Backpacks and Cameras

I’m sitting in a loud busy bus station restaurant in Lima eating a pile of papas fritas the size of my head, maybe bigger. I’m waiting for Carl. It’s seems he’s lucked out. After a week plus of issues with immigration he might be here in Peru legally this afternoon. Carl- lover of rules and regulations, some how (thanks Obama) left Peru in 2016 after the Asian-Pacific Conference without getting an exit stamp recorded while working for the Federal Government. Without his Official Passport Peru seemed less than helpful at the border (as did the US embassy in Lima). Thankfully some connections with the Secret Service were able to get the information needed through the appropriate channels. It’s delayed us a bit for sure but overall I think we are both thankful I don’t have to smuggle Carl to Bolivia. He’s a bit big for my backpack. 

We’ve traveled through northern Peru and are about to head into the south.

Northern Peru gave us a few unplanned and welcomed surprises. I have wanted to swim with Whale Sharks since I’ve learned it was a thing. They are these massive animals- up to 40 feet long! They are the largest non mammal in the world. They are also somehow kind of cute and definitely dumb. 

For an unknown reason there are whale sharks off the coast of northern Peru pretty consistently and a non profit in the area studies them. We heard about them from another set of travelers. The nice thing is this the isn’t part of some well known tourist route, it’s literally research and conservation. It was a tiny fishing boat and there were 8 of us total- 3 folks from a local scuba school affiliated with the nonprofit, 2 boat crew, a researcher and us. There was no one else even close to us in the water. We were also told we had the best conditions of the year so far and saw an unreal about of them for a single day- nearly 10 in total. 

The first time we spotted one and jumped in the water I didn’t realize there were 2! Some how I had ended up directly on top of one. Looking down I was probably 3 feet above it’s head and could see it’s big tail fin coming my way! I was more afraid of hurting it then it hurting me but it sure did get my adrenaline pumping! I ungracefully got out of it way and later kicked myself for not having turned the GoPro on. 

The last whale shark we swam with was magic. It was somewhere between 25 and 30 feet, which is on the larger size for the area we were in. It must have been resting because it was moving at the perfect pace for a comfortable speed of swimming for me. For about 15 minutes we just followed it. I was anywhere from 2-4 feet from it the whole time. You could swim up and see it’s eye and look in its 4 feet wide mouth. (They, like many whales eat only plankton.) You felt really tiny next to it and when it turned into you there was always this little rush and a quick impulse to get out of the way. 

There are many things you do once and your glad you did them but don’t really feel the need to do them again (bungee jumping for example) but not this. I hope to swim with the gentle giants again. 

From the beach town of Mancora we headed south to Tranquila to check out some ruins- Chan Chan being the main one. They were interesting and the nearby beach town had some yummy food but we decided to limit our time and only spent a day there. 

Out next destination took us back to the mountains, from sea level to 10,000 feet and then to 15,000 feet. We went to Huaraz to see a small slice for the Cordillera Blanca mountains, which is the tallest range in Peru. It was beautiful. There were glacier fed lakes scatted throughout and perfectly snow capped mountain peaks. 

I think we did amazingly well hiking given the altitude. Hiking with Carl is always a bit of a challenge though. I at this point am in good shape but Carl walks about twice the speed I a comfortable with. Being at an altitude over 15,000 ft makes hiking extra challenging. 

Of all the places we’ve been I wish we had more time around Huaraz and in the Cordillera.  There was enough hiking and exploration in the area that we could have spent over a month in still left plenty of undone. I certainly hope that we will be back someday.

As I open my eyes the static that has filled my ears begins to fade as my eyes adjust to the layers of greens and browns that are as intertwined as Velcro.  I close my eyes again and allow myself another moment to fully absorb the endless static.  As I get lost in the sound I am able to peel away the various layers; on top is the occasional shrill cry of an unseen bird, the undulating chorus from an army of various frogs, the deep rumblings as a stream of water continues it’s never ending beating at the rocks as it flows towards an unseen ocean, and finally the glue the holds all these sounds together- the soft staccato of water dripping from one canopy to another before finally returning to earth only to be reabsorbed into the rich topsoil.

