Hello 🇵🇷Puerto Rico!
My day started at 3:30am this morning. We're on a family adventure and got an airline sunrise for our troubles.
We're house hunting in Puerto Rico.
Last year my friend @sean-king moved to Puerto Rico. What started as a Facebook message in June of 2017 has now come full circle:
Due to hurricane Maria, our November 2017 travel plans had to be rescheduled so we came in March 2018 instead which you can read all about here:
- Our First Day in Puerto Rico!
- Brock Pierce discussing Puerto Rico and plans to build the future in the present
- Laryngitis: Parenting Without Talking is Hard.
- Watching Kitesurfing Right Outside My Window
- Tuesday in Old San Juan and Castillo San Cristobal
- Wednesday at the Beach in San Juan, Puerto Rico
- The Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico
- Why I Love Surfers: They Understand Abundance
- Getting Dinner with the Family at Tasca El Pescador in La Placita, San Juan, Puerto Rico
- We're Back in Nashville, and I Already Miss My Friends
Fast forward to today, Tuesday, September 11th 2018, and we're back on this beautiful island with a mission: We're here for a week to find a house to rent or buy with plans to move by the end of the year, assuming all goes well.
Not only did we get the kids up before the sun, we also packed 6 boxes and 4 suitcases full of stuff to store here while we prep for a move. I say "we", but really @corinnestokes did all the work while I was at Burning Man. She's totally awesome.
We had two porters lug all of our stuff to the rental car place, and we were in and out in no time. Within minutes, we were at @sean-king's place where he agreed to store our stuff until we move. This is the view that greeted us when we arived:
We finally got a real meal around 3pm (long day!) and amazingly the kids didn't completely melt down beforehand. We got settled into our AirBNB spot near Caguas after a bit of misdirection from Google Maps. Corinne went out to get us some food for the week but forgot her phone (!!!) and the GPS she has couldn't find the way back. Thankfully she didn't mind stopping at a gas station for directions. Someone wrote her a custom map while someone else agreed to lead her there, keeping their hazard lights on so she wouldn't lose them. People here are amazing!
So tomorrow we start our quest to find a place which we will hopefully some day call home. When we really got serious about this idea to move, our cryptocurrency holdings were worth around 6 times more than they are now. It's been a tough nine months, in that regard, especially because I sold my business and have gone all-in on cryptocurrency as the best path forward for non-violent global consensus with humans everywhere controlling their own store of value.
We're living an adventure which is a little on the edge, but not too much as I already paid off my house using cryptocurrency. I don't want to live my life thinking "What if?" I want to take every opportunity as it presents itself and explore living a life many only dream of. Life can be whatever we make it, if we're willing to do the work and plan ahead.
Adventure is out there. Go find it.
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Good for you Luke, adventure is out there for sure. Best thing I ever did was moving to Cape town for 8 glorious years. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Family commitments brought me back to England.
Great memories are made by taking action. Go for it.
So well said! I love that perspective. Some day we'll visit Cape Town, I'm sure. We'll be visiting London in November on our way to Steemfest3.
If you want the penny 'tour' of London let me know. It's my town. :-) @lukestokes
Aw man, this is just so awesome! You guys are finally doing it! I wish I had the cojones to just uproot and leave. Plus, you have three young kids to take care of too! I have no doubt that all of you will thrive and find your new home in no time. Definitely stoked for your whole family!
Adventure is out there! It's not about cojones as much as doing the hard work of proper planning and preparation. I've worked hard to get where I am and I hope to continue working hard as I enjoy it.
You deserve everything that comes your way, too. I mean, not everyone is lucky enough for their plans to go according to how they envision it no matter how much carefully prepared they were, but it is what it is. We make do with what we get, and we just have to appreciate and take advantage of every opportunity that comes our way. Enjoy the fruits of your labor, man! :D
That is great that you made it there okay. It looks like a really beautiful place. I have heard that the people there are very hospitable and friendly. Looks like it is going to be a great place to call home. That is awesome that you were able to pay off your house with crypto. I think we are all struggling to see the possibility of that during these times, but who knows what tomorrow will bring!!
Yeah, the bear market has been rough, for sure. I really do hope it turns around and we increase the market cap to avoid more volatility in the future.
So far, the people I've met here are amazing.
Oh this great news. Your life is going to transform for you and your family. Also means more surfing :)
YES!
I am so excited about making surfing a regular part of my life again. I'm not sure if I'm going to ship my board from California or if I'll buy a new on here. Haven't decided yet.
Looks great there brotha! I have told my wife the same!! I have seen where Puerto Rico is becoming a new blockchain focused community.. That's what is so exciting, and I want to be a part of it too! Have fun and enjoy this time.
Thanks man! I'm pretty fired up about the possibilities.
Lemme know when you wanna sell/rent a portion of your home to me! Semi-joking, semi-not. Tax stipulation = 6 months out of the year residency, I believe.
Heheh. We are planning to be here permanently, but we're also hoping to get a place where we can host visitors.
Awesome to hear! Congrats, hope the search goes well. If you'd like additional resources, let me know. I can get you in touch with a guy that messes with several pretty large properties in San Juan, pretty close to where Blockchain Unbound was.
Awesome to see you making the move to tax heaven, I can't wait to get back there. Please update us on any progress Brock and the boys have made over the past year. Would love to hear perspectives from someone with boots on the ground on how the locals feel about the whole cryptopia thing.
I haven't connected with that whole crew much (yet), but I'm sure I will over time. I do think getting perspective from the actual locals is hugely important and something everyone coming here should treat very seriously.
Truly inspiring and great to see you guys excited. I loved living in PR for 20 years and frequently go back to visit the family. GPSs are not that great outside of San Juan as the addresses are not as formal in rural areas so be careful before you commit to a long drive depending on a GPS. Great communities in the area you are looking and home prices are down significantly from where they were a decade ago given the economic situation. Happy to help if you have any questions!
Thanks so much! I love hearing from people who've actually done it and it's always a nice bonus when they enjoyed it as well. :)
The house hunting process is a little odd in that everything has to be scheduled between all the realtors, but we're going to figure it out and do the best we can while we're here.
Wow. This is so exciting and cool.
That is what we decided to do in 2011 when we sold everything we owned in Canada and moved to El Salvador and went through some hard times since then, but would not replace anything since we have learned and experienced so much and this is the place where we made the best memories and now we are so happy we made this choice of moving since it is a different world and you realize what life is all about and you live life instead of chasing the money and happiness.
Wish you all the best and I really think you guys will love it and I am so happy for you and your new adventure.
Exciting! Thanks so much for the encouragement and for sharing a bit of your own story. Followed!
What an amazing story and exciting moment for you and your family, Luke! Glad you provided us with the insight, which is damn inspiring. Resteemed
These type of decisions perfectly mirror the spirit of our time where people start to enjoy the real benefits of globalization and technological revolution.
Oh yeah that famous What if? ...
Happy you exchanged it for a Screw it, let's do it. :-)
Sounds great to me! Hahah. I think in many stories like this, people forget about the hard work leading up to it such as four years of turning my code into a company while also working a full-time job. As Dave Ramsey says, you have to live like no one else no so later you can live like no else (meaning, be frugal, save, get out of debt, build wealth, etc so later you can enjoy it).
Very well said.
Best of luck for your endeavor, Luke!
Damn what a picture, followed already 😍