You’ve Been Traveling Around, Now What?

What happens to travelers when they finally “go home?” After all the planning, saving, determination, downsizing, chaos and sometimes sheer terror of leaving everything behind. After traveling, backpacking, sailing, or living in another country is done and you find your self back in your hometown. Some may be lucky enough to have a home and job waiting for them but for the most of us we will need to re-build our lives. Many people might find this stage un-nerving enough to not want to leave in the first place. What we have found is that the things we learned about ourselves while traveling and living overseas has shaped us in more ways than we expected, including being mentally ready for this next phase in our lives. In the past year, between getting ready to go and actually being out there we have gained a whole new level of confidence in ourselves and what we are capable of. It also allowed us to meet many people that by sharing their stories and being by them we have learned a lot of valuable lessons that might have otherwise taken years to learn. One of the most important things that we actually might have learned is simply to actually start believing that we could be and do anything we wanted, as long as we were committed and willing to work our butts off. Today I’ll look at what a few of us “travelers” are up to when they find themselves back “home.”

John and I have been back since Christmas and we’re staying at his family home in Andalusia with his parents. We are not sitting around watching TV though, we are starting on phase II of operation Hop & Jaunt world domination via friendly fire! Long name but basically it means we have finally found the cojones to start a project we’ve always dreamed of doing: starting our own design and advertising business. Initially a home business but hoping to take make virtually anywhere with us with the power of the internet! The goal is to be location independent and to try and make money online as much as possible. We’ve always been designers, both of us having been caught doodeling on our notebooks since grammar school. Until recently we just thought we needed to be “grown-ups” and have a regular office job with an actual paycheck, insurance, and a commute, preferably with a cranky boss or two thrown in. It was while we were out that we had a chance to meet other designers , bartered with our work, dabbled in freelance, and slowly but surely realized that our parents were right, we were pretty good at this. Most importantly we realized that we CAN do it. So starting this year we have made concrete steps to open up our own free-lance design shop and on-line business! Our ultimate goal is to become our tagline:
“traveling designers.” Setting up shop where ever our laptops plug in, preferably in tropical climates but we’ll start one step at a time. 2010 the year that shall Hop & Jaunt!

Current Office Of Hop & Jaunt: Aly Planning The Next Adventure During Break! Don’t Ask Why There’s Milk AND Wine On My Desk..

We’re Back In America

For those of you who have been following our blog for a while you might recall that the first sailboat we were on, Quercus, was my parent’s sailboat. We had met up with them in Grenada and sailed together through the Venezuelan Islands to Curacao. While in Curacao they sold Quercus and headed back to the good ‘ol U.S. of A. Once I get a hold of our old photos I will introduce you to my family but let’s just say for now that my parents are one of the original adventurers, having sailed, lived, and traveled around the world for the past 25+ years. My parents bought a small wooden boat in the middle of the Pacific, and in 1986 when I was two and my sister was still in my Mom’s belly they packed their suitcases for the first of a thousand time.

In the Micronesian Islands, Carolina Islands, on a small remote island called Yap my sister was born. She was the second white baby to be born there and the first white girl, there was a French missionary boy born there some decades earlier. From there they sailed to Japan, where a short visit turned into a ten years. Argentina, Caribbean, New Zealand, Philippines, and another three sailboats and fifteen years later they find themselves in South Carolina. Mom is an avid and very talented photographer and she’s got some amazing photos from the Caribbean and around the U.S. on her website here.  My father is now beginning another new adventure, where he will combine his business savvy and never ending wealth of knowledge about everything sailing, cruising and boats to become a yacht-broker in Charleston, South Caroline. So all of you future world cruisers, you know where to go to get started on your own adventure on the high seas!

Here’s Donna! Aly’s Mom

Skipper On Watch

s/y Quercus

One Of Our Favorite Pics By My Momma!

All the photos were taken by Donna (except for the one where she’s in the photo of course, but it was taken with her camera!), check out her mouth watering photos from the Caribbean here.

The travel bug is infectous, and once you catch it, it’s in your system for good. Many have become expats after their first taste of the world around them. My family has lived in roughly a half a dozen countries while I was growing up, other travel bloggers I know online have also chose this lifestyle after not being able cure their wonderlust. Abby Tegnelia left Los Angeles to live in a small beach side town in Costa Rica where she is a writer for over 15 magazines as well as for her fun blog, The Jungle “Princess.” Freelance writing is a popular, if not extremely difficult, method to have the freedom to live where and how you like. Many popular travel bloggers and writers never seem to be in the same spot for more than a min. before their off again! Matt,  from Nomadic Matt and Craig and Linda from Indie Travel Podcast come to mind.

Cruisers are a group of travelers in their own category, much like the RV-ers,  as they are able to take their home with them where ever they go. Some are just wondering, others, like our South African friends were sailing for the purpose of looking for land to live on one day. Patrycja and Mikolaj, a Polish couple we met in Curacao had hitch-hiked from Europe to the Caribbean on sailboats and found work until they were able to buy their own little floating home: s/y You-You!

The lesson to be learned is that it’s not really just about the travel, or what you see, it’s about how the combined experiences affect you. You don’t have to cross the Sahara on a camel to change your life (though that would be amazing..), it’s not even about the traveling so much as creating a mindset that opens you to new experiences.

If you are thinking of ,or ever wanted to try, going off into the big blue world for a while, don’t let the doubts about the future put you off. The actions you take to get there will naturally cause the reactions that will open up new doors!