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Last Updated on June 12, 2020 by Natalie

I love to read about what people have been up to during the year. Yes, I genuinely enjoy reading Christmas letters from friends and family, from those few who still send them. Being connected through social media is great for day to day, but it has taken its toll on old fashioned letter-writing. 2019 was an interesting year for my expat life, and I did manage a fair amount of traveling.

Where did we travel? How’d it go? What was my favorite destination? All the answers are here!

A Year In Review: Life Adventures of 2019

New here? Read the previous yearly wrap ups:

• 2018 – where I try to spend my birthday on the beach at the last minute and fail
• 2017 – the year I agreed to move to a country I’d never visited!

Stats for 2019

Miles traveled: approximately 11,242 miles

Flights taken: 14

Buses ridden: 3

Mayan Ruins visited: 1

Meltdowns while traveling: 3

Disclaimer

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January

I started January in Mexico, but I need to back up first.

Insert record scratch – yes, I totally imagine sound effects when I’m writing.

December, 2018

We spent the week of Christmas in Ohio with family. A few days after Christmas, I came down with a virus which caused me to run an uncomfortably high fever; I was miserable. Thankfully it wasn’t a sinus thing, which meant flying back to Mexico a few days later didn’t cause me any ear pain, which I had been concerned about. My daughter came down with a fever on our second flight, and I was prepared with appropriate medication. Sadly, though we had to skip our New Year’s Eve party, so we could quarantine the germs.

And then, January

I found myself feeling down the first week of January and I was really worried it would carry on into the year, as it did last year. I started the Whole30 again, to see if I could help my stomach issues. I’m happy to say, it helped a lot!

By the second week of January, my state and several other states in central Mexico were experiencing a gas shortage, due to the government shutting off the gas pipelines to try to combat the massive gas thefts. It was stressful. It was not uncommon to have to spend hours in line at a gas station, just hoping there would be enough left when your turn came. We got really lucky, by waiting to get gas on the first weekend, and found it in the next big town over and with only a 20 minute wait.

There was a general sense of chaos since there was no definitive answer to when gas would regularly available again.  I never imagined I’d be disaster prepping in another country and yet, we did. I was reluctant to share that I was scared with friends and family back home, because I didn’t want anyone to worry, but this was a scary time!  We stocked up on food and water, just in case. Thankfully, we haven’t experienced any food shortages, but the possibility felt very real. The gas shortages lasted about 1-2 weeks total.

Toward the end of the month, as things started to work their way toward normal, I was sitting on a bench, adjusted my position and pulled a muscle in my lower back in what seemed like the most unlikely way possible. Despite doing basically nothing to cause it, I experienced a fairly severe strain which interrupted my daily routine quite a bit, since simple every day tasks became annoyingly painful.  Fortunately, I was able to take care of myself after the fact and did what I could to encourage the healing.

February

We didn’t do any traveling in February, with the gas shortage fresh in our minds. As daily life returned to normal, we started eating our way through all the non-perishable food items we’d purchased, with the relief that the crisis seemed to be passing.

In late February I noticed my dog, Allie, was rapidly losing weight. She started throwing up frequently prompting multiple trips to the vet. Our wonderful vet got her stabilized, but also let me know there wasn’t anything more that he could do to help her failing liver.

March

In March kids and I struggled with being sick with various ailments. I had a 24 hour vomiting sickness and Allie was the one trying to comfort me! She stopped vomiting and kept eating for a few more weeks, but she still wasn’t well. On March 15, she passed away. I was devastated. I spent two weeks crying sporadically before she passed, because I knew she was dying. When we adopted Allie in 2012, she was about 6.5 years old. She was well trained and got to run around and explore our property until we moved to Mexico. She and our other dog, Rufus, took a three day road trip to live with us in Mexico. I’m thankful we were able to get them here. I told my husband it was the best money we’ve ever spent because our dogs considerably eased our transition to Mexico.  Allie was an emotional support; a solid presence for my family and for me. I still carry a huge sadness from her loss, and while she wasn’t a human, she was family. I only had Allie for a little over 6 and a half years but I don’t think an additional 6 years would’ve been enough. While I wish for more minutes, more hours, more days, my wish for her to be able to stop suffering was greater.

