A Digital Nomad's Life - 2021 Edition

As the year draws to a close, I thought it would be fun to share photos of all of the places that have served as my "office" during 2021. Call this "A View from My Laptop" if you will.

January

I rang in the New Year in Puyo, in the Amazonia region of Ecuador. My soon-to-be husband and I stayed at his brother and sister-in-law's home, and I worked at their dining table on the second floor with a view of the neighbor's chickens below, the main cemetery on a nearby hilltop, and the Andes Mountains on the horizon.

Working from home in Puyo.

We then spent a few weeks in Guayaquil, finalizing all the documents and legal processes required for us to get married. We stayed at Hotel 9 de Octubre, where I worked at the desk in our standard hotel room. As per the name, the hotel fronts the busy main thoroughfare in the city center, and you never know what you might see on the sidewalk and street below.

Avenida 9 de Octubre in Guayaquil's historic city center.

We flew home to San Cristóbal Island, Galápagos in late January. We initially stayed at my husband's tiny ground-floor apartment, which did not have a suitable place for me to work. Thus I spent most days at CiberMarcus, a basic internet cafe run by the resident computer expert. Their 1024 Kbps download speed (yes, you read that right, that’s only 1 Mbps!) was the fastest publicly accessible internet on the island.

I trekked across town to work here most days.

February

We moved into our new third-floor apartment on February 5 but it did not have a pre-existing internet connection. After researching options for setting up service, installation was projected for early March. In the meantime, I tethered my laptop to my phone’s T-Mobile service, and made almost-daily trips to CiberMarcus. We also bought new furniture, including a proper desk and chair so I could, eventually, work from home.

The view from my desk at our new apartment.

March to Mid-August

Our new fiber optic line was installed on March 5, but for $150/month iFotoncorp only provided 768 Kbps download speed. Remember, all internet on the islands comes from satellites, and if it’s a particularly overcast or windy day, you will probably lose the connection entirely. I found myself working twice as long to do the same work I could do, with better/faster internet, in half the time. There were too many days when I screamed, cried, and literally was pulling my hair out because I lost hours of work when the connection failed and whatever I was working on didn’t save or upload properly. At least I had a beautiful view from my desk in Barrio Peñas Bajas!

Sunset in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno.

Mid-August through September

Due to some new, concerning health issues with my husband, and an upcoming work project that would require far better internet than exists in Galápagos, we flew to the mainland on August 18. We spent the first month and a half (until October 4) in a third-floor apartment in Manglaralto, a small community on the coast, three hours northeast from Guayaquil. The apartment had a sizeable balcony with unobstructed ocean views, however the weather was not often amenable to sitting outside. Thus I spent way too many hours working from a table squeezed into the cramped kitchen area.

A rare sunny day in Manglaralto in September.

October to Mid-November

We returned to Guayaquil at the beginning of the month to seek medical treatment for my husband and, not knowing exactly what that would entail, we booked two weeks in a sprawling 4-bedroom, 5-bath sixth-floor apartment in the city center. I set up my office at the dining table in the main living room, where I had an expansive view of the cityscape and the Carmen and Santa Ana hills in the distance.

A desk with a view is always desirable!

Unfortunately, the apartment was already booked beyond our stay, so we were forced to move again on October 16. This time we rented a 2-bedroom third-floor apartment in the Nueva Kennedy neighborhood of north Guayaquil. The second bedroom, modified to include a plastic folding table and chair, served as my office. It came with a view of the neighboring houses, the planes departing from Guayaquil airport (the apartment was directly in the flight path), and San Eduardo hill in the distance.

Watching World Cup qualifying games in November.

The last two weeks of November

After an extremely difficult month of medical interventions and insurance drama, we decided to take a break from the stress of the city and returned to the coast on November 17. We rented a small, 2-bedroom house in Olón for two weeks. I set up my office at the dining table in the main living room and, while there were a couple of windows, there was no view to speak of because of the cinder block wall and fencing that surrounds the house.

When the chairs don't match the height of the table...

