Thriving on Uncertainty

Toronto, Canada

Having a base in Toronto means figuring out how to balance my life here and on the road. I’d love to say it’s been an easy process but I have learned it means I have to live without certainty.

I love being here and I know this was the right thing to do. I have no regrets but my heart is still in Latin America.

I knew when I wrote my plan for the year of less that I needed to return to the culture that had changed me so much.

I owe so much to my time traveling in Latin America  and I need to return, to remember what I learned.

And so I have been quietly making plans to travel. I really wanted to return to Maui for the Agricultural Festival.

I met some incredible people there and I promised I would return. I’ve also been planning my return to South America.

I haven’t figured out all the details or how long I am going to go in total but I have pretty incredible news.

 

I’m going to the Galapagos

 

Ecuador is such a special place for me. I stayed there until the day my three month visa ran out and I never went to the Galapagos.

It has always been in the back of my mind to return and when approached by Exodus to work on a program with them I couldn’t turn down the opportunity.

I hate to be that person who brags about travel and I usually downplay trips, but my Galapagos program was amazing.

I’ll be honest, I’m not much on big bucket list trips – I don’t even want to go to Antarctica. But the Galapagos is different.

I have been writing about it as the About.com South America Guide without every experiencing it myself. It is like going back in time and seeing animals you cannot see anywhere else.

Perhaps the closest I’ll ever really get into the wild because I don’t like to hike and I’m not much of a camper.

I also like that it’s a cruise which helps with low-impact travel and uses the sail when possible. Exodus also has a number of programs in place to ensure their guides are advocates of sustainable tourism.

I did sail from Panama to Colombia and it was really dicey the last few days as I realized I don’t have sea legs. But that was a 30ft boat and this one is 96ft.

 

And so these past few days I’ve been online researching what I need to bring, and while all of the images of sea lions, blue-footed boobies, turtles and rays were cool I was still so focused on the other details in my life…should I go down before the trip? should I stay afterwards? what about this marketing contract I was offered?

But it wasn’t until I saw this video that I realized…

 

 

Holy crap. I’m going to the Galapagos. 

 

The rest will fall into place. I’m certain of that.