Hi everyone,

I’m sorry I have been absent from the blog. The first few weeks of this year have been incredibly stressful for me and unfortunately writing travel inspiring articles for you to all read has been the last thing I wanted to do. So I haven’t been writing. I just haven’t felt like it. Which is unfortunate because I love writing about where I am, what I’m doing, and helping others to decide to take up their travel dreams.

So I’m going to write about why I haven’t been writing.

Many people who read mine and other people’s blogs about travel, leaving a ‘normal’ life to pack up and travel believe that it is pretty glamorous and relaxing most of the time. That’s just not the case. As someone who has packed up and decided to remain abroad indefinitely, my life has many stresses I would not have encountered had I remained in Australia working 9 to 5.

Settling into a life abroad is basically starting again. I need to decide where and how I will live, make sure I have somewhere safe and comfortable to not only sleep at night, but to enjoy and settle into. All of my friends do not live in the same country as me. I’m very fortunate to have friends scattered around the world who I have met during my travels, but it’s my closest small group in Australia who I miss immensely. Everyday I work at making new friends and am very lucky to have some great people around me who have become my good friends already, but some days I really miss having Friday night dinner and a glass of wine with my best friend.

I have also needed to find a way to make money. As a web designer I am fortunate that I can work from my laptop anywhere in the world. However over the past couple of months I have had immense struggles receiving payments for the work I am doing. As I am in Ecuador I thought the best option would be to set up a Paypal account in USD. However as I had an Ecuador address I needed to set up an Ecuador Paypal account. This turned out to be one of the biggest mistakes I have made, however on the bright side the learning experience has been invaluable. To cut a long story short I was able to send invoices to clients and they paid money into the Ecuador Paypal account, but I could not transfer the money out of Paypal as I do not have a US bank account and they flagged me sending money to my Australian Paypal account as a security risk, even with the hundreds of dollars of fees that I had paid. Even the successful transfer I had made was costly as I need to pay fees to go from USD to AUD back to USD.

On top of the actual money issues, I am in a Spanish speaking country and my Spanish is average at best. Whilst it is getting better I do not have the patience or vocabulary to discuss issues of money with unhelpful Paypal customer support people in Spanish.

However two days ago my stress levels reached breaking point and I ended up in a Guayaquil hospital receiving an anti-histamine injection in my ass to treat a sudden breakout of red itchy burning-like-fire rash that had taken over my body.

What tipped me over the edge? I learned that the people I had re-homed my beloved Russian Blue cat Ellie to could no longer keep her. The stress and guilt I have suffered trying to ensure that little furry creature is safe and happy due to my abandonment to travel the world just became too much and my body couldn’t contain the stress any longer.

Today however, as I sit and write, my world is much better. A new home has been found for Ellie and I am very happy with who she is with and confident that she is receiving the love and affection she so enjoys and deserves. I am thankfully done with Paypal Ecuador. I have found a new solution that is much better suited to my needs. Finally I am enjoying sometime away from the craziness in a beautiful Airbnb loft in Cumbayá, a suburb outside of Quito. The view is beautiful, the weather is pleasant, and the wifi is amazing.

So I hope to pick my blog posting back up from now on. I can’t guarantee how quickly I will get back to a few posts a week, but I definitely aim to keep writing interesting articles about the amazing places I get to experience around the world.