December

With no definite plans for further medical treatment due to ongoing insurance issues, we decided to stay on the coast a bit longer. The house in Olón was too closed-in for my taste and was also expensive by Ecuador standards, so on December 1 we moved yet again, this time to a third-floor mini-suite (i.e. a basic hotel room with an outdoor kitchen) on a hillside in the La Punta area of Montañita. My office was primarily the outdoor dining table, as the only other alternative was the bed. Due to the trees, I didn't have a great view of the ocean, but at least I could hear the surf and observe lots of birds, other wildlife (squirrels, iguanas) and the free range cattle that roam this part of the coast.

My outdoor office in Montañita.

On December 20, we returned to Guayaquil to get our required PCR tests before flying home to Galápagos for the holidays. We spent two nights in our go-to hotel, 9 de Octubre.

Sunset from Room 523.

Thus, for the last week of the year, I actually got to use my own desk again, and am better equipped to work from home using the Claro SIM card I picked up on the mainland. I still only average around 2 Mbps download speed, but so far it has been enough to work (and write this blog post!), so I'm good with that.

Happy Holidays from Galápagos!!!

An Update from Ecuador

I haven’t been doing much of anything focused on me personally for what seems like forever. Outside of work, all of my spare time has been spent dealing with my husband’s insurance or doctor appointments, trying to make plans for the future, and completing the day-to-day chores of buying groceries, paying bills, and dealing with the typical challenges of life in Ecuador. As such, I also now realize that many of you who follow me here on my blog or on social media don’t know the full story of what has happened over the past few months.

Our week on the Samba was the highlight of this year.

Fabian has essentially been sick in some form or another since shortly after we went on our Galápagos honeymoon cruise in July. Even then he wasn't feeling 100% but, despite keeping records of the dates of illness and his various symptoms, I just didn’t consider that it could be anything really serious. He, of course, downplayed the severity of the pain and/or attributed the brief spurts of illness to environmental factors like surfing in cold water, seasonal allergies, or using an air conditioner in our bedroom.

But then he had his worst “attack” yet in early August, during which he ran a fever of 101 for almost 72 hours, had upper abdominal pain so severe that he could not stand up, was constantly spitting yellowish phlegm, and, in the end, vomited blood. At that point I insisted we go to the emergency room, but he assured me that he was already feeling better, and besides, what would they do anyway -- while the hospital on San Cristóbal Island is modern, there are limited diagnostic tools and no specialists.

Our last sunset on the island in mid-August.

He did turn the corner that day, but after months of being worried about his health, it was the final straw for me. That, in combination with the demands of my job and, specifically, the lack of high speed internet on the islands, cemented our decision to come back to the mainland.

We searched for and booked an apartment via Facebook Messenger with someone in the expat community and flew to Guayaquil on August 18. We decided to stay on the coast for the first month, because we were in the process of applying for private health insurance for Fabian, and we knew that the waiting period for coverage to kick in was 30 days. So there was no point being in the city, although it did concern me that the nearest full-service hospital was more than two hours away.

There were few sunny days on the coast in September,
but I worked outside when I could.

Throughout our time in Manglaralto we laid low and were super-vigilant over Fabian’s health, especially since he was then suffering from yet another new illness -- some type of inflammatory response that caused an itching sensation all over his body but with no visible signs of infection. We went to multiple pharmacies, tried countless creams and pills, and consulted our friends with medical training. For one entire week, Fabian followed a variation of the BRAT diet, eating nothing but rice, bananas, boiled potatoes, lentils, and baked chicken. But the symptoms persisted for an entire month.

This is how we travel from the coast to the city, a 3-hour ride.

Not wanting to delay seeking medical treatment any longer, we rented an apartment in Guayaquil’s city center for the first two weeks of October and made a series of appointments at the Centro Médico de la Clínica Panamericana. Thus, by the 6th of the month, we had the first definitive diagnosis: Fabian’s gallbladder was full of gallstones and immediate surgery was recommended. Unfortunately, we were not impressed with the administration or facilities at the Panamericana, so we started researching other, more exclusive, private hospitals to ensure a better standard of care for his treatment.

In the meantime, we were in touch with our insurance broker on an almost-daily basis, verifying coverage, policy details, and the process for making claims. She reassured us that, if needed, we could go to the ER at any time and everything would be covered and, if it was not an emergency, we could schedule the surgery for 60 days from policy initiation (so, November 1) and it would be 90% covered as per our plan.

