A Digital Nomad in Fuerteventura

In May 2021, I spent two weeks working remotely in Corralejo, Fuerteventura. Since even before remote work was as booming as it is now, the Canary Islands have been a popular destination for all Europeans looking for the eternal spring.

I knew from [Nomadlist](https://nomadlist.com/las-palmas) and [Chris The Freelancer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DV1sjEV-PIQ) that Las Palmas & Tenerife were tried & proven remote hubs with a nice infrastructure, weather and communities.

So, why did I go to Corralejo, Fuerteventura?

I had been thinking about escaping to the Canary Islands for a while. A few months ago, we were planning a trip with two friends. Unfortunately, the pandemic stopped us right when we were about to buy the tickets.

Months went by, and I continued working from my hometown, dreaming to escape somewhere. All the places I tried to go to had COVID spikes at some stage: Lisbon, Budapest, Prague, Bansko... One after the other, right when I was about to buy the tickets.

A bit of personal backstory: I have been wanting to be a digital nomad for years. In 2016 I moved to [Bali](/blog/tag/bali), and in there I got exposed to all the digital nomad scene. I met people who were working remotely from a coworking with a swimming pool in it, leveraging technology to live wherever they wanted. Those people were truly location independent, and they could travel anywhere they wanted. To me, that was the dream. Then I stumbled upon [Pieter Levels](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6reLWfFNer0), [Nomadlist](https://nomadlist.com/), [WIP](https://wip.co/), and all the maker/digital nomad scene. It really inspired me to start to properly learni web development. I jumped straight into it and haven't looked back ever since. I stayed in Bali until 2018, and then I moved to [Australia](/blog/tag/australia)where I lived for two years and got to build up my career by working in top-tier marketing agencies. Then the pandemic hit, my visa finished, and I had to fly back home. End of the adventure that literally changed my life 😁.

At home, I thought:

Well, I have a nice programming CV now, and with the pandemic pushing remote work even farther, I think it should be pretty easy for me to get a remote job and travel around.

Then, I landed an awesome job at [Vidjet](https://www.vidjet.io/), an early-stage startup which is growing nicely & steadily as I am writing this. This is a fully-remote, non-timezone-restricted gig. Absolutely perfect for my aspirations.

Then I finally joined Nomadlist, started looking for places to go to. By that time (August 2020), the pandemic was still hitting hard in a lot of places (it still is ☹️). And one after the other, countries where I wanted to go started shutting up. It also made no sense for me to travel to a place where I had to be locked up inside an Airbnb the whole time.

Unfortunately, not many of my friends can work remotely & travel as freely as I can. But one day, [Alberto (always Alberto 😎)](/blog/bali-story-1#enter-mr-alberto-bapak-garcia) contacted me. He said: "Let's go to the Canary Islands. It's part of Spain, and it is the closest thing to Bali we can get right now". I said yes before he could finish the sentence. We also convinced Manel, one of our few friends who could work remotely as well. He also said yes. After a couple of weeks of planning, the pandemic also started to hit harder in the Canary Islands. FML.

We closed the WhatsApp group and forgot about it. Never spoke about it again.

Then, one day, Manel calls me:

"Pol, do you want to go for a month to Corralejo, Fuerteventura?"

I thought about it but was pretty convinced. It was finally the right time. Almost a year later, I was about to get my first real taste of *digital nomading*.

Obviously, Fuerteventura was not my first choice. In fact, it is the last place I would have gone had I been given the decision. But Manel had a work colleague (Pol) who had been living there for a while, so it would be easier for us to skip all the tourist bullshit and get straight to the core of the island.

After a few *estira i arronsa*(push-and-pull), we agreed on a time to have a videocall where we booked everything. Even during that call, we looked at other destinations, but decided on Corralejo.

Flying again

I felt excited to go to the airport. It was going to be my first flight after 9 months. In the past 5 years, it is the longest period of time I have not taken a flight. The night before I couldn't sleep because of the excitement.

The Barcelona airport is usually super busy by May-June. If there's a season where you want to be in Barcelona, that's in summer. This time, it was empty. Most of the shops were closed, only a few F&B places were open. It was actually a sight I've never seen, a bit haunting. Airports have this cool thing where you can just sit and look at people passing, and get a picture of the current world. You see travelers from everywhere, dressed in all kinds of ways, and you can only wonder where they go or where they come from. I also love airplanes since I am a child, even once when I was around 16 I tried to become an air traffic controller (but failed).

Everything went smoothly and we got into the plane. Even if I have taken countless flight, I'm always amazed at aviation. This time it was even more special since I had not flown in a while.