About Päivi & Santeri
We are a couple, Päivi and Santeri Kannisto. In 2004, we met each other and after living together for three months, we got married, left Finland, and started to travel the world.
Since then we have been on the road and travelled three times around the world. We are urban nomads, vagabonds, authors, loiterers, or homeless dropouts, depending on your point of view.
When we find a nice place, we settle down for a while. The longest stays have been in Buenos Aires (Argentina), Phnom Penh (Cambodia), Chiang Mai (Thailand), Toulon (France), Sicily (Italy), Hongkong (China), and Cheviot (New Zealand).
We make a modest living by writing books. For us the financial secret behind full-time travelling is consuming less rather than earning more. Many people in the world get by with less than 1 €/day.
Before our travels we worked in business. Päivi was Management Consultant and Santeri run his Open Source software company called SOT Finnish Software Engineering Ltd. Our professional CV is available in LinkedIn and Päivi's complete CV and bibliography in her literary blog.
At the time we met, we didn't enjoy working any more and wanted to do something more meaningful. We have written a book called La Habanera about the reasons why we left the rat race. It is available as a free e-book.
Currently we are working on a research project on urban nomads. We have interviewed 30 fellow travellers with the aim of making mobile lifestyle better known. The project arose from our own experiences. People have been either amazed, envious or scared about us and our lifestyle. We would like to show that travelling life is possible for anyone who is willing to question choices in life.
Photos © Dee Hoefer, 2010.
We don't have a telephone or an address, but feel free to contact us by e-mail. We hope to hear from you and wish you happy travels!