Traveling the world as gay digital nomads

(CNN) — Ignacio Nieto Carvajal and Miguel Piñas Rodríguez achieved by opportunity in a homosexual bar in Madrid, not extensive after Nieto Carvajal moved to the Spanish cash for work.

Nieto Carvajal nearly didn’t go out that night time, but he suggests he is so glad he did.

“At the beginning it was like this outrageous issue with butterflies and everything.”

Inside of a number of months, Nieto Carvajal and Piñas Rodríguez were residing collectively. A lot less than 5 many years later on, they were being married.

A yr following their marriage, the few resolved to up sticks and vacation the globe with each other, doing the job remotely together the way.

Piñas Rodríguez stop his corporate 9-5 career and started working for himself in the website layout/Website positioning arena. Nieto Carvajal was in the 2nd year of running his possess developer organization.

The two bought all their furniture and most of their possessions in Spain and became fully-fledged electronic nomads. Now in their 40s, they say they have by no means appeared again.

Traveling the globe

Miguel Piñas Rodríguez at the Pleasure Parade in Berlin in July 2016. Berlin was 1 of the couple’s early journeys.

Courtesy Ignacio Nieto Carvajal and Miguel Piñas Rodríguez

The couple’s initial quit was Riga, the capital of Latvia.

“We experienced been there in advance of and we cherished the town it was inexpensive, small and snug,” suggests Nieto Carvajal. On previous visits, they’d also built connections at a co-performing area named TechHub, which built settling in less difficult.

Right before extensive, the few headed on to Berlin, and shortly they had been hooked on the thrill of exploring a new location, and what Nieto Carvajal phone calls the “independence” of not currently being tied down.

“You happen to be exploring new cultures and new folks, and it is really so exciting,” he states.

The couple have due to the fact spent time in destinations together with Vietnam, Bali, Estonia and Malaysia.

Embracing new cultures

“Let us go there and see what comes about,” is how Nieto Carvajal describes the couple’s journey system.

Each time they get there someplace new, the two usually come across an Airbnb “at the very least for a couple of times or months,” describes Piñas Rodríguez.

From there, they will normally come across somewhere a little bit much more lasting to make home for a whilst.

They delight in receiving to know other vacationers, but primarily like assembly locals and finding their tips. The couple say the only downside to their lifestyle is indicating farewell to individuals and locations alongside the way.

“Each and every time we vacation from 1 place to the other, I’m incredibly unfortunate at the beginning, due to the fact I miss out on the preceding nation, and I miss out on the folks,” suggests Piñas Rodríguez.

But prior to extensive they will be embracing a new society and making new friends — and for Piñas Rodríguez, those people connections normally come as a result of food.

“I’m a foodie man or woman. You learn how to cook new recipes, wonderful types,” he claims, citing Thailand and Malaysia as two of his most loved food items cultures he’s embraced more than the many years.

Traveling even though homosexual

Nieto Carvajal at an exhibition supporting the LGBTQ neighborhood on Lover’s Bridge in Sofia, Bulgaria in August 2020.

Courtesy Ignacio Nieto Carvajal and Miguel Piñas Rodríguez

Though Piñas Rodríguez and Nieto Carvajal really like traveling, they say there are problems that come hand-in-hand with digital nomad dwelling — from dealing with dodgy WiFi to arriving at getaway rentals that will not resemble the images on the net.

And on prime of these much more small ups and downs, the few have to also navigate touring safely and securely as gay adult males.

“Some nations are extra welcoming than other individuals to that,” states Nieto Carvajal, who points out that the pair ended up notably concerned ahead of heading to countries with small to no lawful protection for LGBTQ persons, this sort of as Malaysia.

But Nieto Carvajal and Piñas Rodríguez say locals they met in Malaysia have been very welcoming, and all round their experience of currently being gay digital nomads has been overwhelmingly good.

When traveling to nations acknowledged for getting a lot less accepting, Nieto Carvajal and Piñas Rodríguez you should not ordinarily introduce themselves as a few.

Instead, they say they permit people they satisfy come to that comprehending independently.

“People are far more accepting than you would think,” says Nieto Carvajal. “They get to know you, and they get to this conclusion that these men are together just after a selected time.”

“Everybody will know,” adds Piñas Rodríguez .

“Sooner or later they understand that these two guys doing work together, touring together, together all the time — they are a pair,” suggests Nieto Carvajal.

