Hi friends! Please forgive me for being a little (ok, a lot) behind. I’m currently sitting in London Gatwick airport, and it’s November. But first, I feel like I want to catch you up on a year of travels so far.

If you’ve been following my journey for a while, you know I am a traveler. I’ve been traveling since my parents took me on a plane as a wee babe when I was six months old. My mom likes recounting the story of how she didn’t know my weight in kilos, so she hoisted me on the counter to let the cashier determine my diaper size.

Flash forward 35 years… I’ve now been to 36 countries and have trotted the globe. You might have met me in Thailand or teaching yoga in Nicaragua or perhaps on working holiday in Australia. BUT if you’ve been following since then, you know I recently lived out another dream of mine and adopted a DOG! A post-covid puppy! Delight to my heart and woe to my traveling spirit. Lockdowns convinced me that I was done traveling and ready to settle down. Two years later and we’ll see about that…

A little while after adopting Bailey, I met my boyfriend Bryan. He puts the “No” in nomad. As in, no lease, no office, no borders, and… no pets. We cautiously fell in love and have had many conversations since on how to keep our nomadic spirits and me as a new dog parent happy. And through this year, we’ve miraculously managed to play both parts. Many thanks to our families, friends, and Rover on all sides.

I’ve already told you about our New Year adventures to Singapore and Borneo. The next trip was a month in Guatemala.

Going to Guatemala

Now, I was actually planning this trip before I met Bryan. Two close friends of mine were engaged and planning their wedding in a beautiful convent ruins church in Antigua. However, about a month beforehand, the engagement was called off. Bryan had been planning a Guatemala trip of his own for a friend’s birthday, so we decided to still go through with it. That’s how we came to land in the beach town of El Paredon.

And a beach town it was to a T. We stayed in an open air bungalow with a perfect view of the waves.

Sadly, those waves were too big and aggressive for most beginners (like myself) so I took a lesson and stayed in the white water near the shore. For entertainment and exercise, I took walks all the way down the beach, to find cool wooden shacks and volcano views.

We spent a week in the little town, enjoying our stay at the Surf House and going back for more and more amazing food at Chef in Flip Flops. Other highlights for me were kayaking in mangroves:

Even though we were all working remotely, time slowed down in coastal Guatemala. Each morning started with slow sips of coffee and wave checks from a hammock. Every evening, there was a great exodus out of hotels and houses to watch incredible sunsets from the beach.