Stay for the Food: Cuisine and the Digital Nomad Experience

Thoughts from an accidental digital nomad

I became a digital nomad by accident. A move usually consists of moving from point A to point B. I concentrated so much on moving away from San Francisco that just bought a one-way ticket to Lima and didn’t think much about subsequent steps. For the last three years, my life followed the general pattern of three months in Peru and three months out. It certainly hasn’t been boring …

In this post, I wanted to share a glimpse of what it’s like to be a digital nomad and how food and more time in a place enriches the experience. This post is just to whet your appetite. More detailed posts to come!

Digital Nomad Visas Coming to Peru and Many Other Places Worldwide

In November of last year, Peru announced a digital nomad visa. They passed a law, Decreto Legislativo 1582, that introduced a visa for workers employed independently or for employers outside of Peru to work for up to a year while physically in Peru. However, there’s currently no way for you to apply for these digital nomad visas in Peru.

The announcement that Peru will be instating a digital nomad visa caught me by surprise. Everything to do with immigration seems so entrenched in old-school bureaucracy that I didn’t think things would change so quickly.

I often hoped that a better-defined visa for digital nomads would help with planning our lives beyond three months at a time. I thought that such a thing was at least five years off. However, it seems that despite mixed results in countries like Portugal, digital nomad visas have quickly become popular, almost fashionable, among governments.

Since the initial announcements, the Peruvian government has not released many details, and for digital nomads, the devil is always in the details. The ability to stay for a year is just the beginning—you have to consider the employment requirements, how to transfer money back and forth, healthcare, and tax consequences.

I’ve looked at many resources to navigate Peru’s immigration policies, and LimaEasy is the best I’ve seen. They update frequently and also generously answer user-specfic questions in their comments. The vast majority of other web pages are cookie-cutter (sometimes just replacing the country name) and are often just advertisements for dubious consulting services.

Why Peru?

Here’s a short list of reasons why Peru might be your digital nomad haven:

• Time zone: For digital nomads that have ties with the US, the time zone is favorable. Half of the year, it’s lined up with NYC, and the other half of the year it’s one hour different.

• Frequent Flights: The flights to Lima still are as frequent as pre-pandemic, but it’s still fairly convenient. There are direct flights from Lima to Houston, Atlanta, and Miami.

• High-speed internet: The internet has vastly improved since I started visiting Peru, especially in Lima. You can have fiber internet set up in 24 hours in Lima.

• Rainforest, Mountains, and Beaches: If you based yourself in Lima, you’ll have an amazing selection of destinations for a long weekend or vacation. With an hour-and-half flight, you can visit the Andes (Cusco as the hub), the Amazon (Tarapoto, Iquitos, or Puerto Maldonado), and the beaches of the North (Piura, Trujillo).

• Amazing food for all budgets: One key aspect of the food scene that is an especially good fit for digital nomads is the availability of good Peru at a variety of price ranges. If you’re on a budget, you can enjoy street food, daily menú at local restaurants, and food at market stalls. At the other end of the continuum, many of the world’s top restaurants including the current #1 restaurant in the world are found in Lima. Staying for a while, you have ample opportunity to score a reservation at these top restaurants.

Here are a few ideas that have shaped my digital nomad experience:

Food as a Central Thread

Food is a central thread through just about any culture. Tug on it and you’ll learn about culture, geography, history, and how people live and what they value.

Food pulls you into a culture and immerses you as it involves all of the senses. Food is also a great connector and is a great way to meet people. Digging deeper and reading about the history of regional dishes will teach you a lot about the place.

You don’t have to be as food-obsessed as I am to use food as a way to connect the dots. You can use food as an opener to friendships. Or you can find your own thread. I have friends who have connected with people in new places over unicycling, surfing, photography, and much more.

I think food is especially great because you have to eat every day and meals are opportunities to learn something new about where you are already built into life.

Time as a Teacher

One of the most fascinating things about traveling is how your perspective of a place changes depending on how long you stay. I’ve stayed in some places for a layover, many places for a week, and several for a month. Staying as a digital nomad offers a unique perspective. I think digital nomadism is still relatively new and it will take time to fully appreciate the unique perspective that comes with staying places in chunks for six months to a year.

As a digital nomad, you’ll learn more and have the opportunity to experience seeing more than most tourists. However, as a digital nomad, you are free to leave after your stint is done. This makes the experience something different from that of a tourist but also different from that of an expat. Also, interleaving places that you return to further make the digital nomad experience even more unique.

Consider Being a Tourist First

Many of the cookie-cutter web pages about the Peruvian digital nomad visa prominently list Machu Picchu as one of the top reasons to be a digital nomad in Peru (while leaving off the high-speed internet that is widely available in Lima). It’s almost like people forget that you can visit a place as a tourist first. It’s a good idea to visit a place as a tourist before committing to a year-long digital nomad stint.

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More to Come

This is the first in a series of posts to share information about the Peruvian digital nomad. In this post, my goal was to provide my perspective on how staying longer and being curious about the food aided my understanding of Peru. In future posts, I will drill into the details and the specific quality of life factors of staying in Peru for a while.

Tips for Your Digital Nomad Journey

If you’re a digital nomad or are thinking about becoming one, sign up for my upcoming newsletter here:

It turns out that way more people ask me about how to get good internet at an Airbnb than about where to find a good sudado so I decided to start a newsletter covering tips I learned while working remotely around the world.

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Please share with a digital nomad friend or someone who is considering Peru as a destination.