We’re escaping the office! Digital nomad van life along the Pan-American Highway

We’re Malea and Raphaël, two digital nomads from the U.S. and France.

We decided that the typical 9 to 5 work city lifestyle, full of stress, pollution, and traffic jams, was not for us anymore. Instead, we wanted to really live life by traveling the world, seing beautiful sunsets, sleeping on deserted beaches, meeting different cultures, their people, food and art. We are now on a quest to find true happiness, which we think starts with a better work-life balance than the one we used to have.

The concept of “van life” fascinates us, so we decided to try it for ourselves while exploring the world together. We bought a legendary VW Vanagon Westfalia, named it “Dino” (for Digital Nomad), and embarked on an epic road trip.

We started in the U.S. and are now following the Pan-American Highway through Central and South America. It is a good opportunity to push the limits of the remote work lifestyle a bit further.

That’s why we’re launching Follow The Sol, our new blog, which replaces Raphaël’s previous one codam.io.

“Follow The Sol” is the contraction of “follow the soul” and “follow the sun.” It is about the call of our soul asking us to follow our own sun.
It is about the call of our intuition asking us to realize our dreams.
It is about putting our inner purpose in line with our outer actions.
It aims to inspire you to realize your dreams, so you can find balance and true happiness in your lives.
Don’t wait too long, time is counted, don’t waste it!

In this blog, we will talk about travel, van life, remote work, connection with nature, food, surf, yoga, and meditation. And there will be poetry too!

We also want to put a strong focus on environmental sustainability. A solar panel is installed on the rooftop of the van, which we are using to power our laptops and phones. In order to embrace a minimalist lifestyle, we took only the necessary belongings. We also focus on sustainable and locally grown food, and are supporting whatever green initiatives we meet on the road. And even though our van is 30 years old, we have had the engine fully tended to in order to minimize its exhaust gas emissions. Yes we know, it’s a Volkswagen :)

If you want to follow our adventures, subscribe to our mailing list, and follow us on facebook, instagram & twitter.

…and listen to your soul and follow your own sun!

Originally published at followthesol.com on March 18, 2016.