Where Next? Travel with Kristen and Carol
Where Next? Travel with Kristen and Carol
Belize - Travel with the Noma Collective
In this episode we meet Calla, Our friend with @nomacollectivehq, Calla, tells us all about the location independent lifestyle that can be found through the short-term trips Noma Collective sets up for remote workers, including beautiful Belize- their flagship destination for remote workers.
Join us on episode #30 of the @wherenextpodcast to learn from Calla on what day-to-day life looks like as a digital nomad. We'll give you a hint: it's not compromising for what makes you happy- you can still be a successful remote worker AND explore cultures, places, and make connections with others
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Hosts
Carol Springer: https://www.instagram.com/carol.work.life
Kristen: https://www.instagram.com/team_wake/
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Hi, welcome to our podcast when Next Travel with Kristen and Carol. I am Kristen and I am Carol, and we're two long-term friends with a passion for travel and adventure. Each episode, we interview people around the globe to help us decide where to go next. In today's episode, we are visiting with Kala, head of community operations at the Noma Collective. In this episode, she will share about their village in Belize. Enjoy. So welcome, kayla from Belize. Hi, nice to meet you. Yeah, first off, where Noma Collective. What's that name from? Like, how did that?
Speaker 2:come about. Our team. We basically took us months to agree on a name. We all had different, you know different thoughts and things and we pulled together a short list of 10. Noma is basically just a shortened version of nomad, but we just like the sound of the word Noma, yeah, and we wanted some sort of a second word that was a reference to a group or like a collection of people, and collective kind of came quite nicely after that. So we had a short list of different names and then we basically sent it out to our alumni and got them to vote and noma collective was the one that the one on top it's a great name, thank you yeah what is it that you do?
Speaker 2:yeah. So basically it's a digital nomad lifestyle, so anyone that's able to work from their laptop, remotely and their job allows them to do that, it kind of it's been it's existed for a while, but definitely during the pandemic it was like, okay, more and more companies are moving remote. Um, once, you know, travel opened up again. What's the reason to stay in your own living room, like when you can travel the world whilst working at the same time?
Speaker 2:You know, and I think we have created that space for people to be able to, you know, bring their job work comfortably from a new location. They find that they a lot of our guests actually find that they're more productive because they're working in beautiful locations and they're like happy with their work, like work-life balance, you know. So they're actually able to do their job better because they're like grateful for the job that allows them to travel as well. And obviously a lot of companies or a lot of places don't allow too much vacation time. So this gives people the opportunity to work and explore new locations at the same time. So, outside of the work hours, we will always have events that basically allow people to explore the areas that we are hosting in too.
Speaker 1:Okay, how? Basically allow people to explore the areas that we, that we are hosting in too? Okay, how, how?
Speaker 2:did you build this life for yourself? That's amazing. So it's actually a bit of a funny story how I was kind of looking for my next role. I knew that I wanted to do something within travel. I knew that I wanted to, you know, work with people in like a sense. And then it was kind of fluky in that a friend of mine was actually launching originally it was a company called Umayah Village. This was back in February last year and you know, we got talking and he spoke about this opportunity and I basically jumped at the chance to, you know, move to Belize and work with people and become the community manager there. And then I've just grown as the business has and you know, move to Belize and work with people and become the community manager there. And then I've just grown as the business has and, you know, continued on the journey with them. So, yeah, basically left my life in London behind, moved to Belize and haven't really looked back since. So you're from London proper, Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yes, that's very cool. Okay, so you grew up there and then did you travel. Growing up, like, how did this stem that you wanted to travel like this?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, growing up, my parents always, you know, they knew it was really important to take if they were able to each year, myself and my brother to a different location so that we get to experience, you know, different cultures and different countries, and we're very lucky to be able to travel a lot as kids. And then as I got older, you know, I already had the bug. So every opportunity I had I would go to different places. I was always, you know, looking for my next destination, but I knew deep down that I wanted to do something where I was able to, you know, travel full time. And whether that was I didn't really know about this digital nomad lifestyle until I got speaking to Jack about it, who was the colleague that I mentioned before. He's the head of marketing. He's an absolute genius when it comes to he runs international music festivals. So you know, his next project was digital nomad life in Belize. That's great.
Speaker 1:So is this your first opportunity Is just what you're doing now. And you just started, did you say February, traveling, yes, yeah. February last year you just started did you say February traveling?
