Normal Vacation

"Why can't you just vacation like normal people?"

This question was asked by someone very near and dear to us and it makes me smile. It's exactly what we don't want to do. Vacation or be normal. We want to immerse ourselves best we can and do things differently. We want to live every day in our normal life like it is a vacation. We lived to work for many years and now it's time to live to live.

It's important to us to be able to invite other people on our 'vacation' too and we're pleased as punch that two guests have taken us up on the offer so far. It's nice to have invited guests unlike the uninvited guest of covid that came over Christmas and New Year's.

Our first guest award goes to mi papa Walter who ventured down on December 10. I owe alot of my adventurous spirit to my dad ( and mom ) and he shows it completing big hikes with us, stumbling around random alley ways to discover parades, interacting with locals, and using his favorite line when asked if he speaks Spanish of 'Uno mas cerverza por favor.' Luckily he usually did need to use that line!

My dad has ridden his motorcycle coast to coast in Canada, moved to Darjeeling, moved to Austria, hiked some crazy long treks and sailed in some harrowing waters. I don't think he had experienced Mexico other than non-real Cabo so we were thrilled he wanted to come down.

Sorry not sorry I whooped you at scrabble so many times. So good to have you!

A few days later my dearest Melissa came for a visit and made Mexico our 14th country we've been in together. Luckily before she arrived Melissa said she wanted a chill time as her life was very busy at home. Boy did she get chill! When I walked her to our place after the taxi from the airport I got to let her know that Gordon had just tested positive for covid an hour earlier.

After her initial 'you've got to be kidding me' she took it all in stride and when I came down with it 2 days later, she continued taking it in stride and having soup with us. Luckily it was a short lived 'just let me die in my bed' feeling and we still got to have lots of fun exploring Guanajuato and the ritzy San Miguel de Allende the next town over. I originally crossed paths with Melissa in Thailand in 2015 forever bonded by our love of travel. We've met up in many locales, the latest being Brazil Jan 2023 and now Mexico in Jan 2024. I so adore our friendship that especially has us dreaming where we'll meet up next.

Thanks for coming down and especially for your immune system not catching covid too. We'll keep the churro light on and promise Latin Keanu Reeves waiting for your next visit.

Visitors from the USA have me thinking about the comforts of home as when they left it felt a little strange that we weren't going home too. Yes, we have a house, but our home is now on the road. We live on the road! And well we aren't in our 20's so I have a laugh at the comfort items we fit in our van. I've never said we're low maintenance travelers....

When we wake in the morning we crawl out of our perfect not too hot not too cold eucalyptus duvet and bamboo pillows. Yep, we're like those kids at a slumber party that bring their own pillows now.

In Mexico it's quite chilly in the mountains, so their solution is to just pile on more light fluffy felt type blankets - we've had up to 4 stacked on top of us. I don't know about you but I don't sleep like a mummy in a coffin and it hardly lasts an hour without severe cover yanking going on. I'd like to bring the wonders of duvet covers to Mexico but until then I'll be happy with hauling ours out of our van to our stays.

Next up, our egg cooker. If I could be an egg cooker saleswoman I would. Uses a fraction of the water to make a perfectly boiled and easy to peel egg every time. No Caroline, it's not just another appliance. It's the meaning of life!

While the eggs are boiling up, I've usually got my nespresso going. Yes, I'm officially a coffee snob and I won't need to partake in that often offered sinful instant coffee. I'm chilling with my nice perfect strong cup with a crema on top and frothed milk if I'm feeling fancy. Also, fair warning if you come visit us you'll probably be asked to bring me more nespresso pods. I think I only took 300 with us, trying to be reasonable after all.

There, now with these extras - we are certainly vacationing like a normal person after all.