We had a trip planned to Tequisquiapan for a friend’s birthday the same day Allie passed. I almost canceled several times however, after Allie passed, I realized that I didn’t want to be in my house. I cried throughout the weekend, but not as much as I would have at home. Slowly, I realized I had (mostly) stopped expecting her to greet me at the door when I returned home, and my grief began to subside.

With our loved ones, it is never enough time.  I understand there is greater loss, and different loss, but for me this is a loss which still hurts.

April

We visited La Gruta Hot Springs in San Miguel de Allende. It was wonderful! I wrote a detailed guide about how to make the day go smoothly with kids. I recommend a visit while staying in San Miguel.

April saw more viruses and spring break. We went to Cabo San Lucas, which is beautiful! However, our resort wasn’t the best for families. It was loud and there were a lot of young, drunk people hanging around. It did become tamer by the end of the week, but both kids had pink eye by then, and the three of us also had yet another virus, which makes any vacation less enjoyable. Despite the spring break madness, the resort was really clean and my only issue was the noise, which might not have been present had it not been spring break.

May and June

By May the kids and I finally stopped getting a new virus every two weeks. What a relief! While we still didn’t do any traveling, we did attend several fiestas for the kids’ friends, which is always lovely.

June drags on forever in Mexico – school goes through early July in my area. I wish it would end earlier so that we could visit the U.S. in June instead of July, because it feels like we miss out on so much fun stuff happening in early summer in the US. Traveling in mid-July does work better for my husband’s vacation, though.

We started planning an August trip to Huatulco with friends, and trying to fit in an additional road trip, but with the short summer and extended trip to Ohio, we decided to wait. After checking prices, we talked about taking a trip to Cozumel in December, but with a potential school change on the horizon, we decided to wait to plan that trip.

And it’s a really good thing we waited…

July

Four days before we were set to leave for our summer trip to Ohio, my husband’s company announced that they were sending the expat families home in a mere 8 weeks. This was a shock to everyone and caused exceptional worry for a great number of people. The families who had relocated to Mexico from the U.S. had carefully weighed their options before moving. After all, moving to another country is a big deal, and so is moving back. Families who moved together also preferred to remain together and not to live a country apart.

Even before we left for our summer trip, the expats and their families asked for the company to reconsider the decision. They said they would, but these things take some time. We were left with the uncertainty as we traveled back to Ohio.

We took our annual summer trip and arranged it exactly as we had the year before. The four of us traveled together from Mexico to the U.S. My husband left after one week to return to work. The kids and I enjoyed another week with cousins and grandparents. It was a lovely trip… until we were actually traveling back to Mexico. My kids were fighting and crying as the plane was landing in Houston. I was so embarrassed and upset. My older child had stayed up late and woken up early for several days in a row. Exhaustion was causing him to act in a way that I would prefer he did not, and especially not while traveling. I wrote about parenting failures while traveling as a response to what felt like a massive parenting failure and another which happened in August.

We spent the rest of July and most of August with the uncertainty of relocation looming over us. Would the kids and I have to move back to the U.S. by October 1? We started doing some house hunting, just in case.

August

In August, we took a wonderful trip to Huatulco, Oaxaca with another family.   The resort was built into some massive hills and walking to and from the room was tiring because Huatulco is hot and humid and resort was beautiful, so we ended up not leaving the resort during our 5 days. We have to go back and explore Huatulco properly one day, right?

It was here one of my children had a massive meltdown (due to hunger) in the middle of the resort. It was a challenging situation for all of us and due to being at the mercy of the resort’s restaurants’ schedules, there was nothing I could’ve done to head it off. The lunch restaurants weren’t open yet and the breakfast restaurants were closed. It was valuable lesson for us and we planned meal times differently during our next trip.

Near the end of August, we found out that we were allowed to continue to live in Mexico. We were so relieved! However, we still didn’t know if we would be leaving in March 2020 or if my husband’s assignment would be extended. Cue more uncertainty; though with time to prepare for a move, it wasn’t as troubling as the wait during the summer.

