Hola! I am typing this in a coffee shop overlooking one of Chile’s endlessly beautiful lakes. Next to me, my Chilean friend is working and enjoying a maté, a typical South American tea. In the distance, I can see the snowy peaks of the Andes.
I’m Sacha, 32 years old and a few months ago I threw my life upside down and left Utrecht. No sabbatical, no temporary break, but in search of a different way of life. I like to tell you how that went and what I learned in the first months. The beautiful sides, but also the difficult ones.
The perfect moment
For years I dreamed of being abroad longer. After each trip, that dream just came flooding back. By the end of last year, it felt like all the signs were green. Or maybe I decided for myself that they were green enough. I quit my job as a strategy consultant and left for Chile.
Many people wait for the perfect moment. But you may wonder if that moment ever comes. There is always a reason to put it off or not do it. And no matter how well you plan everything in advance, things always turn out differently. I want to have tried as much as possible in my life. And if something fails? Too bad. Then I know that again.
By just doing it, you are naturally forced to find solutions. That sounds simple, but it is the most important thing I learned. As long as I was in my familiar life in Holland, it remained a dream. When I let go of that comfort, I discovered new possibilities. The uncertainty doesn’t disappear. On the contrary. But you learn to deal with it differently. You become more creative, flexible and solution-oriented than you thought you were.
From fixed salary to zzp
The choice to go abroad had an impact not only on where I lived, but also on how I worked. In the Netherlands, I had considered self-employment, but it was never more than a thought. With my departure, it suddenly became the logical step and so I registered with the Chamber of Commerce. I soon noticed that assignments don’t come your way. Certainly not in the beginning. There are many freelance platforms, but the competition is huge and just try to stand out among hundreds of others. My first projects ended up coming through LinkedIn and through people I already knew.
Tip: Before you leave, invest in your network. Schedule coffees, call people and tell them specifically what you will be doing and what you are looking for. People not only like to hear it, they like to think about it. And sometimes they come back to you months later. Whether I will continue to be self-employed? Honestly, I don’t know yet. Maybe part-time salaried, maybe a combination. I’ll give myself time and space to figure it out. And that’s what I like about this period. I don’t have to know it all yet. For now, at least, this is what I want.
Getting used to a new environment
Meanwhile, there was also such a thing as building a new life. Snatching a new culture. Getting to know new people. And learning a language I had never had in school. I wanted to do everything at once and preferably as quickly as possible. Big mistake. Give yourself time to get used to all the new things around you and start with what has priority for you. Because it wasn’t until I let go of that that I really began to see what this new environment was teaching me.
Chile, for example, made me look at time and expectations differently. Where in Holland I was standard five minutes early, here half an hour late is quite normal. The sandwich with cheese for lunch gave way to a barbecue with lots of meat and a bit of vegetables. And where I am used to direct, honest communication, the Chilean culture is a lot more indirect and friendly. This is sometimes confusing, but it has also made me more flexible and open to other ways of doing things.
Special remote workstations
Over the past few months, I have traveled extensively through Chile. From the world’s driest desert in the north, to the rugged, unspoiled nature of Patagonia in the south. Chile is narrow enough to drive from beach to mountains within a few hours. This makes it an ideal country to work from many different places.
If there is no wifi or it does not work optimally, I use the hotspot on my phone with a local SIM card. In most places this works fine, but there are also plenty of remote places with zero coverage. Therefore, I always check the connection before I want to work somewhere or have an online meeting. Rather in a coffee shop in the village than working from a beautiful viewpoint without internet.
The time difference has actually become an advantage for me. When I start my day, it is already past lunchtime in the Netherlands. My mornings start with meetings and the rest of the day I work undisturbed. No more incoming e-mails or emails, because in Holland the working day is already over. And when Holland starts up the next morning, the project is already one step ahead. In this way, we continuously build on each other.
What remote work in Chile got me
Looking back on the first few months, this life is starting to get more and more accustomed. Chile is a country full of contrasts, friendly people and impressive nature. Working remotely and freelancing has brought me so much freedom. Of course there are still deadlines. But around that, I experience the space to decide where I work, when I work and how I schedule my days. And perhaps the most valuable thing about the past few months has been the self-knowledge. When you let go of your familiar surroundings, you soon find out what is really important to you and what you don’t really miss at all.
Next year Australia and New Zealand are still on the schedule, with a stopover in the Netherlands. After that? No concrete plan. And that’s okay. Because what the last few months have also brought me is to not always plan everything ahead, but to dwell a little more on the life you are living right now. You don’t have to plan everything out to still be heading in the right direction.
Want to know more about my adventure or have a question? Follow me on Instagram or send me a message (@sachaboekelder).
Read more about experiences of other digital nomads:
Remote werken in Kenia: mijn tips voor andere digital nomads