Based on that information and the results from all of the tests done at the Panamericana, we made an appointment with a gastroenterologist affiliated with the well-regarded, fully private, Hospital Clínica Kennedy. During his thorough exam and review of the test results, which also led to a diagnosis of chronic gastritis and a significant bacterial infection, he recommended that we go to the ER should Fabian have even the slightest hint of stomach pain. Thus, in anticipation of his impending surgery and multi-week recovery, we moved to another apartment within walking distance of the hospital. And, a few days later, on October 18, we went to the ER.

Fabian's first day ever as a hospital patient.

This is the point in the story that, even more than one month later, it’s hard not to scream and cry in frustration. Because, in spite of all our efforts to do everything right, Fabian has still not had surgery.

It turns out that our broker, a woman who has made a name for herself among the expat population in Ecuador for helping them get insurance and navigate the healthcare system, provided us with incorrect information from the beginning. The first, and perhaps most egregious error, is that she continued to insist, even as I sat in the administration office of Kennedy Hospital and had them call Humana (the insurance company), that Fabian’s ER visit and subsequent hospitalization were fully covered by his policy. When, in fact, ER visits are only covered up to $500 and the hospitalization (and surgery) would not be covered at all, because he was still within the waiting period. And second, she reconfirmed that the policy covered hospitalization after 60 days, but the reality is that it has a 90 day waiting period.

By the time I discovered the administrative errors, Fabian had already been in the hospital for 24 hours and was scheduled for surgery a few hours later. The hospital bill, almost all of which would have to be paid out of pocket, was already around $2,000 and would double or triple if he had surgery. So I made one of the hardest decisions of my life by deciding to forego his treatment, and I took him home.

In the month since then, the worry and stress over what has happened have, at times, felt insurmountable. And to make things worse, the insurance broker refuses to take responsibility for her failure at all levels, for which she has now cost us over $3,000. Yes, we can take her to court, and considering we have written and audio evidence to back up our claims I think we would win, but the Ecuadorian legal system is notoriously dysfunctional and corrupt, and I’m just not sure it’s worth the effort. Not only that, but there are strong libel laws here, so I can’t publicly denounce her as I would risk the possibility that she could sue me for slander.

As we had already paid for the apartment (a nonrefundable Airbnb in the Kennedy neighborhood of Guayaquil), we hunkered down for the remainder of our time there and, besides me staying busy as always with work, tried to focus on keeping Fabian healthy, while occasionally enjoying an evening out watching a soccer game or visiting with friends.

At the Barcelona SC museum in Guayaquil.

We also scheduled a few more medical checkups that were covered by insurance, but that resulted in more diagnoses: pterygium (a growth on both eyes that requires surgery to remove); ringworm (a skin rash caused by fungal infection -- no worm involved); and xerosis (excessively dry skin which contributes to the itching sensation).

You may be wondering about a few things, like if Fabian has always had these illnesses. The answer is both yes and no -- yes, because he has had similar symptoms in the past, long before I met him; and no, because he has never been to a doctor, at least not on a regular basis, and thus never diagnosed or treated for them.

That leads to the next question: What about Ecuador’s free public health system? Yes, the country does have free public healthcare, but it’s really only useful for emergencies and the standard of care is generally very low. Anything that’s not a life-threatening emergency requires waiting weeks or months for treatment, post-op care is an afterthought, and medications are not covered. And if it was an emergency, the operation would not be laparoscopic -- it would be a full incision with more risk of complications and much longer recovery time.

Which brings us back to Galápagos. As it happens, we have a good friend in San Cristobal who is friends with the surgeon who works at the hospital on the island. And the surgeon is now qualified to perform laparoscopic surgeries! While there are still no specialists and no in-network insurance coverage (meaning everything must be paid out of pocket and we can apply for reimbursement), the reality is that if Fabian has another gallbladder attack, we can go to the ER at the public hospital there and have the surgery for free. True, it would not be a good situation if there are complications, as we would have to fly him to the mainland for further treatment, but it’s a risk we’re willing to take right now.

Happy to be surfing after more than six weeks in the city.

