06 Nov All because 2020

As early as autumn 2019, we began making plans to spend 2021 abroad. It’s been a decade-long goal of mine to return to Europe to live for roughly 12-18 months for the ability to cheaply travel within the continent – Prague was at the top of our list in the early days of 2020. We had already decided not to renew our season ski passes for the Winter 2020-21 season, and I was in the process of researching Freelancer / Contractor visas in various countries.

But you all know what happened next… and we certainly were among the millions to have our goals, jobs, lives turned upside down by this global pandemic. In that sense – we’re extremely lucky. My business has been largely unchanged, if not growing in 2021. I’m entering my 6th year of working from home, full-time, as a self-employed Graphic & Web Designer. Now more than ever I’m so happy I made the leap to start working for myself when we moved to Denver. Aside from a few weeks of radio silence in late March and early April, my clients (old and new) still need websites.

Aaron was six-weeks returned to one of his first Denver employers, the beloved Green Russell, when all of Colorado’s bars and restaurants were shut down for a 2-month minimum. By a weird stroke of coincidence, just hours before the closing order was announced, Aaron had heard back that he could start part-time with a grounds maintenance & landscaping crew. We could breathe a little, and potentially just ride this all out.

Towards the end of July, as landscaping hours slowed, Aaron found another gig to keep himself occupied and receiving a steady paycheck through the fall: the first Denver franchise of MeninKilts.com. Aaron was already a fan of wearing a good kilt, his boss seemed a decent guy, the work was, well gutters and windows and power washing. But it was work and this is 2020, after all.

Come September we began looking forward to winter. Aaron scoped out the bartending opportunities in various ski towns — seeing more openings than in years prior and since the federal halt of foreign work visas, we knew there might be a slight gap filling the industry. But as Aaron applied to Hotel Jerome in Aspen and Ragnars atop Steamboat, I tried to figure out the feasibility of moving to the high country. It was not reassuring. Housing is scarce and well above Denver costs. Could we survive on the local bus system? Probably…

I kept coming back to the foundation of our Europe plan: to move where we could maintain an equal or lower cost of living than what we currently have here in Denver, while not giving up our perfectly cheap Denver apartment… a VERY tall order. Another factor was the actual state of Aaron’s career. Should he keep pursuing bartending in a masked, distanced, app-ordering world? Or take a hint from this global toss-up and start on something new? And while I’m staring at bus routes and craigslist apartment listings, Aaron sends me a link for a WWOOF opportunity in Northern Patagonia, Chile. We’d heard of WWOOFing before from a couple friends who were able to go to New Zealand a few years back, and Aaron’s brother had recently completed a work-stay month on a farm outside the Twin Cities.

WWOOF stands for WorldWide Opportunities on Organic Farms. It’s a network of farms and homesteads that offer lodging in exchange for work. The type of work and lodgings vary and the network is global. The particular listing Aaron sent was for an eco-tourist lodge in Chile, where the workers stayed in their own remodeled shipping containers that dotted the property with full length walls of glass, overlooking the “Switzerland of Chile” region.

“So… All we have to do is get ourselves there?”
“Food & lodging are included in the work exchange… ”
“Is Chile even accepting Americans?”

… definitely NOT.

WWOOFing had crossed our minds in the past – but in pre-2020 time it was hard for Aaron to give up a real salary in exchange for no salary, oh and I had an elderly cat, Flannel, that would have to accompany me on any and all travel / moving plans (most farms don’t allow pets). But here we were, facing another season in Denver of uncertain work for Aaron, plugging away at a non-existent career path, while I suffered through, for the first time in my life, an international travel ban on Americans for 95% of the world. My soul felt claustrophobic. And this could be a chance to get out, and go somewhere. Plus Flannel crossed his rainbow bridge to the other side in April, further devastating our stay-at-home ordered spring & summer.

Aaron and I stumbled on the Chile WWOOF listing on Tuesday, September 8th. By the 10th, we were consumed with researching in spare moments, and I decided on the bar I would tentatively set for this journey: winter in Hawaii, summer in Alaska… possibly 1-2 other locations for spring and fall, but winter in HAWAII. summer in ALASKA. Two bucket-list places, within US borders, that I’ve never been. Six days later, Aaron had signed up for our first profile so we could see full listings, and by Sept 17th, we were contacting hosts. The immediate excitement, joy, intrigue we felt in those first days reassured us we were on to something REAL, and we should definitely keep chasing that idea down. I narrowed our Hawaii criteria to the island I’d heard was “the best” — Kauai. Aaron wanted to focus our listings on those with permaculture practices, organic farming, and sustainability.

On Oct 2nd, we heard back from one of our top choices – a 3 acre permaculture farm on the north shore of Kauai. We scheduled a phone interview for a few days later, then got our offer and booked our flights a week later.

It’s been a whirlwind two months. But nothing has ever felt easier, has ever come together so smoothly for me. We found a reliable sublet, we booked a tiny storage unit for our clothes, bikes, personal items. We are still plenty nervous some catastrophe might throw a wrench & halt everything, given the year we’ve had. But so far, so good. We leave in 9 days: Nov 16th.. to live and work on a farm, just outside Kilauea, on the island of Kauai, in the state of Hawaii, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

All because 2020.