Journey to Autonomy and Liberty: Discovering Innovative Living Solutions

Join host Emily Bron as she delves into the innovative world of free cities and intentional communities with Charlotte Tweed, a Liberty Travel Coach. This fascinating episode of reinvention explores the journey from traditional corporate life to a lifestyle of travel writing and the pursuit of eco-living. Discover how autonomous zones and sustainable living reshape urban development and learn about Charlotte’s experiences across Mexico and beyond. The conversation tackles the effects of the pandemic on travel, the emerging opportunities in free cities, and Charlotte’s personal insights into living freely with a community mindset.

TIMESTAMPS:
00:59 Introduction to the Age of Reinvention
01:34 Meet Charlotte Tweed: From Corporate to Liberty Travel Coach
04:35 Charlotte’s Journey: From Canada to Mexico
08:51 The Impact of COVID-19 on Travel
11:47 Adapting to New Realities: House Sitting and Writing
13:56 Settling in Mexico: A New Chapter
16:48 Navigating Bureaucracy: Temporary Residency in Mexico
20:42 Reflections on Freedom and Society
27:53 Embracing Remote Work and New Opportunities
28:27 Discovering the Free Cities Foundation
30:33 The Concept of Parallel Societies
32:10 Liberty Travel Coach and Community Exploration
35:35 Exploring Intentional Communities
36:38 Montenegro and Other Potential Destinations
39:04 Challenges and Considerations in Relocating
51:25 Advice for Finding Your Freedom Lifestyle
56:37 Final Thoughts and Future Discussions

Emily Bron: Welcome to the age of reinvention, eco living, free cities, and intentional communities. The podcast where we explore the transformative ideas and the innovations reshaping our world. I’m your host, Emily Braun, and today we are venturing into a fascinating realm where freedom eco living and pioneering governance converge.

In this episode, we’ve joined by Charlotte Tweed to discuss the concept of free cities autonomous zones designed to champion personal liberty and innovative ideas. urban development. Charlotte Tweed is an expat travel coach who takes you on a journey where you don’t just visit, you live it. Charlotte is channeling all her passion and skills into Liberty Travel Coach.

to help people relocate to unique liberty destinations. Charlotte resides now in Mexico and will help you find a home where you can have freedom and live in a community of like minded people. From intentional communities within this free private city foundation to the sustainable approaches to particular administrative regions and CSTAT projects, we will uncover the potential for the harmonious blend of living freely and sustainably.

How can colonies of autonomy and environmental stewardship redefine our future? Let’s explore. The conversation ahead promises to be enlightening, thought provoking, and full of insights and For those who dream of integrating eco living practices into the fabric of freedom and self governance. So please sit back as we journey into the age of reinvention together with Charlotte Hi, Charlotte.

I’m happy to see you in my studio. Hi, Emily. I am very happy to be here. Yes. I know that intro might sound very heavy with, a lot of new terminology for some of the people who just, you know, not familiar with the topic, but interested to learn more. So I will try and I believe you will help me uncover some mystery or actually unknown from the new movement and new development, which is happening in the world as we speak.

And I understand that both you and me two Canadian woman who just met recently. Online, we didn’t know each other before living in Canada. Each of us has our own road way as how we get to this ideas or to this lifestyle that you already promoting and I am promoting, through my podcast and my means.

Let’s start from you Charlotte, can you share your journey from a corporate job in Canada to becoming a travel writer and lately Liberty Travel Coach, very nice title, I would say, advocating for Liberty Travel And eco friendly living. Yes.

Charlotte Tweed: Yes, I did work in the corporate world for a while. I worked with the health region actually in Alberta for 10 years.

And then what happened was the health regions amalgamated. At this time, I was working in human resources. I did work in hospital security, occupational health and safety as well. And my last position was with human resources. And when they amalgamated the health regions, they eliminated our positions. So that when that happened, it was very difficult because my work was my identity and I didn’t realize how much it was my identity until I lost it.

And then it was, what do I do with myself, what do I do now? They gave us a time period of two years of what was supposed to be meaningful employment to see if we could get, reintegrated into another position with the health region. And in that time, then they also put a hiring freeze on. So we were all stuck.

So when that ended my two year period, I took a severance package and I left and decided to, that I did not want to continue working in cubicle land anymore. I’d had enough of it. I didn’t want the nine to five job anymore. I wanted change. So while I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do, because I wanted to do something different and something I love.

I worked at a office manager position at a Bible camp outside of where I lived. I did that position for a year, and then applied for to go back to school, to college, to get my diploma in travel and tourism. Because I loved traveling, and I thought, that is a business I could do from anywhere in the world, because I didn’t want to be in one position, one place anymore.

In 2016, I went back to college. And went through that, and that was quite the experience in itself, going back I had no idea what to expect being in my 40s, going back to college, with 20 year olds, and it actually was a great time, it was a fantastic experience. I did not expect to make any friends, but did make a lot of very good friends.

From that when I was in college, My original intention was to start a home based travel agency, help people travel. And then when I got to college and started working on some of the programs and, The booking engines and flights. I thought, you know what? I absolutely do not want to book anybody’s flights.

I don’t want, it was a part I just didn’t enjoy. I really learned what I did enjoy about the travel industry and what I didn’t enjoy about the travel industry and booking, booking travel was something I did not like. And while I was in college, I ended up being like the class editor and reviewing everybody’s assignments before they handed them in because the instructors did say get somebody to check your assignments, read over them, check the grammar, check, and before you hand them in.

So I ended up being the class editor and was writing on somebody’s assignment one day and someone said, look at Charlotte write and one of my friends said that’s what Charlotte does, she writes. And that was a realization that I had forgotten about myself from way back when I was young in high school.

I loved writing. I loved writing poetry. I liked writing essays, believe it or not.

Emily Bron: I believe it because I was the same. I like writing and I like travel. That’s why I’m fully tuning to your

Charlotte Tweed: story. Yeah, I love doing it. And so going back to college actually took me in a direction I did not expect. And I thought, you know what?

I want to be a travel writer. That’s something that I can do. So then before graduation, I launched my travel blog, started building that, learned all the technical background of putting a website together, SEO, affiliates, all that type of thing. And then on the night of convocation, my husband and I flew to Egypt.