September and October

September and October involved zero travel for me. My husband spent 5 weeks traveling for work, which is a rarity. He spent one month in Japan. I wished that he’d had that trip in the summer so that the kids and I could have gone as well.

During this time, violence started increasing in my town. In fact, it had been steadily going up since the gas crisis early in the year. Usually, the violence would seem to go in cycles of up for a few weeks and then back down for a few months. This time, the cycle wasn’t ending. Two of the largest issues are extortion and carjackings. My town made the New York Times because of the former issue.

On the positive side, I started walking everyday the same week my husband started traveling for work. This might be the single best thing I’ve done for myself this year. My back injury at the beginning of the year was one of the catalysts for adding more movement into my life.  Now that I’m up to 2-3 miles per day (3.2-5 km), 5 days a week, I’m feeling so much better! I don’t have the tightness in my back and hips that used to bother me. My energy levels are higher and I sleep better overall, and while possibly a coincidence, I haven’t gotten a virus since I started.. I’m also generally less grumpy and feel less stressed (unless we are talking about moving!)

November

We celebrated Day of the Dead with two neighborhood festivals (which include trick-or-treating) and one school festival. We also celebrated my birthday by visiting Cozumel! I cannot believe my amazing life most of the time. While the resort was subpar, their beach was stellar. On the day of my birthday, we took a taxi to the San Gervasio Mayan ruins on the island. It was a lovely birthday present!

Upon returning from this trip, I began visiting schools in Querétaro, Querétaro, because of the likelihood we were moving. Also, official word finally came, that my husband’s assignment is being extended. I can’t believe it has already been almost 3 years since moving to Mexico!

December

In December, we received the official news that we need to move to Queretaro. I began to house hunt in earnest. I laugh a little when I realize that within the last 5 months, I’ve been house hunting in both the U.S. and Mexico.  I’m feeling a lot of uncertainty as I try to navigate finding a school and a house. I get scared thinking about going from a 5-7 minute commute to a potentially 30 minute commute. I start feeling agitated trying to find an affordable house that’s comfortable for our needs; one that helps to ease the sense of loss I’m experiencing from knowing we are uprooting our lives again.

Queretaro is a much larger city. It’s even bigger than Columbus, Ohio, where we had been living before. While it’s a massive adjustment for me and the kids on some levels, there is also so much more to do there.

We also traveled to Ohio again in December. We flew on Christmas Eve, which ended up being really fun. My husband’s travel schedule this year gave him status with an airline and he was upgraded to business class on our flight out of Queretaro. Since there were only around 20 people on our flight, the flight attendants graciously upgraded the whole family to business class. It was a first for me.

Our next flight was full, so there weren’t any upgrades… and someone threw up two rows ahead of my husband. The flight attendants gave us free jellybeans, for our inconvenience I guess. We flew home on New Year’s Eve. It wasn’t as much fun as I’d expected. I thought it would be another lighter travel day, but it seemed to be business as usual. Disappointingly, no one was traveling in 1920s inspired clothing or Happy New Year hats.

We headed to a friend’s house for a NYE gathering. It’s the first time I’ve gone out and stayed up past midnight on New Year’s in around 9 years, and it was a nice welcome to the new decade.

 2019 Destination Recap

• Tequisquiapan, Queretaro
• Cabo San Lucas
• Columbus, Ohio (twice)
• Huatulco, Oaxaca
• Cozumel

All destinations except Columbus, Ohio are located in Mexico.

Tequisquiapan

Tequisquiapan is a wonderful little town in Mexico. We went for a weekend to celebrate a friend’s birthday. We rented an airbnb for the three families. Everything went incredibly well and we had a lot of fun. Plus, the location had an incredible view of the valley and mountains.

Cabo San Lucas

Cabo San Lucas was our spring break destination. Though college spring breaks were long done, there were many young professionals are our resort. They came to party because it was a party-focused resort. The resort also had a wonderful water park for children. It was a bit of a tough vacation because the ocean was not a great place for our kids to swim and then we also got sick. I think it’s a solid destination, only that our particular trip just wasn’t the best for us.