Speaker 2:yes, yeah, february last year and where have you gone so far? So I was in Belize for 16 months because we were actually building uh Umaya Village there. So I was there as the community manager, uh, with uh Eva, who's my colleague as well. So we were kind of managing Belize. And then at the end of October is when we basically launched Noma Collective, which is, um, you know, our new brand, and it's because we it was originally called Umayah Village, because we were based in somewhere called Umayah Resort and you know one location.
Speaker 2:But then as we realized, you know there's something here, we wanted to grow and expand into new locations. We needed a name and a brand that was more fitting for more locations. So that's when we expanded out into six locations. So since then I've been to Kenya, we did a Mexico trip in Puerto Escondido for for our alumni, and then obviously back to Belize for a little while now, and then on Monday I go to to Guatemala, to Antigua, to open up our, our next, next location there okay, so the trail when you've been doing has all been through noma, collective and like scouting out different locations yeah, so mainly I would go, and you know, community manage each location what does that mean?
Speaker 1:community manage what do you do?
Speaker 2:manage. So, um, basically our roles as the community manager is to first of of all, get everybody ready onboarding, bringing them on, so making sure that we have all of their information. You know, ahead of the arrival. We create like welcome packs with local recommendations. You know how the program works, how to use Slack, because Slack is actually our main kind of tool for managing our community.
Speaker 2:So usually people use it for work, so it's kind of switching it into something that's more like fun can be a little bit, you know at first, but all of our channels are around, like it's the way that we keep the community together, on, together on site. So, for example, in Belize we have a channel for news and events. So myself, or ever, will post a daily update every day reminding people of what our events are, you know, anything that needs to go out there, and it's just a way of like keeping the group together and then they're able to kind of connect through that as well. So that's part of our role is onboarding people for that, and then, whilst they're on site, we basically just make sure that they've got everything that they need, you know, checking the rooms, making sure that the wi-Fi is great, making sure that they are, like you know, signing up for things and together we're also just like ensuring that they that no one's left out, because you know it's all about community and we want to make sure that this is.
Speaker 2:You know, everyone's coming as single travelers. Mostly they come as single travelers. Maybe sometimes they'll be like a couple or a group of friends or something like that, but generally it is people that are traveling on their own and they want to find a place where they can be with other people, you know. So we kind of monitor that, make sure that the, the community is being fostered. You know we do regular community meetings and just check on, make sure, like each person by person is having a good time, and if they're not, you know we reach out to them and and check in and basically just make sure they have a good time outside of their work hours and they're able to do their job during their work hours.
Speaker 1:So my question is so some of like the I guess reputation of a digital nomad is like people that work and I kind of would think, yeah, they might work like 20, 25 hours a week and I would feel like there's a lot of like partying going on and it feels like more like a college life. Is it like that? Or you know a lot of people actually work 40-50 hours a week and then you just have a couple events during the week, or some people are do a lot and you know what's that? What's the?
Speaker 2:mix. Mainly people are working full-time. You know okay hours, you know they either start earlier or later. We you know it's people are very serious about work during the week. Everyone respects each other's times. It's not like people are, you know, in the middle of the day drinking in the pool. It's like during the week, focused work hours and then anything outside of that.
Speaker 2:We offer events but we don't the none of them are compulsory, they're all. You can basically just like pick and choose which whichever event you would like to go to and then basically, yeah, you can, you can opt in and opt out. So the weekend events most people come to and we always offer like a family dinner. But we never put pressure on people to come to everything because obviously we know that if people are working full time then they're not going to. You know, want to come to everything, and how long do people stay at a certain location and what are the typical costs?
Speaker 2:So basically we say any like from minimum three weeks, because we believe that's like the best way that you can kind of find your groove. You can, that's the best way of like hitting the point of community where you've made your. It takes people about a week to settle into the work, second week they're building their friendships and by the third week they're like oh my god, I never want to leave so a lot of the time. If we're in a place like Belize, for example, which has a rolling dates format currently, where you could keep extending people can extend it for however long you want to.
Speaker 1:Okay, got it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think average would be about a month. Our additions this year have all been month-long trips, so Belize is the only location where it's kind of within a few months you can book a minimum of three weeks on any date, and our other additions are all fixed dates so everyone will start at the same time and everyone will finish at the same time. We're kind of trialing out like different ways of doing it. There's different benefits for both. You know, if everyone comes at the same time, then you know everyone's new together, but then if there's a more flexible booking option, then you know more people are able to come. So we're we're offering both currently okay.