To launch my travel writing, I had to, let’s go travel. Let’s go explore. The opportunity is there. So we flew to Egypt and spent a week in Egypt. Then we went to Jordan, spent 10 days in Jordan. And from Jordan, we flew to Rome and leased a car and drove up through Europe for three months. And It was a life changing experience, to say the least.

Emily Bron: Travel is always eye opener for many people. Even you have experience, new place, even familiar from before place, opening kind of new features, new stories. And yes, I understand where your curiosity was revived. Yes. And but coming from this to Liberty Travel Coach, I believe there is some jump or leap as well.

Charlotte Tweed: There is, yes. Graduation, so 2018, we knew what came a few years after that, and what that did to the travel industry. Travel blogs pretty much lost went to zero traffic. You mean in 20, in COVID? Yes, when the, when COVID hit, The travel industry was completely devastated. I would say it was the hardest hit industry in the world, really.

Like I said, traffic on travel blogs went to nothing. I had just, even though I had said I did not want to book people’s travel, people kept saying to me after reading my blog and reading my writing, because I published a travel memoir as well. From our experience in 2018, they said, you need to book people’s travel and I said, okay, I will start a travel agency.

I went and started my travel agency and registered my business the day before the lockdowns hit in Canada. It really wasn’t meant for me to have a travel agency, but You might

Emily Bron: have under new circumstances. Never say never.

Charlotte Tweed: No, never say never, and we thought it would be who thought it was going to turn into what it was going to turn into.

I thought a month. Everything will be up and running in a month. I have been watching travel blogger friends of mine that, we’re living in China and she was putting on how she was surviving through the lockdowns and what they were doing. I thought, oh, I felt sorry for her, but that’s not going to happen here, right?

That was the thought that’s not going to happen in Canada. They’re not going to lock us in doors in Canada. Never would that come to Canada. Because

Canada was supposed to be free. There’s no way that the government is going to overstep and tell me I can’t leave my house. Or I can’t have people over. We were naive.

Emily Bron: I was naive. It’s a lot of fears were induced actually to population and all medias and I believe like it was shock like in many ways when we heard about you know this country closing I mean in Europe it was coming you know one by one like Italy Germany, France like in, in And it was logical that we should be closed at some time as well.

Cannot say that I was happy. It was shocking kind of revelation that country after country, but under announcement that it’s pandemic and we need to stop it. We need to comply to this, for the better future for all of us.

Charlotte Tweed: Yeah,

Emily Bron: I didn’t buy

Charlotte Tweed: it. I did not buy into it. I didn’t buy into the lockdowns.

I didn’t buy into the circles on the floor. I didn’t buy into the masks. I didn’t buy into the plexiglass around the cashiers. I found that more disturbing than the thought of getting sick from a virus, going to the grocery store and making a stand six feet apart. And that affected me mentally. I was like what is going on?

Why this virus has a 98 percent survival rate. Why are we doing this? I just, I couldn’t understand what, what was going on.

Emily Bron: So you’ve had critical mind, opposing to many other people who assumed that they had it as well, but here as I understand, it was really more shocking to see all the changes around in actually almost always closed in the shopping and all this.

Rather than to understand at the beginning what’s going on. So I commend you for being clear from the beginning about this essence. Even I don’t know what you understand at this time because for me, what It took some time till I realized that it’s something is not going on here, but now about you.

So how you, and let’s not go to the details because I understand this period might be traumatic for many people and we all lived, through this period with different and many people traumatized till now, they might even not. Understand it all, that it’s affected such event affected everyone on the earth and in our environment.

And I believe for the this period actually opened my eyes because I was as well my contract, which I was working at the time for the government was completed, but it was clear everyone was sent home. My travel plans, because I’ve had travel companies, small boutique company, and my plans for May to be in Portugal and Spain, obviously were shut down, and at the beginning, I believed it just for the month.

And after then, we will see how it’s going to develop. And somewhere in June, when I realized that we stuck here, for some unforeseen time, that something is going on. And again but Having family here in Toronto and communicating with my relatives, friends in different countries, I’ve seen that actually everyone in the same situation, but you made something different under the same circumstances.

Charlotte Tweed: So because everything, like my income really had completely been taken away. I, I started looking for travel, writing jobs on online. So started searching for employment. You got to survive, right? So a job came up that I applied for two jobs, actually, one I didn’t get and the other one I did get.

So it was a completely online. It was a junior travel writer at the time. And I also, at the same time, everything kind of falls into place. You’re doing something right when everything falls into place. We were all, I was also looking for house sitting because I wanted to get out of Canada before I couldn’t get out of Canada because I just, I had, I want to call it a God thing saying you got to go before you can’t leave.

Somebody was telling me, he was supporting me. So I was watching house sits of where we could possibly go. Our lease had come up on our condo. So we weren’t tied into a lease. We were going month to month at the time. And a house sit actually came up in Texas and it was for six weeks and we love Texas.

My husband and I have spent lots of time in Texas. Liberty loving state. It was wide open. All restrictions had been dropped in that state. So people thought you couldn’t fly out of Canada. It was June of 2021 and, the borders and everything had been closed, but you couldn’t drive across, but you could fly across.

And that was not a problem. You had to get your test, your PCR test and say you were clear. So I applied for this house sit for six weeks in Texas in an area that we knew well, and we got it. And my husband was I don’t know if we can go because she needs us there in two weeks. It was a short period of time.

And I said why not? And he goes we have the lease till the end of the month. And I said, that doesn’t matter. Because the house sit, we’re not paying rent. So we won’t be paying rent at the house sit. If we have to pay, finish off the two weeks on our lease, it’s okay. That doesn’t matter. It’s not costing us anything extra.

So he said, okay, and we packed up everything and put it in storage. Prior to this, I’ve been selling stuff on Kijiji like mad, selling everything we possibly could, so we really had no furniture left. Just all that we really have left is keepsakes. Things that are of sentimental value, put them in storage, and we left not knowing when we were going to return back to Canada.

We knew it was not going to be for a long time. We intended on go to go for a while, check out some different destinations. Texas was the perfect place to go first because like I said, there was no restrictions. So we felt like it was free and safe and the best place to start. And then I started my online writing for that company.

