Been away from TE for awhile!

Hi everyone!

I've been away for awhile as we finished up our US travels with some family time in NC before heading to our winter destination. Hope everyone has been doing well and having a good holiday season.

We are in Mexico for the winter, actually until the end of April. We packed away all six of our bikes (road, mountain, and folder for my husband and me) at my mother's house, and one of the first orders of business when we got here was buying cruiser bikes! It was quite an interesting experience since the workers at the shop spoke no English, and our Spanish is limited, but we muddled through. I wrote a blog post about our experience here:

http://travelingtwosome.weebly.com/t...ikes-in-mexico

We've been having fun riding here, but it's certainly not as varied or exhilarating as many of our US rides. There are not a lot of places to ride (though there is a nice bike path), and there's quite a bit of traffic now that high tourist season is here. Still, it's nice to be able to ride bikes in warm sunshine while so many other places are boo chilly! We've also been enjoying running on a very nice local track, and I've gotten back to yoga at an excellent studio just a couple of blocks away from our rental. The class is conducted all in Spanish, so that's been interesting, but since I've done yoga before, I'm able to pick up most of it.

We are enjoying being car-free once again, as we were in Belize, and walking pretty much everywhere.

My proudest accomplishment of the year is my mileage tally of 7502 miles (all outdoor miles). My previous best year was under 4300 miles and included quite a few on the trainer. That was way back in 2004, before my accident (fractured pelvis in three places) in 2005. So this year was definitely the best cycling year of my life. As we traveled the US, we had the opportunity of riding in so many different states (plus Mexico now) that made it very memorable and special!

Sending wishes for everyone for an excellent new year. Keep on pedaling!

Emily

i wanna be on the yucatan peninsula until april!!!!!!!

congrats on the mileage....and have a wonderful time exploring, snorkeling with sea turtles etc etc

So, you're in Quintana Roo? How did you make this decision?
Can't wait to hear about all of your adventures. Happy New Year!

Always love reading of your adventures!

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Originally Posted by Crankin

So, you're in Quintana Roo? How did you make this decision?
Can't wait to hear about all of your adventures. Happy New Year!

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Thanks Crankin! Yes, Quintana Roo. We had traveled to Tulum, then up to Merida and beyond, back in 2012 when we lived in Belize, and we just fell in love with Mexico. When we were looking for a winter destination for this year, we wanted something a little warmer than anywhere in the US. Actually, southern Florida would have worked, but just try finding a decent, affordable, dog-friendly rental...pretty much impossible.

Tucson and other places we considered were still just a bit too chilly for us in Dec/Jan (Tucson got snow last night!) so we decided to try Mexico. We knew the flight to Cancun was relatively inexpensive and easy from the east coast (we flew from Atlanta), and it would be easy to get to Playa with Paisley on a private transfer van. Since we booked months in advance, we were able to get a pet-friendly rental, a downstairs unit in a private home, with a small private back garden for Paisley. We're not on the beach as pet-friendly options are much more limited there, but we can walk there easily. We're actually enjoying being in a more local and less touristy area of the city.

We're always checking out new places and are especially interested in finding a winter destination that we can return to multiple times if we like it, so this seemed like a good fit. We considered returning to Belize, as we do have many friends there, but flights are much more expensive, it's a tougher travel situation for Paisley (two flights instead of one), and we knew what it was like already (the good and the bad), so we wanted to see how Mexico compared.

For us, it's a better fit. Food and beverages are much less expensive (I can drink WINE here, unlike in Belize, where it was very pricey), and the variety of foods/beverages and restaurants is much better than in Belize. It also gives us the intellectual stimulation of learning a new language as well. Whether we'll end up coming here year after year remains to be seen, but after two months, we are liking it!

There are quite a few other posts on our blog if you're interested -- most are food-related, it seems! :D

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Originally Posted by rebeccaC

i wanna be on the yucatan peninsula until april!!!!!!!

congrats on the mileage....and have a wonderful time exploring, snorkeling with sea turtles etc etc

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Thanks rebeccaC! Happy New Year!

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Originally Posted by lauraelmore1033

Always love reading of your adventures!

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Thanks! :-)

Sounds nice to me. It has been in the single digits here. Brrrr.

So nice, and thanks for updating us! Keep us apprised of your adventures :-)

That sounds particularly nice because although the snow in Tucson was a brief but enchanting moment, the cold front is bringing temps around 24 tonight with a high of 45- maybe- tomorrow.

Congratulations on the miles--and all the adventures they have brought you! And thank you for sharing some of those adventures too!

Haven't had a chance to say welcome back Emily... love your pictures, it looks so warm and colorful there, it cheered me up just looking at them. Totally bowled over by your mileage numbers, wowzers!!

Thanks, AppleTree!

It was by far the biggest cycling year of my life, and I don't know that I'll ever come close to that again...it was kind of like all the planets aligning at the right time to allow such a thing. If you think my numbers are good, my DH ended up with 13,002 miles of the year! That still blows my mind.... As much as we drove going cross the country a couple of times, it's amazing he even found time to do all that riding. Here's where we drove (purple lines):

Attachment 17511

Love hearing about your adventures! Enjoy your stay.