Speaker 1:So, oh, sorry, I was gonna say is it mostly singles? Do couples come? Do families come? Is there options for that?
Speaker 2:yeah, so we've couples, we've had groups of friends, we've definitely had families. Actually, craig, who is our investor, he the reason that we knew him and that we got chatting to him originally is because he wanted to come from, from my village, and then, you know, he got chatting more and more and then decided that he wanted to be involved with the, with the new company, and he was here with uh two-year-old son for for three months, uh in January. So you know it's like it's. It is definitely possible, especially places like Umay, where we're at um in Belize, because you know we have nice apartments there's a lot of space for kids um, but you know, families are definitely welcome.
Speaker 1:We've had them before okay, and what's the housing like there and the? Is it hostel like or are they more like hotel rooms or the apartments?
Speaker 2:yeah, so here in in belize it is all apartments, they're all two-bedroom apartments. Um, we're on a peninsula in placencia, so you have the lagoon side and the ocean side. All the apartments are exactly the same Two bedrooms, kitchen area, and each bedroom has its own bathroom. So the way that we kind of shape our booking is you could share with another nomad. That would be the cheapest option is, if you have a room in a shared apartment, you can have a one bedroom apartment yourself and then you can actually hire the rent sorry, the whole, the whole apartment, the two bedrooms. So that could be like if you're two friends or if you're a family or if you want extra space for guests to come and join you at the time that you're there.
Speaker 2:So yeah and what's the cost cost. So in belize it can be anything from 2140 um for one room up to up to like 4,600 for the for the two-bedroom, whole the whole apartment. So that could be split in any way that you'd like and you do more than just lodging too.
Speaker 1:So what? What else is included? You get um is it, like you know? Guaranteed, so to speak, um great wi-fi, and there's like yoga on the beach and maybe a couple meals per week or something yeah, so within the price of what's included.
Speaker 2:So you've got the accommodation for the time that you're here. There's free shuttles from the airport. So I think, obviously, people going into new locations, it's nice for them to know that they're kind of being picked up and then we're always going to be here to welcome them when they arrive, especially if they're on their own. Yoga is included in all of our additions because, you know, we believe that that kind of like wellness, work-life balance is super important. Really nice way for people to unwind at the end of the work day is a sunset yoga on the on the lagoon dock here in venice, which is beautiful, um. And then the event schedule is curated by ourselves to make sure that people don't have to worry about that during during the week. So we'll have family dinners, we'll have game nights, um, and then on the weekends we have, uh, extra excursions.
Speaker 2:So it's like we plan out everything. You know, we organize the whole thing. It's just an additional cost for the excursions or for food and beverage and things like that, but it's like they don't have to worry about planning anything because it's all just like done for them and they know that it's the most authentic experience they could possibly have. It's like not the typical tourist traps. It's like we always try and make sure that, wherever we are, we're working with a local person who understands the lay of the land, who knows all the cool like hidden spots, who has the best you know ideas for things to do. So they know that they're coming, they're getting an authentic experience that is completely curated and organized them All they have to do is like click the emoji to agree to come to the event and then you know everything else is organized for them.
Speaker 2:And then also access to our. We've got the Slack channel that I mentioned. There's 400 plus digital nomads now that are in that alumni channel. So it's a great way of people, you know finding recommendations of next places to go to meet up. People might be like oh, I'm in Mexico City next month, is anyone there? People reply like, yeah, I'm there, let's meet for a drink. Even though they haven't met before. They know that because they've been part of Noma. That it's like a guaranteed, like OK, we're going to, we're going to get on.
Speaker 1:And then for like business relationships. It's also really good if anyone's looking for a designer for something. It's a really good way for like people to connect is through that alumni channel.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, that's great. Where, where are all the locations that you have? You said six locations. Yes, so, as of 2023? So we've actually just launched our 2023 dates. So we've got Belize and Puerto Escondido in January, in in Mexico, and then you've got Bali and Buenos Aires in February, and in March we've got Kenya and Panama. So for the rest of this year, then you've also got Panama, which is coming next after the Antigua one, and then Medellin is the one just before Christmas.
Speaker 1:So when you add two together, that's two separate things right At the same time, or so.
Speaker 2:In January, both Belize and Puerto Tundido will be happening at the same time, so it's more option for people. You know, if they're like, okay, I want to travel in February, um, maybe I don't want to fly to Bali because I'm I want to stay in this time zone so I can go to Buenos Aires, you know, it's it's giving people more options that's great, and you said you've had 400 people.
