Nomad Insiders

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[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

Mexico City has two restaurants with two Michelin stars now.

Pujol and Quintonil, both in Polanco.

Nine more hold one star.
Eleven starred restaurants in the city.

That is not a one-off.
Michelin opened a Mexico guide in 2024.
The two star rooms have held.
The rest of the list has moved.

Taquería El Califa de León lost its star.
Gaba and La Once Mil picked one up.

But the stars are not the story.

A tasting menu at Quintonil runs about 6,090 pesos.
That is about US$330, before wine.
Normal two star money.

The story is everything under the stars.

The one star rooms.
The Bib Gourmand list, Michelin's cheaper good food picks.
The markets and the corner taquerias.

Mexico City runs a top tier food scene at prices Paris and New York left behind years ago.

That is the part worth the flight.

And the part the brochure still inflates.

The tourism office says Chapultepec is three times the size of Central Park.

It is not.

The forest is often listed around 866 hectares.
Central Park is 341.

That is about two and a half times, not three.

The real number was already impressive.
It did not need the stretch.

Neither does the city.

[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

A flash flood tore through the Nepal-Tibet border this morning and the numbers are still climbing.

This is not a remote stretch of mountain.

It is the Rasuwa district, just north of Kathmandu.
The main road to the Tibet border runs through it.
So does the gateway to Langtang, one of Nepal's most popular trekking regions.

The area is popular with trekkers and pilgrims.

At least 95 people are confirmed dead in Nepal.
Hundreds of foreign tourists are unaccounted for.
More than 100 from India.
54 from the US.
33 from the UK.

On the Tibet side, Chinese state media report 3 dead and 265 missing.

Here is the part most people skip.

This was not a heavy rain flood.
An earthquake hit around 08:37 local time.
The working theory is it triggered an ice avalanche.
Ice and rock slid into the Bhote Koshi river, dammed it, and when the dam broke the water and sediment came down in one surge.

That is a known failure mode in the high Himalaya.
Rasuwa saw a similar glacier burst last year that killed 18 people.

The numbers will keep moving for days.
So will the search and rescue.

If you are in Nepal or planning a trek, follow the local warnings and check in.

That is not a reason to avoid Nepal.
It is the thing to understand before you trek it.

Source: BBC News live coverage, August 26.

[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

Balneário Camboriú just opened a re-created American town from the 1950s.

Right in the middle of all those skyscrapers.

Roddertown. Retro streets, classic cars, a mini Las Vegas wedding chapel. The first official Rat Fink store in Brazil.

Opened mid-August. Around forty shops and restaurants. Open every day, ten to ten.

Here's the part worth sitting with.

BC has always been the most polarizing city in Brazil.

A wall of skyscrapers on a beach. Loved for the infrastructure. Mocked for being more spectacle than Brazil.

This new attraction says BC made its choice. It's leaning all the way in.

Not a criticism. Information.

If you want the raw, unhurried Brazil, this was never your city.

If you want a beach city building itself into a full entertainment machine, with infrastructure to match, BC keeps doubling down on exactly that.

Choose whats your vibe before you book.

Full article here: https://t.co/3qJltj51SK

[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

The old Bar Citroën is not back under that name.

The corner is.

For 92 years it sat at the entrance to Parque de María Luisa, right by Plaza de España.
It opened after the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition and stayed.

Then the owner died in 2021.
The doors closed.
For five years it sat dark.

It reopened in late July as Restaurante Café La Raza.

Same corner.
Same history.
A new upstairs room.

That room is La Quinta del Sordo.
A nod to Goya.
It looks straight at the north tower of Plaza de España.

This is a full-day room, not a one-drink stop.

Hours
Sunday to Thursday: 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m.
Friday and Saturday: 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.

Breakfast runs from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
The kitchen for lunch and dinner runs until about 12:30 a.m.
After that, it is drinks.

What to order

Morning
Churros with chocolate.
An Andalusian breakfast if you want something local.
A mimosa or kir royal if you are easing into the day.

Later
Andalusian tapas and tostas.
A proper plate of meat or fish if you are staying for dinner.
Cruzcampo, the local Seville beer, if you want the simple order.

Upstairs, after the heat drops
Spritz.
Americano.
Negroni.

