Our time here in Guatemala has come to an end. As you read this, we’re on our way to the airport to start our final sprint to our new home. Starting today, we have an international flight scheduled every Thursday for three weeks straight, and then another international trip just ten days after that. Over the next 4 weeks, we will travel ~12,500 miles & visit 4 different countries on a roundabout journey to our new home in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Today, we’re on our way to Cancun to meet up with our good friend, Gwyneth. We’ll find her in the Cancun airport and then immediately hop on a bus to Playa del Carmen, where we’ll spend the next week with her, introducing her to some of our favorite spots there and taking her to explore Tulum and Chichen Itza. We’ll snorkel and walk on the beach and drink margaritas in the shade. It will be relaxing and warm and lovely. It’s her first trip to Mexico and we can’t wait to share it with her, even though I know that by the end of the week my stomach will hurt from too much laughing.
From there, we’ll head on to Washington DC, to visit with friends and do some further exploring. It will be a week spent hanging out with old friends, watching soccer and football, and soaking in moments with people who’ve known me for well over 20 years now. We’ll also stock up on a few things that we need as it will be our last true stop in the USA for a while. (J & T, sorry about all the deliveries lately. Toss them in a corner and we’ll see you soon!) After a week there, we’ll hop a flight in DC and begin a convoluted itinerary that will take us from DC to LaGuardia, and then on to Boston before finally setting down in Paris. This is the kind of thing you sometimes have to deal with when you fly on points, but considering those tickets cost us $5.60/person (from DC to Paris), we aren’t complaining.
In Paris, we’ll continue the meeting up with friends theme and meet up with our good friends Eric & Trish at Charles de Gaulle. We’ve rented matching studio apartments right next door to each other in the 2nd arondissement for the week. It’s their first time in Paris and we’re looking forward to soaking up the city with plenty of wandering and food and wine. It will also be a big birthday celebration as all of our birthdays are in October and November. Then they will head back to New Mexico and we’ll head to London for one night and then make the final transatlantic trek to Mexico.
On October 19th, we’ll wake up in Mexico City and eat chilaquiles for breakfast. Then we’ll hop on a bus for the final 6 hr trek of our trip to a home we’ve never even seen. We’ll arrive in our new home, Oaxaca, Mexico, in time for dinner. It will be the first time we have ever been there.
So right now you’re probably thinking, “What the heck is up with this jacked up itinerary where you start in Mexico, then fly to Europe, only to turn around and come back to Mexico. Who the hell planned that?” The truth is that our plans for the end of the year originally involved traveling from Paris to India and then on to our beloved Thailand. Up until about 5 weeks ago, that was the plan. But, six weeks ago, a post showed up in my Facebook feed from someone I’ve never met but who has inspired me for quite some time. I was compelled – literally physically compelled – to immediately sit down and send her an email. I hit send and, over the course of the next five days, our life changed.
Awesome! Too bad I will miss you in Paris, though. It looks like I will be there for the first time for a few days in November.