A sustainable world tour as sabbatical

The photos and videos on their Instagram (@green.kangaroos) are enviable: Swimming with turtles in a crystal-clear sea in Belize, riding horses in Mexico, exploring the stunning landscapes of Costa Rica and Guatemala, surfing the coast of Nicaragua. And the couple appears to be deeply in love. “Things are going well,” Carolin agrees this Monday in April via a WhatsApp call from Popoyo in Nicaragua.

“We’ve been on the road for exactly a year now. We had to get used to it at first, find a rhythm. A hostel room for two is a far cry from a spacious apartment in Maastricht, where we each had a job and a social life. And there was the urge to see everything, to experience it all. We thought we had to go to Latin America, Australia, Southeast Asia. We put pressure on ourselves. We’ve let go of that now. Instead of rushing all the time, we realized that we want to take it slow, that we want to be absorbed in life. Be with people and nature, learn, roll up our sleeves and contribute in a meaningful way. And it works for us - there’s a great sense of freedom this way.”

Exactly, Lukas chimes in. “We don’t want to be the wealthy Westerners who just come to dabble in the culture. We’re looking for that connection with culture, nature and sustainability. We do volunteering and work-exchanges from time to time; for example, here in Popoyo we’re working in a small hotel focused on surf tourism (@cafeconlechenica). It’s a hotel that supports the local community, with an eye for the beauty and fragility of nature. We have to be careful with our planet, and that’s something we try to convey through our social-media posts. Between the two of us we split a daily eight-hour shift in the hotel. The rest of the time we spend surfing, doing yoga, watching sunsets, and connecting with guests and locals. Going with the flow, with the slow. Wonderful.”

Lukas is 36, Carolin 35. Not the typical ages for travelling. “Probably not,” Carolin says. “I’d been planning to travel for years, but hadn’t got around to it. After my bachelor’s and master’s at the University of Duisburg-Essen I had the opportunity to do a master’s in Health and Social Psychology in Maastricht. It was a golden ticket. I’d heard so many good things about Problem-Based Learning, the collaboration, the lack of hierarchy and access to lecturers and professors. I didn’t want to pass that up for a gap year. And I’m glad I didn’t, because Maastricht University lived up to all my expectations. I really enjoyed it. Then I was offered a PhD position, another golden ticket. After that corona happened.”

Not to mention the relationship with Lukas, who moved to Maastricht in 2007 for a bachelor’s in International Economics, followed by a master’s and PhD at the Maastricht Sustainability Institute. After that he worked as a Lecturer at the SBE for four years. “We met during a vegan cooking workshop,” he says, recalling that unforgettable day in the spring of 2014. “We got talking, sparks flew and we turned out to have a lot in common. An interest in sustainability and nature, among other things.”