From corporate in Spain to entrepreneurs and parents in Nicaragua
This Video Series takes us along on the incredible journeys of families who took the plunge. They gave up their lucrative and “safe” corporate careers to swim the vast oceans of the world, live lives on their own terms, grow through the challenges and, ultimately, attain the freedom and connection they were seeking.
Curious about taking your family on the road but don’t know where to start? Learn about our Family Workation program.
Maciej and his partner Matilde met in Spain where he worked as a press photographer and she moved from Italy to work in an NGO. Disillusioned with the corporate life of "all work and no play," they took the radical step of moving to Central America. Driven by their love for surfing and a desire to live a live of freedom and connection, they stayed and created businesses where they acted as "bridges" between the locals and tourists and expats.
Maciej: I found myself pretty excited about going to a place that I didn't know at all to know people I didn't know at all in order to start building another life from the foundation. So yeah, much, much more alive.
We met in my hometown while she was doing an internship. And then we decided to travel the world. We went to Peru for one year when I was shooting a documentary on percussion - Peruvian cajon - we got hooked on surfing… In Nicaragua, we set up a tourism agency. We were there leaving for four years and a half, almost five years, when we decided to move back to Europe for the safety of Europe. We wanted to go close to the sea. Finally, we found this amazing place in Ericeira and we decided to move in 2019.
Maria actually she was conceived in Ankara in Turkey. She was born in Galicia and Maël was conceived in Las Penitas, Leon Nicaragua. And he was born in Malaga.
Matilde: [This experience] is so enriching for them, because they adapt so easily to different reality - much easier and faster than us - for languages, for culture, for making friends.
Maciej: We wanted to do something together and build something together because she was working for an NGO I was working freelance as a photographer.
Matilde: The European lifestyle can feel like a discipline, or a routine in which it can be very difficult to combine work and personal time and family time. This is why we decided to travel and when you’re traveling, you have to be open all the time to things unfolding so you're not shaped by the frame so you can kind of reinvent yourself every day. And in that regard, having that kind of approach in a relationship with the children, you are not so affected by conventions….
Maciej: If you're stressed by work, if you're stressed by rush hours in the car, if you're stressed by the subway, people pushing, you big cities, and all those things - that's what you're going to give to your children. We feel trapped in that mindset, not only familiar but social, so whenever we find ourselves struggling to get adapted to a new place, or maybe get integrated into a new reality, we're pushing ourselves, pushing our own limits and breaking our comfort zones one after another and they get that.
Matilde: When we arrived here, Maria, had to start school and she didn't speak Portuguese, she didn't have friends. She was very scared. After less than one month she was very well integrated. And when we asked her, “Do you remember how you felt before? Can you see how you feel now? She's like “WOW, yes I did it! I can do it!” This has taught them to overcome limits and to see that they have the power to do it.
Life is long and it has different stages so do what you feel you want to do with your kids and it's going to be great. If you feel you have to stay calm for a period, stay calm and if you feel like you need to move just move.
Maciej: Rather than staying safe and bored in a place that I didn't like and that didn't have much to offer, we find ourselves having time for work, having time for children, and having time for ourselves. We like to act like bridges, because we are not from here but we know the local reality. So whenever we host tourists or we show the place to people not from here, we are able to make the connection.