November 22, 2015 – December 30, 2015

What happened…

Amanda writes: Being in San Carlos has been far better than I had expected. Much of that likely comes from the fact that I struggled with being here for 5 months last year. For those of you that are unfamiliar with how two people cycling around the world ended up in a gringo community for 5 months I’ll rewind a bit.

We originally set out to cycle from Inuvik NWT (near Alaska) to Argentina in about 18-24 months. After being on the road for a few months my brother died and we headed back to Vancouver for the funeral. While in Vancouver Andrew’s Grandfather asked us if we’d accompany him to Mexico. Being on the heels of 50 days of rain we were easily convinced. He said he’d pay for room and board if we made sure he was okay and got him there and back safely. We figured it was a good situation being that we didn’t have a schedule, we could spend some time with family and dry out. Combined with the fact we had planned to settle down in Mexico and learn Spanish anyway, we went for it. And so we ended up in San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico for 5 months with Grandpa. The arrangements didn’t quite work out as originally planned, but we spent 5 months in Mexico and Andrew made the best of a hard situation. Spending 5 months with your Grandpa is an opportunity not many have and Andrew is grateful for it, however hard it was. Andrew’s Grandfather is over 80 and there were some hard days. Andrew is such a positive man that he made it work. Combined with his passion for the new sport of kite surfing it was pretty good. I’ll cut Andrew some slack because of the trying scenario however I too was excited to kite surf and in his distracted tendencies while trying to care for his grandfather he didn’t have a lot of energy to learn to kite surf and support his wife who was also trying to kite surf. I’ll admit as a woman it was a steeper learning curve for me and I needed more support which I didn’t get from him because he had other things on his mind. Long story short our time in San Carlos was something we are grateful for, for so many reasons; however it wasn’t what I had planned on and was hard for me to manage.

Fast forward now to us returning to San Carlos and I’d say I’m more prepared. I know that Andrew will be kite surfing for endless hours and this time I know what to expect and frankly look forward to a break. Instead of sitting on the beach drinking beers and gaining 30 pounds while Andrew kite surfs I’m going to do what makes me happy. And because of my approach, I’m having a fabulous time! Andrew and I still battle when he kite surfs for 6 hours in a day and then is a complete zombie for the following two days, but we’re working at it. One of the things that surprised me was the realization that I too wished I was kite surfing. When we first arrived many of our friends asked if we were both kite surfing and my standard reply is “the sport is not for me”. And while this may be the case right now in my life, I do wish I could do it and hope to still master it in the years to come. When I gave the standard response to one of our friends, he hit the nail on the head when he reminded Andrew and I that when I did get up on a board last year, there wasn’t a lot of enthusiasm from Andrew. When he said it I was a bit shocked because while I noticed it big time, I just figured it was me being the annoying wife and expecting too much. As it turns out many people noticed that Andrew was not all that excited about me finally learning the sport. When your partner isn’t supportive or doesn’t want to share something with you, it makes you less inclined to really work at it. And so with that I’ll shelve the idea and just hold on to the hope that some day Andrew will want to share it with me rather than just having me hanging around on the beach all the time. And while it’s easy to type, it’s hard all at the same time because I’ve got my friends encouraging me to get back on a board and even offering to share their equipment. We talk about it and I get excited and then Andrew will snicker in the background and deflate my desire. At the end of the day I need to quit worrying about his involvement and just get out there and do it which is hard to do because as we travel kiting is like most sports, safety in numbers; and if I don’t have his support that just won’t work.

So aside from the mental battle of kite surfing I’m enjoying San Carlos immensely. We just fell right into the groove of our friends and activities with a full schedule. Our hosts Pat and Larry not only invited us into their beautiful home, but welcomed us into their community. There were happy hours and Grey Cup parties and just all around good people to hang with. Within 24 hours of our arrival we went to our friends 50th birthday party and were immediately greeted by so many friends we hadn’t seen in months. I was amazed at how the circle of friends is so large and while we knew the birthday boy mostly from kite surfing, there were so many other friends from other activities. I’ve managed to fill my days with pickle ball a couple of days a week, softball a couple of days a week and running too. The groove is good and it’s making time fly. We moved to a friends place to house sit and that has made things amazing. We have access to a home that is large enough that Andrew and I get a bit of space from each other. Combined with access to a kayak and SUP I’ve been able to really enjoy playing in the water and relaxing all at the same time. We’ve been able to tackle some errands we needed to do and have even managed to have some conversations on where and when we go from here. All of this made possible by amazing friends who have opened their homes to us. We even got to host Christmas dinner with having access to a beautiful kitchen and all. We had some good friends come over and shared a wonderful meal with them.

Since being in a home there have been so many little things that I’ve learned to appreciate again. Simple things that I wouldn’t say I’ve taken for granted, but more so things that people wouldn’t normally put in the ‘awesome’ category. Cotton sheets on a bed, being able to wake up and walk around in pyjamas and enjoy coffee inside a sheltered area, water out of tap, snuggling on a couch, eating at a table, going out without having to worry about all my belongings and so many things I’ve likely forgotten to mention.

We quickly learned after visiting our friends place that some friends from softball live next door, again small world. We met Jim and Colleen last year and it has been so awesome getting to know them better. I realize as I meet more people that we tend to have so much in common with others and have an easy time chatting and hanging out. They had their three grown kids out visiting for Christmas and it was great getting to know them too. And we also happened to be in the same neighbourhood as our good friends Jo and Murray and have enjoyed hanging with them … just all round good peeps. So with all of this surrounding fun and friends we’re giving serious thought to staying in San Carlos a bit longer. Our other friends Larry and Mary just arrived and we want to spend some with them enjoying cards and football. So much to do and so little time and yet we still want to see the world.

Today’s Photographs