When I was in Texas and yeah, it’s, that’s where that started.

Emily Bron: And how Mexico come along after Texas?

Charlotte Tweed: With the position that I was writing with, it was an international expat magazine. And they had a libertarian focus. So they also wanted me to go and visit some of their properties that they like to promote in some countries.

So after our, we had ended up having a couple house sits in Texas. For more information visit www. FEMA. gov So when those ended, then we went to Belize for six weeks. From Belize, we then went to Nicaragua for six weeks. And at that time, that’s when the vaccine rollout started happening and airlines started to get really sticky.

And PCR tests were really sticky. And I tell you, the flights to Nicaragua were, they were a nightmare to get there. You had to have your test. You had to submit your test to the government. I think it was 24 hours prior to your flight. The PCR tests were ridiculously expensive. It was like 200 us dollars per person to get these tests done.

So that’s 400 for the two of us just to get a test done to say, We’re not sick. And then to fly from Belize to Nicaragua, you’d think it would be easy. We thought once we got to Central America, flights would be simple, small area. That was not the case at the time. I think it’s maybe a little better now.

The best option that we could find was we had to fly from Belize. To Panama city from Panama city back to Miami overnight in Miami, and then get on a plane to Manawa from Miami. And I said, you know what, once we’re done in Nicaragua, I need to stop. It was so stressful because one other thing that happened with the flights that really sent me over the edge was when we were in Belize I had sent her tests.

To, to the airline, because you had to send them to the airline, send them to the government. But there was another airline involved because of our overnight in Miami, and I forgot to send it to them. It wasn’t the same airline, so it wasn’t the connection, so the other airline didn’t forward. So as we’re standing in Belize with our suitcases ready for the taxi to pick us up, to take us to the airport, I got an email from the airline saying, you will not be allowed to board to go to Nicaragua.

And I was like, what? Now what do we do? What do we do? And I thought, you know what? If we get to Miami, I guess we just go rogue in the United States. I don’t know because we could still get into the States at that time too. We got to Miami and then they sent us another email saying, you have been cleared.

You can go to the airport as planned and check in for your flights to Nicaragua the next day. But talk about putting undue stress on people in the travel period. Then, it was.

Emily Bron: It was stressful. It was a lot of stress. Everyone’s stories. And I was flying at this time like in 22nd actually to Mexico through Houston and I thought that I know all the rules and I was reading in advance changes, alerts, what is, it was a lot of stress but people were still flying, not me.

Charlotte Tweed: It was crazy. So I said we need to go some place and That we can stay for a while and Mexico was the next perfect fit. Mexico had no restrictions on, you didn’t have to have a test. There were no mask mandates. There was nothing, no vaccine mandates. And in that period of time as well, the first, Mexico never really closed.

They shut down for

Emily Bron: Two weeks. Once a month maximum, and they’ve had a rotating schedule between businesses, but all tourism was officially open. There were not enough tourists, but it was open.

Charlotte Tweed: And they had, restricted levels, so maybe hotels were operating at 40 percent or that, but they didn’t fully close.

They realized the importance to the economy and to their people if our people can’t work fully. They’re going to starve, right?

Emily Bron: I’m surprised still now, that other countries even in Latin America, how come only Mexico realize it? Mexican government and not other governments. The cartel?

I don’t know.

Charlotte Tweed: Anyway

Emily Bron: maybe. Yeah but the common sense here worked better than, in other case. Absolutely.

Charlotte Tweed: So I, in the meantime, while we were, watching still what’s going on, and I’m writing about destinations and country and freedom because it’s a libertarian magazine, the first country to drop restrictions was El Salvador.

I checked a map all the time, it was the IATA travel map, and a little blue dot appeared in Central America. And the blue dot meant zero restrictions, and I thought,

Emily Bron: Oh!

Charlotte Tweed: El Salvador is open. So coming into Mexico, you often have to have a flight booked out, or there is a possibility you could be denied entry.

There’s a possibility. Customs can say no if you don’t have a flight booked out.

Emily Bron: Why did you want to land to, to settle a little bit in Mexico? Or it was your business requirements? To be in Salvador.

Charlotte Tweed: No, there wasn’t a business requirement to settle. I wanted to come here because we could stay for six months because Mexico had a tourist visa.

That’s six months for the taking, 180 days, so you can come sit here. I just needed to not be going somewhere in six weeks, and six weeks, because travel was so incredibly difficult. So that’s why Mexico came in first with that. So I booked, and then for external flights, we booked a flight out to El Salvador June 1st.

Just to have that, okay, if we have to leave Mexico, El Salvador is open. That’s going to be the next place we go.

Emily Bron: And how long did you spend in El Salvador?

Charlotte Tweed: We didn’t go to El Salvador. We ended up staying in Mexico. Oh, I see. I see. Yes. Yes. It’s quite the story. Because when we came to Mexico, we ended up getting another house sit.

On the south of Zihuatanejo, in a little village called Barra da Potosí. So we got a house sit there from some Canadians who were going back to Canada to spend Christmas with their grandchildren. So that was good. So everything, again, fell into place there. When we came into Mexico, excuse me, we flew into Mexico City, got our tourist visa, she asked me at customs, what day are you leaving?

Here’s my flights, booked out for June 1st. And that’s all fine, she gave us our tourist visa,

took our tourist visa, and left. And then we were at our house sit with our looking at our visa, and I looked at it, and there was a 16 circled DS, DCCS DS, DCCS. She only gave us a 16 day tourist visa, and which is very odd, and I thought that just can’t be right, that can’t be, it must mean June 1st, because our flights booked out to El Salvador were June 1st, 6 1 1 6, I thought maybe that’s what she was doing.

So then, where we are now, and I had wanted to check out before we left, I had done research on a little place called Ajijic in Mexico, so I was trying to get a place to stay here, which was It’s very difficult to find short term rentals here. And we came here and we were doing a real estate tour with a local realtor and we drove by the immigration office.

And she said that’s where you go. If you want to apply for your Temporal or your Permanente. And I said wait a minute, I have to go back to Canada to apply for that. And I’m not going back to Canada because if I go back, I can’t get out. And she said, Oh no. Because of the pandemia, the government put a program in place that if your tourist visa has expired, you can apply for your temporary residency here.

