Entering a new year, I remember where I was a year ago, excited and nervous about how different my life was going to look one year from then. I was not wrong – life has taken me for a ride, taking certain paths I was ready for, and veering around other corners I was not expecting at all. Let’s dive in, shall we?

 

January

After spending my final New Year’s Eve at the most spectacular display of fireworks under the harbour bridge in Sydney, I said goodbye to my grandmother, Dad and aunt in my hometown and headed back to Melbourne via Canberra, taking the opportunity to complete a goal of mine – to hike to the highest point in Australia – Mount Kosciuszko. At a high of only 2228m, we’re not exactly talking about Kilimanjaro, but to know I was standing higher than anyone else in the country at that moment was a breathtaking experience.

After returning to Melbourne, preparations for my upcoming trip began to get real. I bought my travel laptop and backpacks. I tossed out two-thirds of my clothes and practised packing what I was taking in my backpack. I continued my morning walks around the neighbourhood to appreciate this wonderful city that I lived in before I moved away and missed it like crazy, like I do now, especially knowing that right now it’s summer there and winter here, no matter how much I complained about the heat there.

February

During 2017 I had befriended an amazing group of students from Chile who had come to Australia on a scholarship from the government. I spent an amazing Christmas and new years period with them and their friends from other countries, but February was time to say goodbye as many went back home and the group was parted forever. Our nights spent around the fire playing games were some of the happiest of my life, and I will never forget having the translate the farewell speeches into Spanish for the Aussie bloke in the group who didn’t understand. Yes, they could have done their speeches in English, but anyone who speaks a second language knows that it feels like it comes more from the heart when you’re speaking your mother tongue, right?

For one very special person in that group, with whom I fell in love I had enjoyed many happy memories over 8 months, the farewell was particularly heart-wrenching. We had a loose plan which was to see each other again when I made it to Chile at the end of my trip, but as much as I wanted to provide a date, I knew that my trip was meant to be flexible and we never really know what will change over the course of a year. I moved out of my apartment, enjoyed my final coffee at my local neighbourhood cafe and listed my car for sale. 

March

The month of goodbyes – I visited, brunched hiked and dived for the last time with friends in Melbourne. My boss held an amazing dinner with my closest colleagues, then I brought all my Melbourne friends together for an epic farewell party. Then it was time to say goodbye to Melbourne and head to Queensland. I spent my final precious week with my family, assuring my grandmother I would be safe by drawing my route on a big map from my grandfathers office, and farewelling friends in my hometown on a boozy night on the town. I flew out from Brisbane airport after spending my final two days with my best Colombian girlfriend Rocío whom I have plans to meet and travel with in Colombia in 2019.

As I touched down in Madrid on 27th March, I remember silent tears streaming down my cheeks at the sudden truth hitting me that the solo adventure that I had been planning for two years was all finally happening. My first days in Madrid I spent wandering the streets of the centre on a fact-filled walking tour, and with Dani from HelloTalk, who took me up to the best view of the skyline: level 12 of the department store Corte Ingles. I took a day trip to the ancient municipality of Toledo, one of the only cities where Jews, Christians and Muslims once lived together in harmony. That night, I hit the bars on a hostel pub crawl and in true Madrid style, not arriving home until dawn after meeting a group of Argentinians from my hostel. I wandered the cobblestone laneways to discover little cervecerias, sitting down to an afternoon snack of tapas and sangria as I sat silently and watched as life passed me by.

 

April

Leaving the bustling capital of Madrid, I arrived in the warmer region of Andalucia – warmer in climate and in spirit. My first stop was Cordoba, home to the great Mezquita and another amazing mix of epochs, cultures and religions.  Seville was next on my itinerary, and I began to understand why it is the highlight of many people’s trips to Spain. The beauty of the riverside city is undeniable, however what made my visit in Seville were the people. I met my long time HelloTalk practise friend Samira, I partied with my hostel buddies. I spent a lazy afternoon lunching and chatting with locals alongside my new French hostel-buddy. I took a day trip out to the local town of Huelva and spent the day with another Hellotalk practise partner, Daniel, his wife and son. I covered my ears as I heard weird bumps in the night from the bunk bed below me the next evening. Oh, Sevilla, I will never forget you.

