Amelia And JP Origin Story
Expats & Slow Travelers
We were living the dream. We owned a nice house in the suburbs of Denver, Colorado. We drove nice cars. We had a nice, conventional life. But then everything changed.
One afternoon, while walking Daisy around the neighborhood, I found it increasingly difficult to lift my feet. My legs felt heavier and heavier with each step.
I had noticed some strange nerve sensations over the previous few months, but never weakness like this.
Struggling to walk, I finally made it home and called Amelia, then my doctor. An hour later, I was in the doctor’s office getting my blood drawn.
They ran a battery of tests to see if I had ALS or some other terrifying neurological disease. My life flashed before my eyes. Luckily, those tests came back negative.
The next step was an MRI, which revealed a shattered disc in my neck that had nearly pinched off my spinal cord, plus 3 pancaked discs in my lower back.
Soon after, I was in emergency surgery to replace the disc in my neck, and four months later I was in surgery again for a 5-level lumbar fusion.
My spine was literally falling apart at age 43 and my life would never be the same.
Shattered Cervical Disc & Replacement
5-Level Lumbar Fusion w/ Pelvic Screws
Those two surgeries cost nearly ONE MILLION DOLLARS! My insurance covered most of it, right before they dropped me. My new insurance was going to cost $1,200/month.
After being out of work for almost a year while I relearned how to walk and manage the pain, that was simply unaffordable. We didn’t know what to do.
The whole experience made us take stock of our lives. We asked ourselves if any of it really mattered. The house? The cars? The dream?
We were given the gift of more life just when we thought it was about to end, and we didn’t want to waste it.
That’s when we made the decision to sell everything we owned, move to South America with our two dogs, and live a higher quality of life for a lower cost of living.
We chose Ecuador for a variety of reasons, one being the excellent, affordable healthcare, which is something I have to think about for the rest of my life.
After living in Ecuador for a year, we decided to start sharing our story and our lives on YouTube.
We wanted to encourage other people to take a risk. To live a different, more intentional and meaningful life.
Since we first pressed record on my camera in 2018, we’ve shared several hundred videos about our Unconventional Life in Ecuador and our travels to other countries.
We work online and do what we want, when we want and where we want. The time and location freedom that we enjoy every day has been life changing.
We never thought we’d be here, and yet, here we are. And you can, too.
Now, our goal is to show you what’s possible when you think outside the borders (and the hamster wheel).
