How the Journey Began…..

For those who are not familiar with my Journey, I’ll give a little background before I share about my current travel experience! In 2003, I left my job in Washington, DC and traveled to Guatemala to study Spanish, immerse myself in the culture, and just "take a sabbatical from life” as I began to explore more about the possibilities available to me! Writing a travel blog at that point was impossible for me to imagine, but I did enjoy sending out emails to my friends and family – sharing not only the OUTER journey I was on in Guatemala, but a little bit about the INNER journey that was taking place during my sabbatical.

Since returning from Guatemala in 2003, I have traveled, lived and shared my life with some very special people in Washington, Oregon, California, Indiana and Michigan….I even returned to Guatemala in 2010 to work on some writing! What I have found for myself is that life is DEFINITELY a journey filled with love, joy, sadness, tears, deep and profound meaning, and much, much more!! Although our culture would like us to believe that we will eventually “arrive” at some specific destination in our lives (happy, rich, skinny, or whatever it is that defines each person’s “destination") – I believe that we never fully arrive because it's the JOURNEY that keeps our lives vibrant and fulfilling!

When I left my job and my wonderful friends in D.C. in 2003, I had no idea how far I would come on my own journey in understanding what is meaningful in my life….what I value, and what has brought powerful learning opportunities! Each day, my desire is to experience the fullness of life that is available to me. What I've learned over the last 10 years since I began this "leg" of my journey is that as I follow the Guidance which comes to me, I am led further along the path which brings me the greatest love, growth and meaning.

My intention in creating this “travel blog” was to share with my friends and family my experiences in New Mexico over the next 8 months….it may end up being a funny recount of my day-to-day experiences, or it may have more depth and meaning as I travel this journey of “learning as I do” – never being satisfied with the idea that life must become a series of mundane events which define who I am and what I do with my life.

I hope you enjoy reading about my “inner and outer” experiences….and I look forward to any comments you may want to leave (or emails you would like to send) – like pearls on a string connecting us in this great big world we share!!

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Washed-Out Roads, Dark Driveways and Scorpions!!

So in my last post I mentioned the scorpions in Guatemala, and I’ve had a couple requests to hear more about that experience! Those of you who received my emails while I was there a few years ago might remember this, but I thought I’d share it again since it was a “pivotal point” in learning to travel by myself – and taught me that I can survive ANYTHING I encounter in my travels – because I survived THIS!! Well, it was quite an interesting ride from Antigua to Lake Atitlan. What in the past would have taken about 3.5 hours took us almost 5 because of the mudslides and damage done to the roads!! They actually have a highway that runs between Antigua and Lake Atitlan that normally has four lanes, but we had to detour into two-lane roads along the way because the mud, tree trunks, etc. covered miles and miles of highway (due to all the rain they had been getting that fall). At one point, we drove past a part of the road that had LITERALLY fallen away!! The story was that a...

Hello from My Sunny Terrace in Salou!!!

I have been trying to think of something to share about my travels, but my travel/life here hasn’t been super exciting and I wasn’t sure what to share!! But finally this morning it came to me… All day yesterday, I kept looking at the date, trying to figure out what I was missing… Was it somebody’s birthday? Someone’s anniversary? And then just as I was falling asleep last night I remembered it was a year ago (today) that I had my “big fall“ down the stairs at the Pisa train station!! I went to sleep last night feeling a bit morose thinking about what I missed last year and all that I have been through this year because of it, but when I woke up this morning and the sun was shining brightly and all I could see were clear blue skies, I remembered my motto/mantra that I have repeated for many years: “Life is a Journey, not a destination!” And as it turned out, my destination last year was not South America, it was Journeying through the process of my shoulder surgery and recuperation...

Goodbye Tarragona!!

Well, settling into Tarragona did not exactly go as planned, so I am now settling into Salou!! I thought I had everything planned out to the detail, but as always travel loves to throw things my way and see how I deal with them! 🚌 🚕 Part of the reason I had chosen Tarragona is because the train was supposed to go directly there from Barcelona so I figured it would be a nice place to land between cruises! I was up at 6 AM on the last day of the cruise because they started making announcements that people could depart from the ship and I wanted to get some breakfast (aka coffee!!! ☕️☕️) before they closed at 8:00! I had picked the latest departure time of 9:30 because I figured I didn’t need to rush to get to Tarragona but with multiple delays getting people off the ship, I finally got off around 10:30 (waiting in multiple lines until I finally got to the train station at noon)!! It was supposed to be a quick and easy hour long train ride to Tarragona, but apparently they ar...

Traveling With Judi . . . .

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