Pedro.

10. Fresh juice at the basketball court in the mornings at the market: 5Q (=0.70$)

9. Street food all over town: average of 10Q (=1.40$)

8. Chilling at Zoolas’ lounge and pool area: free

7. Walking the Finca road, after 30 min you are in the nature overlooking the beauty of the lake: free.

6. Jakuu: bar run by locals, they serve very nice coffee and Cuba Libres for 5Q

5. Staying a night in a hammock at the happy hippie hostel: 15Q

4. Fresh food at the local market: for example basil, mint, coriander: 1Q (0.14$), black corn tortillas: 1Q for four (=0.14$), fruits, veggies, meat…

3. Friendly quiz on Wednesday night in El Barrio: free, you can even win 800Q.

They serve excellent mojitos and fresh orange juices: both 10Q (=1.40$)

2. Private Spanish lessons at Mayab: 10 hours and two activities (Salsa, handy crafts): 300Q (42$)

1. All-you-can-eat brunch on Saturdays from 10am to 2pm in El Barrio: delicious omelettes, thee, coffee, fresh fruit, bacon, potatoes…: 40Q (=5.40$)

I sincerely hope you get the chance to visit this beautiful little part of our planet.

Mechico! Here we come!!

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

On the way to the Bus

This On the way to the Bus is written on Let's be Nomads.

A roller coaster! Every morning when I wake up I open my inbox full of excitement. Who is becoming a part of the project today? Who is declining? Who sees the value in our project, in our dream?

We are following our intuition and for the first time ever I’m working super hard from morning till evening without looking at the time. Doing what I truly love, with ups and downs and learning everything step by step.

Right now we’re literally on the way to find the right bus, with a stopover in Mexico city. I need to get a new passport which takes three weeks before we can fly to Texas to visit the Cook side of my family in Austin. Here we will start looking around for busses, drive them and learn everything that needs to be known before we will buy the one that will become our home for the next few years. From Austin we will make our way to Florida where we hope to find the perfect bus, so we can ship it to Belgium.

This, however, is just a look into the future. Right now our mind is focussed on two other things; designing a new website and creating a crowd funding campaign. We are doing this campaign mostly because we need help not just to create a hostel on wheels, but to create a hostel on wheels with a high quality sustainable off-the-grid system. A normal wood stove for example isn’t so much better for the environment than a gas stove and solar panels don’t do much good without the right generators. These systems are big investments and they will make sure we can provide our guests with not just a comfortable, but also a sustainable chalet on wheels.

Creating a crowd funding campaign isn’t easy. Should we go for the all or northing option or choose the flexible funding where you get what you raised even if you don’t reach the goal. What kind of perks are people interested in? Which media should we contact and how do we get them on board?

In the meantime the hard work and research is starting to payoff and we can proudly announce that eight independent brands (Faction, Darn Though, Love Inc. Snowboarding, Templar Skis, Idris Skis, Misguided Fools, LN Beanies and Sandbox) are going to sponsor the Nomads Bus with their amazing products. We explicitly contacted independent brands because we believe our journey through the European Alps is the perfect opportunity to show the ski/snowboard community the variety of great independent brands out there. Every single one of these companies creates their products with love for the sport, design, quality and creativity.

To all of our European friends, we can’t wait to be back home and start the conversion of the bus!

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Why the Nomads Bus?

This Why the Nomads Bus? is written on Let's be Nomads.

Tim was sound asleep while I was going trough my Facebook newsfeed and clicked on the “Livin’ Tiny: A Quest For Powder” video my uncle sent me. While I was watching the video something clicked in my head, it felt like a puzzle piece just found its place. Watching the video reminded me of my favourite thing in the entire world, the only thing that gets me out of bed in the early hours, to stoked to sleep: fresh snow. A few weeks before I saw this inspiring video, we had come up with a plan to create a hostel on wheels and drive it through the Americas. So, my next thought was why not combine the two; a hostel on wheels and snow? Why not do what we love to do most?

To be honest, even though we do feel the need to have a home that we don’t have to carry on our backs all the time, we’re not ready to settle in one place just yet. Most of all because we have no idea where. I fell in love with Canada when I did my first winter season there, Tim feels his home is in Val Tho where he spent 10 winters, and we both feel that there are so many other options out there to be explored.

