We’re travel influencers who moved to Panama to live off-grid — here’s why we regret it
They’ve gone off living off-grid.
Internet stars Kaylee Dubeau and Jordan Saglio have become famous for living a “dream life” in remote Panama.
But the Massachusetts couple — who boast 390,00 subscribers on their “The Nomadic Movement” YouTube channel — have admitted that the Central American country is anything but picture perfect.
In a candid clip, titled “We Have Regrets Moving to Panama,” the pair list their biggest gripes, saying they struggle with allergies and homesickness, and can’t stand the trash that seems to pile up “everywhere.”
The pair also claim that, as foreigners, they’re also upcharged for everything.
“It’s a higher price [for us] and this is with everything from buying a car to buying property to taking a taxi to even buying fruit or food on the side of the road,” Jordan stated in the clip, which has clocked up X views.
The couple — who have a young daughter named Sadie and purchased a 2.5-acre plot of land for $75,000 outside the mountain town of Boquete back in 2019 — say they now have to have a Panama local help them negotiate the purchase of important items.
“I think you can imagine how sometimes the biggest purchases in your life, like a piece of land or a car or stuff like that, it just adds another layer of complexity having someone else involved to kinda like negotiate and help on your behalf,” Jordan declared.
The YouTube star also said his allergies were far worse in Panama than they were when he was living in the US.
“For about five or six months out of the year I have a nasty allergy that’s some kind of pollen or some kind of dust,” Jordan claimed. “It’s so bad that my face is so puffy and even the strongest allergy medication doesn’t even do anything.”
He added that pesticide and fungicide usage is “very, very high” in the country and the couple is forced to eat a lot of imported food.
Meanwhile, Kaylee has her own complaints with the country.
“Unfortunately pretty much everywhere you look here there’s just trash,” she declared in the video. “And whether it’s like buried in with the dirt or it’s just blatantly piled up on the side of the road, it’s one of those things that they just don’t have the systems in place here to dispose of it correctly or recycle it correctly.”
She additionally said she’s missing her family back in the United States.
“Something else that I regret that I definitely did not think that I would feel as deeply as I do and I think more so now because of Sadie, is how much I was going to miss our family,” she said.
And while the couple’s off-grid lifestyle might look ideal to burnt-out viewers who are struggling with the rat race, the pair’s life hasn’t exactly been glamorous.
They went years without living with a flushing toilet on the 2.5 acre farmstead and were forced to have cold showers for 7 months as they went without a water heater.