Tag Archives: Settling down

Say WHAT???

We have settled in.

14 weeks later (yeah, I know I just told you last week that we were “settling down”, funny how blog time goes by so fast).

Bill works in the yard. Everyday. It was fun at first. Seeing the fruits of his labor.  Not a weed to be had.  Plants growing vigorously.  The old looks new and fresh.

I fixed up the house, painted furniture and walls – took Photoshop lessons galore, painted with watercolors, snapped a few photos and even started Spanish lessons again.

And here’s the rub.

Everyday – did you hear me?  Bill works in the yard everyday!  Minus the few days that our friends came to visit and pulled us in another direction. My routine has become a routine. A routine!

The long and the short of it …

We fly home in 1 week – have the next 2 1/2 months in the States jam packed – head back to Baja for a few weeks and THEN…

off to Tierra del Fuego. South America. A one way ticket!

There’s a whole continent to explore!!!

So much for settling down.

“Adventure is a path. Real adventure – self-determined, self-motivated, often risky – forces you to have firsthand encounters with the world. The world the way it is, not the way you imagine it. Your body will collide with the earth and you will bear witness. In this way you will be compelled to grapple with the limitless kindness and bottomless cruelty of humankind – and perhaps realize that you yourself are capable of both. This will change you. Nothing will ever again be black-and-white.” – Mark Jenkins

Freedom isn’t always free – making choices.

While walking the Camino de Santiago last September Bill and I talked about moving to Da Nang, Vietnam and volunteering. We had such a moving experience there in May and felt a huge tug to get involved on a deeper level.

As the kilometers passed and the backpacking communal living added up we started talking about the “S” word.

Settling (down).

The following 3 months, living in Salamanca Spain, had us researching colonial towns in mainland Mexico.  Ones that offered old world charm.  We would live in an antiquated hacienda with crumbling walls and endless verandas.  Bill would plant a garden and I would paint and take photos.

I reminisced about living in San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas 3 years earlier – romanticizing the simple life – cobblestone streets, fabulous restaurants…

Bill recalled the rain, rain and more rain. “Rain means bugs and humidity.”

I flashed back to our last chubasco experience (a hatching, hundreds of thousands of crawling and flying bugs invading our bedroom and the kids’ room while we slept) and said “I’m not doing bugs and humidity – there’s nothing settling about that.”  The Yucatan was out!

114 beds in the past year, yes were ready.

So we made a list.

Non-negotiable items: climate has to be dry, a fireplace, a view (mountains or water), quiet and surrounded by wide open spaces.  Not surprisingly, both our home in Nevada and the home we share with friends in Southern Baja include these characteristics.

After 3 short months in Nevada we had concluded that Baja fit the bill. Settling down meant travel a few days here and there – nothing more.  We would take advantage of those travel days when the house was used by our partners.

The car was loaded from top to bottom – sewing machine, paints, computers, vegetable seeds, walking sticks, yoga mats and more.

Ahhh…. settling in.