So with that in mind, we came back to the coast, as we needed an escape from the confinement, noise, traffic, and ever-present threat of crime in the city, but cannot go back to the islands just yet because of my work responsibilities. We rented a small house in Olón for a couple of weeks, but are moving to a mini-suite (basic hotel room with outdoor kitchen and view of the ocean) at a hotel in Montañita on December 1. We will stay there until the 21st, when we’ll take the bus back to Guayaquil and spend one night out by the airport, then fly to San Cristóbal on the 22nd.

That means Christmas and New Year in Galápagos!!! There are still many challenges ahead, and plenty of uncertainties. And we'll definitely have to come back to the mainland in the early part of 2022 for the eye surgery and further medical treatment. But, for now, I am thankful to have a short-term plan and that we can look forward to the holidays at home with our friends, not to mention the sea lions and blue-footed boobies.

We're hoping to see this again sooner than later!

We're Crowdfunding Our Honeymoon!

Dear blog readers and followers of my excellent adventures,

Fabian and I celebrated our three-month wedding anniversary on April 12. Since announcing our marriage in January, many of our family members and friends all over the world have asked how they can send us wedding gifts. Initially, we were telling people to wait until they can come visit us. We now realize that for many people that won’t be possible anytime soon, and for others, it’s just not possible at all. Also, the cost of sending a tangible gift to Ecuador is prohibitively expensive due to international shipping costs and high import taxes. So with that in mind, we decided to crowdfund our honeymoon!

Due to the pandemic and complications of traveling outside of the islands at the moment, we have decided to keep our adventures closer to home. Fortunately, we live in one of the most unique places in the world for exploring and experiencing nature, the Galápagos Islands!

While we have both had a chance (me in 2019, Fabian over the past 25 years) to visit many wonderful places in the Galápagos, there are still many more neither of us has ever been. That is why we have decided to go on a very unique cruise on the Samba Yacht. It's the only boat that visits Marchena Island, and the only cruise that operates this particular route, which goes to a total of 12 places we have never visited before!

We have included more details about the boat and the itinerary in our Honeyfund wish list. We've divided the cruise into daily activities and categories of expenses so you can easily choose for what exactly you'd like to contribute to our dream honeymoon.

Thanks so much in advance for your love and support, and for helping us make our dream a reality. We can't wait to share our honeymoon (well, the photos anyway) with you!

Our Honeyfund Registry

The Challenge of Being a Digital Nomad in the Galápagos

I'll start this post by asking you to try to overlook the fact that I haven't published anything here since early December when I wrote an introductory post about the process of getting my residency visa for Ecuador. An incredible number of things have happened in the past three months: I traveled across the country (from the coast where I was living in Olón, to the Amazonia region of Ecuador) for the holidays, ended up living in a hotel in Guayaquil for three weeks while waiting on legal documents, and I also got married!!! Yes, I know, I've got a lot of explaining to do! 😇 Then, exactly one month ago today, I moved to the Galápagos. I've been posting photos somewhat regularly on my social media accounts and, for now, that continues to be the best way to stay up to date on my adventures.

So, with that being said, and assuming you've seen some of my recent photos of the beautiful scenery and wildlife that is viewable from where I'm sitting at my desk while writing this post, let me tell you about one of the biggest challenges of life in the Galápagos Islands.

Why It's Hard to Be a Digital Nomad in the Galápagos

As a digital nomad who relies on a steady internet connection to do my work for Groundhopper Soccer Guides and Bumerang180, to say that it has been challenging to get anything done since I landed on San Cristóbal a month ago is a total understatement.

Keep in mind that the Galápagos Islands are 600 miles from the mainland. Currently, all internet connections are via O3b satellite. In May 2020, the President of Ecuador announced that Galápagos Cable Systems would construct a submarine cable from Manta to the Galápagos, bringing 4G and 5G service to the islands. However, I cannot find any recent news about the company or the project, other than allegations of fraud that the contract was awarded without proper bidding.

Ecuadorian Ministry of Telecommunications announcement in May 2020

As I have mentioned in several of my social media posts since moving to San Cristóbal, I still do not have internet service at home. Thus, in order to work, I have to use my cell phone as a mobile hotspot (I have a US-based T-Mobile business plan with unlimited international data) or walk across town to the cyber café and pay $1.50/hour to use their WiFi.

