The planning of Jen's Excellent Adventure

I was 25 years old, A clothing rep for some of the hottest lines going, I was travelling constantly, I lived in an awesome apartment, in downtown Vancouver, B.C., I had tons of clothes, lots of friends, and spent a lot of time eating and drinking in all the hot spots of downtown Vancouver.

I was making way more money than most people my age, and life was really good...

Then my dad died, unexpectedly. He was 55 years old, and even though we lived in different cities I was devastated. For those of you who have also had a parent die, I am sure you understand.

I never thought I would get over it, but after taking some time off with my family, I had to get back to work. Once I got back to my life, I started reflecting on a lot of the things my father taught me. The one that stood out the most was “If you don’t wake up happy, why are you even waking up”. I have always believed that he meant if you’re not happy, change your life, I never once took it as don’t ever wake up again.

I had been working for the same company for almost 5 years. When I started one of the compromises my boss made with me, since he was a chauvinist and didn’t think woman and men should be paid the same even though we did the same job, was that when it was slow, I wanted time off to travel.

When you travel for work you can end up being on the road for weeks at a time, no days off, working early, working late, but then at certain times of the year it slows down, it really slows down, even the manufacturing companies who we worked for closed down for weeks at a time. I thought having a job travelling would help curb my appetite for travelling; all it did was make me want to go to more exotic places other than Western Canada.

So I decided to ask for a 2 month leave of absence and travel Thailand. (Even though I was entitled to it, I never asked for my salary.) I just wanted the time off. Thailand was still pretty laid back at that time, and it seemed like the place to go.

Unfortunately, my boss didn’t think so, he thought I should go “for 2 weeks like everyone else” and it would be better to sit around the office and pick my nose for the month since he was paying me.

Well, I explained I was not everybody else, So, I decided to quite, just like that. I knew I would be leaving that same day, but instead of feeling nervous or scared or “Am I crazy?”

All I felt was free.

On my way out the door, I stopped to say goodbye to a few people and was offered new career opportunities but at that moment I could only envision myself hanging on a white sand beach, so I said “No, thanks, maybe when Im back”.

So I go back to my apartment, I called my mom and my best friend, told them what happened and I asked them to come over and help me pack up my apartment.

Over the years I have become a minimalist, in those days I was a pack rat, glasses, ashtrays, tea cups from all different kinds of bars and restaurants, any gift that anyone had ever given me, and all my silly collections, stuffed animals, brass candle sticks, framed movie posters ect.

Within 4 weeks I was gone, but not to Thailand, I was on a plane to Martinique in the French West Indies.

A week after leaving my job, I got a letter from a friend of mine (This was 1989, before e mail.) My friend Lori, who was also full of adventure, was working for the hotel chain Club Med Resorts. She mentioned she was going to be finished her six month stint in a couple of months and was thinking of travelling the area for a month or two before she went to her next stint with the club.

Not knowing the French West Indies, I went to the library, again, before internet, and grabbed a few travel books and brought them home.

All I had to do was see the fabulous, colourful maps of all those Islands, one after the other, on the inside of Lonely planet, and I was hooked.

It took me a few days to reach Lori, but when I did, I told her not to leave without me, I had a plan, it was august, I planned to leave in September, Lori would be ready in October and I wanted to finish in February in Trinidad for Carnival..

I was so excited I could hardly breathe. Every night I would look at my map and get more and more excited, this was an area I didn’t know much about but it was just Island after Island..And I couldn’t wait.

Stay tuned...To the life I wanted, the life I channelled, and the life that I have had..You can do it too..

Jen

Never Tired of this view

This is what I woke up to everyday. This is not the beach in Puerto Aventuras, Where I live now, it is the beach of Xpu-Ha. It used to take 5 minutes to drive from Puerto to Xpu-ha 15 years ago, and it stayed that way for quite awhile, but then the hotels came, Barcello, Palace Resorts, the time share chain, ect. which brought traffic but worse, it took away our private hideaways, the places we went on our afternoons off, or on a day off and sometimes even at lunch time.
At the end of Xpu-ha Beach was a rock (limestone) jetty and when you walked around it you came upon a very small, unbelievably beautiful deserted bay full of fish and if you walked to the middle of it and looked back, through the bush was a
Cenote (above ground water hole, could be the size of a bathtub or as large as a pond or river). being so close to the sea the water was warmer than the ones we find in the jungle. so here we are, 2 friends, 4 friends, spending our time together, swimming, sunning, snorkeling and not another soul around. It was an awesome escape. just minutes by foot from where we worked.
If you were to continue on past the cenote and following the beach front you come upon another bay, a very large bay, and absolutely nothing, but palm trees, white sand beach, and blue, blue water. There were no entrances from the road to these hideaways. so again, alone all day. We did have to come prepared for the second bay, (water, lotion ect.) Once you were there, you were there, nothing around you, too far to go back and the beach front at that time was still deserted.
It was like being on your own private island.
Unfortunatly over time the Bay/Cenote was bought buy Palace Resorts and became a Timeshare Resort, and even though the beaches in Mexico are free and open to everyone, the hotel security would never let us pass, we used to argue but it ended up being a waist of time so we found new places to go.
The second bay, our own "Private Idaho" was taken over by Barcello Resorts, Which turned into a Resort area that holds over 5,000 people. It's like a little City, Im not here to critique the hotels, lots of people seem happy with them, but they took all that space, which means no one but the Resort guests get to use the beach.
I don't mean to get on a rant, even though it's so unfair to the mexican people.
I started to tell you this because posting this picture of the beach brought back the great memory's of first moving to the Yucatan Peninsula, which is what the Maya Riviera, or Riviera Maya used to be called.

Single, Fabulous and living in the caribbean

Hi Everyone, people for years have been telling me to write a book about my life.
Im living the dream. Sometimes my dream, sometimes others dreams, either way, I have a pretty amazing life.
I am nobody famous, I came from a middle class family and Im not that exotic. I just believed (Always believe) that whatever you want is out there.
So instead of a book, I've decideed to blog. Now i can write snippets or whole paragraphs, add pictures, and recieve comments.
This blog is for anybody and everybody who has ever had a dream, for anybody who like me said "Just because I was born here doesn't mean I have to live here for the rest of my life" and to all of those who were told by a loved one, family member, teacher, boss ect. "YOU CAN"T DO THAT! YOUR NOT OLD ENOUGH, YOUR NOT SMART ENOUGH, YOUR NOT RICH ENOUGH. YOU HAVE TO TAKE THE SAFE ROUTE".
Well, Im here to tell you that's not true.
Stay turned, to hear more..
Of how I went from a student, to the little career woman, to the traveller, to living and running my own business in the fabuolous Mayan Riviera.

test A Mundo

Test a Mundo