Earth Vagabonds

24/05/2026

Pictured: an early-retired overachiever relaxes in the refreshingly cool Nabaoy River in Malay, Philippines.

Every day this last week felt like 90+F with high humidity.

🥵😁
🌏✌️

20/05/2026

Fear can really trip us up. These spiders in the Philippines look scary, and might make you scream if you saw them in your home.

But here in the tropics, their roles in eating ‘bad bugs’ like mosquitoes are so important that we didn’t kill them.

🕸️

- The St. Andrew’s Cross Spider is an orb weaver. This web is half done. It will make another line to form an ‘X’ and hide behind it so unsuspecting pray will fly around it onto the web. Their venom is not a serious issue for people.

• Ellen left it alone; it’s on the outdoor staircase of our rental.

🕷️

- The Huntsman Spider doesn’t make a web at all — it actively hunts and can move really fast and jump pretty far with those long, thin legs. Their specialty catch: cockroaches. They are nocturnal and won’t bite unless threatened. Their venom is not a serious issue for people— like a bee sting.

• Ellen left it alone in the bottom utility cabinet; we haven’t seen any cockroaches.

😱

- The Philippine Tarantula is also a hunter without a need for a web. It will sit in burrows, flower pots, etc., and pounce upon cockroaches and smaller spiders with unbelievable speed. They are nocturnal, and their venom will hurt more - and swell up more - than a bee sting.

• Ellen moved through a little fear to get this one outside using a glass top and cardboard bottom; it was crawling across the floor at 4:30 am.

🌏✌️

12/05/2026

Monthly budget breakdown: Malay, Philippines

We are back in our ‘pandemic paradise’.

This is where the Universe put us when the world locked down in early 2020. 💝

We had some crazy adventures back then in this rural-ish area of the Philippines on Panay Island, across the channel from Boracay Island.

Now we’ve been here more than one month already.

Budget Breakdown: 2 People, 1 Month In The Philippines

$543 — Housing
$509 — Donations/gifts/charity
$445 — Travel/airfare
$267 — Groceries
$163 — Restaurants/Cafes
$126 — Supplies
$103 — Beer
$68 — Local transit
$42 — Entertainment
$18 — Health
____________________________
$2,305 — 30 day total : for 2 persons

Obviously, the $500+ in donations/charity is about 22 percent of the total. That line item can be adjusted up/down as needed. If we eliminated the giving, our monthly spend would drop to around $1,800.

Subtract the one-way airfare to get here (from Bangkok to Manila to Caticlan, purchased months ago), and the total going forward could be as low as $1,350! For two people!

Boracay is a ferry ride across the channel. It has *beautiful beaches, but higher prices and tourist crowds.

Our pandemic-era friends are on the mainland anyway, so we simply visit Boracay twice a week.

First picture: on Boracay, looking back at the ‘mainland’, where we stay.

Second picture: Boracay Island seen from the mainland, which also has beaches— just not white sand and with some rocks.

Happy to answer any questions.

Read more budget breakdowns here:
https://www.earthvagabonds.com/slow-travel-budget-examples/

Life is Now.
🌍✌️

06/05/2026

Stormy days can give momentum to a drive on the journey ahead.
🌍✌️

05/05/2026

They say travel changes you.
We found that to be true.

Six concrete examples from one country - here.
⬇️

https://www.earthvagabonds.com/how-mexico-changed-me-for-the-better/

(From the archives. We are not in Mexico at the moment.)






🌍✌️

Here are 6 ways Mexico changed me for the better -- and I'm not talking about a tan. (Don't believe all the bad stuff you hear in the media.)

02/05/2026

From an old interview we gave, back before the pandemic, when we were “trailblazers” at budget slow travel.

Q: Is there something you think most travelers worry too much about?

Ellen and Theo: Safety. To us, the United States seems to be the most dangerous place on Earth.

2026 answer: Same.

Q: What was the most romantic place you ever visited with a partner?

Ellen and Theo: Romance is a state of mind, not a place. That said, Venice, Italy, or Barcelona, Spain…

2026 answer: Anywhere foreign.

Q: What is the most beautiful and affordable city you've ever visited?

Ellen and Theo: Mazatlan, Mexico, is the most beautiful city at the best price. We stayed there for nearly two months. It has miles of beaches along a malecon, or seafront walkway. Its downtown is refurbished and vibrant. Mazatlan is more of a "working" city instead of a tourist resort attraction, so its prices can be really low.

2026 answer: Vlorë, Albania.

All pictures below are from Vlorë in late 2025.

Read more on Vlorë here ⬇️
https://www.earthvagabonds.com/?s=Vlore




🌍✌️

29/04/2026

Shzzzzaammmmm ❤️🧡💛🩵
Sunset = Earth’s daily temporary art display.
This beauty was in the Philippines.

Have you seen an exceptional sunset lately?





🌍✌️

28/04/2026

Bug bites, heat and humidity, power outages.

Sea wind, ube and mangoes, sandy beaches.

It’s a package deal.





🌍✌️

25/04/2026

A map says to you: ‘Read me carefully, follow me closely, doubt me not... I am the earth in the palm of your hand’.

— Beryl Markham, West with the Night



🌍✌️

23/04/2026

Where were you 10 years ago?
Where do you want to be 10 years from now?

On April 24, 2016, we were in Mahahual, Mexico. Ten years later we are in Malay, Philippines.

So much has changed — with us and with the world! And yet, so much is the same.

Every day is still full of possibilities despite challenges, and we’re still lovin’ budget slow traveling— one stop at a time.

As you might have guessed: we still want to be traveling 10 years from now. 😁





🌍✌️

20/04/2026

You’ve heard the phrase: time is money. It means: your time is valuable because you could be earning more money. And the extrapolation for capitalism is that you can have more stuff— buy more goods— live the good life.

Now look at “time is money” another way:

“When I buy something, when you buy something, you’re not paying money for it. You’re paying for the hours of your life you had to spend earning that money. The difference is that life is one thing that money can’t buy. Life only gets shorter. And it is pitiful to waste one’s life and freedom that way.”

– Jose Mujica, former president of Uruguay

The power of choice. That’s what budget slow travel in early retirement gives us. We get to choose how we spend our days, where we spend our time and money. And we have chosen experiences over “stuff.”

How will you spend your time today?

🌍✌️