It was exactly a month ago today that I landed in Mexico City to start my adventure around the world.  It’s always to intimidating to start on something so large, and this trip was no exception.  I remember my first night and I was talking to two guys from Australia who had been traveling for quite a while (one for over a year, the other for about 10 months).  It was interesting to compare where they were in their trips to where I was (first day).  It was such a transition to me to switch from working and living comfortably at home with a gigantic closet to not working and living on road out of a backpack.  Those first few days in Mexico City were pretty rough.  Now I think I’ve adjusted and I’m just going day by day and going with the flow.

This trip is so different from any other trips I’ve done previously.  Almost always, every hour is accounted for and planned out because I want to squeeze in everything in the short amount of time I have.  My trip to Scotland last year, for example, I had only two weeks to see the country.  While it’s not a large country, trying to see it all in two weeks takes some planning and coordination and if there was any extra time, I would try to fit in yet another site.  This trip is completely different.  While I have a tentative route planned out, I don’t have any dates associated with each city.  My route could also change based on information from people that I meet on the road.  If someone really recommends that I see XYZ or really skip ABC, then that’s totally possible.  This is the first trip in which when someone asks me how long I’m staying in certain place and/or where I’m going next, my answer is truly, “I don’t know.”  I’m just going with the flow.  When I arrive in city, I don’t have a date by when I need to leave and that’s very liberating.  If I like it, I’ll stay, if not, I’ll leave.  This is working for me so far, although I do have the upcoming November 12^th, deadline when I have to be in Guatemala City for my flight to South America.  Because of that I do have a tentative timeline or else it’ll be November and I won’t have made it past Belize yet.  I have about another two weeks in Mexico, two weeks in Belize, about 1.5 weeks in Honduras, and two weeks in Guatemala.  I also realized recently that I’ll spend more time in Mexico than any other country on the trip.  Obviously part of that was spending the two weeks living in Mexico City and doing the language school, but I do find that interesting that my first country is the longest stop.

I’ve already met some amazing people and had some great experiences on the road.  It’s so liberating to meet other people who are doing the same thing that I am by taking time off of work or quitting all together and traveling (see future post entitled “I’m not crazy” to be published sometime later than now).  I’m so excited to see what the next ten months bring…