Traveling is not only my addiction, but my way of life. I basically start thinking about my next trip before I even take the current one!.
I guess everything started thanks to all the beautiful family trips that I had to the south of Mexico and sometimes to different cities in Arizona and California in the U.S.A. I growth with the interest of historical places or different cultures, state by state, country by country and the ideas that are shown in the diverse historical places or theme parks as Disneyland definitely one of my favorites places to go, Knott’s berry farm, Sea World, Zoo of San Diego, Reino Aventura, Six Flags, Atlantis, Chapultepec, etc.
My first official trip, that gave me independence and that moved my travel bug was in 1999 when I was in Middle School. It was an amazing opportunity that I had in Colegio Larrea to go to a cultural exchange program for few days to Irvine, CA. in the USA. I stayed with a nice – warm hearted family and to be honest I was not sure of what I was doing, maybe because I was 12 years old and I did not have the sense of being alone, in another country and not speaking as great the language, but there was a little something that made me feel secure, comfortable and to enjoy every single second during my staying.
After that, my dreams started to increase so fast, and once the travel bug infected me, there was no going back- I became a traveler for life and I do not have regrets about it.
Times on secondary school ticked away and my plans for my quinceañera were none. I was not enthusiastic about a 15 years old party because I knew how expensive that could be and, at the same time I was conscious about my graduation of middle school, the change to high school and all I wanted was a little trip.
But, what a surprise!, On my graduation party I got as a present for all my effort on middle school and for my upcoming birthday the best present I could had always dream- It was my 15 years old trip to Europe in July of 2002!.
It was a marvelous adventure, a couple days after my graduation with my padrinos, starting the journey to Paris, flying from Phoenix to Pittsburgh and then arriving to France, continuing in London, UK, and then to Italy to super-beautiful cities as Venice, Rome and Florence. Each place had it lovely – interesting something and gave me directions to be a fully dreamer.
Time was great after that, I was always looking for new trips, exchanges, becoming a bit crazy of staying in the same high school but being around with really charismatic people and friends!
Therefore, in 2004 a new opportunity came, my senior year on Westview High School In Avondale Arizona!. Lot walks, lot shopping, lot reading, lot learning and overall a good experience that brought me independence, maturity and many ways to know how to be by my own.
I was not sure if I should stay or go back to Mexico, but I knew that studying International Business would give me the chance to travel and learn about this globalizated world!. So, I was back in Mexico, studying, doing my internship, social service, etc, and looking day by day where to go on my exchange!. Becoming difficult to choose between each university in every continent. But actually, before classes even could have had started, I decided to go to a Course, with older school mates to Cancún, Quintana Roo on January 2006. No words for the trip, more than great people, amazing city, beautiful beaches, parks, pubs, etc.
Then in May 2007, I went to a great school trip to the big apple. NEW YORK CITY, what a trip!, with the best classmates ever!. Starting with Joyce and Paola, that thanks to this trip our friendship growth!. We really visited every single space of NYC, and yeah, the United Nations, Times Square and China Town were my favorites.
After that, I analyzed carefully for my exchange and I thought that maybe going to the USA, Canada or Europe could be more easy at a trip, business or in the near future because is more commercial for Mexico, that’s why I took the decision to go to South America in 2008.
It’s expensive to get down there, but life in there is cheaper!, my final decision was Santiago de Chile, a interesting country, with great education level that gave me a marvelous 8 month period of friendship, learning, travels, and more!.
I went to a difficult program education on Universidad Nacional Andrés Bello, and to the most amazing student building that I could ever been “el Punto”, were I met 68 wonderful persons from all around the world! mostly Brazilians, Europeans, Argentineans, Peruvian, Venezuelans, Chinese and few Mexicans.
I also met 2 kind – extraordinary families, that made my life easier, taught me about the culture and gave me lovely times in there during my stay and that now on, they are still part of me! They are the Family Concha and Cruz.
I have to say that destiny gave me sisters of life in Santiago which are the Argentinean Ile and the Brazilians Ale & Ana, which are shown below:
Apart my British twin Amy that I’m sure we will get to meet sometime again in the near future!
