Growing Richmond family successfully avoids covid; sells everything and resolves to travel the world laughing and making friends


Posted December 20, 2020 by CultureTrotters

Family sells all and leaves to travel the world full time in search of in-depth cultural experiences. Three weeks in covid 19 hits and shuts down all travel. With no home to return to family has some amazing adventures.

 
In late February the Esteves family left the states with nothing more than carry-on luggage; with Covid’s growth, they have become a full-time, world-traveling, world-schooling, family.

• Crystal, Robert, Alejandro (9), and Arabella (7) are traveling the world.
• Their goal is experiencing authentic local culture, making friends, and bypassing assumptions
• Cooking with locals, slaughtering a goat with Maasai, embroidering with the Tzotzil, swimming with whale sharks, making friends with spider monkeys, fundraising for the Widows Project, and much more.

Dec 13, 2020, Akumal, San Cristobal, Moshi, Zanzibar, etc.

After selling everything they owned, the idea was to spend month in each country exploring local life and experiencing local culture. Three weeks after leaving on the trip of a life time Covid 19 hit and shut down the world. With no home to head back to they decided to ride out the lockdown traveling and experiencing more of the world with their children.

“It’s a huge world, and we wanted to explore it with our children. To grow with them as we all get to experience other cultures up close, not just reading about them.”

While exploring culture was on a Covid-hold, there was still plenty of opportunity to explore nature. During the heat of the lockdown the family lived in the jungle of Akumal and befriended a troop of young spider monkeys, as lockdown protocols began to lift, they were able to swim with dozens of wild whale sharks in the deep ocean without another soul in site. Eventually they were even able to travel to the mountains and reconnect with their dream of exploring culture with the indigenous Tzotzil and Tzeltal peoples of Chiapas. After many adventures: ziplining, horseback riding in the mountains, swimming in secret cenotes, and even getting stranded on one of Mexico’s most beautiful lakes; the family found themselves stepping into an even bigger epic adventure traveling across the ocean to the continent of Africa.

For the last 2 months the Esteves family has found themselves in the country of Tanzania where they went on a 4-day camping safari, sleeping out in the Serengeti and Ngorongoro while wild animals walked through the camp at night. They spend time living in a boma with a Maasai family where they were able to totally immerse themselves in the day-to-day life of the tribe, including slaughtering and eating a goat!

“If we planned for every possibility, we would never act. Better for us to dive-in than to wait for complete security and begin nothing.”

With all these amazing adventures the family wanted to give back and spent time volunteering with the Widows Project. A local charity working to help feed widows and their families struggling to meet their basic needs. They were so moved by the work of this charity and the needs of people around the world that they wanted to dedicate even more time and energy to this cause and have started a fundraiser page to raise the funds needed to meet the needs of these families and even help them open a school for the children.


The Esteves family just recently made their way to the island of Zanzibar where even more adventure, culture, and philanthropy awaits. In a time of such uncertainly it is totally up in the air as to when and where they will head next, but it is sure to be a wild ride.

To get more information about these cultural explorers please contact [email protected].
You can also follow their experiences on Instagram (/culturetrotters) or Youtube (/culturetrotters).
To help with the Widows Project, please direct people to GiveButter.com/widowsproject.

Please help share this amazing story and this family’s efforts to help those in need in Tanzania.
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Contact Email [email protected]
Issued By Culture Trotters
Phone 7343308976
Business Address 13926 Hull Street Road
PMB 1068
Country United States
Categories Family , Parenting , Travel
Tags covid19 , education , family , homeschool , travel
Last Updated December 20, 2020