Now you may be wondering why it would take so long to get home internet? The simplest explanation is that the only way to get the minimum speed required to do my job (without wasting literally hours per day waiting for webpages to load) is with fiber optic service. And to get that type of service there are only a few options, none of which are cheap, and all of which require setting up a business plan and getting on a waitlist for installation.

First, for a simple explanation of what the technical terms mentioned below mean and why speed matters, read this article: How much speed do I need?

Internet Options in San Cristóbal, Galápagos

There are mobile internet plans, but service is not reliable and speeds are comparable to what I’m getting on my phone currently (see below).

The only “traditional” internet service on this island is provided by government-owned CNT. You have to go to their office, wait in line outside, and then finally speak (from six feet away while wearing a mask) with one of the two employees who handle contracts. Besides being almost impossible to hear/understand them, they have not been very helpful (I ended up going a total of four times!). Their residential service requires having a landline telephone which costs about $12/month. Then you have to pay a one-time $60 fee for internet installation. The maximum bandwidth possible is 512 Kbps. Internet service costs approximately $35/month.

CNT's process is that once you provide all of the necessary documentation (including the names and landline phone numbers of the neighbors), they come to your house to verify that they can actually do the installation. The quoted timeline for this was 72 hours to 10 days. But honestly, why bother, when the absolute maximum speed is 512 Kbps?! I have tested their home internet service at several friends' houses here and was unable to load my work-related applications.

CNT also offers business internet. Their 512/256 Kbps plan (the cheapest available) is via copper line, has 4:1 sharing, requires a 24-month contract and costs $152/month, taxes not included, plus a $100 inscription fee. Their cheapest fiber optic plan is 3 x 1 Mbps and costs $849/month (no, that's not a typo!).

Puntonet is a 20-year-old company based in continental Ecuador who partnered with Speedcast in 2019 to bring fiber optic internet to the Galápagos. They have an office in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island. All of my communication with them was done via WhatsApp. Their cheapest plan at 1024/384 Kbps costs $295/month with a one-time $450 (again, not a typo!) installation fee. At those prices, I immediately nixed them from the list of possibilities.

ifotoncorp is a brand new fiber optic company based in Santa Cruz. A friend of ours told me about them the first week that we arrived on the island. I reached out to them immediately via their online contact form as well as WhatsApp, but they told me the earliest they could come to San Cristóbal to do an installation would be “in about a month.” Why the long delay? Besides the fact that they are busy doing installations in Santa Cruz, they are also waiting for more equipment to arrive via cargo ship! Their cheapest plan has 512/256 Kbps bandwidth and 8-to-1 sharing. It costs $85/month plus a one-time $100 installation fee.

Internet Speeds in the Galápagos

To give you an example of what I've been getting by with the past month:

Here at the apartment using my T-Mobile phone service (which "borrows" the signal of local providers, in my case, Claro) my ping rate is 750 ms and my download speed is typically around 0.17 Mbps (170 Kbps).

At the cyber café, which has a business plan with CNT, I ran the same speed test and the ping rate was 346 ms, with a download speed of 1.0 Mbps.

The struggle is real, people!!! As my friend Paul said the last time we talked, it’s like I’m living in the 1990s. And he's right! Be sure to check out this fascinating infographic about the history of internet speed, courtesy of Entrepreneur.com, excerpted below.

Internet speeds and prices in the U.S. in 2013

Now let’s do a fun experiment. Go to speedtest.net and click the "GO" button. Then reply in the comments (here on the blog or on any of my social media accounts where I've shared this post) with your download speed. Be sure to clarify if your number is in Kbps, Mbps, or Gbps. If you want to include a screenshot of your test results, that would be awesome!

Oh, and in case you're wondering what I ultimately decided to do about my internet service... I am on ifotoncorp's list of fiber optic installations when they come to San Cristóbal next week! Stay tuned to find out what happens.

The cargo ship, anchored near Punta Carola, San Cristóbal,
that was carrying the internet equipment for ifotoncorp.