Two days ago I was in the middle of twenty four tortuous hours of sitting in various airports and planes to reconnect with Shannon in Ecuador.

You might wonder what brought me leave Colombia for a short two day return to Washington, a return that would find me spending as much time in transit as I would in my temporary destination, the simple answer is family.  The longer answer is that over time you have friends that they become like family.  When that happens you are willing to fly between continents to share in lifes most meaningful moments. Although the trip was short and filled with a few other responsibilities and visits it was great to be back for the celebration.  The wedding between Chanda Luce and James Bigham was amazing and well worth the effort it took in making it back.  As time passes and life brings its inevitable changes it seems like the time one gets to spend with friends gets shorter and less frequent yet we are always able to pick up where we left off when back together.  Although I’m now back on the other side of the world I look forward to the next time we are able catch up over a board game or a fire pit and reconnect.

Back to the present, as I have to open my eyes again to work my way through the jungle and the next waterfall.  We initially came to the Intag Valley of Ecuador in hopes of an excursion on horseback and fishing for trout in remote Andean lakes.  We ended up staying two nights on a farm that borders the Cloud Forest spending time hiking to remote waterfalls, amateur birdwatching, tending to cattle, basket weaving. and eating some of the most amazing home cooked meals (Courtesy of Patricia).  As we make our way to the next waterfall I realize how steep everything is, six inches to my left is a 20’ drop to the creek and six inches from my head is loose forest detritus and numerous small plants striving for their own footing amongst an abyss of vegetation.  I’m not sure what exactly I am stepping on, it feels more secure than it should, but it’s a mix of dead leaves and small plants growing out of the hillside.  In my right hand I am holding onto a bundles of small roots or vines that dangle from various branches above and in my left hand I am cradling a few leaves that caught my eye and erroneously thought that I would be able to keep as a memento.

After about 15-20 minutes of making our way up the hillside we are rewarded with the next waterfall.  Although it is comfortably cool outside, I have worked up a sweat, and reward myself with a splash of cool water on my face and through my hair.  If it was a little warmer or if everything was a little less damp I would be tempted to set my clothes aside and enjoy the small pool at the bottom of the falls.

After enjoying the views of several waterfalls that have probably been seen by less than 100 people alive today it’s time to make our way out and back to the farm.  As I once again get lost in the kaleidoscope of greens and browns and cacophony of sounds that make up the jungle I again am able to find an inner peace as I appreciate where I am and all that I have in life.

We leave Ecuador tonight for Peru. It’s been just about 2 weeks here and I think I’ve enjoyed it here more than Colombia. We’ve done a lot. Our step counts on our phones have doubled from last month. 

Ecuador started out in Otavalo for me. I came across the border solo and awaited Carl’s arrival. 

Although I missed Carl, traveling alone for a short period felt really good. There is a freedom in it. You don’t need to consider other people’s wants or needs. You move at a different pace and interact with others differently. When I was younger I felt like it was hard to find people to travel with, now it’s a bit sad that I will probably never travel alone for a long period again. 

Once Carl arrived we headed into the mountains to stay on a farm with Edwardo and Patrica. 

Carl heard about Edwardo from a friend in the States who had visited him. Originally he is from the UK but has lived in Ecuador for more than 10 years. He is married to a lovely local woman named Patrica. Patrica is not only an amazing cook but a expert basket weaver. We hiked and helped heard cows and got to learn a bit about the land but by far the food was my favorite part. So good! Soups, pasta, homemade breads and this chocolate cake steamed in banana leaves!  She also taught us basket weaving. Clearly I out-weaved Carl. 