It was such a smart program. I was like, what? I hadn’t heard anything about it. I have to look into this. So we got back to her office and she called the lawyer that they work with, an immigration lawyer, and he said all we need is a copy of your current passport, a copy of your tourist visa, and the tourist visa has to have expired in order for the process to start.

So we, okay, we thought we have till June. This was in March. No. April, it was in April, we thought we have a couple months, we should be fine. So we sent that to him and he sent us a message the next day and he said, I have an appointment with you at immigration this week. Your tourist visa is already expired.

Why did they only give you a 16 day visa? We said, we have no idea. We thought we got the 180 day visa. So destiny just worked towards your getting this program. Everything. It was just incredible. And we were so happy. So we went down to the immigration office with us, he, told, they’re going to ask you these questions, and they’ll decide if you’re going to get, if you qualify or not.

At that time, you had to, the rules have changed, it’s Mexico and you never know where they’re going to change. At the time, you had to have entered Mexico once. And we had to have entered Mexico before the end of December of that year, which we had, we flew in on December 17th. So those, we met those qualifications.

So we went down, answered their questions. And that, that was it. It was the absolute easiest thing we’ve ever had to do. And because it was this amnesty visa, we didn’t have to provide any proof of income verification. It was just all stated. This is how much we make. This is who we work for. This is why we’re here.

This is it. And they took our pictures, and that was it. We got a four year visa, four year temporal residency. Sorry, not visa, a four year temporary residency. And the normal way, we don’t have to go in and apply, because normally you would have to go in after your first year and renew. And then go again and renew with the amnesty visa.

No renewal. It’s automatic four years.

Emily Bron: I knew, and actually I knew about this program because I was explaining people, I was working for Mexico, but because I was in Toronto already, I decided it doesn’t make sense for me. And I’ve been in Mexico before I was could apply, but I need to be in Mexico, but then in Toronto.

So I went through whatever proper way, I would say, was to get it, and yes, as you mentioned. But I think after all this, and even we cannot now discuss all details and you live since then in Mexico two and a half years, correct? So I believe that your ideas and perception of freedom lifestyle changed.

What you can tell about it? And I’m really interested to hear from you because like I’m Canadian, but I’m immigrant and I’ve had my previous experience with not very common, say for the average Canadian. And I live only 27 years in Canada after living in other countries. But for me, Canada was For many years it’s a beacon of freedom and respect to the law and respect to human dignity and all these, correct words that were associated with Canada.

And I’m just interested to hear from you Canadian born. a woman. Let’s speak about freedom tradition in the best in Canada, for example. And how do you see they were working over the years? Did they change like perception, your perception of freedom? Was it changed over the few years?

Charlotte Tweed: I think so. Yes. I took my freedom for granted. I honestly, because I was just born with that I never really thought that much about my freedom or worried about it until I lost it. But you didn’t lost it, actually. In my view, you gained it. A different, a new view, right? It was like I guess I don’t like people telling me what to do, maybe that’s, but the government overstepped, they overstepped their boundaries, I don’t think they had a right to tell anybody you can’t leave your home.

I don’t think they had a right to say you can’t have your healthy family members over for Christmas. I don’t think they had the right to say you have to stand outside. And wave up to your grandma on the eighth floor in her health care facility and hold up happy birthday signs. It was too much. Taking away the ability for people to express love to each other, to have community to have the freedom to move, that, the ability to move where you need to move, that to me is freedom.

I should be able to get my, spend my time with who I want, when I want. I’m not hurting anybody, that to me is freedom to be able to live the, yeah, to be able to make the connection with people, like being told, taking a, having that community ripped apart from you. That really gave me a different perspective of it because before I just took for granted that I could go wherever I want, I can go to whoever’s house I want.

I took it for granted.

Emily Bron: Tell me please, why so many people around us? in Canada and in other Western country where freedom was fabric of society. Why many people accepted it as a kind of normal limitation? And since even this limitation were going too tight and tight, people were still not waking up.

And I was surprised that even the conversation about the freedom, which I started in my surrounding, people didn’t want to speak about it, like people were, and I thought we all, even in my community, from Eastern Europe, from former Soviet Union, we, I was sure we’ve had Similar ideas about, freedom and the restriction of freedom and we came from society who was really restricted this freedom and, and here we are we don’t recognize that all people so believe the country like Canada and United States in different position now, and this pandemic, it’s so awful, disasters that all these rules should be forgotten again for the better, common good.

Always when I hear about common good, it take me back to socialistic ideas. But what is your explanation? Why so many people fall in this mind trap? TV.

Charlotte Tweed: They watch television. I quit watching television in 2018 when we went on our long term travel. So I stopped watching the news. I stopped watching mainstream media I knew what was going on in the world like through my travel.

I, being in the travel industry, I stayed on top of the travel news with travel publications and that type of thing. So I could see what was going on. I could see what was going on social media from my friends that we’ve made all over the world, but I wasn’t watching mainstream

Emily Bron: media. And I was not watching.

I don’t have TV for years, but even listening to the, official announcement and and looking how people reacted to it. Yes. It’s a beginning. Okay. Two weeks we were okay, let’s do it. Let’s help our country and countrymen to, to fight this disease. But after it started to be months or two okay, what’s going on?

But people were telling kind of me and thinking no, you don’t understand how, okay in your opinion, it’s mostly TV, so TV or information provided through the social media, it’s enough to overturn, like, all ideas of freedom that people were And I understand you don’t appreciate what you were born with.

It’s kind of part of your nature. But in your case, in case of other people, it didn’t work out. You were not buying this explanation. So probably there is some, I don’t know, freedom bug or something that maybe working differently in some people, but I’m still surprised speaking with people and, we are a little bit far away from COVID and there are so many other news that consume us, disasters here and there, wars.

And many of our family members and friends involved in Ukraine, in Israel, in my case, in case of us in Russia, and people all, not glued to the TV, news completely, but, there’s so much. happening that kind of you don’t have time to process all events. But when I’m trying to mention freedom, people don’t speak about like we have enough, going on in I just realized that it was probably all this.

