tales from abroad

Panama City, Scary Marriage Ups and Downs, and Other Lessons

March 13, 2018 by Irene Quevedo

PANAMA

When we arrived in Panama City earlier this year we knew it was just the city to regroup. This city is a beautiful metropolis. Each of us was quick to absorb everything it had to offer especially everything we didn’t have access to in the last two countries over 2 and a 1/2 months… cue the endless supply of Starbucks lattes. Now we didn’t visit the city to simply get a literal taste of home.

Panama City was a stop on our Queventure for a few obvious reasons: visit the canal, the beaches, and Central America’s most thriving capitol. What we didn’t realize was Panama would also be a stop full of lessons. Some of those lessons were about marriage while others were much bigger than even that.

Lesson # 1: With that many casinos, you might just need to pace yourself (husband).

Beautiful hotel and casino combos pepper the entire city. You couldn’t go very far without those shinny lights enticing you to partake. Now, I am not much of a gambler, but my husband is a different story. He gambled and boy did he enjoy it. This might seem like nothing but when you’re budgeting every single month on a fixed travel income gambling stakes feel much, much higher than usual. At least to me they did.

One night the husband was out gambling until 4am. This was not a shinning moment for us as a couple. I was so angry. It wasn’t even about the gambling, but the lack of respect I perceived when my husband didn’t bother to return home at a reasonable hour. Here we are in a foreign country after all. It’s scary to feel divided as we try to remain a supportive, dream-chasing, ever mobile team. The husband was pretty apologetic about the whole situation, but that didn’t make me feel much better. Bringing me to…

Lesson # 2: Travel doesn’t change your parenting or marital dynamics.

It enhances them. I was so upset my husband didn’t pace himself gambling so we fought, but then there we were again… just us. We can’t escape to work or friends after fights. As a traveling tribe, we get to deal with annoyances head on and then quickly find a way to harmoniously come back together for the greater good. And many times that is much harder said than done.

Lesson # 3: Take space, it is a must.

When you need space from your family you should take it. Maybe that’s exactly what my husband was doing until 4am at the casino; the jury is still out on that one. Point is, space is essential not only for our traveling family, but all families. I am a huge proponent for making sure to spend one-on-one quality time with your children and spouse, but I just can’t leave myself off that one-on-one date night list!

Panama City was a great hub from which to pop into a cab and find yourself somewhere new to dine, pamper yourself, or simply be alone. One Sunday morning, I went to mass alone and it was the most peaceful and fulfilling morning I’d had in some time.

Lesson # 4: Don’t take your country or each other for granted, just don’t.

In Panama we met so many amazing people. After a while, I began to notice an interesting commonality. Many of the Uber drivers, restaurant servers, beauticians, and on and on weren’t actually Panamanian. The majority were Venezuelans. Hardworking individuals working in Panama where according to them, the American dollar is strong.

If you know anything about Venezuela then you likely know about the years of political instability it’s faced leading to a traumatic economic crisis. Venezuelans are dealing with an employment and food shortage so devastating that most of its citizens are forced to leave their country desperate to earn a living. Imagine having to leave your birth country, a country you love, often, the only home you’ve ever known? Imagine feeling forced to leave in a state of chronic setbacks and uncertainty? Imagine leaving your beloved family behind not by choice but because of literal hunger and famine?

Every single Venezuelan I met was kind, but also clearly pained. Their longing to return home was obvious. The internal turmoil of being in a country that doesn’t fully embrace them was heartbreaking.

The many Venezuelans I met appreciated Panama, but they didn’t feel welcome and often felt attacked. According to them, the local government usually ran on platforms that singled them out as a problem pitting Panamanians against Venezuelans. This sentiment reminded me so much of the current American rhetoric where a sector of our country is being singled out and blamed: Muslims, Dreamers, Mexicans, and on and on.

Meeting so many and hearing their stories made me not only appreciate my home country, and the abounding resources, but also my fellow American citizen especially those being singled out and victimized day after day. Today, even more can be done to embrace and appreciate each other, our differences, and speak out against prejudice political platforms that only seek to divide us.