After several days with Edwardo and Patricia and a failed fishing trip with Edwardo’s extended family we headed back to Otavalo for the big weekly market. Before shopping we checked out a big laguna (lake- are you impressed with my Spanish?), Laguna de Miranda. After buying a blanket, necklace and Carl eating a chunk of pig flesh we were off to our next destination- Quito. 

We did our first free (for tips) tour around Quito. It was pretty good and we got some good historical context. Quito like most colonial cities is very church centric. I admire the architecture but you can get churched out. 

After just a couple days in Quito we headed to Latacunga- the departing point for my favorite bit of Equador, the Quilotoa loop. This 3 day hike brought us through mountains and valleys and more mountains and valleys and to one really beautiful lake filled volcano. 

Once we finished the hike we had some hard choices to make- where to next.   There were volcanoes to attempt to climb and hot springs and glaciers. The issues is of course time. If we had six months in South America we’d still miss a lot, 3 means your constantly running. In the end we decided to head south to Banos- waterfalls and hot spring. 

Banos was a town filled with the comforts of a heavily touristed place. Good food, plenty of activities and lots of places to stay. We had the best arepas I’ve ever had. Like so good. We went back 3 times in total. The hot springs were neat- several big pools open to the public for just a couple dollars. There was a waterfall right next to them. 

We also did a bike ride down the main road in the area that went by a half dozen or so pretty epic waterfalls. 

Our final stop in Ecuador was Cuenca.  It’s was a pretty city with lots of churches and home to the Panama hat, incorrectly named as its got nothing to do with Panama. We went to several smaller towns in search of handcrafts but it ended up being a bit of a bust. Most days we win, this day not so much. We did get some snazzy hats in Cuenca though. 

Ecuador felt like there was so much more that I wanted to do and see. The food was incredible (although I think that may have partially been due to some home cooking from Patrica). 

If you’re familiar with Ecuador and thinking what about the Galapagos?!  Yes, I agree. We missed it. It was hard. It has 2 things working against it, time and money. I think for both of us it is a trip we want to take once we’ve finished this one and have income again. Gotta keep on planning for the future. 

Carl left for the US this morning. He just couldn’t hack it on the road. Just kidding, he has a wedding to attend. So that leaves me alone for a long weekend. I’m currently in my Airbnb sitting in a hammock listening to all of Cali bang pots and pans together and blow into big plastic horns. It’s 8pm and the curfew just started. I’m not supposed to be here still but Colombia is having massive protests throughout the country and the buses did not run today. Carl had to leave at 4:30 am to make sure he got to the airport ahead of the road blocks. 

I’m hoping tomorrow I’ll be able to head south. I’m pretty sure I’ll have to change my route a bit given the change in my timeline and having to meet Carl in Ecuador. But this is all part of the no-plan plan and par for the course. 

Previous to Cali we spent some time in Salento and the surrounding area. All that Colombian coffee you coffee drinkers like so much is from this area. We did a coffee tour and explored the city a little on day one. 

On day two we went to Cocora Valley, home of the tallest palm trees in the world. It was one of my favorite places so far. We did a 6-7 hour hike and my body finally felt happy to do it.  Not carrying the 40 pound bags likely helped a great deal. 

The first half of the hike we had pretty good weather with peeks of sun but the last half of the hike was through some fairly heavy rainfall. Thankfully it was warm enough that I really enjoyed it. 

I really like having my camera on me and usually carry it everywhere. I brought a bunch of different lenses and it is interesting that switching them really makes me explore my surroundings differently. 

For those of you not well versed in lenses, I have a macro lens that make shooting tiny things really fun. (I have a Nikon D850 and was shooting with a 105mm 2.8 macro lens for those that do know cameras). Once I put my macro lens on the hike turned in to a scavenger hunt for bugs, cool flowers and plants. 

To add to our macro fun we stopped by the humming bird house. It’s literally someone’s house miles from any other house in the middle of a cloud forest. They feed the humming birds well and in return the hummingbirds entertain visitors for the small fee of about $1.50 per person. They let you get surprisingly close to them, which made for fun photographs. 