Speaker 1:When did you launch and you've had 400 people so far.
Speaker 2:February last year and we've had 400 people.
Speaker 1:February of 2022 or 2021?. Okay, got it. So it's been. You're going on year two. Right now You're on year two. That's great. And how do you get your people? It's just, they find you on the internet or-.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we have a strong like kind of social media advertising campaign through Facebook, through Instagram, which were the original leads that we'd got, and now we're going through Google. So when people are searching for this, because it's becoming more of like a, you know, a trigger word is digital nomad or remote work, traveling and things like that, and we're actually, you know, available to be searched now. So it's great, great, we're getting some really nice organic leads through that and then is the work?
Speaker 1:is the work done in the actual apartment then, or is there an additional workspace like an office area, or you have like a little desk set up in each room?
Speaker 2:each room has a table, um, and then outside has a little area. So if, for example, both roommates were on a call, someone could be inside, someone could be outside. But then we also have the palapa area, which I showed you guys earlier, which is on the beach and you have, you know, the backdrop of the, the ocean, which is always a really nice like switch up of places, and then in the lagoon side we have a kind of co-worky area that overlooks the lagoon and the Maya mountains. So there's multiple different areas where Wi-Fi kind of covers, and we also always offer or also hand every apartment a Wi-Fi device with a local SIM so that if, for example, I don't know there's like a peninsula wide or a country wide dropout, which isn't a regular occurrence, but it means that they can always remain connected if the Wi-Fi drops for whatever reason.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow, okay that's huge yeah, we realized it's super important, not because people don't necessarily have to use it, but just having that kind of rest and peace of mind. You know, they know that they've got that backup if they really need to. If they're going to be on calls all day, then they can just stay on that, so if there's a really important call, okay, so what are some of the really exciting excursions?
Speaker 1:like you know, we, we uh and it sounds like you guys too like to kind of not just always see the basic tourist attractions but things that maybe the locals know, or extra, like the people that live there day to day. It sounds like you've spent a lot of time there. What have you personally liked and that you hear people have liked, that maybe?
Speaker 2:people don't know about. So the amazing thing about where we are in Plasencia, which is like the south, the southern Belize, is that we're on this peninsula, as I mentioned earlier, and it's like you've got the the ocean on one side, which is 30 minutes in a small boat to like, or 30 to 45 minutes to the Belize Barrier Reef, which is actually the second largest reef after the Great Barrier Reef, and it's like the most amazing spots for snorkeling and diving. So it's like a hot spot in around the world for for dives, so a lot of people come to get certified. There's multiple keys, there's 400 keys around like tiny little islands that we go and visit on the weekend. For example, tomorrow we have a catamaran trip where we'll be sailing on the caribbean ocean and then we end up in in a beautiful key, spend the day there, have a grill, you know, have some drinks and then come back.
Speaker 2:It's like you have the ocean and then with you can drive for, you know, 45 minutes and you'll be in the dense, like jungle, being able to do like a waterfall hike, you know, hiking to the top of a of a mountain where there's beautiful waterfall, and it's just the, the variety of what's available with a short. You know, you don't have to travel too far to get from the ocean to the, to the rainforest, which is it was beautiful. And then you've also got the Mayan ruins, um cave chambers. There's a famous cave chamber called the ATM caves, which is Mayan sacrificial ground, uh, which you can actually do a tour through and you can just like, yeah, it's amazing, I don't want to give too much away because it's that sounds great and it seems like it's all pretty.
Speaker 1:How, how far like is the to go see those things? Are they all pretty close by?
Speaker 2:or the Mayan ruins the. They're about two hours, two and a half hours, so if we were to do them that would be on the weekend. You know when people are off. You know the ocean stuff is within 35 to 40 minutes and then if you just want to do like a waterfall hike, you can get there within like 35, 40 minutes as well. So it's very accessible to just go and explore on your weekends do?
Speaker 1:some people have cars or mopeds or electric bikes. How do people get around?
Speaker 2:yeah, so generally where we are it's you can get taxis. Things are. You know, there's bikes that are available to borrow from this resort that you can, you know, cycle cycle into the local village. People rent golf carts. There's a lot of golf carts here. There's different options of getting around, but generally people don't come with cars here, but there is the option to do that as well so that they can go and explore on their own. I think generally they just like leave it up to us to do the planning and organizing and transportation side of things.
