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Family of Five Traveling the World

Archives for August 2017

30 Lessons Learned After 30+ Days of Travel

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1. There’s no place like home.

2. …and any place can be home all at the same time.

3. We don’t need a lot of stuff. Seven to ten outfits per family member works wonders.
4. Our kids will master Spanish in the next year because being bilingual opens us up to so many relationships, experiences, and cultures.
5. Packing and unpacking gets easier and easier. We will not live out of a suitcase no matter how short our living stint. Making ourselves at home settles our gypsy spirits.
6. Extended travel tests and hopefully improves our patience since there’s plenty to wait on: cabs, planes, buses, and each other.
7. It’s important to meet new people abroad and find a way to make friends. It can get very lonely otherwise.
8. It’s been essential to keep in touch with loved ones. I call my mother more now than I did when I lived 15 mins. away.
9. There’s something so sexy about a husband and wife team working together everyday to move their family along.
10. The best McDonald’s apple pies are found outside of the US where they are fried instead of baked.
11. Limited choices are a-ok! We’ve encountered a lot of “supermarkets” that were more like American liquor stores with limited food choices and we’ve made it work just fine.
12. Photographs are our memories frozen in time, so our photography skills will require intention and practice.

13. As the great Paulo Coehlo once stated: “Travel is never a matter of money, but of courage.” Sometimes we eat for less than $15 bucks and we’ve found great Airbnb accommodates for $32 a night. 
14. As much as I love traveling with my family spending everyday time alone is critical. 
15. Our kids are more at ease when we’ve made time to be with them and them alone.
16. Going with your gut works! We’ll skip a cab ride or bail on an excursion as soon as our instincts spark doubt.
17. Travel helps us flourish and nourish love of art, museums, and history. 
18. Faith first! We haven’t missed church a Sunday abroad and plan not to. Church is a time for reflection and gratitude. It is one way of many that we stay grounded in our faith.
19. Our blog will work itself out how it’s meant to. It’s not this big undertaking we need to stress over. 
20. Homeschooling is already proving to be more complex than we first imagined, but we are fully up to the challenge of schooling three children next school year.
21. We aren’t backpackers and we don’t intend to be. We are a traveling family of five. This means we carry four checked-bags and about 6 carry-ons during travel days.
22. Health and safety is the most important concern we “worry”‘ and safeguard against on a daily and intentional basis.
23. For sanity’s sake, everyone needs an outlet: a good book, journal, pen pal, and/or playlist. Kids seem most thrilled to have their very own music playlists and pen pals.  
24. Once an over-sharer, always an over-sharer. Our social media accounts are active everyday… all 6 of them!

25. There’s no better food on earth than Mexican food. I am biased on that one, however, I still feel this way after 4 weeks in Mexico. 
26. Traveling brings out the best in us (and even the worst in us from time to time). A new destination doesn’t change who we are fundamentally. With that in mind, we simply do our best to minimize the “bad.”
27. Netflix in Mexico is WAY BETTER than in the states. Something about the availability of titles is much improved and we are milking it.
28. Children adapt to change but also need major validation when out of their comfort zone and missing home. We’ve all missed home from time to time.

29. Hotels were good for a little while, but Airbnb is king!
30. Truly, there’s no rush, no schedule, and no where we really need to be. That realization has given us the freedom to feel more present and break away from our previous life’s constant commitments and slam-packed schedules.
What has travel taught you?