Cameras can get become a barrier at times but at other times it changes how your view the world. Everything becomes interesting. The world is full of textures and color. Lines become prominent and more important.

But I digress. It’s on to a new country and a new hemisphere. Here I come country number 48. 

***Bonus***

Since it’s been a while since I posted you get a bonus update. I made it out of Cali! The buses started running the next day and I traveled down to Popayan just in time to watch some more protests! They were peaceful and mostly made up of young and indigenous people.

After a short stop in Popayan I headed to check out a pretty epic church right on the border of Ecuador. After a quick look around I make it to country 48. Easy peasy border crossing!

Shannon and I are currently sitting at a table in the food court of Terminal del Sur in Medellin preparing to take the second over-night bus of the trip.

I just ate a 1/4 lb “perro caliente” in about three bites, despite the fact that it was covered in coleslaw, shoe string potatoes, spicy mayo, mustard, mystery yellow sauce, and ketchup…on second thought this might not have been the best meal before being cramped into a bus for the night.  Hopefully the ice cold Aguila collecting condensation next to the computer will keep everything settled.

We have been in Colombia for almost two weeks at this point and its difficult to feel like this is the beginning of a year long adventure.  After our first week exploring the northern end of the country this past week has primarily been in Medellin.  Partly because this once deadly city now has so much to offer and partly because we were unable to leave our room for two days of the visit.

Once feeling better and back on our feet we have barely had any down time as we have tried to take in all the sights the city has to offer, although we know we are leaving most of the area untouched.  Our first outing was to out to the graffiti tour of Communa 13 hosted by the local neighborhood group Casa Kolacha.  It was hard to believe that this densely packed neighborhood was one of the most violent cities in the world even hosting military operations less than twenty years previous. 

The community has really risen above its past, without forgetting it, and is now home to an amazing display of various graffiti art, welcoming locals, and a population that is hard at work to give the current youth population opportunities they could hardly dream of.

Our second day out took us to Piedra De Penol and the little village of Guatape that borders the multi-fingered lake Embalse Del Penol.  Piedra De Penol is a giant rock that overlooks this Colombian valley in the northern Andes.  Probably due to the fact it looks so out of place on the landscape and it hosts amazing views of the scenic surroundings it has become quite the tourist attraction.

Although starting off your morning with 745 cement stairs that were built onto the flush face of a giant granite monolith might not have been the best idea.

We didn’t need it, but for those less prepared, there is even a small medical clinic just past the 350th step.  We made it to the top where we had commanding views of Guatape, Embalse Del Penol, and all the various farms and houses that form the patchwork of the countryside.  Sweat subsiding and photographs obtained we decided to make our way on to finally grab something to eat.  In the city of Guatape we were greeted by brightly decorated facades of buildings facing the stone paved streets that took away any residual ache in my calves and called for us to walk them.  We answered the call and were met with a new kaleidoscope of color with each turn.  The town also boosts a number of small squares where people can gather around the plentiful shops and watch the people as they sip on a freshly prepared cafe or juice.  Although making this a day trip was quite a success there was still a part of me that wanted to stay back and let the peaceful atmosphere completely wrap me in a warm cocoon only to emerge in the morning to the smell of freshly brewed coffee filling the various streets and alleys.

For our final day in Medellin, we packed up and moved out of the Airbnb we had called home for the past week, bought bus tickets to Armenia (our inderect bus requires that we transfer to another bus at this town), storing our bags with terminal storage, and then trying to see as many additional points of interest as humanly possible in a day.  We started at the Medellin Memory House Mesum, which is a remembrance to those who have been killed or lost as a result of the various forms of violence that plagued the area in the past few decades.  This was a somber experience that I know my words would be unable to due justice, but also evidence that any population has the ability to move past the despicable and inhumane situations that they may have been dealt by fate.  

From there we walked to Plaza Botero, which hosts a multitude of bronze statutes by famed Colombian artist Fernando Botero and is overlooked by the commanding architecture of the Rafael Uribe Uribe Palace of Culture. 