Only two weeks into my trip and I developed the flu. I arrived unwell in Granada, the home of the most visited attraction in Spain – La Alhambra. Unfortunately, as sick as I was I couldn’t enjoy it and was told that the two days of cold rainy weather I arrived on where the only two days of the year it was like that in Granada. The flu persisted as I arrived in the slightly warmer coastal city of Malaga, so I spent most of my time holed up in my hostel or chasing sun rays to warm up. Catalonia showed an incredible dynamic between the south and the north, but despite the political tensions, I was thrilled to join another of my oldest HelloTalk buddies, Sarah, as she and her boyfriend delighted in showing me the sights and legends of their city, Girona, the surrounding historical towns, and the beauty of the Costa Brava. Finishing my time in Barcelona, I met up with one of my Cordoba hostel buddies Vittoria who lives in this vibrant, artistic and international city. I fought through my sickness to roll out of my bunk bed each day to discover each of the quaint neighbourhoods, aweing at the beauty and structure of the second-most visited attraction in Spain: La Sagrada Familia Basilica, designed by Antoni Gaudi and whose construction continues even today.

May

I arrived in Mexico city immediately feeling the warmth of Mexican people as my best Mexican friend Montserrat’s family picked me up from the airport and immediately took me to a doctor to treat the flu that had developed into a serious throat infection without treatment in Spain. I felt safe and cared for as this kind family open their house and their family to me, taking me around their town to the favourite spots. I wandered around the city for a couple of days, exploring the beautiful Bosque de Chapultepec, trying my first sips of Mezcal  with another HelloTalk friend Antonio and then sailing down the famous river of Xochimilco, a common Friday night activity for young people. Food poisoning from eating my own leftovers kept me from enjoying my time in Morelia, only staying for a couple of days and meeting a local who showed me the historical elements of the town.

I arrived in Guadalajara at my hostel and was thrilled to share a great boozy night with the people there, deciding a few days later to head to the coastal town of Puerto Vallarta with two buddies from the Netherlands and Germany. We headed to the tiny alternative surfing town of Sayulita, however the atmosphere wasn’t for me and I headed back to Puerto Vallarta, checking into a hostel run by a volunteer team of travelling Australian girls. I met a couple of weekend vacationers from Texas, Cezar and Peter, with whom I had two great evenings hanging on our rooftop terrace, trying to escape the heat during the days and recover from a beyond-painful sunburn I carelessly received on my back from a cold and coffee-coloured scuba diving trip the day before.

I then farewelled Jalisco and headed up to the Yucatan Peninsula, checking in to a hostel and spending days recovering from my ongoing flu in a hammock above their pool watching Friends. I immersed myself in the crystalline waters of the cenotes and joined my hostel buddies in a salsa class. I sat down with a Guatemalan entrepreneur/traveller in the local fishing town of Progreso and together spent the afternoon chatting, smoking and eating fresh ceviche s a storm rolled in over the ocean. I explored my first Mayan archaeological zone and getting my feet nibbled by fish in its open cenote at Dzibilchaltun. The following day, it was my time to visit my final stop in Merida: the 7th man-made wonder of the world, Chichen Itza, which was my final stop in Yucatan before heading to my more long-term destination for a couple of months: Playa del Carmen.

June

My dream in Mexico was to achieve my Divemaster certification in Playa del Carmen, so I rented an apartment for 5 weeks and settled in to learn more about the Riviera Maya. I jumped straight into my first aid and Rescue Diver training within days of arriving in the humid Caribbean coastal tourist town. No sooner had I started to dive every day for my training that my body has decided that it had had enough of me ignoring it, and my defense system shut down with the worst case of bronchitis I’ve ever had. I spent weeks holed up in my apartment, heading to the local dive doctor to receive nebulisation treatments twice a day to prevent pneumonia. Luckily I had the company of a few friends I had met in Playa. Plus, my hostel buddy Cezar from Puerto Vallarta, came down from Texas for a weekend and we explored the archeological ruins of Tulum and spent a wonderful afternoon on the water on a local fishing charter.

I had fallen behind in my divemaster studies so approached my instructor for a solution to extend my course. I was thrilled to be offered the opportunity to extend the course over three months and offer it to me as an internship in exchange for a half day working in their office. I had no rush to move on straight away and had the online marketing skills they needed, so it was a win-win for me. This experience of being sick only proved to me that you never know what opportunities can arise from difficult moments when you travel.