There is no published house cocktail that everyone is talking about yet.
Go for the view and a classic aperitivo.

Avenida de Isabel la Católica, corner Avenida de Portugal.
Reserve if you want the terrace or the upstairs room at golden hour.

Here's the thing I keep noticing about Seville.

It doesn't just preserve its history.
It brings it back to life.

The places worth finding are rarely the newest ones.
They're the old ones that made it through.

Restaurante Café La Raza
https://t.co/AeU9ppoOyE
[phone]

[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

Startup Summit starts tomorrow in Florianópolis.

26 to 28 August.
CentroSul.
Av. Gov. Gustavo Richard, 850, Centro.

Not a beach pop-up.
Three days of panels, pitch rounds, investor meetings, and a startup floor.

Organizers are expecting 10,000 people in person and 200-plus speakers.
Participants from at least 30 countries.

This did not appear out of nowhere.

The first edition was in Florianópolis in 2018.
More than 2,300 people showed up.

It grew with the city.

Florianópolis is now Brazil's official National Capital of Startups.
Tech is about a quarter of the city's GDP.
In 2026 the city jumped 31 places in StartupBlink's global ranking, to 247, inside the world's top 250.

The summit scaled with it.
Regional, then national, and increasingly international.

This year organizers are talking about more than 150 investment funds, 2,000 startups represented, 200 exhibitors, and 180 large companies in the building.

If you already have a ticket, that is the room.

If you do not, the official site is showing sold out.
Do not count on walking up and buying one at the door.

There is still a looser Summit Week of side events around the island through 29 August.
Meetings, visits, and smaller gatherings outside CentroSul.

If you are already on the island, that is the part still worth checking.

If you are nowhere near Florianópolis, there is nothing to rearrange.

Details: https://t.co/j0UxHLvMzr

[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

Illinois just became the first state to tax crypto activity.

Not capital gains. Activity.

A 0.2% levy on businesses that move or hold crypto for customers in the state, signed into the budget in June.

It kicks in January 1, 2027.

And because it is based on the value of the crypto involved, not your profit, it can be owed even when nobody made money that year.

The tax is collected by brokers.
Exchanges. Custodians. Platforms.
That can include firms physically operating in Illinois and some out-of-state platforms doing enough business with Illinois customers.

You do not file it yourself.
You still pay it. They pass it through.

It can fire on more than a sale.
Moving coins between wallets.
Paying a firm to hold them.
The 0.2% hits the full value, not just a gain.

Now two industry groups are trying to stop it.

The Blockchain Association and the Crypto Council for Innovation filed Friday in Sangamon County.

Their case follows a separate suit the Digital Chamber filed back in July.

The argument is plain.
You can't tax one technology differently from everything else.

The state figures the tax could bring in around $60 million a year.

Here's the part that matters if you hold crypto.

Your state residency was already a tax question.

Now it's a bigger one.

Here's my take.

Governments rarely walk a tax back once it is in the budget.
A court can slow this down.
A repeal bill can try.
But the direction of travel is usually the same.

Illinois is the test case.

Watch this one.
It's about a lot more than Illinois.

[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

A 5.9 earthquake shook Tokyo and eastern Japan in the early hours of Sunday.

Two in the morning.
Epicenter in southern Ibaraki.
Dozens hurt. No tsunami.

The trains stopped, then started again by mid-morning.

Here's the part most people skip when they think about Japan.

The ground moves there. Often.

This one hit lower five on Japan's seven-point scale.
People grabbed onto something.
A few things fell off shelves.

Frightening. Normal.

Japan is built for exactly this.
The early warning reaches your phone before the shaking does.
Buildings are designed to sway.
The trains shut down automatically, then come back.

By morning, life went on.

That's not a reason to avoid Japan.
It's the thing to understand before you choose it.

[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

Da Nang keeps earning its spot.

KOI Resort & Residence sits on Non Nuoc Beach.
Between the Marble Mountains, the city, and Hoi An.

It opened in 2024.
This year it picked up official 5-star status.
Large beachfront property. Rooms, villas, a koi river through the grounds, infinity pool facing the sea.

They just relaunched the booking site to push direct bookings.
30 percent off the room rate.

Code: NEWLOOK30
Book on their site: https://t.co/AgjA1FycXz
Listed as valid until 30 September.

