Hit 12 countries this year and the last one nearly broke me

I crossed 12 countries as a freelancer in 2024. The number sounds great on paper but the last one, Colombia, hit me harder than I expected. I landed in Medellin thinking I had the routine down, 6 months of remote work on the road and no issues. Then I lost 3 days to a stomach bug and another 2 to a WiFi outage in my Airbnb. My client deadline slipped and I had to eat a $400 rush fee to get a subcontractor to cover part of the project. The milestone made me realize I was counting places, not counting the cost of being that far from a home base. Has anyone else reached a number and then immediately questioned the whole setup?

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tessa_carr26d ago

Ha, the stomach bug is the real travel milestone marker. Sounds like you hit the "I am a professional" wall, where the WiFi dies and your body decides to betray you in a whole new timezone. I once celebrated hitting 10 countries by spending the night in a Thai hospital with food poisoning, so I feel the pain. The count on the map never includes the panic of a deadline or the joy of eating $20 worth of street food twice. Honestly, the moment you start doing math on what the "freedom" costs, the whole setup starts feeling a lot less like a flex and more like a very expensive hobby.