For now, if you are reading this and guilty of complaining about your job, lunch, or coworker, there’s someone right now in the world desperately wishing they had one of those three. What we so often take for granted is a blessing. Instead, let’s remember to appreciate all we’ve been afforded, no matter how minor it may all seem.

Top 5 Things to Consider Before Homeschooling

March 1, 2018 by Diego Quevedo

Considering homeschooling your kids?

It’s a hot mess! Don’t do it! Just kidding, read on!

Some time ago, my family and I decided to go on a small adventure. Our kids’ education has always been very important to us so we had to think long and hard about how traveling would affect their schooling. What should a traveling, world-schooling, location-independent family do? How to make sure our Kindergartner, 2nd Grader and 6th Grader don’t fall behind?

In all honesty, I was worried about how this would play out. On the outside I said, “2nd grade math, I got this!” But internally I definitely had my concerns.

Here’s the good news: there’s lots of information online to guide you. The bad news: there’s LOTS OF INFORMATION online to guide you. Quite frankly, it was a bit overwhelming when we first looked into it. After hours of research sometimes I would feel even more confused than when I started.

So without further ado, here’s our list of the top 5 things to consider before homeschooling your kids:

1. Your personal level of involvement.

Are you considering being the primary teaching source? If so, will you require lesson plans and teacher guides? Or do you plan on outsourcing most of the “teaching” via online courses and/or even online tutors and virtual classrooms? The gift and the curse of homeschooling is, well, you’re in charge. Which is very empowering but at the same time the added responsibility can be daunting.

We have about an 80/20 split with us doing most of the presswork and teaching. But we do use Khan Academy and other self-guided tools to help with the process.

2. How formal will your “teaching” be?

Do you intend to essentially duplicate a traditional class and grade curriculum? Or will you fully go the “unschooling” route? There’s a sense of structure following the traditional method. Many online curriculums basically follow whatever the government’s requirements are. Unschooling completely is very liberating and allows kids to develop a sense of control for their own education. It allows the child to learn at their own pace, many times this leads to a child who’s more interested in the material. (By the way, make sure you check with your State’s/Country’s legal requirements for withdrawing your child(ren) out of a formal school. In our State of California, the requirements are not very stringent and there’s plenty of advice on how to make sure you’re doing it right.)

Our family is at about a 50/50 split. We’re aware of the curriculum requirements as defined by the California Board of Education and make sure they are at least up to par on the core competencies for their grades. However, instead of learning about the Boston Tea Party, our oldest chose to learn about the history of the Mayan civilization. Further, he learned not through a text book but by visiting actual Mayan ruins. No big deal!

3. Your financial commitment.

As mentioned earlier, there are A LOT of options and styles for homeschooling out there. Are you looking to invest a few thousand dollars in your child’s homeschool curriculum? You can find that. Are you more comfortable starting out with a bunch of free printables? You can find that as well. The reality is there is a financial component to homeschooling your kid(s), even if it’s just to print material out. Understanding your finances and approach will help you avoid wasting time/money on resources that are just not what you’re looking for.

We have spent about $800 on basic school textbooks/supplies and online services. We have spent a significant amount more on Tours/Travel/Museums/Diving and “world schooling.”

4. Your level of patience.

These kids will DRIVE YOU UP THE WALL. I have a new found appreciation for the patience teachers exhibit, God bless them. Even with the best laid out plans, kids have a way of turning everything upside down, of being dismissive or just not focusing. All things that can really irate us as parents in general but become even more magnified when you’re trying to teach them how to add double digits. (REGROUP THE TENS, SOFIA! REGROUP THE TENS!!!…oh, sorry about that.)

I thought I was a patient person prior to homeschooling. But now, let’s just say I’ve taken up meditation. I say this with more truth than as joke. Your patience will be tested and it’s a good idea to start thinking about that now. How do you handle it? Can you start working on increasing it now?

5. Internet Access.

This is a subtle but important consideration. I wrote here on some of the major decisions we reversed while traveling. While traveling the world is incredible, we’ve visited many places where the internet connection is poor at best and nonexistent at worst, in spite of “wifi” being part of the reason we stayed at a particular location. You have to consider how reliant you will be on being connected in order to teach your child.

Our original plan was to be as close to 100% paperless as possible. That changed and now we carry textbooks.