The sun was out in full force during our visit as well as the crowds so we quickly admired the wide variety of statuary displayed throughout the square and tried not to be confused by the zebra-esque black/white brick work of the Palace.  We also visited Pueblito Paisa, but unfortunately for us they are revitalizing the park and there wasn’t much to be seen or done on our visit.  We then raced to the Santo Domingo cable-car, which is part of the Medellin metro line, and tried to catch the last car up to Parque Arvi.  Although the cable car trip through the neighborhoods that were rocked by the violence of Pablo Escobar during the 80’s was scenic the line connecting to the National Park had already closed by the time we arrived.  It was also getting dark and starting to rain so we had to leave it at a memorable ride before making our way back to the bus station.

If we had been able to spend all of our days in Medellin exploring we definitely would have seen more, but it would have still been rushed. To do Medellin right one would need to spend two or three days seeing the sights that interest them the most and then spending an additional week in the neighborhood that captured their heart to learn all the secrets it has to offer.  Unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be that way this trip, but I have a feeling that we will make a better effort at it sometime in the future.  But as my eyes finally start to get heavy I realize its just about time to board the evening bus and head to the next adventure…

Currently we are on a 16 hour bus ride 6 or so hours in. I’m contemplating sleep but it seems unlikely. We are officially one week into our trip. I generally find that with long trip the first 2 weeks and the last 2 weeks are the hardest. We are still adjusting, and figuring this trip out, as well as this blog.

Carl and I tend to travel a bit differently. The things that stress Carl out are not the same that stress me out. And how we deal with that stress is different too.

One of the hardest parts early on in the trip is determining a realistic pace. There is some serious FOMO (fear of missing out). I know for most people 3 months of travel in South America sounds like a long time but South America is HUGE and there are so many places to go and things to do. In a 2 week trip you can move everyday and go balls to the wall each moment but for long trips that can burn you out. There is this fine balance. Trying to do too much can result in feeling like you’ve done nothing at all. We are working on finding our rhythm.

The trip so far has been good. Nothing has gone wrong, we haven’t had anything lost or stolen. And Colombia feels very SAFE. It seems many people were worried so I figured I toss that out there.

We’ve spend the first week in Northern Colombia. We started in Cartagena. We stayed in the old walled city for 2 nights. Its full of narrow streets and beautiful colonial buildings with the most fantastic balconies. It’s a bit more on the touristy side and therefore also a bit more expensive for basic things like food and lodging.

From Cartagena we moved a couple hours north to Santa Marta. It felt a lot more like being in Colombia. They had a more typical street market filled with street meat and fresh juice as well as other staples like shoes and shirts. We stayed in a hostel, which was nice and cooked a pretty solid vegan dinner. We didn’t really go to Santa Marta to see Santa Marta through. It was our jumping off point to Tayrona National Park and Minca.

Tayrona is about an hour north of Santa Marta. It’s jungle right up until you hit the Caribbean coast. We found a stilted hut on the beach to stay in for about 50 dollars a night, which is a bit of a splurge for us. To get to the hut you needed to complete a 10+ km hike through the jungle which took about 3 hours- not bad considering…

For those that don’t know, I’ve been working 2 near to full time jobs to save up for this trip. That means working out, yoga and backpacking has been a thing of the past. To make matters worse we brought our full 40+ pound bags with us! Later we realized we probably could have left a great deal of our stuff at the hostel.

Regardless, the hike was beautiful. We saw lots of bugs, plants, an ant eater and listened to the beautiful calls of the howler monkeys (j/k- not so beautiful). After the trek we reached our place and rather than relax on the beach decided to hike another couple of km to see a waterfall, to up the ante we did this one barefoot. We had dinner with a nice Canadian couple who would be hiking out and flying home the next day.

The next day we did take a bit of down time and hung out in hammocks on the beach before we had to head out. We decided to change it up a bit on the way out and went by horse back.