Thinking about freedom in like certain, I would say, authentic way, it belong only for small percentage of people. All other people, majority are more concerned about comfortable life, which I understand, work, children, family, how to make money to feed your family and pay your mortgage. And it’s enough frustrating these days, with economy and cost of living rising and all the fears here and there.

But for majority of people it’s prevailing. And. There is enough, I don’t know, even some conversation I hear in the social media, in our community where they’re speaking, where we would go, okay we lived in Soviet Union, we lived in Romania, here and there, and here we are, like, spent so many years, and I had the same ideas, like, there’s no places to go that’s it, only Mars, or, Moon, or really, but no exit.

And here, I’m very happy to get to the next topic, which I can tell you that I felt not insect in a box, but I was so uncertain with all my feelings at the beginning and that I even cannot share my concern. Maybe in this one friend, like in Israel, we were changing messages and For me, when I was and I was listening for a lot of podcasts and I was in industry kind of relocation, but the location was for retirement, before COVID, it was mostly topic of where to relocate for retirement, for better quality of life better climate cost of living and stuff like that.

And. Obviously, over the COVID years, the direction was changed and digital movement appeared to be, interesting new, remote work, open new opportunities. And I decided that I need to get my remote online work, the same ideas as you’ve had. I never wanted to work in cubicle, but sometimes I needed.

And when I first heard actually from Mikhail Tora podcasting about, different stories about Liberland story, I was so amazed that there is such a wonderful project. And I remember I was excited for the week and I immediately applied. It’s how it started. And after then I learned.

After some time. Oh, it’s not only this country, which you’re working in such interesting direction. Apparently there is a whole foundation and many people are looking for the same. I’m not alone in my search. I’m not crazy. I knew that I’m not crazy, but feeling loneliness in, in, and we were still in lockdown.

That there are people on this, planets that not building, not planning to build on the Mars when Elon Musk will take, I’m not sure, us or somebody else, but they are working in the same time of building something interesting and really, where the many ideas of best people can be implemented.

And here I understand you made your kind of segue. In this direction, and I will directly ask you what inspired you to focus on eco living, free city ideas in your travel and actually making it your

Charlotte Tweed: When I was working for the Expat Magazine, we would have people, because it was libertarian focused, freedom focused, so that was our audience. And we would have people write to us and go, where can I move to get away from the new world order? I don’t want this future. I didn’t ask for it. I want to go.

Where can I go? And I had been introduced to free the free cities foundation through my my, I became the managing editor of the expat magazine and one of the the CFO for free cities, or sorry for Tipless Alex Voss. Was introduced to me to write for the magazine. And I had no idea this organization existed.

I hadn’t heard of them. I didn’t know what they were. So I interviewed Alex for the magazine and I was totally fascinated. I went on the website. I spent like an entire day going through their website, listening to Titus Gable’s speeches. It was just. This is incredible. This is, these people are doing they’re looking to create a parallel society where people can actually say, I want to live there.

And these people have the same ideas, you think of it as a utopia, but it was just a concept. I had never heard of before, you voluntarily move there. The city competes for you, or the community competes for you. This is, and you enter into a contract with them. And that contract, this is how we live.

This is what we do. There’s rules. It’s not just a free for all. There are rules, but you know exactly what’s going to happen. And that contract cannot be changed without both parties being involved. Canada cancelled its contract with me when they locked me in my house. The Constitution was used like toilet paper, the whatever you want to call it.

It was the Bill of Rights did not exist. That can’t be done in a free city because there’s legal contracts between the two people. They couldn’t come to me and say, okay, now we’re doing all lockdowns in the city. You’re going to be locked in your house. It doesn’t work that way. It’s a two way street.

It’s a contract. It’s a relationship. And I was fascinated by it. And they’re, they have projects, real projects, where people are living in these places. And there are projected projects where people can live in these places and It’s just an absolute fascinating concept and I felt where with my writing job, I loved it.

I loved my writing. I love sharing my stories of inspiring people. I felt I need to take another step. I can write about it, but I need to help these people find these places and go and see, is this place right for me? Could I live there? And so that’s how my Liberty Travel Coach. Came into existence because I thought I, I want to work with these people and bring this to awareness that these places are out there and there’s more of them coming.

There is a movement. There are people that think like you, that feel like you. that want to have the freedom that you do.

Emily Bron: I was inspired last year during the conference of Free City Foundation for, from the Prague, which I joined online, and I learned about more projects, developing more names, and I’ve seen the faces I heard the voices of the people, and it seems to me that I really finally get to the point.

Not the kind of parallel reality, that it’s all real and I can be part of it. It was so inspiring for me because the ideas of actually international lifestyle consulting and even the podcast came from realization that these ideas should be promoted. And these projects would people need to, and probably there are many people like I was and you were in a time who just didn’t get this information on time.

And they’re losing hope. And even to have the hope, there’s something and there are some people And you are not alone, in this world. I think it’s very inspiring and actually would help people to look for these places. And now my next questions, if you can share the projects that you know and I know some, but let’s, is it really working towards leaving communities and facilities because there are different projects being part of this foundation.

And I believe this year, soon it will be next year, the conference and More projects, new projects would be introduced and new names, but from what I know, there’s a C STAT project like built on the ocean, actually on the water. Sounds fantastic. When I was looking for the architectural for renders and description.

It’s really from the movies, but it’s not to everyone. At least I decided it’s not for me and I’m looking forward to the sound project. I never promote something that I don’t like, but with all respect, there are some people who would be interested to be part of this communities and live in such facilities.

I know about some eco living intentional communities, and actually Mexico is a leading country in my opinion which represent many different types of communities, even not all of them part of Free City Foundation, but they work in in parallel maybe because Mexico has this, I don’t know specific laws, and Mexicans are not so compliant, to the government.

There is a kind of independent activities happening, which actually involve not only Mexican, but Americans and people coming from the West. What you can tell me, us, actually, what kind of communities working towards, resident building residences for freedom, loving people. So please tell us about intentional communities or eco living communities you, And you may be visited during your travel as it would be interesting for our 50 plus age demographic and actually for everyone who looking for like minded for the communities with like minded people and and actually, if you can identify difference between different communities, because I understand they have.

Specific probably requirements and some set of rules which is different from one to another, correct?

Charlotte Tweed: They do. They all have their own separate contracts that you have to read before you relocate. Some of them even prefer that you read the contract before you even visit. It’s a different mindset.

