Major Travel Pro Up-Date!
Hey there my Steemit Friends. I've now been in Ecuador since the 12th of December. Over a month now! I haven't done much in terms of fun while here. Quite frankly I've been in the country way longer than I've planed. Since leaving Thailand back in the end of November I really don't recall being this busy since my days teaching English in South Korea over a decade ago.
From Thailand my travels have taken me through the airports of Bangkok, Stockholm Sweden, London, Orlando Florida, Ft Lauderdale Florida, and Quito Ecuador. I established residency in Ecuador several years ago, I got a bit mixed in with the country in terms of business, visas, and paper work. So this has a lot to do with what is taking up so much of my time.
I've had to deal with all sorts of business I won't get into regarding money and visas that kept me incredibly busy for almost a full ten days in Quito. It was cold there and I wanted some place warm to sit out the holidays and catch up on my blog, including editing and reviewing over 1,000 travel photos from my recent ventures.
I decided to go to Guayaquil on the coast. I planned on getting my work done, seeing some friends I have here, then taking off for Peru during the first week of January. The weather is nice and I have access to all the services the city offers. That was important as I still had some business and lose ends I needed to tie up.
Steemit, Steem, SBD, Bitcoin, Gold, Silver, Cash Money, Markets, and More!
I've now been in Guayaquil in the same hotel for almost a month! Not very Travel Pro and I'm not happy about it. But the good side is that since I've gotten to Ecuador my Steemit Blog has almost doubled in followers. The platform has blown up, the currency, my blog, and income as well. Suddenly I'm earning more steem/SBD than I wish to hold in steem/SBD.
Absolutely I want to power up and have powered up a lot. But having been an investor to one degree or another my entire adult life I believe it would be wise to diversify my earnings. How the heck do I do that? I'm getting paid in steem/SBD and I don't even own a bitcoin wallet, and I know almost nothing about crypto currencies in general!
Over the past month in my hotel room in Guayaquil I've devoted about all my time to steemit and studying crytpo currencies. I've been doing my best to be an active member of the community, keep churning out quality blog posts, socializing with all my steemit friends, participating in the @sndbox which I'm a group member of, all while trying to figure out how to access my steem/sbd as the price has shot up at one time well over 1,000%! Merry Christmas to us all!
Well, I've read a ton of advice here on steemit from great crypto knowledgeable steemit friends like @broncnutz, @lukesstokes, @hedge-x, @makeithappen, @theywillkillyou, @janusface and others. I've researched different ways to move steem/sbd into bitcoin and turn that bitcoin into cash, gold, and silver in various ways. As much as I wish I was traveling and seeing south America these things had to be learned and it was time well spent.
In fact I'm so proud of my ability to speak knowledgeably on crypto currencies that I have even been able to help out some steemit friends like @fitinfun, @yankee-statsman, and @natureofbeing. In fact I've been encouraged to do a post on this topic and share what I've learned regarding moving money around the crypto space. I'll make sure to do exactly that soon.
Pushing Myself Too Hard!
When I set goals I always push myself hard to keep them. With my blog and steemit doing so well, in hopes to keep up the momentum I set a goal of three posts a day. I soon realized that was too much, it was stressful, and taking up too much of my day combined with studying cryptos in general. On top of that I was also trying to back log posts so when I hit the road I can just post without much effort. All of this turned into too much. I bit off more than I could chew and even ended up getting sick for a few days, which slowed me down drastically.
Now I'm just about to cross over 1,000 followers I've settled into a rhythm of two post a day. I'm finding this to be a good balance and it's also giving me time to get ahead on backlogging some posts. When I do finally get back to my travels I won't feel pressured to write so much as there will be many days where I simply won't have the time.
I've also learned about up-voting bots and steem auto which will even post for me, at a given time even if I'm on a bus in Peru yet still trying to keep my presence up on the platform. So to say I've been busy is an understatement; but I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Travel Pro Plans! Full Steem Ahead!
I've set a goal to get moving by the end of this month. I still have no travel rout planned and really have no idea at this moment where I'm going other than south of Ecuador. Which could be anywhere from Peru to Patagonia. So I'll keep my steemit friends posted when I make more solid plans, which will hopefully be in the next seven days.
So I soon need to come up with some hard core Travel Pro Plans and try to back log all sorts of posts that I know my followers will find interesting. I sincerely hope you have been enjoying my posts on Ecuador. Since I lived/ moved around this country for about two years including 2,000kl on a mountain bike through the Andes Mountains and Ecuadorian coast; I'll mix in some old photos from my adventures several years ago.
This Real Life Captured Guayaquil Series runs a bit long, as my time here has run way longer than planned. But it certainly gives you a good idea of where I have been spending all this time! I hope you all have been enjoying my posts and things are not that repetitive. At the end of these photos is a video taken a couple nights before Christmas. They are playing one of my favorite Latino Christmas Songs! I hope you all are having a great start to your new year and I'll be in-touch! -Dan "World Travel Pro!"
Not To be Missed!
Real Life Captured #53: Yellow Green Farmers Market in Hollywood Florida USA! Part Three (15 photos)
Travel Pro Gear #4: Three Travel Pro Items You Need to be Travel Pro!
Travel Pro Places of Interest #1: Basilica Gothic Cathedral Quito Ecuador! Part One (21 photos)
Travel Pro Answers #2: @Chefsteve Asks: How Do you Avoid Food Born Illness When Traveling?
With over 11 years of travel experience I answer travel and international lifestyle questions. Leave a question in the comments and I may make a Steemit post just for you!