Speaker 1:Nice. What about food wise? You said meals are included or not included. I couldn't remember why so?
Speaker 2:you said meals are included or not included. I couldn't remember. No, not not included here, but we do have a restaurant on site where people opt to eat there, um, and then there's a lot of different places around and there's also because you have a full, a fully equipped kitchen, a lot of people opt for, you know, getting groceries and cooking in the evening.
Speaker 1:I was curious how much it costs. And then food wise, yeah, I think yeah so cost.
Speaker 2:So the Belize dollar is actually like double the U S dollar, so and it could range from anything from like seven Belize for like a local like stew, chicken, rice and beans could be up to like 20 Belize for like a really nice, like fancy meal. You've got the best of both worlds. You can go super cheap and go for like local, more more local food, or you can go to like fancy restaurants and spend a little bit more so what are some?
Speaker 1:of the popular meals I know like probably a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables lots of fresh fish.
Speaker 2:Obviously we're right here. You get a lot of red snapper, you get different seafood. Um, lobster. It's lobster season right now, so it's super affordable to have lobster. It's you. You switch in between like conch and lobster season. So right now we're in lobster season, so the guys get to experience that.
Speaker 2:Um, yeah, some really really fresh fish, a lot of um like stew, like local beliefs. We like stew, chickens do beef, pork, rice and beans, plantain veggies, coleslaw, like a lot of like that style. But then you've also got the mayan cuisines. You've got like tamales and a lot more like veggies involved in the in the Mayan cuisine.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, interesting. You work full time, 24, seven, and travel to all these different locations and open up. Do you ever get back home? Do you have any? Do you miss it? How has it been for you so far in your?
Speaker 2:cause? Have you done it?
Speaker 1:for a year now or was it longer?
Speaker 2:I was in Belize for 16 months and then I went back home for a month and then I went to Kenya and then I went back home. After that I'm going back, you know, in a few weeks. It's kind of like in between I'll make a stop gap at home. Obviously, it's like that's the thing, isn't it? When you're traveling full time, it's like family, friends, home, obviously, yeah, so much. Um, if I could bring everyone with me, I would, but just getting home as much as I possibly can, you know, and taking, taking the time in between additions for myself and to get grounded, and then, you know, getting back into it again. But I'm able to travel, travel the world with my job, so I'm very grateful. Do you go?
Speaker 1:at a certain like six months at a time in the break, or do you just, you just keep going? Yeah, I just keep going. My kids and I did two weeks and and we were looking forward to getting home, but it's really, you know, we did. Of course it was a different scenario, I think if you're working in a place and then you get to go out and see and then bond, it's just like you get to settle in. And did you guys go Koreaorea and bali? Wow, yeah, yeah, it was. It was a lot of fun. It was a very quick trip, you know, with the two kids, and then they, you know, they're still teenagers, so they were ready to get back home a little different, their friends, yeah, so at these at the village. So the, the additions for our listeners, from my understanding, those are more like planned one month at a time. There's a beginning and an end where the Belize village is. Just, it's always going on, is that correct?
Speaker 2:So up until this, the end of this trip. So for now we've got up until like November. The 20th is when we stop in Belize. So up until this point it has been it has been a rolling date thing and then, as of 2023 it's going to be the Belize trip, will be more kind of fixed, like that. So there'll be a start date of the 7th of Jan and then a start date of the 29th of Jan.
Speaker 1:So there's two, two sections that you could opt for okay, yeah, I was wondering what's the longest anyone has stayed. Has there's two, two sections that you could opt for? Okay, yeah, I was wondering what's the longest anyone has stayed. Has there's something in there like three, four months that? Yeah, so it believes.
Speaker 2:When we were running last year it was like, consistently, if someone stayed for three and a half months because he just wasn't ready to leave, it was like there's no reason for me to leave, keep going.
Speaker 1:But people generally extend okay, and then what's the the the weather? Because, um, I've spent some time in northern belize and my understanding is south has a little bit more rain, but you always kind of hear it's rainy like florida, it rains all the time, but you still go there and just like rains for an hour a day, is it kind of like that?
Speaker 2:so this is actually meant to be raining season. Right now, it's meant to be the wettest time, and it rained for a couple of days when I first arrived last weekend, and then it's been beautiful blue sunshine every day.
Speaker 1:So if it doesn't?
Speaker 2:it might be a thunderstorm at night, uh, or, like you say, it will be a few spots of rain in the morning or in the afternoon, but there's.