And they want to protect that. One community I have not visited this one yet, but I’m very intrigued by it. And clients I have as well are very intrigued by it. And I know you have been there. So is a Montalibero. And I’m very interested in that. And I’m very interested in Montenegro. I think it’s most important to go and visit these places and see them for yourself because everybody has, there’s a, you have your different boxes to check and you need to know what those are before you go so that you know what you’re looking for when you get there.

And like I said, I haven’t been there yet, I haven’t been to Montenegro, but I love Europe. I’ve spent lots of time in Europe. What attracts me about Montenegro is the landscape looks incredibly beautiful. I love history and historical buildings food, and it sounds like residency is actually fairly easy to obtain if you open a business in Montenegro.

So that is something I’m exploring, possibly even for myself and my husband, maybe because we’re in Mexico now, but. We have a new president elected and a lot of people are very concerned about the new president. She’s, she has some different views, so I’m always keeping my eye open as to could I live there?

Emily Bron: So am I, regardless of my residency. Oh, so why not Liberland, where you can open your business on, country website and be part of community in center of

Charlotte Tweed: Europe? It’s a possibility too, but Liberland’s pretty rustic yet. There’s a little bit more settlement in Montelibero, and Montelibero at this time, or I guess I should say Montenegro, Montelibero is the community.

Montenegro is not a part of the EU. They have applied for the, to be a part of the EU. There’s positive and negatives to that. I think the EU comes with too many regulations. So I fear that when, if it does happen, if Montenegro does become part of the EU, there’s going to be more regulation. It will increase the cost of living.

Right now, from what I, my research has said, and from what I’ve heard, the cost of living in Montalbero or Montenegro is quite reasonable. So you can get a cheap place to rent there and that’s attractive to me and affordable cost of living because coming from Canada, I know how incredibly expensive it is and prices are going up here in Mexico where we are too.

There’s still half the price. Are you open to learn Serbian? It could be a challenge. But that’s why it’s good to go and see what it’s like. If it’s no I’ll use somebody in my family for an example. They don’t want to come to Mexico because they don’t want to learn Spanish. I’m working on Spanish, but where I live, you do not have to speak Spanish.

You can get away on

Emily Bron: English. You live in unique place. Ah, hee. It’s unique place even for Mexico. But in Mexico there are many such unique places which were inhabited over the years and from I know, personally and from research, there’s no country in the world at this moment where so many expats speaking English are living as in Mexico.

It’s not Montenegro.

Charlotte Tweed: No, it’s not. But that’s why I would have to go and see for myself. And that’s why my clients, I can’t tell my clients, Montenegro is for you. Go, you must relocate there. Don’t go, just, move. You have to go and see it for yourself. So it’s a part of getting out of them what they’re looking for, what their intentions are, what their outcomes are, and then encouraging them to go and visit beforehand.

I might go there and have wonderful expectations. Oh this sounds perfect and get there and go, you know what? Like you said, no, this place isn’t for me. I do think, just coming back to the language thing briefly, it is important to learn as much as you can of the language where in the country that you move to.

I do think that’s very important because that’s the best way to connect with locals, assimilate into the culture, and just get the fuller experience from it. My husband and I are taking Spanish lessons. We know when we got here, we knew no Spanish whatsoever. And now we can make out fine at restaurants and we can make out fine at the market.

We’re good with numbers. I would like to have more in depth conversations. The challenging thing with doing that where we are, because there are so many people that speak English here, a lot of the Mexicans also speak English. They will start speaking to us in English, and it’s no, we need to practice our Spanish.

Emily Bron: You need to get out of the expat community kind of hub in order to be immersed in the real Mexico, I would say. And it’s not only language, which is very important, and I know that I need to learn Spanish, and actually Spanish opening door to many other countries rather than Mexico. Speaking in about Montenegro and other Eastern Eastern European countries.

It’s not only language, which actually I half understand, because I speak Russian, and many people, by the way, speaking Russian in this place now, because they run off from Russia, from Ukraine, living for years. Even You know, people who actually organized Monte Libera, they are Russian speaking.

But it’s a different mentality, which I actually recognize. I’m not identifying anymore with. No, but it’s my personal. It’s my personal view. Yeah, so but, you need to go and I would speak with you after you, how you perceive this and but it’s not just go, to live at least one month if possible, to be immersed because, again, Nature is beautiful, like in many places, as I say, don’t confuse travel with immigration. Because when you look only on nice sights and nature and history, it is, especially in Europe. But try to feel like how the life would be for you here. And cost of living, it’s very important. Component, but we also need to consider medical health, like actually medical system and how we can be part of it.

Because we are all going older, I would say. And Montenegro need to work in this regard. And they’re really leaning toward European Union. It doesn’t mean we, we can see, we can and we should be clear because again, it’s in every country based on your available budget, you can have absolutely different lifestyle.

Even inside the same small country, which is Montenegro, there is area for, as they say, rich, Westerners and Montalibera is in different part of the, which is okay, but different worlds exist even on the territory of small country, as in

Charlotte Tweed: every country, as in every country. Yes, and cost of living is relative, what I consider expensive or.

Somebody else may go that’s fine, but I just know with cost of living here in Mexico compared to Canada it’s half,

Emily Bron: less than half the price. No, Canada is exceptional. Not only Canada, there’s many places in five eyes, as they say, like Australia, New Zealand and UK and other Western European countries.

Which became more and more expensive. Actually, inflation touch global economy. In every place it became more expensive because of, logistics. And I believe in such a small countries even more dependent. Because if they need to import, produce even. So it became more, more expensive.

What other communities or what other, projects you would, Recommend. Oh, you would share today. If

Charlotte Tweed: the other one I’ve done research on to is Lieberstad in Norway. My clients are interested in Norway. They’re interested, they want to go back to an Alpine environment is what they’re interested in, and they’re not concerned about whether winter, and so I’ve been looking at Lieberstad, which is, it’s an interesting community, it’s established.

I think there’s about 20 people. But they’re, they’re different than Montalbero. They’re for a little further out there. I don’t want to get the number wrong. I want to say it’s about a four hour car ride from Oslo. So it’s four hours, I believe. So they’re more, much more remote, which is Montalbero.