Once out we headed back into Santa Marta to catch a bus to Minca. I was hungry though and because nothing happens in a speedy manor we missed the last bus. As a resulted we ended up in a bit more expensive taxi, although it was still less than 20 dollars.

We stayed at Iguana Soul an Airbnb in Minca. We woke up early to have breakfast to do some bird watching, which was actually really fun. Carl got super into it. He got a picture of a toucan with my telephoto lens and texted it to half of his phone contacts! (Carl here- Actually it was way less then half, but sorry if you didn’t personally receive a copy!)

After breakfast we hiked to a waterfall. It was pretty and also pretty crowded so we opted not to swim. The rest of the evening was pretty low key and spent mostly in hammocks.

And that brings us to the bus. We are off to Medellin. Once one of the most dangerous cities thanks to the drug cartels it is now super safe and supposed to be beautiful…

It’s really real. My last day at my Tenderloin job is next week, my house is rented, Carl’s house is rented, wedding plans are all made and we bought our 1 way plane tickets to Columbia. The second big day, after getting married, is November 4th. We still have no plans once we get there but that is usually what works best. 

Once we land in Columbia we hope to not see a plane for at least 3 continents (South America, Antarctica and Africa). We are trying to keep our carbon footprint low and all. We have managed to save a ton of miles but we ended up buying these tickets because they were sooo cheap- $210 each! It’s nearly cheaper to fly to Columbia than back to the east coast from California. 

The hard part of this trip is going to be packing. The goal is 2 backpacks only- one for me and one for Carl. I’ve traveled too much with double packs! (A big pack on the back and little one on the front) But packing for a year is hard. We’ll be in every kind of climate- warm and cold, windy and wet, snow. Clearly some things can me be picked up along the way but the bag is all we get.

And I of course don’t make it easy. I’ll have a Nikon 850 and 3 lens- wide zoom, standard zoom and telephoto. We also have a drone. There’s a 50/50 shot that’ll be confiscated as some point of the trip but until then it’s in the bag.  We’ll toss a GoPro in there as well- to round things off. So that’s one bag… 

Taking a year off work and traveling the world was not my dream, not to say that the thought wasn’t exciting. It just wasn’t something that I felt was attainable until after I finished working and was retired.  But that all started to change about two years ago. It has now become a dream that I share with Shannon and am anxious to stop the dreaming and start the experience of living it.  

So what exactly brought me to this place, what changed so much that I realized this was something I needed to do at this point of my life vs 20 years into the future?  For that you need to know where I was-

I have been an individual that lives on organization, route and planning. My laundry, my meals, my budget, my career, my whole life.  The goals sometimes change, but the planning to attain them remains the same.  This has allowed me some level of comfort. I always have clean clothes, never have an empty fridge, and always have the credit needed to obtain some of life’s larger purchases.  For all the comforts I have found I have also realized that my periods of largest growth were those following the most uncertainty.  The uncertainty however, always was the result of life’s natural progression and not due to self realized risk taking. There are a certain level of things that you can plan for but despite your best efforts the final decision is not always yours to make or at least not yours alone.   

After finishing college I knew that I wanted a career in law enforcement where I would be able to utilize my education to assist the community.  I was in a position where I wasn’t locked into a specific location. There were a wide variety of entry level positions I could pursue.  I ended up taking a job 1,000 miles from where I had been calling “home.”  I was going to be a Washington State Game Warden. 

I didn’t know anyone and would have to start building a new life.  This was in the days before Facebook, FaceTime, Instagram, and even MySpace was just coming on the scene so making a big move was an even larger transition.  It was harder to maintain close relationship over a long distance (although not impossible).  Making this move allowed me to grow as a person as well as in my career.  I initially envisioned that this was my forever career. I would be able to work my way up the hypothetical “ladder” and avoid any future uncertainty. No sending out applications, participating in panel interviews, and receiving any potential rejection notices. No waiting until you find the right position that fits you and you fit it. I was there. 

