September 2017

I’ve never seen the travel-inspired movie “Eat, Pray, Love” but I can say the last quarter of our lives has involved a whole lot of eating, praying, and loving. As we’ve traveled from one Latin American country to another, we’ve had to create a new routine. A routine that’s made life on the road one big adjustment.

Eat

It’s no surprise being in nonstop vacation mode leads to eating a lot of very good food. We’ve had our fair share of delicious eats over the past three months and how could we not when visiting flavor-packed destinations such as Puerto Rico, Mexico, and now Guatemala.

However, vacations are often all about over-indulging and we can’t quite do that all day, everyday. What we are experiencing abroad is a lifestyle. We are living not vacationing everyday of our lives. So while we’ve truly indulged in international cuisine, we’ve also eaten many home-cooked meals and kept meals simple and healthy. Last week, my favorite go-to meal was smoothies, delicious fresh fruits, and grilled veggies/meats. I wish I could say most meals we eat are healthy, but what’s the fun in that?!? Tonight we arrived in a major city for the first time in over a month and ended up having fast food nuggets and pizza for dinner. Not the cuisine of choice in the movie “Eat, Pray, Love” but a yummy option nonetheless; and a fact that reminds us, it’s all about balance!

Pray

My husband and I have taken inventory on our travels and often scale different facets (quality time, prayer, health, etc.) between 1 and 10. There are some areas we consider a 6 and others a 7. However, when it comes to faith, prayer, and devotion we’re trending at a solid 9. I feel this is an area of consistency that has grounded us in our travels and kept us in a state of constant gratitude.

Since arriving abroad, weekly church visits are standard. We don’t miss weekly mass and I am so proud of our commitment to giving at minimum 1 hour to our faith. We definitely spend more than an hour connected to our beliefs through meditation and plenty of family prayer time, but we also know that if all else feels not enough, we get one hour a week to pause and give thanks. Church is for the most part always in Spanish and while the kids at first felt lost and “borreeedd” they quickly grew to understand missing weekly mass wasn’t an option and required our full focus and appreciation.

This adventure, in and of itself, entails a whole lot of faith and what better way to light the path then by staying connected to our religious core.

Love

I couldn’t imagine living this journey without my husband and our beautiful children. The love we share and nurture everyday makes everything about our lives flow effortlessly from new city to new city. Love is also what keeps us looking forward to the day we return “home.”

Every single one of us misses a piece of home and that usually includes everyone (not what) we’ve left behind. Noah cries because he misses his abuelita and Isaiah because he misses his friends. Sofia misses school, her old room, and our family dog (thank God for social media that allows us to “stalk” her new family and see her oh so happy).

Diego and I miss our amazing families (relatives and work colleagues alike). We are relationship people deep down, so being abroad has meant sacrificing being with those we love and we love a lot of people. We will miss a lot in the next year: birthday parties and graduations, babies being born, and the always fun Quevedo family barbecues. While we use technology to stay connected to our circle, we have also clung to one another for our greatest source of fulfillment.

Today, we are closer than ever as a unit of five. The kids get to spend every waking moment with their immediate family, and though we sometimes bicker, we also get to love all over each other, All. The. Time. The hubby and I have our periodic date nights (kids and us too).

We’re spending more time than ever before enjoying the little things: breakfast together every morning, exciting day-trips, quiet evenings of reflection, and plenty of down time traveling by plane, boat, or automobile. There was no guarantee we wouldn’t drive eachother bonkers spending so much time together, and though we sometimes do, we are actually bickering a lot less in our new routine – a routine that though might seem all sunshine and hammocks – still involves daily school schedules and household chores.

In the end, there’s one thing that’s for certain when it comes to long-term travel, through it all you’ll fall in love more deeply with those you miss, those you have close, and the entire world around you.

Photos: Lake Atitlán, Guatemala Sept. 2017.

Last time together

This beauty right here was my old, salvaged 1995 Honda Civic, AKA “The Blue Mamba.” Since we have no need for a car while we travel, I begrudgingly had to sell her before we left. But that’s the end of the story, let’s go back to the beginning.

Despite her age, appearance and salvaged title, this was the most significant car I’ve ever owned.

Consequences

Let’s start about a decade ago. In 2007, life was looking pretty good. My wife and I had good jobs, we had just bought a home in Orange County, California and we recently had our first child. We were making a smooth transition into full-blown Adulthood.

In the next 24 months we would experience the most difficult time of our lives. Due to a series of bad financial decisions, immaturity and unfortunate housing market conditions, we entered a very stressful and trying time. In short, I had to sell my first car, our other car was repossessed, we had to short-sell our home and eventually became delinquent on any and all forms of credit we had.

And it got worse! We had to move into a small “studio apartment.” It was really more of a shack that the landlord converted to make it habitable. After a few months there, I experienced my lowest point as a man, father and supposed leader of my family – we got evicted from this $600/month shack.

Enter the Blue Mamba

My wife, God bless her. As we were going through our struggles, my wife, through her hustle, was able to borrow some money from a friend and buy a salvaged old Civic from some guy who sold cars out of his backyard. Really. I remember we had to make something like $125 bi-weekly payments and it still took us a number of months to pay of the total $2600 cost.

In all her glory.

We drove this bad boy as our only car for a couple of years. I remember the time the ignition broke. We were so broke that I couldn’t afford to have it fixed. Fortunately, the Mamba had a manual transmission and so I learned how to push-start it. I literally had to push the car to get up to about 5 miles per hour and then jump into the drivers seat to turn the ignition key! I DID THIS FOR OVER 6 MONTHS. The worst part was having people staring at me like, “look at this fool” as I worked up a sweat pushing the car. I always imagined my neighbors every morning talking to each other like:

I recall getting so pissed off at this car…at myself. Literarily in tears asking God how my life became such a mess. I blamed this car! Not really blamed it but looked at it as symbolic of my failure as a provider. I thought to myself, “I can’t wait to get rid of this junk, then I’ll know we’re back on the right track.”

Sacrifice

Fast forward a few years, both my wife and I are progressing in our careers. We have painstakingly rebuilt our financial lives. We begin to slowly trust each other again. We make better financial decisions, we start saving. Ultimately, we end up making the most money we ever had and our finances start looking healthier. We’ve removed the “boot” from our necks and the future, once again, looks pretty bright (white picket fence, here we come!).

And still, just like years ago, every morning I jumped into the Blue Mamba. This time however, if the ignition breaks, I pay to get it fixed. This time, I look at the Mamba with pride and determination. This time she’s no longer symbolic of the consequences of poor decisions. This time, although I could have afforded a nicer car, I choose to drive her.

Eventually the Blue Mamba became symbolic of the sacrifices we were making, symbolic of wise decisions. For over two years and in spite of the many, many, many times I wanted to buy a new car, I would remind myself – it is a sacrifice. Sacrifice for what?

Indefinite travel with my wife and kids.

Archives for September 2017

Our very own Eat, Pray, Love.

Consequences vs Sacrifices