A New Year, A New Journey

Twenty two days and counting until Mexico!

We're getting so excited about our upcoming excursion south of the border! Over nine months ago we decided to take this trip, and we can't believe it's already here. There have been some bumps on the road to this adventure, but we are still sticking to our plan. Instead of driving (our original plan), we shall now be taking a plane to Puerto Vallarta. We also hoped to leave earlier, but a rescheduling of an acting workshop pushed us to mid-January. It's 2009 tomorrow, and what better way to kick off a new year than with a road trip with your best friend? We had such a great time driving to Florida for our honeymoon, a trip like this had never been far from our minds. With Julia's graduation in December, and the lease on our apartment ending the same day, the stars seemed to be aligning in our favor. We shall both be quitting our jobs, all of our belongings lie in storage, and we have no set return date! The plan is to fly out of Houston on the 22nd, and return..... whenever we so choose!

Our first destination will be a tiny coastal village called Aticama in the state of Nayarit. We shall be working and living on a farm owned by Amaranth and Wally Carlson. The farm grows 450 acres of organic fruit trees. We discovered them through an international organic farming initiative called WWOOF. Check them out here if you want. In essence, we work on the farm for 6 hours a day, Monday through Friday. Our work day begins at 8am, and we're done by 2pm. In exchange, our host farm will provide us with lodging and one meal per day (dinner). If everything ends up how we expect it to, our living expenses will be virtually nothing, and we'll get evenings and weekends to explore the town. We are only a mile from the Pacific beach. Our guest room will have warm water, heater, a private bedroom, electricity, and even internet! The host family describes their farm as "like a monastery." They are vegetarian, though the locals eat alot of fish. Our stay is scheduled for one month. We look forward to living a simpler, more physical existence, getting in shape, getting some sun, and learning Spanish! What a true blessing from God this will be.

After our time on the farm, our plans become open again. We might decide to work on another farm with the WWOOF program, or instead travel from town to town, living in hotels or hostels. Regardless of our decision, there are a handful of cities that we agree we HAVE to visit while we're there, including: Zacatecas, Guanejuato, Guadalajara, Tequila, Oaxaca, Puerto Escondido, and Merida (probably our final destination). The bus system in Mexico is one of the finest in the world, and for a mere $10 or $15 we can safely and comfortably hop from one town to the next.

Julia is slowly but surely learning more and more Spanish words. I am speaking Spanish every day at work, though it's slower than just speaking English with my bilingual friends (they humor me). We've also started exercising more regularly, so that the labor at Green Acres won't kill us the first day. We still have a list of things to take care of before we leave, but it regularly shrinks. We still have to get Hepatitis A & B shots, get lots of all our prescription medicines, notify our credit cards of about our trip, put our remaining clothes in storage, and print/email copies of all our important legal documents.

We will keep you updated as the day grows closer. Take care and keep in touch!

--Philip