I had the career and I was now able to move on to the next step of finding a partner.  (As I am writing this I realize it sounds a bit sterile and scripted, but that is how things proceeded and not exactly the order I intended them to happen.) As relationships developed and grew and eventually ran their course I realized that with each relationship I was able to learn something about myself and about what I needed in a partner.  Over time I found someone that I was ready to enter into the social contract known as marriage. (Maybe this isn’t a surprise, but it wasn’t Shannon- yet! It actually almost led to someone else before this as well but that’s a story for another day.)  Now that I was married and had a family (my partner had two children from a previous marriage) I was able to enjoy this new lifestyle and work towards retirement, which meant more focus on my career.

Obviously, well not obvious to me at the time, this focus on my career over my family allowed one to suffer and probably was one of the issues that led to the eventual end of that relationship.  It’s ending is what led me to begin to evaluate how I was living my life and if I was getting what I needed from work.  I realized  I needed additional opportunities that would allow for greater growth.  It took about two years because of the background investigation process but I eventually accepted a position with the Federal Government (a not so special, special agent).  It provided me some exciting new opportunities. I was not just able to grow professionally but it also inspire some personal growth. I again was adjusting what balance was in my life.

As I started down this new path I had to live in several locations on a non-permanent basis for extended periods of time.  One of these locations happened to be just outside of Baltimore, where I didn’t just cross paths with, but fully collided with Shannon.  Luckily, it wasn’t an actual physical collision. Something definitely happened between us in a short period of time that allowed us to grow our relationship, despite the fact that we were 100’s to 1000’s of miles apart for most of that time.  That’s not to say that I knew where this relationship was going that whole period or that we haven’t had to weather some extremely tumultuous points.  During this period of time is where I first learned of Shannon’s dream trip. I was also forced to learn that not everything comes easy, things doesn’t come without risk, and that you might have to make difficult decisions to continue moving forward. 

I initially thought that I would be able to grow our new relationship and build my new career and obtain that balance I had been seeking.  Even though Shannon and my new position happened to be in different states I thought that with enough time I would be able to work this issue out. Most of you probably already know that it wasn’t quite that easy.  I had a decision to make, one that shouldn’t have been as hard as it was in retrospect.  But for me it brought two competing forces to a head- work and life outside of work. I sought every solution to the difficult situation possible.  This included seeking a potential transfer, a hardship transfer, and even seeking the assistance of the local Congress-Woman.  With all of those options coming up unsuccessful my final option was to end my employment with the Government, focus on my relationship, and work on finding a new position.

That decision, the decision to quit my job, not just my job but my career, to pursue this relationship, wasn’t made without a healthy dose of fear and uncertainty. Even when knowing the right decision it can be hard to make.  I didn’t just realize that I had to find balance but realized that I would have to work to obtain that balance. It wouldn’t come without risk, or periods of indecision but that the long term payoffs would be beyond scale.  Through this struggle I also realized that taking the risk of a period of extended travel would likely be just as rewarding.  

I was lucky because my planning for the future was able to afford us the opportunity to begin pursuing this dream.  My early planning for retirement and having a pension (albeit just a partial one), would provide some financial security and help with the break in employment.  The future looking, planning driven portion of me will always be there- I still find myself looking to work out various aspects of the trip and post-trip life, but I’m also making room for the personal growth that will happen while away.  And knowing that the more I grow personally that the more I will be able to offer professionally helps to keep the uncertainty manageable.

Although I have fully embraced the dream of the trip, it’s not “Shannon’s trip” that I see in our future, but “Our Trip”.  That’s not to say that it’s fully within my comfort zone, because it’s not. I do know that risk and its benefits is worth being uncomfortable.  Real growth can only happen after periods of discomfort. And discomfort can be fun! Although our visions and interests are not 100% aligned nothing has been more enjoyable than discussing various portions of our anticipated travel.