At least they’re close to bar.

Emily Bron: No, it’s in the bar, I think. And you have ferry and you have transportation and local people

Charlotte Tweed: around. So it’ll be, very different people. Do you want to have that where you are very remote, where the roads may not be that great yet, they’re working on them and they’re improving them, if that doesn’t bother you, then that may be a place for you.

If you want to be closer to a town, Montalobero might be better for you. I guess it all just really depends what people are what their wants and needs are. Some people don’t want to be around a lot of people. They’re happy. You and I have talked before, you love big cities. I like to visit them.

I do not want to live in one.

Emily Bron: No, I like big cities, but to live in suburb.

Charlotte Tweed: Oh, to live in suburb. I get, I like small. So I’d be happy in a town of 500 people if I have all my amenities, little grocery stores, that type of, that would just be wonderful for me. I’m good with that. But the amenities are very important.

And extremely important. You can have people promoting communities and that type of thing where there are really, there’s no amenities there. Sure, like you say, it may be beautiful. You may have ocean side. It may have gorgeous sunsets all night. But how far do you have to go to get groceries?

How good is your electricity? How good is your internet going to be? How often does the power go out? If you can’t get to town, does someone have to drive you? Can you get a car? How are you going to get food? So there’s lots of things to consider.

Emily Bron: And I believe this community is addressing these questions and concerns which Probably each of potential members have I don’t know if it’s written on the website, no, I reviewed the website, they’re not going to nitty gritty details about, leaving amenities and facilities, but yes, I believe that sometimes people even don’t consider it especially if they don’t have a lot of experience traveling and being in such places, they assume even in Canada, let’s be fair and I’m not speaking about far north that I even didn’t visit, in Ontario.

But even in small villages, there is a plaza, there is, like, all amenities, all organized. It’s different infrastructures that rather can be, like, I, I would go to Norway, for example, me, only as a tourist, because the weather and darkness during the half year, it’s not for me. I know it for sure, but I’m surprised, but some people are not considering it.

Or maybe they have, some ideas and for some people important just to find like minded people if they feel that it’s a people they want to be part of. But here I think there is another cage that people, I don’t know if consider because it’s, it might be challenging. Because it’s all nice even to read on contract.

But when you start to live in small facility together sometimes it’s not easy, like with people that you assume should supposed to think have the same values and interest like you, but apparently we all changing, people are changing and after some time, People might discover that it’s not what they thought about.

Or it’s hard for them to be part of this community. Or there’s some, psychological issues in living there. Do you know how this project addressing this? They have some, I don’t know, questionaries. They have some meetings. Maybe to find out how people feel

Charlotte Tweed: like after they’ve been there for a while.

Yeah, that’s a good question. From what I have talked with the founders. So far, these communities are all, they’re relatively new, right? They haven’t been established for decades or that type of thing. But, at this point, the ones that are there are very much working together and have a common vision.

And I think that’s the point of having the right mindset and understanding what the voluntarism is, what the contract is. And they do, they’ll get together, they’ll have jam sessions, Play music together, have meals together, they try and build a community as much as possible. As they can

Emily Bron: what they do.

Agriculture, in Norway for example.

Charlotte Tweed: Yeah, agriculture. I know they want to put a brewery in there. It used to be an old chicken farm , is what it used to be. So you know, they land and clearing and tourism is also a part of their industry at this point because they have a cabin zone. So it’s a good chance.

You can go and visit. You don’t have to move there. You can go and visit. And I like you encourage to stay for a long time. Going for a week or a weekend, that’s not enough. I also suggest that it’s a good idea to go in the off season, if you can, when the weather is maybe not that great. Everybody always wants to travel when it’s nice.

But if you’re going to live there, that’s a whole different story. It, yeah, you just, you have to go in and see it for yourself and to, and test it out. But that’s a very good question, how they interact within the communities. And part of my coaching in the, once a person moves is to coach along with them for a year after to help them integrate and assimilate into society.

Because I know what it’s like to leave my country. I know what it’s like to be away from my family. And I know how important it is to find a community of like minded people, which is what we found here. And we have more friends here and support system than we had when we were in Canada. So you know that, I know that lifestyle is out there and it can be done.

You just have to find the one that fits you.

Emily Bron: Absolutely. Absolutely. And I know there are many questions that we can discuss, but we’ll leave some of them for the next time. And the last question I will ask you today Charlotte, as someone who has successfully transitioned to the life of freedom, And purpose, which you found now, and I see your passion.

What would be your crucial advice to our listeners, especially for those after 50, who are looking for a similar path of freedom or looking for the communities that people can spend their time. And we are speaking about midlife Part of the our life. What’s advice you would give what’s advice to find their freedom lifestyle?

Yes, and what to look for how to Navigate this Realms of still a lot of unknown, factors.

Charlotte Tweed: I think it’s to find first you have to really ask yourself what you want, what you’re looking for, what you need. For me it was identifying things that I knew I had like core, what aligns with your core values.

What is going to give you that lifestyle that you are really looking for? For me, three big things are climate, because I grew up in, I just don’t want the Canadian winters anymore. They’re horrendous. Cost of living, I’d probably be living in a box by the river if I was still in Canada. And politics, we’ve discussed that.

Those are my three main reasons and what I looked for when I was living, or leaving and community. I absolutely wanted a community of like minded people so that you can set in and it’s, they’re out there. That hope is there. So there’s people out there that will help you.

I’m, I want to help you. Emily wants to help you. The Free Cities Movement people want to help you. They’re all very warm, welcoming people and very open to conversations. Get connected with the people who want to. Truly help you and have your best interests at heart. Thank you very much.

Emily Bron: I like the your advice because again I came across recently and probably there is many more leaders of some intentional communities Which are building their communities, but I would say people should be very cautious and you mentioned politics because again, Many of the leaders Using the same words like freedom, lifestyle, permaculture, like minded people, community, which is excellent.

But when I was a little bit reading more on the Facebook group or say other social media group sources about what they’re speaking and what kind of ideas they’re promoting, I was a little bit frightened. For myself and with all my ideas to promote this organization or this type of community, I thought, okay, people should be aware and not You know, many people maybe from immediately will understand it.