The same room on a booking site has a middleman fee baked in.
Book direct and that margin usually comes back as a lower rate, an upgrade, or extras.

This is not really about one resort.
It is a habit worth having everywhere you land.

Source: the resort's own website and Facebook page.
If the code does not apply, check with them before you book.

[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

United just added five nonstop routes out of Newark.

Only one of them is year-round.

• Split, Croatia. Dalmatian Coast. Summer seasonal.
• Santiago de Compostela, Spain. End of the Camino. Summer seasonal.
• Bari, Italy. Heel of the boot. Summer seasonal.
• Glasgow, Scotland. Direct to the Highlands. Summer seasonal.

United is the only U.S. carrier flying those four nonstop.

Then the one that matters more.

• Seoul Incheon. Daily. Year-round. Starts September 4.
• Boeing 787-9. About 16 hours.
• United's fourth-longest flight from Newark.

These are the cities you used to need a layover for.

Now you land where you're going.

Secondary cities hide the value.
Cheaper stays. Fewer crowds. Same flight time as the big hubs.

Seoul is the on-ramp to the rest of Asia.

You don't need a travel agent to tell you this changed.
You just need to know it happened.

[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

American Airlines just hit its biggest signup bonus ever on the Executive card.

125,000 AAdvantage miles for new signups.
The old record was 100,000.

But they raised the price to get it.

• Annual fee went from $595 to $695
• Spend jumped from $10,000 to $15,000
• Due in the first five months

Bigger headline. Bigger ask.

Here's the part most people skip.

This only makes sense if you actually fly American.

If you're a traveller who moves around a lot, 125K miles can cover a serious run of flights.

But $15,000 in five months is a real number.
This only works if you already have the expenses.
Preferably business spend you can put on the card without changing how you operate.
You should be able to hit it against your normal costs, not invent new ones.

If the spend already fits your life and you fly AA, this is a strong deal.

If you'd have to stretch to reach $15K, you're not chasing a bonus.
You're just paying a $695 fee.

The bonus is tempting.
The math is non-negotiable.

Check it out here:
https://t.co/OQPlxWJBMo

[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

You can read a city by where the money goes.

Barranquilla doesn't make the beach lists.

But Grupo Éxito just put more than 42,700 million pesos into the Caribbean coast this year.

That's about $14 million US, going into renovating and reconverting stores.

Quick context if you don't know the name...

Grupo Éxito is one of the biggest retailers in Colombia.

It's the parent company behind the stores most Colombians actually shop in.

Its main formats are Éxito, the everyday supermarket, and Carulla, the more premium one. Think Whole Foods or Waitrose if you're familiar with those.

Carulla isn't a separate public company. It operates under Almacenes Éxito S.A., which trades on the Colombian stock exchange under the ticker EXITO.

The group also has operations in Uruguay and Argentina.

In 2024, Central American retailer Grupo Calleja took controlling ownership.

Carulla is the upscale format.

Cleaner, wider selection, higher-end positioning.

The old Éxito on Calle 77 in Barranquilla sat empty for two years.

It just reopened as a Carulla.

The renovated Éxito San Francisco is due back in under twenty days.

That's the quiet signal.

A retailer this size doesn't spend that kind of money renovating stores in a city it's leaving.

It renovates where people are still showing up and spending.

There's a bigger pattern underneath it...

When security starts to improve and people feel they can operate without constant friction, capital follows.

Business doesn't move first on slogans.

It moves when the day-to-day risk starts looking manageable.

Tax structure is still the longer conversation.

That part of the equation is unfinished.

But the store renovations are a simpler read.

Someone with real money on the line decided Barranquilla was worth putting more capital into.

Barranquilla doesn't photograph like Medellín.

The money is going there anyway.

[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

Satuday Night in Nashville...

If you want to skip the Broadway chaos, here’s a better route.

Start at L.A. Jackson in The Gulch.
Rooftop at the Thompson Hotel.
Skyline views and solid craft cocktails.
Order an espresso martini or one of the seasonal drinks.
They close at 1 a.m. on Saturdays.

Next, The Patterson House.
Dark room. Velvet curtains. Serious mixology.
This is the place that helped build Nashville’s cocktail reputation.
Keep the group small.
Ask for one of their classics or something from the current list.
Open until 2 a.m.