Speaker 1:It's rare that it's like a gray, rainy day oh, okay, gotcha, so you still get plenty of sunshine it's pretty humid there.
Speaker 2:generally speaking, yeah it's pretty humid, but luckily the apartments are all air conditioned.
Speaker 1:Oh, they are. That's actually huge.
Speaker 2:Oh, that would be really huge, especially working with your laptop and everything I try and go out in the sun to get some sun on my laptop and within like 30 minutes I'm like, okay, I can't do this get some sun and on my laptop and within like 30 minutes I'm like, okay, I can't do this, my laptop. I feel like there's got to be an invention of like a laptop case holder that you can use outside in the sun. Yeah, so when we're taping this in September.
Speaker 1:You say so just to kind of a point of reference, that this is the rainy season, how many months, what's the good times of year and what like. If you, if someone was listening to this and wanted to do this, when should they plan to come?
Speaker 2:honestly, like I, the whole time that I was here from last year it was February up until October it was perfect weather, like it hard. It rained in the evenings. It's very, very lush, there's a lot of greenery here and it's because the rain, when it comes, there's a lot, but it's like it was crazy. I was like I've never been somewhere where there's just like such perfect weather and then maybe from like September, october, november, a little bit more rain than usual, but again still very bright, sunny days. So it's, you know, any time of year is December, is high season in Belize generally, because it's the time that people are traveling for the holidays.
Speaker 1:And that's probably the rainiest month and that people still come during that time?
Speaker 2:Do they speak English there, or what language? So English is the first language? It's a shock to me, actually, because it's where it's situated in Central America, you know, it's all it's surrounded by Spanish-speaking countries. So I was coming here. I was like you know, I think I'm gonna learn how to speak Spanish. It's great. Then I realized that everyone spoke English, which is super helpful obviously when you want to like, function and but it's also Spanish speaking and Creole is is another language that they speak here, yeah, and is there a lot of cars and driving there, or is it?
Speaker 1:how do people get around typically? Or public transportation?
Speaker 2:there's buses, there's there's cars. Obviously you can, you can hire a car if you want to, but generally, yeah, like cycling, walking, it's not too you know there's like it's not too busy. Coming from London I came here and I had this real like sense of relief of like you know it's, you can get around, but it's not, it's not overwhelming the amount of like vehicles that are about.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm. And then how long did it take to get from the airport? Because I know some of the infrastructure has been still developing, but I've heard it's really come a long way in the last five years. Like not as crazy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, there's like really good road systems actually. So the main airport that you fly into is Belize City and then, where we are, in Placentia, you take a 20-minute hopper flight, which is like a tiny little airbus that goes over all the islands. It's beautiful and, yeah, so that's only 15 minutes away from where we're situated. So the shuttle, you know, pick people up and bring them here. But the roads are great. You know, getting anywhere it's like two roads. To get up north, it's this Hummingbird Highway, which is a very beautiful road I don't know if you remember, um getting on that one and then they've just um, they've just launched a new road as well, which is the ocean ocean road, which means it's much quicker to get from belize city to here. It's like two and a half hours as opposed to, you know, three and a half hours which it was before. On the other, oh nice, it's definitely growing, but at a conscious rate, I think, which is nice, yeah.
Speaker 1:And what do sports like, active people like, what do they do? Um? I mean, it sounds like there's the beach, ocean. I don't know if there's surf there.
Speaker 2:If there's yeah, so there's not much surf because of the, the barrier reef.
Speaker 2:It doesn't really allow that kind of wave, um, but diving is huge. Um, there's a lot of like water sports you can do kind of like um, jet skiing, paddleboarding, yeah, loads of paddleboarding, kayaking. So we have paddleboards and kayaks on site that people can just use and borrow either on the lagoon side or on the ocean side. Obviously there's hiking. We did a challenging hike last weekend, uh, which was great. Yeah, get the get the toxins out. Um, so we hiking. There's like waterfall rappelling there's, you know, all those kind of like atv excursions, anything that you want to do basically outdoors, outdoor wise, it's like you know it's, it's, it's, it's available did you say waterfall something?
Speaker 2:rappelling. What's that? It's basically like abseiling down a waterfall, so you climb to the top and you can, you can. I've not done it myself, but I know that it's yeah, it's a possibility to do here so you climb the waterfall, so the rocks near the waterfall like rock climb and you like, just jump off into the water.
Speaker 1:It's like it's like a.