July

Upon accepting the Divemaster internship, I realised that staying in a tourist airbnb, no matter how beautiful, comfortable and closely located to the dive shop, was not a financially viable option. I rented a bicycle and moved to a shared apartment in a local neighbourhood with a dive instructor from the shop. On my first day in the new apartment, the air-conditioning unit in my bedroom broke down and the gas ran out, making for a very uncomfortably hot week without means to cook. I went to a local hairdresser working from home and by the end of my session I had a new girlfriend, Mayra, one of very few locals born and raised in Playa del Carmen, which has only risen in population and reputation in the past 20 years. I joined her and her friends at gathering at her house and together the next day we road-tripped to the tranquil town of Bacalar, close to the border of Belize and home to the beautiful 7-colour lagoon. On my second week in the house, I fell into bed exhausted and the bottom collapsed, leading me to spend the next weeks sliding inwards as I slept until someone fixed it. I carried on, knowing that my new lifestyle was not always going to be 4 star apartments with climate control. By the end of the month, with the potential of a new career in diving and a growing passion to know discover more of Mexico, I had realised that my time here was going to be far longer that I had anticipated, and my suspicion that my plans of arriving in Chile this year were not a reality. My idea of a life well-lived was one of travel and spontaneity, and was not ready to settle down on one place, and definitely not to have children. Despite the amazing memories, the love and respect I felt, after months of painful consideration and tears, I closed that chapter of my life and surged on into my new path.  

August

My dive shop offered me a trial over the next weeks that in which if I was successful, I would become part of their team as a working Divemaster. My days started at 7.30am at the shop to set up, after a 30 minute bike ride in the 30 degree morning heat. After half day of diving, I would head upstairs to work on social media. My days were physically and mentally exhausting as I learn how to monitor and teach new divers, saving them from potential disaster. Some days were truly rewarding, receiving great feedback and tips from the clients. Other days, equipment malfunctioned or divers panicked and we came close to potential disaster, or the clients left without even a goodbye or thank-you, let alone or tip. Then I would sit down to near hour-long debriefs without a single piece of good feedback, leaving me feeling like the worst divemaster in the world. When the sun set, I rode home, arriving, showering, then proceeding to smoke or drink myself into a stupor to forget the heat of the house with temperatures upwards of 40 degrees in my room without aircon and a broken bed. Welcome to real life!

A friend came to visit me in Playa from San Luis Potosi and things were starting to look up. After two months in my Divemaster course, I finished all the requirements to receive my certification. I signed the papers and hopped on my bike to go home and celebrate with my friend. It was on the way home that very afternoon that I had an accident on my bike that changed my entire future. I spent the final week of the month in three hospitals awaiting surgery.

September

I can confidently say that September was my most challenging month, physically and emotionally. I left hospital on the first of the month with a wire holding my elbow together and five broken ribs in my back. With the unwavering support of my poor friend who had only come for a brief visit, I went to stay with a friend of his so I was not living alone attempting to feed and dress myself. The next weeks were a blur of sleeping, sticking to a schedule of pain medication, visiting the hospital or physiotherapist, trying to get moving in the pool and taking small daily walks when my body would allow me to move. I was adamant to fulfill the last month of my internship commitment by managing my dive shop’s social media from my bed, which I began just days after arriving home and gave me a sense of purpose during this difficult time. Being in bed almost all day (with no other furniture in the new house) brought on major back problems so we moved to a furnished apartment closer to the centre of town so I could have a sofa to relax and a table to work on. Despite receiving a few messages and promises of visits from people in town, they never happened. I realised that my plans of working as a Divemaster and eventually heading on to Honduras to study as an instructor had been ripped from my grasp. I began to slip into a bout of depression, missing the creature comforts of home and feeling the bubble of positivity I had been trying to retain very quickly dissolving. Through this haze of negativity that was entering my mind, I saw the light that existed in my life that shined into my heart: an amazing friend who was by my side throughout my whole ordeal who understood me, who shared my love of travel, of living on-the-fly never settling in one place. I realised over this month that he was my reason for not booking the next flight home. There was a love and respect developing that illuminated even my darkest days.

 

October

After receiving messages of support from my real friends and family back home, and not being one to let these feelings take control of me for too long, I surged on with my recovery routine: I continued helping with social media for my dive shop, I attended physiotherapy for my elbow and as my mobility improved, we began to venture out on daily walks to enjoy the town and visit the beach, where my soul belongs and rejuvenates. Dia de Muertos and Halloween arrived, and I delighted in dressing up as a Catrina for the festivities at Xcaret attraction park. I also formed a great girls group with a fellow Divemaster candidate from Spain, Africa and her friend from Mexico City, Fernanda, and we delighted in heading out for girl time and wine, which were my social rejuvenation sessions. You don’t realise how much you need to vent and girl-gossip until you do it.