End the night at Dino’s.
Late-night cheeseburger, fries, and a cold beer.
Even a high-end crawl needs a proper finish.
Open late, usually until 3 a.m.

That’s the playbook.

Rooftop. Real cocktails. Burger.
A Saturday night that still feels like Nashville without the worst of Broadway.

[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

Bitcoin just did something worth understanding.

It jumped about 9% on Friday and pushed past $79,000.
Highest level since May.

If you live abroad and hold any of it, a move like this hits twice.
Your balance, and the money you actually move between countries.

Here's what drove it:

• Institutions bought. Spot funds pulled in roughly $520 million in a single day.
• Shorts got squeezed. Around $4 billion in bearish bets unwound.
• The US Treasury increased bond buybacks. Yields fell and money looked for a home.
• The Clarity Act, the market-structure bill, got another push from Washington.

This was institutional money and US policy.

For people living abroad who hold and move crypto, the practical effect is simple.
Your balance is higher today than it was on Thursday.

[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

João Pessoa usually gets sold as the quiet beach option in the Northeast.

Safer feel. Large town energy. Less intense than Recife, Natal, or Fortaleza.

Most people stop at the beach.

There's more happening than the postcard version shows.

The Feira Paraibana da Beleza runs September 13 to 15 at the Centro de Convenções.

Eighteenth edition.

Beauty, aesthetics, cosmetics, wellness.

• Free with an active CNPJ
• R$15 without

The talks this year focus on selling and marketing with AI.

A local trade fair, 18 years in, now teaching small businesses how to use AI to sell.

That's the useful part if you're based here or thinking about it.

Quieter than the bigger Northeast cities.

Still has real local business activity if you look for it.

[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

Rooftop Radar: CDMX

Every rooftop in Mexico City sells the same view.

The Ángel. Reforma. City lights.

L'Obsidian is the newest one doing it.

Fourteenth floor of the Sofitel Mexico City Reforma.

Same skyline. Completely different room.

Dark. Layered. Art Déco. More cocktail lounge than party deck.

It opened in April, so the crowds haven't fully found it yet.

That is the useful part.

You still get the classic CDMX view without having to fight three other tables for it.

Hours:
Sunday to Thursday 4 p.m. to midnight.
Friday and Saturday 4 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Cocktails worth ordering:
• Tomate Blanche
• Obsidian Negroni
• Mycelium

Bites worth ordering:
• Tacos París
• Croibirrias

Worth checking while it's still easy.

[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

Why Your Feed Is Full of Earthquakes Right Now

It feels like there is a big one almost every day.

Venezuela. Colombia. Mexico. Peru. Indonesia. Japan. Philippines.

If you follow Latin America or Southeast Asia, your feed has been packed with seismic alerts for months.

So what is actually happening?

Is the planet waking up?

Or is this just how 2026 landed?

The Major Ones So Far

Here is what has hit through late August:

• February 22: 7.1, Sabah, Malaysia. Deep and offshore.

• March 24: 7.5, Tonga.

• March 30: 7.3, Vanuatu.

• April 1: 7.4, North Maluku, Indonesia.

• April 20: 7.4, Sanriku/Iwate, Japan. Offshore.

• June 7 to 8: 7.8, Mindanao, Philippines. Strongest of the year. More than 100 deaths.

• June 24: 7.2 and 7.5, Venezuela. A powerful doublet and the deadliest event of the year, with more than 6,400 deaths and massive damage in Caracas and La Guaira.

• July 17: 7.3, Chiapas, Mexico, near Puerto Madero.

• July 28: 6.8, Kumamoto, Japan. Dozens dead.

• August 10: 7.4, Chocó, Colombia, near San José del Palmar. More than 300 deaths and widespread damage across western Colombia.

• August 14: 7.7, Flores, Indonesia, near Ende. Dozens dead. A tsunami warning was issued, then cancelled.

• August 20: 6.7 to 7.2, southern Peru near Ayacucho. Injuries, damage and power cuts.

And those are just the major ones.

Smaller earthquakes have also made headlines in Spain, offshore El Salvador and California's Bay Area.

Latin America has felt especially active.

Venezuela. Colombia. Mexico. Peru.