Cancún: A Love Story

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I’ve spent over half of my life infatuated with the same man. I remember a few years ago driving down the street and somehow realizing “I am a Quevedo!” A rush of pride came over me to be married into an amazing family and to the man of my dreams (and the occasional nightmare, too)! 
Diego and I met in high school but never ran in the same circle. Senior year I noticed him like I’d never quite noticed him before. I was in a relationship with someone else at the time, so things were complicated. Yet, I was drawn to Diego, and have always believed a higher power drew me to him, corny as it may be.
At that point in the late 90’s, high schools orchestrated senior class grad. trips to tropical destinations. Not sure how it made sense to send 17 & 18 year olds to countries where drinking was legal, but it happened, and it was AHH-MAZING! 
I was pretty much paid up to attend our Cancun senior trip when I got dumped by my boyfriend at the time. I deserved to get dumped as I had recently been spotted holding hands (and likely more) with Mr. Quevedo himself. I decided against attending the trip and failed to pay the remainder of my deposit. I didn’t want my now ex-boyfriend at the time to feel I was off with the “other guy.” Then, just as before, something pulled at me. A voice, my instinct, hell, teenage hormones told me: “just go; you’ll never know what could be unless you go.” Still another example in my life where I took a leap to avoid regretting not leaping at all.
My mother paid for another trip altogether so I could still attend. I’ll never be able to repay her generosity as it lead to so much of the rest of my life. Thanks, Mom!
When I arrived in Cancun I was taken back by the scenery and the beauty. I was equally taken back by that 17 year old boy from my high school. The young Mr. Quevedo and I had an undeniable chemistry and for 7 days we spent pretty much every waking moment getting to know each other in more ways than one. We talked so much about everything from what we’d name our future kids to whether or not we’d retire at 35 years old or younger – Ha!
I shared the name ‘Isaiah’ for that hypothetical unborn son. He shared the name ‘Leonardo’ and just like that our future son’s had identities. We could have never known then that we’d have that son together and that Isaiah would win out in the name department.
I’ll never forget Diego asking me what I thought about marriage and if I might already know the person I’d marry. He said innocently, “imagine if they’re in your life and someone you already know you marry?” He said it not in this way of wooing me, but more in a contemplative manner. Yet, my future husband was right there staring back at me. Little did we both know we were talking to the one we’d grow to love so powerfully we’d chase each other for the next 4 years until we could finally be together.
We filled Cancun with sleepless nights, parties galore, romantic walks on the beach at sunrise and a whole lot of puppy love. We found something we couldn’t quite feel with anyone else after Cancun. 
We dated a couple of months after our return and then it was over. I ended it. Deep down I found myself feeling: “he was too good to be true.”
Though we both left to college, we never quite left each other’s hearts and minds. We’d come back into each other’s lives and pick up where we’d left off. Odd occurrences would bring us together and each time the attraction was greater than the last. Our time together was often like reliving Cancun over and over again. In 2002, we came together, a lot older, and after a whirlwind college experience. It was as if we both somehow knew that if we didn’t take the plunge we might just lose the chance at the great love of our lives. I left my “omnipresent” ex-boyfriend once and for all and allowed myself to fall hard for that boy from senior year. 
We came into our relationship clinging tightly to the “what could have beens” if we hadn’t given it a go. We had this deep sense of gratitude and a willingness to love each other hard. We took with us Cancun and everything in between and turned it into a marriage that has lasted over 10 years and a courtship of 18.
Today, as we drove around Cancun with our three children it was like a life flashing before our eyes. I told our children all about how we fell in love and how Cancun was the place that started it all. My daughter somehow got it… “Oh you went from beings friends to being mommy and daddy,” she said. 
Diego and I went from strangers to friends and from lovers to committed partners. We’ve lived a few stages of our marriage since those Cancun days and not all have been good ones. 
A marriage is hard work and the most fulfilling marriages even harder. 
We were 17 & 18 years old then and now 18 years have passed. We are not the same, but hopefully better. More importantly, we still feel that intense willingness to love each other hard. 


We remain grateful and appreciate our love story. A story God gave us. A story we are proud to share with our children. A story we hope and pray grants us another 18 years, ten times over.

What’s your favorite love story of all?!? 

Share in comments below.

Is Our Family Safe?

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The biggest concern we heard as we planned to leave our home in the U.S. was how unsafe this could all turn out. I wondered if I had been headed to Europe if there’d be so much concern. Latin America and so many of its beautiful countries appeared to be getting quite the bad rap. Now, I get it, I do. 
News warns us of everything from Zika all over Brazil to the drug cartel wars all over Mexico. It’s all there and it’s all scary, of course. But the world will never not be scary.

Two of Three Kids Following Directions

I first traveled to Europe right after 9/11 and my mother was terrified. Luckily my brother stepped in giving me money to travel and reminding her not to “hold me back.” My mother’s fear of my travels never went away. She was afraid of every journey that followed… my first time in Brazil, those amazing spring breaks in Mexico, and what was scariest to her before Queventure, my move to study abroad in Barbados. 
I understand now that her fears were uncontrollable, and I don’t hold this against her. Instead, I thank God that her uncontrollable fear didn’t control me. Our parents, families, and friends sometimes pour fear all over us to oddly protect us. 
Kids Called This A Life-Sized Fidget Spinner