Speaker 2:It's like a abseil, so you would be holding onto the rope and kind of like lowering yourself down yeah, yeah, this waterfall that they do it on. It's not too too high it's. It's a nice, friendly waterfall. I think it's one for the one for the thrill seekers for sure and what about um ages?
Speaker 1:what are the ages of the?
Speaker 2:different people, so we've had everything from 21 to, you know, 50s um and, but our average age is 30 and then do you um have a minimum age?
Speaker 1:do you have to be 21 or 18?
Speaker 2:no, it's not no minimum age, but we generally we haven't actually had any interest from below 21. Perhaps it's people might not have these jobs right, I'm not sure, but yeah, it's not. There's. No, we're not like there's no age restrictions, but it's generally the the average age that we've found is is 30.
Speaker 2:Nice, yeah and we do, like our calls for people being able to book, we, there is a kind of vetting process, so it's not like you can't just, you know, sign up and select and pay and that's it. You, you're going on the trip. You actually have a sales call with Steph, who's our head of growth, and it's more to make sure that you know it's the right fit for you but as well as the right fit for us, because we want to make sure that the community is, you know, the vibes maintained. Always, if we have someone who can be particularly difficult or doesn't have like go with the flow attitude, because you know things don't always work out as planned, you know it's not, it's not always we do everything that we possibly can to make sure that the structure is is maintained. But you know, if there's a big rainy day, then maybe we might not be able to do the cave tubing.
Speaker 2:Or if there's, you know, in Kenya maybe it was very rainy, um, and normally we would go for like a sunset, it's like a sunset elephant viewing spot. So because they would come particular waterhole wild animals, you know, yeah, they, because they've been more rainfall at that time they weren't coming to the watering hole because there was a lot of different rain within the forest. So you know, we went there and there wasn't elephants and it's kind of like you have to understand that things aren't always going to be as they're sold and that's, you know. I think that's we want to make sure that people have a kind of go with the flow attitude and that there's not going to be too many issues when you're on site, but also to make sure that it's right for for them and that what they'll be coming and doing in this community experience is the right fit for them absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, good disney world's more predictability, right? Exactly this happens at this time. Um, I'm just I'm assuming. Um you know your website.
Speaker 2:It's at noma collectivecom it's wwwnoma-collectivecom, and then our instagram account is at noma collective hq. Everything on there, you know, we've got everything from digital nomad toolkit is something that we're actually building right now for the website, because we're aware that people want this lifestyle but don't necessarily know how to do it or how to get there, what jobs are involved, and we're kind of building out a blog for our website that will be launched soon. But on our instagram we're doing a lot of tips to become a digital nomad. It's not just, you know, showing people, hey, this could be you on an island is actually like how to get this lifestyle as well, because I know that's what's been super that's great like more of the practical things of setting it up and frozen ponds.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, we we want to be as transparent as possible um with what we're doing to make sure that people have, you know, can manage expectations and have had the best time they can and would you say, mostly they're um independent contractors or there.
Speaker 1:Is there a fair amount of people that are actually employed by a bigger corporation that works remote, that they're like hey, I'm just going to work here for, you know, three weeks and yeah, the majority of people actually do work for company big companies.
Speaker 2:Some people are freelancers uh, they're more flexible within their time, but a lot of people you know have sales jobs or work in tech or marketing or designers or some. You know there's a whole load of different jobs that people can do that the companies have gone fully remote because I guess they've, you know, realized that people are able to work remotely and they're happier in doing that.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, do companies reimburse them? Do you know?
Speaker 2:I'm just curious if you get paid by companies to send folks there, or something like that, yeah, but that was that is something that we are looking to do is maybe like bringing teams here, um, so people can come. You know, the only thing with that is is that the the reason that it's the the community so beautiful is that everyone's new for each other, and sometimes when there's a group or a bigger group, then they tend to not want to integrate as much with the rest of the community. So, planning our best, like you know, thinking of the best way that we can facilitate that for companies, because it's an amazing bonus when you work for a company that enables you to come to nice locations to work from enables you to come to nice locations to work from.
Speaker 2:So, oh, carol and I have been talking um about sabbatical trips and thinking that I wondered if you'd had any folks that have just come for like a sabbatical for a couple weeks to um, see, I don't, but I'm assuming the target audience what you're doing is more of the digital nomad who's working during the day and then yeah, yeah, people that are, you know, taking a break, um, but we generally try and say like we want you to be working on something, a project of some form if you are coming, just so that, like I said earlier, you know like they're maintaining that work hours and the respect for other people's working hours, because otherwise it can be a big distraction if, like, half of the group are off doing trips in the week and you're stuck and resentment yes right, yeah, or since you have these set additions, what's the shortest additions you've had?
