PODCAST: THE WORLD WANDERERS

Our featured podcast is brimming with travel inspiration and information… Amanda and Ryan introduce us to the World Wanderers Podcast.

Tell us more about The World Wanderers Podcast and what inspired you to begin it?

The World Wanderers is a podcast about travel and travel as a lifestyle that we started in 2014, after returning to Canada from a backpacking trip in South America. We started traveling together in 2011 after we graduated University, and completely fell in love with the freedom and adventure it provided us. Traveling was when we felt most alive! We returned to Canada, got jobs, and started the corporate grind. We quickly realized that that wasn’t for us and began saving for our next trip. Two years later, we had quit our jobs, sold our stuff, and were on a plane to Bogota, Colombia!

Our trip to South America was different from our first trip. South America was about really diving deep into who we were, and discovering what excited us. We returned home, moved to the mountains, changed jobs, and started a podcast, with the intention of figuring out how to blend work and travel. We set out as full-time digital nomads 2 years later in 2016!

The last 6 years of the podcast has been a documentation of our travels, like an in-depth travel journal. We share stories from all the destinations we’ve been to, we share practical tips about traveling, booking accommodation and working on the road, and we interview like-minded guests who are equally passionate about travel. If you like travel, and are interested in making travel a bigger part of your life, we’re sure you’ll love the show!

What has been your greatest adventure to date?

We have two! The first is our trip to South America. This was not only a huge adventure in terms of the places we went and the things we did, but it was also a deeply transformative time. Our lives truly changed on this trip and we wouldn’t be where we are today without it.

The second is moving to Mexico City in 2017. Although we had traveled all over the world by that point, we had only ever lived in Canada and the US and moving to Mexico felt very outside of our comfort zones. Amanda, especially, was really uncertain about it. Within 24 hours of being in Mexico City, we felt totally at home and Mexico City remains one of our favourite places in the world to this day. 

What has been the toughest challenge you’ve ever taken on?

Quitting our corporate jobs to pursue our dream to travel, and then making the decision to change our lives in a big way so that we could work and travel long-term was both the hardest and easiest decisions we’ve ever made. 

Even though we knew it was right for us, the decision to do something different from what our friend group was doing and what our families expected of us was hard. It’s always hard to go against the grain, even if you know deep in your soul that it’s the right thing for you. 

Looking back now, quitting our corporate jobs was one of the best moves we personally made and we don’t regret it at all, but it was challenging to come to that decision. Quite honestly, it remained hard for a few years as we worked minimum wage jobs while trying to build a business to the point where we could set out as nomads.

Now that we can make a sustainable income anywhere in the world that has wifi, we know that every hard moment was worth it. 

Where is your favourite place on earth?

This is a hard one! We’re going with Lake O’Hara, BC. 

Close seconds to Lake O’Hara are Moraine Lake in Banff National Park (on a day with no tourists), La Roma on a spring day in Mexico City, and sipping wine in Ryan’s parents backyard in Naramata, BC, looking out on over Okanagan Lake. We love to travel, but we know we are super lucky to call Western Canada home! 

Do you currently have any adventures planned you can tell us about?

It’s been a weird time to plan adventures, but we are hoping to head to Mexico at some point over Canadian winter and we are going to Japan in the spring (if Japan opens their borders back up!).

What does adventure mean to you?

Adventure to us is exploring all corners of the world, meeting new people, trying new foods, and doing things that make us feel outside of our comfort zones. 

You can catch up with the World Wanderers podcast on Apple Podcasts. Don’t forget to leave a review!