The Life of a Digital Nomad Freelancer

Here are three items that you will need to travel the world as a Digital Nomad. Yes, I included three, and soon, I will add more to the list, but right now, I promise you that these three things are essential.

1. Stock up on items that you need. The things I recommend, but not limited to include contact lenses, soap, shampoo, detergent (if you have sensitive skin), and oils. During the quarantine, what happened to be a 3-day weekend trip turned into over four months. I was in San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala, and daily items I use, such as lotion, soap, shampoo, conditioner, oils, and contact lenses, ran out. Since this is a small town and due to the pandemic the soap I use was few and far between, I searched ten la tiendas (store) before I found one that carried what I needed and purchased all of them. The same-store also had the deodorant that I use. The soap worked out well, and the deodorant did not. The deodorant was terrible. It was expired or from a bad batch. I wondered for weeks why I smelled so bad and would take up to two to three showers a day, low and behold it was the deodorant.Purchasing Contact lenses were a different story; the optometrist quoted me one price. When I went to go back, the price went up by 4x the original amount. With the new price that they quoted me, I could have purchased a year supply of contacts instead of one overpriced pack. 
2. Let’s talk about Hair and Shampoo. Good luck. I have natural hair, so my hair regiment is received with much TLC. I make sure that the product that I put on my hair is clean, and in San Pedro, not so much, there is no product for natural hair and the hair shampoo and conditioner that is used by locals are in the small packages. Many house do not have running water, so the locals will purchase small packages to use when they are in the lake to wash their hair and body. I failed to mention at the beginning of the paragraph. I have extremely sensitive skin, so much so that I can not have any scented soap or laundry detergent touch my whole body, or I will ultimately break out in a rash. 3. Have an International bank account that will change your currency and allow cash pick-ups at banks. Xoom is one of many and a game-changer for me. My debit card went MIA in Antigua, and I had to have money transferred so often using Western Union and Moneygram. I do not recommend Western Union or Moneygram when traveling abroad. Both Western Union and Money are complete headaches. Trust me. Especially in a foreign country and you are not fluent in the language.