Speaker 1:are they always three weeks?
Speaker 2:they. So the ones that we've had this year have all been a month, but so then next year we've got a mixture of three weeks to you know, four weeks that we'll be trialing as additions and then with with thinking of like long term, longer term, if we will do places like Kenya and Bali generally. You know we market to people from the states and Canada, so if people are going to travel that far, they generally like to stay. If they are a well-seasoned digital nomad, they like to stay for a little bit longer. So looking at the option of doing six to eight week trips so that they have more time to kind of explore the areas that they're in as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it sounds like such a great idea for, like, remote teams to get together, but I couldn't see a challenge because people have families and stuff, but they're really going to leave for a whole month, you know. So it has to be like the right type of team, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we like to do that week long trips. For if we were to do that week-long trips, for if we were to do that specifically for, you know, teams, then maybe it'll be like a week kind of workshop trip where they can come and you know, these remote teams can connect and brainstorm and things like that, because yeah, I think that would be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, maybe like at the tail end of one of your normal ones and then so then they would have. So you're all there already and then you just add that for just these guaranteed, you know, 30 people, whatever. Okay, yeah, that's something. Now definitely want to explore a little bit more. Um, it sounds so cool. Okay, all right, so I'm ready. So we always do these rapid fire questions Just ask questions the same to different people. They're, they're really easy. Um, do you know what the popular religion is?
Speaker 2:I believe, so I think there's a lot of like christian. Then there's the mayan communities, which have their own ideologies, but yeah, there's a lot of christianity here okay, and then what is your favorite meal at?
Speaker 2:I believe, favorite meal is the one that I the first one that I had when I got back was the stew chicken and rice and beans in a village called Sainbite, which is close to where we are. Um, she makes the best stew chicken that I've had before and they just the rice and beans and the plantain and all everything that goes with it. They have a hot sauce called mary sharps as well, which is like the best hot sauce I've ever had. I wasn't I wasn't a big hot sauce fan before I came here and then I tried some in mexico and I tried some different places and I just I just mentioned marie sharps. It's all produced in belize and it's getting more and more popular around the world, so yeah, what's it called?
Speaker 2:mary mary shops m-a-i-e shops s-h-a-r-p-s oh, mary, sharps okay, it's really, really tasty oh, nice, very good, I love that sauce.
Speaker 1:And then is there any specific kind of music? The mayans, or like belize, like play the lely or anything punta punta.
Speaker 2:Music is a big one here, and then there's a soccer.
Speaker 2:This is like caribbean style music, and there's a lot of reggae because this is mainly like where we are. Here is a creole community, so it's more caribbean. And then there's, like, the more latin based communities which are you know that from mestizo communities outside of belize who've migrated here, um, so there's obviously your latin style music. It depends on where you are, I think, in the country, and that's san ignacio is much more like spanish, spanish speaking oh right, okay, and what did you have for breakfast today, today?
Speaker 2:I have eggs and avocado because there's avocados right now. There was a bit of a shortage last year, so very grateful to have avocados. Yeah, eggs and avocado on some, on some toast I made it at home.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's one of my favorite breakfasts, um, and then there's really no surfing, as we mentioned. And then the money is.
Speaker 2:It's just called the belizean dollar yeah, belizean dollar, which is two belizean dollars to one american us dollar okay, all right.
Speaker 1:So when you were talking about seven belizean dollars, that'd be like three dollars in america, three three fifty, yeah, three, yeah, okay, very good, all right, yeah, so something very affordable to eat, for sure? Definitely yeah, and the food sounds so fresh and yeah but you also get like your creature comforts.
Speaker 2:We have some you know american style food here as well. There's some italians around. It's like it's something for everyone, especially in Plasencia. You've got a big variety of like very authentic Belizean places, but also like you've got some.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great, okay, thank you so much perfect, okay.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. Love what you're doing absolutely later.
Speaker 1:See you later, bye, bye. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed the podcast, can you please take a second and do a quick follow of the show and rate us in your podcast app, and, if you have a minute, we would really appreciate a review. Following and rating is the best way to support us. If you're on Instagram, let's connect. We're at where next Podcast. Thanks again.