Columbus, Ohio

Visiting Columbus is always a blast. We get to see our families and friends. While we aren’t there to be tourists, it is usually mostly fun and relaxing because we know our way around. I also took a few days to visit my parents. It was amazing!

Huatulco, Oaxaca

We spent 5 days in Huatulco with another family. We stayed at Las Brisas and other than a minor problem at check in, we had a fantastic trip. It was hot and humid and involved climbing up and down massive hills to get to our room, the beach, and the food. My friend chose the resort because of the reviews about the beach. We decided to join them also because we were looking for a beach that was calm for our kids. It delivered. One because was in a cove and protected by a reef. For some reason, it was also the least popular beach at the resort. We saw so many fish and even a stingray. The water was calm, warm, and all of the kids had a blast.

Cozumel, Mexico

Finally, we visited Cozumel in mid-November. While our resort was my least favorite of all the places we’ve stayed in Mexico, the beach was incredible. I felt like I was living in one of those postcards of the perfect blue-green water, calm seas, and palm trees. We also visited the San Gervasio Mayan ruins.

Favorite 2019 destination

I enjoyed all of the destinations this year! Since that’s a lame cop-out (even though it’s true), I will pick one.

Cozumel wins for having the perfect beach. I find this shocking, since I spent an afternoon crying on that beach because things weren’t going as i envisioned for the first few days.

The overall best was Huatulco. It was pretty, had a great beach for swimming, and we all had a great time. The resort was older, but was kept in good repair. The food was also great!

Lowlights

With traveling and life, there come lowlights. The latter half of this year has had a lot of uncertainty in a different way than we have experienced before. We spent 6 weeks wondering if the kids and I would be returning to Ohio by October 1. When the decision was first announced, I cried. I cried through the night, barely sleeping. Our friends cried. To make a complicated story short, it was a relief to be able to stay. It was a relief to not have to carry two rent payments each month, since my husband would have to remain in Mexico. Last, it is a relief knowing they are extending my husbands assignment.

One of my expat friends had some major health problems, starting around March. She ended up flying to the U.S. to stay for a few months for surgery. Her husband works for the same company and after the announcement, she and her daughter ended up staying in the U.S. It has been a sad time finding out they won’t be returning to live in Mexico.

Another lowlight is that the crime in my current town has been increasing. There have always been things happening, but the feeling is different. I know several people who’ve been carjacked and one acquaintance who had been kidnapped. The latter was thankfully returned quickly and unharmed (more or less). I worry for my friends here and I hope for the best for the city and the state.

Finally, I still miss my dog who died in March. We all loved her dearly.

As we welcome 2020…

As usual, we visited Ohio for Christmas. Now, back in Mexico we will be making a lot of decisions and packing up our house. I’m not sure exactly when we will move and thankfully, we do have some flexibility.

2020 is bringing some massive changes for my family in Ohio, too. My sister will be moving out of state, which will complicate our visits in 2020. It’s a positive change overall. Even so, change is hard. I’m both looking forward and dreading our move to Queretaro. It’s really exciting to get to live in another city and state in Mexico. However, moving is moving and always a bit difficult, no matter where you are living.

Travel plans for 2020

We will be visiting Playa del Carmen again early in the year. We are hoping to make a second trip to both Tequisquiapan and Peña de Bernal. Both towns are located in the state of Queretaro.

In the U.S., we will visit Ohio and possibly North Carolina in the summer.

It’s likely that we will consider at least one more beach trip in the latter part of the year. I’m still hoping to visit Merida and we would like to save that for the wintertime. And, just like I declare every year, we might go to Chile. My husband and I discussed it in passing and I know it will happen. I’m just not sure which year will be the year.

I fully intend to explore Queretaro and find the awesome things to do in the city!

How did 2019 treat you? Where did you travel? What was your favorite travel experience this year? What was your least favorite? Do you have travel plans for 2020?

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