The few are also cautious about public displays of affection in sure international locations. But although they adapt their behavior in sure cases, the pair say they’re really conscious of the value of remaining real to them selves on their travels.

Nieto Carvajal’s guidance to other LGBTQ tourists is to be mindful of your surroundings and well-informed about the tradition and context, but “really don’t check out to disguise yourselves both.”

Piñas Rodríguez echoes this: “Be natural, and really don’t disguise.”

Digital nomads in a pandemic

Nieto Carvajal and Piñas Rodríguez in Lubljana, Slovenia in January 2020.

Courtesy Ignacio Nieto Carvajal and Miguel Piñas Rodríguez

At the beginning of 2020, Nieto Carvajal and Piñas Rodríguez were being in Croatia. Inside of a couple of months, they’d moved on to Serbia.

They have been hoping to journey to Canada that spring, and then head by way of the US and on to South The united states.

Then Covid-19 strike Europe.

“When we had been in Serbia, everything sort of started to explode,” recollects Nieto Carvajal.

The pair moved to Bulgaria in late February, all over the time Italy had turn into the European epicenter for coronavirus. They recall officials at Bulgarian customs assuming they have been Italian, and to begin with refusing to enable them in, in advance of mastering they were Spanish and ushering them by.

A week right after they arrived in Bulgaria, several European international locations shut their borders and went into lockdown. Nieto Carvajal and Piñas Rodríguez ended up in Bulgaria for almost a year.

“We determined to hold out right up until at minimum we have been vaccinated and anything was much more secure,” suggests Nieto Carvajal.

He adds that the pandemic underlined a consequence of the digital nomad way of life they’d been hitherto unaware of: As they weren’t long term citizens in Bulgaria, they couldn’t get vaccinated appropriate absent.

But by spring 2021, they had their pictures and headed to Turkey, then Spain for a lengthy-awaited reunion with their family members and on to Estonia for the future leg of their journey.

Doing work remotely

Pre-pandemic, “digital nomad” was presently getting to be a bit of a buzzword.

And now — what with several individuals investing significantly of the earlier 18 months doing the job remotely — much more workers could possibly be wanting to know if they can log in remotely in the long run.

Piñas Rodríguez and Nieto Carvajal’s top idea for would-be electronic nomads is to know how you’re heading to make dollars before you strike the road.

The pair also caution from assuming social media or blogging will be a supply of resources. In truth, to some degree unusually for electronic nomads, Piñas Rodríguez and Nieto Carvajal mainly eschew social media — Piñas Rodríguez sticks to altering his Fb position when he moves nations around the world and uploading the occasional image to Instagram.

Nieto Carvajal does not use social media applications at all, but does maintain up a perform site.

Right now, Nieto Carvajal and Piñas Rodríguez equally operate for the identical group, Your Organization in Estonia. Nieto Carvajal is the CEO and Piñas Rodríguez is the CMO.

“We have had distinctive businesses in the past, but this widespread project really took off the ground so we concentrated on it and closed our preceding companies,” claims Nieto Carvajal.

Nieto Carvajal claims the organization assists business people run on the net companies centered out of Estonia, using care of tax, accounting and compliance.

Although the few advocate obtaining your get the job done affairs in purchase ahead of you begin traveling comprehensive-time, they also confess that occasionally you’ve got obtained to just choose a plunge into the unknown.

Really don’t feel you are much too outdated, or that it’s far too late, they urge.

“The worst enemy of oneself is probably your individual fears,” suggests Nieto Carvajal. “You should not be so afraid of making an attempt.”

Upcoming designs

Some electronic nomads may perhaps see their travels as more of a brief-phrase hiatus, somewhat than a very long-time period lifetime decision, but Piñas Rodríguez and Nieto Carvajal say they have bought no strategies to halt traveling.

They are hoping to make it to Canada and Latin The usa a single day, and they’ve also received Ga and South Africa on their extensive-time period to-visit checklist.

They from time to time meet up with previous electronic nomads who fell in appreciate with a specific desired destination and chose to make their remain there long lasting.

Piñas Rodríguez reckons he could have stayed in Bali, when Nieto Carvajal loves Estonia.

But for now the few you should not have any intentions to set down roots.

“It’s possible when we are 60 or anything,” claims Nieto Carvajal.

“It is remarkable to be able to share this together and we are grateful of every single moment we commit alongside one another and each new area we discover hand in hand.”