You may have noticed these five considerations don’t function in a vacuum. If you’ve settled one item, it doesn’t mean you’ll never have to address it again. On the contrary, all five things work in a sort of dynamic harmony. The more you give in one regard may require you to take from another. Low patience may mean you need to spend more money on virtual tutors. Going 100% traditional curriculum may save you lots of time in figuring things out. You may be able to solve the internet problem by paying for satellite internet access but your financial investment will be higher.

The sweet spot is where you will be most comfortable from a teacher perspective, financial commitment, time devotion and internet connectivity.

The Bottom Line

Do not let not having it all worked out stop you from doing it. Invest as much time as you’d like and then push forward. Hopefully this post helps with, at the very least, settling some of the anxiousness when starting your research. What you will learn by actually doing it, not to mention the direct feedback from your kids, will be as valuable if not more than all the research and preparation in the world.

Keep it as simple as possible and then build up! Get a generic “Nth grade curriculum” list from online and get the minimal amount of materials. And then build up from there.

Lastly, know that many parents have done this before with great success. You can too and we’re here to help!

It’s the Return of Queventure.com

February 26, 2018 by Irene Quevedo

Not that we ever went anywhere, and yet it feels like we’ve been everywhere. To be exact, since our last blog post, we’ve traveled to six countries and embarked on eight travel days. That equates to roughly nine bedroom changes in nine weeks. And still, we remain as excited as we were on day one. Okay, sometimes we are also annoyed and tired, and yet always excited.

Our whirlwind traveling over these last 2+ months included the end of our Central American travels (more on Panama in a future post), a surprise trip home to California, a magical cruise through the Eastern Caribbean, ‘Getting the Love That You Want’ in Orlando, and the beginning of a newly settled life in beautiful Cartagena, Colombia.

Welcome to South America, Queventurers.

by thedavefoster.

From Visually.

I still can’t believe our last blog post was published in 20-freaking-17. At that point, home was a four bedroom ranch estate in Liberia, Costa Rica. It was home through the holidays and overall a truly magical destination. Shout out to La Familia Santos. This family entrusted us with their home for six weeks. It was our longest slated stop to-date and it literally became home for the holidays. The estate’s pets became our pets, the pool our daily ritual, and the view from the kitchen window – possibly the only place on earth I didn’t mind doing dishes. Who knew scenic sunsets and scrubbing suds could be so soothing?

If you followed along @queventure.abroad on Instagram you saw us tackle a solo Thanksgiving dinner for the first-time in our 36 years of life. I made a full spread – cornbread stuffing and all. Diego experienced his first-ever turkey day not spent with his immediate family.

It was a warm and quiet Thanksgiving as was Christmas. Somehow we managed to pull-off a truly practical Santa Claus visit, which consisted of small gifts the kids could easily fit into their 12 by 16 backpacks one week later. If nothing else, we realized then, our children were turning out pretty good if coloring books, new goggles, and a couple of 99 cent travel puzzles brought joy to their first Christmas abroad.

Our home in Liberia came with maid services 24 hours each week. Yes, three 8-hour days of what turned into one of our favorite aspects of the ‘Pura Vida’ life. However, it wasn’t the clean sheets, perfectly tidied kitchen, or constantly stocked supply of fresh drinking water that made all the difference. The difference was Ms. G. In those weekly visits she became like a third parent to the kiddos and a companion for two adults who usually only have each other.

We’ve lost count of the number of times one of us have joked about missing Miss G and hoping she could pop in one last time for a chat or a bashful hug. This woman was incredibly humble and a breathe of fresh air in a world that moves a gazillion miles a minute. Thank you, G. Thank you Costa Rica, and thank you to everyone reading this post who decided to come back for a read after several weeks off for this travel-obsessed family.

I will forever remember that ranch estate in Liberia, Costa Rica which was more like a wellness retreat destination. There we could bask in the absolutely nature-filled scenery of Costa Rica, and by night, escape the noise of this busy world. We lived surrounded by remote darkness lit only by a sometimes full moon and a sky full of the most beautiful stars. Liberia, I will always remember your stars – oh the many, many stars.

By now, you’ve hopefully noticed the redesign of our new page. A page we continue to craft with love so you’ll come back for more, because at this point, we have so many crazy adventures, recaps, surprises, and tips to share.

