Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Maui, San Diego, Venice Beach, Camano Island, Stowe. What do all these places have in common? They are places that I traveled to without paying a cent for a hotel. And even better, most places were luxurious homes, some with pools, some with staff, some right on the beach. All amazing locations.
By no means is this the end of the list, I’ve been to many, many more places. These are just the ones I’m listing to impress you. So, what’s the catch? Right?
For me, it’s not a catch, it’s doing something I truly love. Something that fills a hole in my heart. It’s taking care of people’s pets, while living in their homes, while they are away. Pet sitting and house sitting. It’s a total win-win for me.
I have pet sat, house sat and walked dogs as a side gig since my college days. It’s always something I did for extra money. I’m a natural around dogs and truly, truly have a soft spot for them. Fast forward twenty years since college and I picked that side gig up again for a different purpose.
But let’s back up. Let’s head back to the end of 2015. I’m working as a chef in Portland, the beautiful Pacific Northwest city in Oregon, USA. I’m miserable. It’s a miserable industry, the restaurant industry. But, I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. Putting my head down, working my way up that male-dominated ladder. Dealing with long hours, pitiful pay, abusive bosses, hazing etc. It’s the restaurant industry. If you know. You know.
So I burned out. No surprise there. But, what that burnout did was change my life in a way that I’m only truly seeing now, 8 years later. It changed my perception on what it meant to be an “American.” Why were we living this way? What was the point? It allowed me to see beyond society’s expectations for people, for women. It allowed me to learn more about other people and countries and cultures. I gained my freedom from that burnout.
Giving up my career and walking away from restaurants, my little apartment in a cool neighborhood, my friends, and a city I loved was a result of hating my life slogging away for an unethical, exploitative industry and wanting something more. I’ve said it a thousand times since 2015, but it’s true. We only live once and no one is guaranteed a tomorrow. It doesn’t matter if you are doing what you are “supposed to be doing” according to whatever society you are living in.
Anyway, I spent a few months brainstorming what life meant to me. What I really wanted to do, if I could do anything. And you know what, I did it, and it wasn’t that hard. So I ditched it all. The apartment, the stuff, the car, the life. And after licking my wounds at my sister’s house for 6 months (Thanks Bon!) I set off for Thailand on a one-way ticket.
I backpacked around SE Asia for a while. I became certified in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Bangkok. Thought I would teach as a money-earning/life option. Nope. That wasn’t for me. So, I spend time slumming around Thailand, Vietnam and Laos exploring and learning and not working. I made my way to Central America and did WOOFing (World Wide Organization of Organic Farming) in Costa Rica.
I LOVE backpacking. One of my favorite things ever is meeting like-minded, outside-of-the-box thinking, alternative-living, nomads from all over the world. My community. The only other people who truly “get it.” But, it’s hard to earn money while on the road. It used to be that you could pull up to some backpacker enclave somewhere on the banana pancake circuit and bartend for a few months to make some cash, but things are much stricter now with work visas. And there is an ethical side travelers need to consider when working abroad, are you taking a job from a local who needs it?
At this point, I’ve had to go back to the States to re-up my supplies (money) a few times. Everytime I went back, I felt the toxic energy creeping in. I found that I wanted to be there less and less. I disliked the culture more and more each time I was there. I had to brainstorm on how to continue living my life the way I wanted to, and also earning some money at the same time.
I did end up getting a job working as a chef in a restaurant in a small fishing village on the Nicoya Peninsula for two years. I lived in a shack in the jungle, surrounded by Howler Monkeys, Capuchins and psychedelic looking crabs. That’s a whole different chapter though. And after two years I left, it was time.
Working in a restaurant a stone’s throw from the beach in flip flops was very different from the “take’s itself way too seriously” restaurant industry in the States. And I learned a lot of Spanish while running the kitchen, but it was still cooking. And it was still a restaurant. And it was still a lot of the same shit, just a different country and language. So after two years I left, it was time. I didn’t feel right about working without the right papers and the visa runs were a slog. And most importantly, I didn’t want to keep falling back on the restaurant industry.
This is when I finally started pet sitting again. It happened by accident really. I stumbled upon people needing pet care and home care in exchange for free rent in Costa Rica, then again at Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. So I went with it.
I did it before, so I scrounged up some old testimonials and built myself a website. I added testimonials from my most recent sits, and from my old ones and hit the ground running.
Now, here we are in 2023 and I’m currently doing 3 back to back sits in Ecuador for a total of 6 months here. Before that I was in Mexico for about a year and a half doing sits in San Miguel de Allende, Puerto Vallarta and Todos Santos. I’ve been to Maui and will return there in a few months, done sits on top of the mountain in Stowe, Vermont. I’ve done sits in cities, rural areas, beach front, lake front, Puget Sound front.
I mostly take care of dogs doing this, but there have also been countless cats, two bunnies, a few tanks of Amazonian fish, two Axolotls, a hedgehog, 3 parrots, 2 macaws, a turtle, and a koi pond. And I’ve managed to keep alive tons and tons of plants! I’ve dealt with floods, hurricanes, a rash of robberies, power outages, sick pets, administering meds, geriatric pets, puppy’s found in dumpsters….it’s an adventure!!
One aspect that I truly love about what I “do” is that I work on a barter system. It’s a mutual exchange. They get someone to love and dote over their pets and make sure they are properly cared for and I get safe, clean home to live in for a period of time. The longer I’m away from the US, the stronger the feelings of disgust are for the consumerist machine it is. The fact that I can still live and travel full time using a barter system is incredibly life affirming for me. I feel that I truly am treading on pachamama as lightly as I can.
Check out my pet-sitting services and read my reviews here www.gracesbuddies.com