During our travels we are constantly confronted with pictures of friends riding pow on Facebook and try to watch all of the big snowboarding contests. We are having the time of our lives in Central-America, but whenever we can we choose to be in the colder mountains, away from the heat, preferably watching the Dew Tour and already dreaming about our next season in the snow.

Don’t get me wrong, I am having a blast during this whole journey, but I discovered my greatest passion by walking away from it. I discovered that I’m not a part of the hippy culture even though I love baggy pants and managed to get one (let’s keep it mellow) dread in my hear. I am, and am proudly to say so, part of the snowboarding culture.

Another thing I have learned during this journey is that a culture is like a family, it’s one of the many stickers we wear. Hippies for example, seen as the free people of this world, are also wearing a sticker, they might not be wearing fancy brands but they all have the same style, they love the same kind of music and they make each other happy. Because that’s what cultures are all about; no matter where you are in the world, when you meet someone who wears the same sticker there is an instant and real connection. You share the most important thing in the world: the same passion, whether it’s fighting for peace, riding the best lines of your lives or dancing around a bonfire like pirates with a bottle of rum, it doesn’t matter.

This is why we are creating the Nomads Bus and are more stoked than ever. Our original idea was to do our first winter tour in the US and Canada, cruising through the rockies and along the powder highway, but as Europeans this was very hard to realise, especially due to liability issues in the US and Canada. But to every downside, there is an upside and if it wasn’t for all the rules stopping us from realising our project in North America, we would have never thought about trying to get this off the ground in Europe. A change of plans that actually made us happy, it made us realise how much we loved the idea to be closer to our families and friends while still living a nomadic life and chasing pow.

Creating a project like this, feeling like an entrepreneur, has given me more motivation than any challenge I ever put up for myself. That night when the puzzle piece fell into place I knew that this is what I’m supposed to do, so challenges come get me, I am sure there are many of you to come, but I’ll conquer you one at a time. Nah.

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On the way to the Bus

This On the way to the Bus is written on Let's be Nomads.

A roller coaster! Every morning when I wake up I open my inbox full of excitement. Who is becoming a part of the project today? Who is declining? Who sees the value in our project, in our dream?

We are following our intuition and for the first time ever I’m working super hard from morning till evening without looking at the time. Doing what I truly love, with ups and downs and learning everything step by step.

Right now we’re literally on the way to find the right bus, with a stopover in Mexico city. I need to get a new passport which takes three weeks before we can fly to Texas to visit the Cook side of my family in Austin. Here we will start looking around for busses, drive them and learn everything that needs to be known before we will buy the one that will become our home for the next few years. From Austin we will make our way to Florida where we hope to find the perfect bus, so we can ship it to Belgium.

This, however, is just a look into the future. Right now our mind is focussed on two other things; designing a new website and creating a crowd funding campaign. We are doing this campaign mostly because we need help not just to create a hostel on wheels, but to create a hostel on wheels with a high quality sustainable off-the-grid system. A normal wood stove for example isn’t so much better for the environment than a gas stove and solar panels don’t do much good without the right generators. These systems are big investments and they will make sure we can provide our guests with not just a comfortable, but also a sustainable chalet on wheels.

Creating a crowd funding campaign isn’t easy. Should we go for the all or northing option or choose the flexible funding where you get what you raised even if you don’t reach the goal. What kind of perks are people interested in? Which media should we contact and how do we get them on board?

In the meantime the hard work and research is starting to payoff and we can proudly announce that eight independent brands (Faction, Darn Though, Love Inc. Snowboarding, Templar Skis, Idris Skis, Misguided Fools, LN Beanies and Sandbox) are going to sponsor the Nomads Bus with their amazing products. We explicitly contacted independent brands because we believe our journey through the European Alps is the perfect opportunity to show the ski/snowboard community the variety of great independent brands out there. Every single one of these companies creates their products with love for the sport, design, quality and creativity.

To all of our European friends, we can’t wait to be back home and start the conversion of the bus!

http://ift.tt/eA8V8J