And again, by the way, even when I was asking about rules, and I believe if not on the website, but many of intentional communities, they will have this. As you say, contract. Sometimes it’s contract, but in this case, it’s not the contract. It’s requirements. I would say eligibility criteria to be part of the community, what they’re looking for, because people should be clear, before they even applying or thinking in this direction, and it should be, I believe, written, not in this wishy washy language, which can be interpreted, is a way and obviously I believe it will be some even online meetings like with leaders of community just because it should be matched because it’s a serious decision for people of any age, specifically after 52 approved from your previous life and to go to leave for kind of devote your next life chapter in the community of new type.

Okay. Thank you. And ideas it’s a very good and I was born in a country with a lot of nice ideas and nice words and even which they build society based on it and but we discovered like who some people earlier some later that it’s all Not exactly how it’s written. But again, it’s not about me. It’s about people to be To have a critical mind, to ask a question, I believe, yes, to look for more information before they will make the decision.

And I believe in this regards your work, it’s really treasure to even to share the concern about this other place, or to ask for some special request. It’s what I say to my clients. I will ask because every situation is different. Ask your question, think deeply, go to this place and we all will help from whatever side we can.

Charlotte Tweed: And you had a really good point too with saying having an online meeting with the community leaders or the community founders, which I’ve done with my clients with actually a community in Switzerland that they’re also looking at. And we had an online meeting with them, and it went really well.

So it’s doing your research. Doing your homework and trust but verify. You never mentioned the community in Switzerland. What kind of community in Switzerland? No, it’s it’s one that I recently came across called Sue Bay in Switzerland. And it’s a community and it’s some from the Free Cities.

It’s not on their website yet. So I’m not sure how much they’re promoting it, but it’s a community that they’re revitalizing and it’s there’s 150 people living there right now. So it’s a completely different project than building up from scratch. It’s an older community. So they’re looking to bring in younger people, families, reopen the school.

It’s a big agriculture part as well. That’s another one

Emily Bron: we

Charlotte Tweed: can talk about another

Emily Bron: time. Absolutely, and people need to consider, by the way, immigration laws, which are changing for North Americans and like Switzerland is a country with really strict immigration law. And there’s a lot of questions.

Which I believe we will start discussing and uncover in our next conversation. Thank you very much Charlotte. And I’m looking forward to continue our conversation. And I even believe And I encourage people who are listening to, to write, to ask questions. What questions you might have. What you’re thinking about topics we touched today.

Or maybe there are some other topics which we didn’t discuss yet. Because the topic is as big as life is, by the way. And I’m open. To get your questions, and we will try to provide the best possible answer me and Charlotte tweet. Thank you very much. Charlotte. Thank you.

Charlotte Tweed

An expat travel coach dedicated to helping you live, not just visit, your next destination. As the founder of Liberty Travel Coach, she specializes in guiding people to relocate to unique, freedom-focused communities. Based in Mexico, Charlotte offers personalized coaching to help you find a home where you can thrive with like-minded people. A published author, she is passionate about transforming lives through expat travel, one adventure at a time.

In a world where the constructs of how we live are rapidly evolving, the concepts of freedom, intentional living, and eco-communities have emerged as significant beacons of hope and innovation. This blog post encapsulates the conversation between Emily Bron and Charlotte Tweed, two Canadian women with different life experiences and backgrounds who meet online to explore their journeys and insights into the recent world events and transformative world of liberty travel and conscious living.

The Age of Reinvention and Freedom

Welcome to the 21st century age of reinvention, a pivotal period characterized by the emergence of eco-living, free cities, and intentional communities. Today, we delve into how these transformative ideas and project development reshape our world and new living options, focusing mainly on free cities and autonomous zones designed to champion personal liberty and innovative ideas.

Charlotte Tweed’s Journey

The expat travel coach, Charlotte Tweed, shares her remarkable journey from a corporate career in Canada to becoming a travel writer and Liberty Travel Coach. After losing her job in a corporate merger, Charlotte reinvented her path by pursuing travel and tourism. This led her to launch a travel blog and a new career focused on travel writing amidst the global pandemic.

Her experiences through resilient adaptation during COVID-19, including her decision to leave Canada for Mexico, highlight the pursuit of a lifestyle free from governmental restrictions and aligned with personal liberties.

Navigating Post-Pandemic Life and Liberty

The pandemic brought about drastic changes, significantly impacting the travel industry. For Charlotte, this restriction period sparked a profound reassessment of her values around freedom and autonomy. The experience of governmental overreach and the erosion of personal liberties galvanized her resolve to seek out and promote communities where such values are honoured and protected.

Eco-Living and Free City Ideas

The conversation explores eco-living and free city projects—communities that provide homes and a lifestyle aligned with liberty and environmental stewardship. Charlotte talks about her involvement with the Free Cities Foundation and how it inspired her to help people find their place in these libertarian-focused spaces.

These communities are built on legally binding contracts that respect personal freedoms. They offer a sustainable and autonomous way of life that stands in stark contrast to the restrictions many experienced during the pandemic.

Exploring Intentional Communities

Charlotte and Emily discuss various intentional communities and free city initiatives worldwide. Projects like Montelibero in Montenegro and Liberstad in Norway are highlighted for their unique offerings. They emphasize the importance of visiting and experiencing these places firsthand to ensure they align with one’s values and lifestyle aspirations.

Choosing the Right Community

Charlotte advises those seeking freedom and purpose to determine what they truly want and need. Identifying core values is crucial, whether it’s climate, cost of living, or political landscapes. Moreover, examining community amenities, cultural differences, and legal residency requirements is essential to making an informed decision.

Conclusion

As the conversation closes, Emily Bron and Charlotte Tweed reinforce the notion of community as critical to the experience of freedom. Whether through finding like-minded individuals or engaging in meaningful exchanges such as this podcast, the journey towards a lifestyle of liberty is accessible and supported by a growing network of intentional communities worldwide.

Listeners and readers are encouraged to reflect on their personal definitions of freedom and seek out communities that resonate with their values. They know that resources and individuals like Charlotte and Emily are available to guide them on this empowering journey.

Feel free to reach out with questions or insights as we continue to explore the vast and transformative realm of intentional living and free cities. Together, let’s embrace the possibilities of living freely.