I can’t say our journey will be entirely safe. We take precautions, do our research, follow our instincts and remain vigilant, but we also take the ultimate risk of living our dreams regardless of the big fat scary unknowns. 
I mean we are told don’t drink the water, don’t swim in the water, don’t drink too much water, and that’s just water. It can all be so paralyzing. Yet, I cannot think of a time I’ve been truly paralized by fear, or maybe those moments just didn’t matter in the end. My choice to be not fearless per se, but to proceed in spite of fears, has paid-off in my life.
I dated my husband because I let him into my life not allowing myself to fear it wouldn’t work. Our love story has lasted over half of our lives.
I became CEO instead of fearing what was my clear lack of experience. My agency earned its highest revenue ever for multiple years with me at the helm.
And most recently, I left behind an extremely accomplished life, and all the fears involved with that choice, to embark on an unforgettable travel journey with my beautiful husband and children.
I hope and deeply pray with every ounce of me that safety surrounds us always. I also remind myself this life is mine and mine alone. My ability to act in spite of fears is the legacy I leave my children not in theory, but in practice. I ignore my mother’s big scary words and even her utter disapproval of my choices, because in order to truly, truly live, we have to release our fears and the satisfaction of being understood and even fully supported by our loved ones.
All in all, I rather stay misunderstood and be truly happy living the life I want to live.
Calderitas, Quintano Roo, Mexico

When I was my daughter’s age I was being molested in the very place that should have embodied safety: my home. So what is safety really? My daughter spends every waking moment on an adventure with her parents and her two loving brothers. She’s exposed to the “big scary world” but this world, or at least what we’ve seen of it so far, is a lot less scary than the one I knew at 7 years old. 

Feeling So At Home in Mexico

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When people ask us where we are traveling from collective pride spills all over the person we’re speaking to. Diego pridefully claims Guatemala of course, and I say: “Yo soy Mexicana de Michoacán.” At times, folks look at us strangely; likely the kids give us away with their choppy Spanish and fast-talking English.

Puerto Rico and Belize were such a great start to our adventure. However, I’ve been most thrilled about this leg of our trip. Mexico just feels like home and it’ll be just that for five weeks this summer. 

As soon as we crossed the Belize-Mexico border, I was ready to share the joys of Mexico with our children. Today, that joy meant educating them on who Frida Khalo was and what she means to art. In Mexico, the kids seem at ease and happy. My husband in particular has enjoyed the food, alcohol, Caribbean climate, and probably most importantly, the price tag for it all.

Visiting the Mayan Cultural Museum of Chetumal

We picked a city flying well below most tourists’ travel radars for our first stop in Mexico. Though in the same state where wildly popular Cancun is, we opted for the capitol of Quintana Roo, a city called Chetumal. Chetumal is rich with history, friendly people, sun-filled day trips, one-of-a-kind lagoons and bays, fortress exploring, Mayan influence, delicious restaurants, impressive storefronts, and so much more.

Playa Dos Mulas, Chetumal, Mx,

There’s something for the whole family to enjoy throughout the city. Our evenings in Chetumal were full of engaging activities seven nights a week… live entertainment, family fun such as cheap bike rentals, bounce-houses, and a mini-car derby. There’s also an abundance of delicious food options (be warned: following our Instagram page ‘queventure.abroad’ will make you hungry). There’s vibrant nightlife for those traveling without kids and staying the weekend. We managed to enjoy a ride throughout the city on a double-decker party bus blaring loud music and perhaps 20,000 flashing lights.
Toboganes en Bacalar: La Laguna de Siete Colores 

Those visiting the region will particularly appreciate how inexpensive it  is. Cab rides as cheap as $1.00 and beers as cheap as $2.00. We fed a family of five often with $25-$35. We’ve also visited museums and fortresses and spent less than $10.00 for a family of five. Yes, you read that right. A beautiful day at the Museum of Mayan Culture led to free admissions for the kiddos and about $8 to admit mom and dad.

Another great fact about Chetumal is that you can visit near by Ambergris Caye in Belize. A daily $50-$90 ferry-ride (2-3hrs) takes you over to this renowned island and just like that you’ve knocked out two birds with one stone and spent time in both Mexico and Belize.
Ambergris Caye, Belize

Divers, snorkelers, and anyone who loves crystal clear blue waters will appreciate the convenience since both Belize and Mexico boast amazing dive spots (think Cenote Azul in Bacalar or any Cayes of Belize). Foodies will also love the seafood options and children the beautiful calming clear waters perfect for swimming. If you have yet to visit this region, I vote get your passports ready, and start planning your vacation today. You won’t be disappointed and perhaps just like us….  you’ll feel right at home!

What’s your favorite Latin American destination? Share in a comment below.