There’s lots to catch up on Queventurers…

Don’t Miss These Upcoming Posts:

“Homeschooling ‘Bout To Be A Breeze…”

“Panama & Scary Marriage Ups and Downs.”

“A New Year Full of Surprises.”

Our very own Eat, Pray, Love.

September 11, 2017 by Irene Quevedo

I’ve never seen the travel-inspired movie “Eat, Pray, Love” but I can say the last quarter of our lives has involved a whole lot of eating, praying, and loving. As we’ve traveled from one Latin American country to another, we’ve had to create a new routine. A routine that’s made life on the road one big adjustment.

Eat

It’s no surprise being in nonstop vacation mode leads to eating a lot of very good food. We’ve had our fair share of delicious eats over the past three months and how could we not when visiting flavor-packed destinations such as Puerto Rico, Mexico, and now Guatemala.

However, vacations are often all about over-indulging and we can’t quite do that all day, everyday. What we are experiencing abroad is a lifestyle. We are living not vacationing everyday of our lives. So while we’ve truly indulged in international cuisine, we’ve also eaten many home-cooked meals and kept meals simple and healthy. Last week, my favorite go-to meal was smoothies, delicious fresh fruits, and grilled veggies/meats. I wish I could say most meals we eat are healthy, but what’s the fun in that?!? Tonight we arrived in a major city for the first time in over a month and ended up having fast food nuggets and pizza for dinner. Not the cuisine of choice in the movie “Eat, Pray, Love” but a yummy option nonetheless; and a fact that reminds us, it’s all about balance!

Pray

My husband and I have taken inventory on our travels and often scale different facets (quality time, prayer, health, etc.) between 1 and 10. There are some areas we consider a 6 and others a 7. However, when it comes to faith, prayer, and devotion we’re trending at a solid 9. I feel this is an area of consistency that has grounded us in our travels and kept us in a state of constant gratitude.

Since arriving abroad, weekly church visits are standard. We don’t miss weekly mass and I am so proud of our commitment to giving at minimum 1 hour to our faith. We definitely spend more than an hour connected to our beliefs through meditation and plenty of family prayer time, but we also know that if all else feels not enough, we get one hour a week to pause and give thanks. Church is for the most part always in Spanish and while the kids at first felt lost and “borreeedd” they quickly grew to understand missing weekly mass wasn’t an option and required our full focus and appreciation.

This adventure, in and of itself, entails a whole lot of faith and what better way to light the path then by staying connected to our religious core.

Love

I couldn’t imagine living this journey without my husband and our beautiful children. The love we share and nurture everyday makes everything about our lives flow effortlessly from new city to new city. Love is also what keeps us looking forward to the day we return “home.”

Every single one of us misses a piece of home and that usually includes everyone (not what) we’ve left behind. Noah cries because he misses his abuelita and Isaiah because he misses his friends. Sofia misses school, her old room, and our family dog (thank God for social media that allows us to “stalk” her new family and see her oh so happy).

Diego and I miss our amazing families (relatives and work colleagues alike). We are relationship people deep down, so being abroad has meant sacrificing being with those we love and we love a lot of people. We will miss a lot in the next year: birthday parties and graduations, babies being born, and the always fun Quevedo family barbecues. While we use technology to stay connected to our circle, we have also clung to one another for our greatest source of fulfillment.

Today, we are closer than ever as a unit of five. The kids get to spend every waking moment with their immediate family, and though we sometimes bicker, we also get to love all over each other, All. The. Time. The hubby and I have our periodic date nights (kids and us too).

We’re spending more time than ever before enjoying the little things: breakfast together every morning, exciting day-trips, quiet evenings of reflection, and plenty of down time traveling by plane, boat, or automobile. There was no guarantee we wouldn’t drive eachother bonkers spending so much time together, and though we sometimes do, we are actually bickering a lot less in our new routine – a routine that though might seem all sunshine and hammocks – still involves daily school schedules and household chores.

In the end, there’s one thing that’s for certain when it comes to long-term travel, through it all you’ll fall in love more deeply with those you miss, those you have close, and the entire world around you.

Photos: Lake Atitlán, Guatemala Sept. 2017.