Backpacks and Flipflops

Tuesday 29 December 2020

Travellers in a Dangerous Time....2020....the Year of Living Strangely

Prologue

Travellers in a Dangerous Time

Don't the hours grow shorter as the days go by?

We never get to stop and open our eyes

One minute you're waiting for the sky to fall

Next you're dazzled by the beauty of it all

Travellers in a dangerous time

Travellers in a dangerous time...

-with apologies to Bruce Cockburn/Barenaked Ladies (Canadian Musicians)

...............................

Welcome back...December 2020

Just days before the start of 2021...thought we'd send send out a bit of an update...

It was just a year ago (December 2019)...when we flew into Zihuatanejo, Mexico on the last of the 27 flights we'd taken that year...

(Oh, the places we'd been that year - check out the list below). Hard to believe...but...there would only be 2 more flights in 2020 for us.

As our Zihuatanejo blogs from December 2019 - February 2020 read ...we had a pretty great time settling in for 3 months...

To paraphrase..."it was the best of times" ...(but, soon) ..."it was to be the worst of times" as all of us drifted further into 2020.

After our last blog entry of 2020 from Zihuatanejo, we returned to Grand Forks, BC and back to our 2-acre home of nearly 40 years.

While in Zihuatanejo, we had reached a decision to sell our property and move on from Grand Forks. But, with Covid becoming more wide spread, we wondered about the wiseness/rashness of our decision.

Would things be better in the spring or worse, should we wait 6 months or put off our plans until the Spring of 2021? Who knew at that point?

Opinions varied from "Go for it!" ...to "You guys are crazy!" Nearing the end of March (2020), we decided to 'roll the dice' and list our property.

We didn't wait long....36 hours after listing, we had sold...

...and by May (6 weeks later)...had fully relocated to Penticton, BC. Talk about getting off the pot.

We downsized much of our 40 years of house living to fit our new style - condo living.

Initially, we had moved into a rental condo, thinking we might just rent for a while. However, as you know, we tend to move fast when need be. After several months watching the local market, we found a place to buy and are happily settled into the north/downtown end of Penticton.

It's been a great summer/fall in our new home. Lots of biking, hiking and outdoors activities.

And, of course, plenty of wineries and a burgeoning brewpub scene. The bonus...just about 90% of what we need or want to do is within walking or biking distance.

Hard not to beat.

To a better 2021 for all.

PS Our 'suggested' Christmas reading list is below.

It might be a while before we get back on the road.

Shayne y Yvonne Konar

Here's the list (starting way back in 2014)......
Now, to get to the links of our blog posts ...check out the sidebar...on the right side of our blog. Find the year/country/blog post!
Happy Reading ...and exploring!

2014
Cuba - April/May
Mexico - October to December

2015
Mexico - January to March...
Corfu, Albania, Montenegro & Croatia - May/June
Puerto Morelos, Cuba, Guatemala & Belize - October to December

2016
Philippines - January to March (60 days of island(s) hopping
Portugal & Morocco - October to December

2017
Mexico Pacific Coast - February & March....PV to Zihuatanejo (highway 200)
......Punta Perula Shhh! and a Love letter to Mexico's Beaches....enjoy
Ireland & Portugal (the Algarve) - May/June
Puerto Vallarta - December...one can always return....

2018
Mexico (Zihuatanejo), Costa Rica & Nicaragua/Corn Islands - March/April...chicken buses and sawdust paintings...a religious experience
Portugal/Azores Island - October/November

2019
Mexico/Ecuador & Galapagos Islands - February/March
Malta, Sicily, Sardinia & Portugal (Lagos) - May/June
Germany - October/November ..including the 30th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall

.....2020
Zihuantanejo, Mexico....(December 2019 to end of February 2020)
...the livin' is easy...but sweaty n' hot...

Tuesday 10 March 2020

Zihuatanejo, Mexico...after 3 months it's time to say adiós....

Prologue

...."I think we dream,

so we don't have have to be apart for so long.

If we're in each other's dreams,

we can be together all the time".....

- who knew Winnie-the-Pooh could be so deep....

(as we say good-bye to another Zihuatanejo adventure)

Final thoughts from Yvonne.......

... 3 months ago when we started our time living in an apartment in Zihuatenejo, Mexico, (Dec. 1 - Feb. 28, 2020) I really didn't know how it would go and if I would like it.

Would I miss not being home for Christmas or New Years? Would I miss not being in the snow during this time?

At home we certainly don't see these kinds of decorations...

Lights everywhere...

And streets filled with piñatas...

Staying in one place for longer than a week is something we have never really done out of the country. Would we get bored? Would we enjoy staying put? Would we enjoy the familiarity of one place?

Well, I have to say, that I was so pleasantly surprised at how much we enjoyed it! Every morning we were busy with classes of Spanish, doing Spanish homework, guitar, art and gym, shopping for daily groceries, cleaning the apartment and checking messages. In other words, just living, like at home.

We always had breakfast and lunch in the apartment and dinners usually out... in the afternoons, we often went to one of the many options with water nearby, explored a new part of town or hunkered in to a 'no sun' day in the apartment.

So, what was the best?

Definitely, like other types of traveling, meeting the wonderful locals and other tourists. On every street we were greeted by a shopkeeper or a vendor with a "Buenas" Yvonne y Shayne. Como estás? (How are you?)

In the evenings we went for dinner of street food, streetside restaurants, beach restaurants and fancier sea view eateries...all fabulous!

We listened and danced to music in the many venues that this quaint town has to offer.

The regulars became our Zihua Family... friends for life now, I would say. People from all over Mexico, the prairies, the Island, the Okanagan and all over Canada and the US... (Too bad I didn't get everyone's photo!)