November

My new beau Christian needed to return to his home in the state of San Luis Potosi, and he invited me to accompany him and discover a new area of Mexico. This industrial city is located four hours drive north-east of Mexico city, and is surrounded completely by a 360 circle of hills as far as the eye can see, making for a spectacular sunset every day. I spent the next two weeks getting to know the idiosyncrasies and personality of a real Mexican family: a Mum, a Dad, sisters, nieces and a nephew that he adores. I was nervous about my level of Spanish and how the children would react to me, considering I had effectively stolen their uncle’s attention and, as many people would know, I personally have no desire to have children. However a sense playfulness and my love of teaching English bubbled to the surface within the first day, and by the second day I had a little fan, with the youngest following me around asking me endless questions and demanding to sit next to me at the table.

We ambled around the city’s huge central park Tangamanga, we went shopping together, listened to Mariachi and drank mezcal at a barbecue restaurant and we explored local museums and wandered the Spanish-influenced town centre. Christian and his business partner Enrique took me to the Hills of San Pedro, a Spanish colonial town on the outskirts of the city that was mined for its silver before the Spaniards headed further down the hills to settle closer to water sources. This loud, close-knit family was far from what I was used to, and I loved it. So when prices of accommodation in Playa del Carmen skyrocketed over the Christmas high season period, I jumped at the idea of staying in this new place for a while.

December

Christian and I returned to Playa to finish up our rental agreement, collect our things, visit the ancient Mayan archaeological zone of Coba, which had been on my list before my accident, and then head to his family home in San Luis Potosi. We decided to have a secret Santa-style gift exchange, and we posted our wish lists on the back of the door, giving ourselves one week to shop and buy presents for our chosen recipient. At midnight on Christmas eve, I toasted with Christian’s Mum, Dad and sister as we tucked into my homemade lasagna and smoked turkey. Christmas day was not the flurry of activity, present opening and roast pork lunch that we have in Australia. It was a quiet, chilled day of eating leftovers, playing dominos and listening to music whilst spending quality time with the family. As someone who doesn’t like to make a big deal out of Christmas, this was perfect for me. New Years was a whole different affair, however. Christian’s eldest sister, husband and children arrived and my ears almost popped from the shrill cries of the children as they were handed their secret santa presents and attempted to guess their gifter.

We then sat down to a huge turkey family dinner and toasted the end of the year with champagne at midnight.

2019 – What’s next?

New year is always the perfect moment to reflect on where you were a year ago, how much has changed and what you have learnt. It’s safe to say that my life is unrecognisable from what it was in January 2018: living in a different country, I’ve freed myself from the daily grind of a full-time job, I have met a ton of new friends and found love, and now I spend my days speaking a language that only two years ago I was still a beginner. My professional goals have shifted from marketing, to English teaching, to diving, and now I’m headed into new territory as I make a bunch of changes, which you can read in my latest update.

• • I have decided to stay in San Luis Potosi and work as a freelance content writer and community manager, spending my weekends hiking and getting to know the pueblos magicos on the outskirts of the city.
  • My physical recovery is a continual process, with the cold of SLP affecting the range of movement of my elbow and the wire implant causing me nerve pain. I have decided to be patient for a few months to see if the pain subsides with a bit more time and if not, I will undergo another surgery to remove the implant now that the bone has healed.
  • I will be returning to Playa del Carmen when my elbow has improved a bit more so I can complete some of that diving I missed after my accident. I will have missed the bull shark season unfortunately, but I’m looking forward to snorkelling with the Sailfish, the fastest fish in the world, and exploring more underground caverns in the mystical Mayan cenotes.
  • My trip to Colombia is still on my agenda, where I will be diving in the Caribbean north coast and meeting my best friend Rocío and her family for a month of travel and exploration.
  • I plan to visit and party with my girlfriend Montserrat in Mexico City, who will be back with her family after several years in Australia where I met her.
  • I am training to open up an online digital marketing agency, to achieve financial freedom as an expat and to bring in the income needed to continue travelling around this stunning and fascinating continent.

All of this will see me until mid year, at which point the my ‘life plan’ falls off an edge. Once upon a time, this concept would have scared me, but I am thrilled to know that my life is no longer mapped out for me. I am one to enjoy a short-term plan, but you can never plan too far ahead when you travel, and who knows where I’ll find myself in my 2010 wrap-up post.

In the words of my favourite song,

“Today is where your book begins, the rest is still unwritten.”

Stay tuned…