All within a relatively short stretch.

That is a big reason earthquakes seem to be everywhere in your feed right now.

How Unusual Is 2026?

The long-term global average is about 15 to 16 magnitude 7 or stronger earthquakes per year.

Through late August, with roughly 65% of the year complete, 2026 has seen around 11 magnitude 7+ events.

That puts the year slightly ahead of pace.

But not outside the normal range.

Historical annual totals can swing from roughly 7 to 19.

There has not been a magnitude 8+ earthquake yet this year. Many years have one.

Overall magnitude 6+ activity is also roughly in line with recent decade averages.

So the answer is pretty simple:

The planet is not waking up.

What has been unusual is where some of these earthquakes have happened.

Several have struck populated areas, major travel corridors and places with large international communities.

That makes an otherwise normal level of seismic activity feel much bigger.

What This Means If You're Moving

If you are basing yourself in Colombia, Peru, Mexico, Indonesia, Japan or the Philippines, seismic risk comes with the territory.

That is not new.

It is just very visible right now.

A few practical moves:

• Know the seismic risk where you are staying.

• Know your building and your evacuation route.

• Keep your phone charged and important documents accessible.

• Check that your travel insurance covers natural disasters.

• Do not panic-buy a flight every time another earthquake hits the headlines.

The Bottom Line

The ground moves.

Some years, it moves in places people live, work and travel.

This is one of those stretches.

Stay informed. Stay prepared. Don’t let the headlines move you.

[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

Paraguay's passport just hit its highest ranking ever.

29th in the world on the Henley Passport Index.

145 destinations, no visa before you fly.

It hasn't ranked this high since the index started in 2006.

Here's the part most coverage skips.

Paraguay didn't get meaningfully stronger.

Its access has stayed broadly flat for the past year.

It climbed because other passports slipped.

Rankings are relative.

A passport can move up the ladder without you gaining a single new country.

That matters when you read any "best passports" list.

They're not measuring how strong your passport is.

They're measuring where it sits next to everyone else.

For Paraguay, the story is position, not access.

Both matter. They're just not the same thing.

[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

São Paulo is the city every guide describes wrong.

They sell the beach. There is no beach.

Twelve million people, the best food in South America, and a work scene that does not care whether you call yourself a nomad.

The honest read: go, but stay alert.

It is expensive for Brazil. Still competitive for a world city.

It rewards the people who engage. It grinds down the people who wing it.

A do-things city. Not a beach.

Full dossier 👇. Costs, neighborhoods, visa, the verdict.

https://t.co/iKO2amK40y

[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

The worst part of a long haul isn't the flight.

It's the eight hour layover.

Kuala Lumpur just quietly fixed that.

Kepler Club, a Turkish airport sleep company, just expanded its facility at Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

148 private sleeping cabins now. It had 64.

More than double.

Bookable by the hour, 24 hours a day.

You get a real cabin with a real bed.

Every guest gets a private entrance. No shared space.

Unlock it from your phone. No key cards, no stop at reception.

Showers, lockers, wifi, unlimited refreshments.

And a mood setting. Rainforest, Desert, Ocean, Mountain, Fire.

Pick one and the cabin adjusts the lights and sound, then wakes you gently in the same setting.

It's already the top rated hotel around the airport on https://t.co/2DjaTfu7Fw.

9.1 out of 10, the top score among 182 hotels nearby.

If you route through Kuala Lumpur on the way to or from Southeast Asia, this beats a terminal chair every time.

Rest shouldn't be a luxury reserved for business class.

[Nomad Insiders @nomad_insiders]

Rents in Madrid and Barcelona have risen twice as fast as wages over the last ten years.

That gap is the whole story.

According to Deutsche Bank’s Mapping the World’s Prices 2026:

• One-bedroom rents in Madrid are up 83% since 2016
• In Barcelona they are up 95%
• Wages in both cities rose only about 45% over the same period

The rent increase was roughly 1.8 times faster than wages in Madrid and more than twice as fast in Barcelona.

If you are on a US, UK, Australian or Canadian passport, this does not change your short-stay visa options.

The 90-day Schengen window still applies.

What it changes is your budget.

A one-bedroom in the center of either city now sits in a different price tier than it did a decade ago.

The salary conversation can wait.

Price the rent first.