Most people, when they travel, worry about three things:
their passport, their luggage… and their cards.
So did we.
Until, without even realizing it, we stopped depending on banks.
For almost 11 months, we traveled across South America by land, from Bogotá to Ushuaia. We changed countries, currencies, time zones, languages, and plans more times than we can count. We took buses, vans, shared cars, ferries, and anything that moved. We slept in hostels, friends’ houses, improvised rooms, and last-minute accommodations.
And during all that time, our bank was just one thing: a wallet on our phone.
The Problem Nobody Tells You About Traveling
Travel sounds romantic.
But the financial side almost never is.
Every border comes with a new problem:
- cards that don’t work,
- blocked accounts,
- daily limits,
- absurd fees,
- money that takes days to arrive.
It happened to us more than once: being in another country, needing to pay something urgent, and realizing our traditional cards weren’t working or had been blocked “for security reasons.”
Security for them. Insecurity for us.
That’s when we started asking ourselves something simple:
Why does our own money depend on someone else giving us permission to use it?
The Day We Stopped Using Banks as the Center
In the middle of the journey, we started receiving most of our income in USDT. Advertising services, travel agency work, freelance jobs we did along the way for clients from different countries.
Payments arrived directly to our addresses. No intermediaries. No schedules. No asking for permission.
At first, it just felt practical.
Then we realized it was something deeper.
We didn’t have to:
- open new bank accounts in every country,
- justify our income,
- explain why we were traveling,
- wait for international transfers.
Our money was there. On our phone. Always.
Traveling Without Cash (and Without Fear)
During the trip, there were moments when we literally ran out of cash. Or our traditional cards simply didn’t work.
A gas station in the middle of the road.
A hostel we had to pay that same night.
A bus leaving in one hour.
We opened the app. Used the virtual card. Paid. Kept traveling.
No stress. No lines. No explanations.
It wasn’t magic. It was something much simpler:
control.
When Your Bank Is No Longer a Place
For years, we were taught that money lives in:
- buildings,
- branches,
- desks,
- air-conditioned offices.
On this journey, we discovered that money can live in something much lighter:
a phone.
No branches.
No executives.
No schedules.
Just access.
The Real Feeling of Freedom
Financial freedom isn’t having millions.
It’s not feeling fear every time you cross a border.
It’s being able to:
- get paid from anywhere in the world,
- pay at any time,
- send money to your family without friction,
- make decisions without asking for permission.
In our case, it meant something very concrete:
continuing the journey when, with a traditional system, we probably would have had to go back home.
The Journey as a Metaphor
We traveled thousands of kilometers by land. We watched landscapes, accents, and customs change. But what changed the most wasn’t the map — it was our relationship with money.
It stopped feeling heavy.
It stopped feeling slow.
It stopped feeling external.
It became part of the journey.
Like the backpack.
Like the passport.
Like the phone.
What’s Coming in This Series
This is just the beginning.
In the next articles, we’ll share:
- how we got paid in USDT while crossing borders,
- how we paid for transportation, food, and accommodation without cash,
- how we sent money to our families from the road,
- what it’s like to travel with your money in your pocket without depending on banks.
This is not a technical guide.
It’s not a crypto tutorial.
It’s simply our life, told exactly as it was.
One long journey.
Many roads.
And just one wallet.
This article is part of the series “Diary of a Journey Without Banks.” A real story about how we traveled across South America working remotely, getting paid in crypto, and using a wallet as our only bank.
If you haven’t discovered Panther Wallet yet, you can download it on your phone — available for both iOS and Android.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/panther-wallet-crypto/id6744923576
