Since the beginning of our cycling nomadic life we believe in the “pay it forward” mentality. If you look on the bright side of life, want to meet other people and are willing to do something in return, it will come back to you. Over the past 4 years minor setbacks didn’t discourage us, we met many wonderful people during our tour in Europe, North and Central America and have realized 18 aid projects. Since Oaxaca in Mexico this has also been translated into several house and pet sitting assignments.
After 3 months in the heat and high humidity of Latin America, Linda reached her limits in Guatemala. “I could no longer cycle all those kilometers every day with more than forty kilos of luggage on my bike. I started having physical complaints and felt that this was really no longer healthy.”
But as positive as we are, we found a solution.
You can get through those small countries in Central America in no time. Because we wanted to get the most out of our visa, we stayed for a longer time in the same place.
Confident
This created a new opportunity to find places to stay and at the same time give something in return. We offered to take care of pets in exchange for accommodation. We really like house and pet sitting. We already had so much experience knocking on doors in the evenings for a place to stay, and you would be surprised how incredibly hospitable people are. We immediately experienced the same with pet sitting.
It’s a matter of trust. Our website www.xplorid.today helps a lot. People can see what we do and how we approach life. Moreover, we often arrive a day earlier. In this way we can get to know the owners, the pets, the house and adopt routines that the animals are used to. Sometimes there’s an overlap, then one of us heads out first. We weren't into planning ahead at all, but now we’re fully booked until the 3rd week of January 2025!
Pay it forward
Petsitting has opened up a new world for us. There are people who do it for a fee, but we do it “for free”. Not for money, but in exchange for accommodation.
And that's a win-win-win.
The animals can stay at home in their own environment, the owners do not have to pay for animal boarding, the house is maintained and secured by us living there and we have a nice place to stay for a while.
That resembles exactly our life motto "to pay it forward". On request, we take care of the house, garden, swimming pool and of course the pets. It’s even possible to run an Airbnb or dog hotel.
We did two pet sits on Curaçao. One on the west and one on the east side of the island. We’ve also supported a local foundation that plants new coral, as published in our previous blog.
Cas Abou
At Cas Abou we live in a tropical house. These types of houses are becoming increasingly rare in Curaçao. Nothing beats the view over here. We enjoy it to the fullest every single day.
We walk to our private beach almost every day with the two Westpointers Flap and Fleur, the miniature poodle Flip and the chihuahua Flokkie. They like it just as much as we do.
Flip retrieves sticks non-stop on the beach. Fleur jumps up and down in the surf. She prefers to keep her paws on the ground and does not go further than her waist into the sea. Flokkie always runs after everyone and Flap is the loner who walks back and forth on the beach.
In addition to taking care of the 4 lovely dogs, we water the plants in the garden and in the pots, maintain the pool and take care of the Airbnb. Every day we swim 160 laps in “the infinity pool” and every other day we do an extensive workout. We also occasionally go out to explore the area, if it’s not too hot. We don't want to leave the dogs alone for too long, so the trips are short and we limit ourselves to Westpunt and the surrounding area.
We made a nice promo video of this house and pet sit.
Jan Thiel
While cat sitting Panda (short for Pandora) in Jan Thiel, we explore the rest of the island. Panda is a very affectionate kitty. She loves to lick you and have extensive conversations. Our garden borders the Jan Thiel salt lakes. In just a few steps we are in this nature reserve. During a 3-hour walk we go all the way around this lake.
Besides hiking and swimming we also do a workout every other day. Panda is our coach. As you can see she's more a daddy's girl.
Beautiful memories
A sit can last from a week to a few months. The nice thing is that you’re living like a local. Moreover, the pets really get used to you. Saying goodbye always hurts, we really miss them afterwards. But you know it’s temporary and the animals prefer to see their owners again. Flap, Fleur, Flokkie and Flip were a really nice pack. We have wonderful memories and the dogs certainly do too!
Paradise FM invited us to its studio. Vanessa, thank you for our meet and greet. Here, you can listen to the radio interview. We also had an interview for the Saturday edition of Amigoe's newspaper Ñapa.
Would you like to know more about house and pet sitting? We’ve created a Facebook group especially for pet sitting in Europe. It works very easy: if you need or are looking for a petsit, you place a request and people can respond to it. It's a bit like a job interview: you see who replies, have a video call, ask for references, check whether you feel good about it and then you make a decision.
Are you having vacation plans, but you don't know who will care for your pet(s)? We are still looking for petsitting opportunities in the last week of January 2025 and onwards. You can always inquire about our availability in Europe and beyond. Feel free to send an email to xplorid@outlook.com to get acquainted.
Once you break the walls that's been holding you captive, your journey to explore the world can finally begin.
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