Time flied very quick and I always tried to travel around on short holidays to Mendoza, Argentina, which was amazing to party, hike the mountains, rafting on the river, etc. but I also went with my friends to Piedra Negra, Valparaiso, Viña del Mar and places close to Santiago.
After I was done with school, I had the chance to fly to Buenos Aires, Argentina, were I met my cousin Cristian and days in there were extremely fun!. I took a ferry to Colonia Uruguay and then back to explore Argentina!. Puerto de Iguazu is one of the best things that I have ever seen and Cordoba, Villa General Belgrano, and other towns of Argentina are totally worth to visit.
Came back to Mexico on July 10th of 2008, and it was a mix of feelings of leaving all my new friends, the adventure and at the same time to see my family, friends and my country again!, I really miss them but I was going to miss the new people also!.
There were few semesters left to finish my school and I never stopped thinking what would be of my life after University, probably a graduation trip, maybe going somewhere to look for a job, or … I did not imagine what will happen, but things started to make me anxious and to plan and plan!.
University was over, and as everyone could have imagined I could prefer to spend money on a Trip better than a expensive party, dresses, shoes, casino, etc!. I planned the trip that I always dreamed to Europe 2009, trying to visit some of my friends that I knew in Chile and also lot of new places, with the company of my cousin Any.
I got a Eurail Global pass which is totally recommended, and I traveled to some places by air with Ryan Air, which is a very low cost airline in Europe and I stayed in many qualified hostels of www.hostelworld.com & surfed some couches thanks to the great webpage of www.couchsurfing.com
To make it short I visited Madrid and Barcelona in Madrid, Paris in France, Dublin in Ireland which made me fall in love of the country and have a great time with my Brazilian sister Ale, and also get to know Leila. Brussels in Belgium where I surfed a couch of Hedwig, a good host and very well guide of her country. Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Leiden which gave me the opportunity to meet Rick a friend of mine from Chile that is a good touristic guide who introduced me Don an excellent dutch/polish Spanish speaker, and then to Tilburg in the Netherlands were I Surfed the couch of Fred, a new great friend that I could have ever met.
Continuing then to Munich and Berlin in Germany where I can say that I stayed in the best hostel ever in there called Pfefferbett Hostel (http://www.pfefferbett.de/en/) and well, both of the cities are so historical, with a magical side and hopefully sometime I will be back there because days were short and I still need more time to get to know Germany.
The trip continued to Prague, Czech Republic, with a perfect host Martina, which is a girl that shared a dorm with me in Iguazu Argentina and I saw back in her house in Europe. Its an enchanted city that obviously is a must – see place.
And, ok, time was almost finishing, so, our plane to Mexico was back from Madrid so, in some way we should go back by train to there, traveling through Zurich and Geneva, getting into the beautiful – dreamed country Switzerland, and, yes, for sure sometime I will be back there, just that I need money and time!.
For some reasons we lost the train to Madrid, so we stayed in an unexpected town called Port Bou, in Spain and then, way back to Mexico, which gave me the travel bug again to plan for my future.
I started to work, work and work, and I also had a nice trip with my Brother and Parents to Los Angeles and San Diego, CA, on August 2009. It was a joyful experience with them.
Months went through and I got my friend Fred traveling on the USA and Mexico, so we explored Hermosillo and the surroundings as Kino Bay, San Carlos and Guaymas. Going also to Phoenix, AZ. And some places close to it, around Sedona Area, Prescott and other little towns which were so beautiful and with the company of my Tio Jose and Parents.
The end of 2009 arrived and 2010 came with lot of challenges, starting a new adventure that I decided to go back to Ireland for at least a year, so… yeah, on my bucket list are many things to do but I can say that Travelling enrich your inner being and broadens your view of the world, so it’s actually healthy for me and for everyone.
It’s just slightly more expensive and takes more time. But I don’t care, I will just try to do my best to follow my dreams!.
Europe 2010 is going to be tell on this blog soon!.
