Big Travel News & The Giveaway Winner.

[google1]

I have some big news! But before I get to it I want to announce the winner of our giveaway of the Vemayca Travel Bag!

Congratulations to Jessica Mason! You’ve won the bag – we hope you get a lot of use from it! Please be sure to contact us so we can send it off to you.

As for the big news – the traveling is beginning!

I can’t believe it! I’m nervous, I won’t lie. Even though we started our big trip last year, we’ve been back in the States since October. Initially, we had to come back to shoot some previously booked weddings, and we planned on moving to Southeast Asia in March after they were finished up. Life had other plans, though, and last spring my dad got extremely sick and fought a health battle that almost took his life. After 6 months he’s doing much better, walking bit by bit and slowly things are returning to normal.

But before Randy and I could even make our own travel plans, they got made for us. In a way, it’s weird and I know life is bitter sweet. This year has been one of the worst in my life, but it seems like now all of the bitter is leaving and all the sweet is taking it’s place. It feels good!

On Wednesday, I leave on a press trip to Mexico! I’m very excited and very nervous at the same time. Unfortunately only one of us could go on this trip and Randy was kind enough to let me do the honors. I’ll be headed to the Mexican Riviera with a group of really outstanding bloggers. So for a few days I’ll be hanging out with Roni Weiss, Nomadic Matt, Carol Cain, Ryan Van Duzer & Vera Sweeney drinking margaritas and partaking in some crazy adventures.

Photo taken in Oaxaca, Mexico.

We are going to hike the largest Mayan Pyramid in Mexico, make Mayan pottery with kids, eat dinner under a pavilion by the Pyramid while the sun sets, then we’ll take in a crazy Mayan play built into a cenote.

That’s just day one.

The next couple of days we’ll spend swimming in cenotes, learning about the Mayan culture, riding through the jungle while zip-lining and sky-cycling through the rainforest. Yes, I said sky-cycling – riding a bike (of sorts) attached to a wire (of sorts) through the treetops. Crazy! We’ll also be checking out Playa del Carmen for an evening out on the town. It’s going to be a jam packed few days and although I’m nervous – I can’t wait! I love Mexico and I’ve never been to this Riviera before!

After that I’m flying to California to spend a few days with family & friends and catch up on some things I need to take care of. Randy will be flying out to CA while I’m in Mexico to spend time with his family & his grandparents, who are flying to CA that same week! After what will be a crazy week of day trips with the Kalp family & singing drunken karaoke with friends, we’ll be flying back to the Boston area for a few days to catch the Salvon family reunion then jetting off to New York City to write a couple reviews. A day or two after that we’ll be flying out to Europe to start our WWOOFing in Serbia gig and another really exciting European project that we are going to announce shortly. Phew!

Exciting! I figure by the time we reach Europe we ought to be completely exhausted. 🙂 We’re still working on the possibility of Okoberfest. In fact, we might fly into Amsterdam and then hop over to Munich for a few days – if it works out that will make for an interesting five day break before we start busting our humps in Serbia! Amsterdam to Oktoberfest – I’m sure many interesting photos will follow.

I have no idea what else is going to happen in this crazy adventure, but I can’t tell you how happy I am that life is turning around and at a rapidly crazy pace at that! I’m at that anxious, overwhelmed, yet excited place where you aren’t sure what the next day will bring. Although I am surprised that we are actually headed back to Europe – it feels like the right thing. I feel that we’re supposed to be going there and that something really amazing is going to come from it. I don’t know exactly what it is but I’m looking forward to finding it.

We’ll have some really great stuff coming up soon. It’s going to be a really exciting time for us and we can’t wait to take you all on the ride with us. Until we chat next – Viva Mexico!

*Get the first glimpse of our new travel photos & posts! Subscribe by email and get new travel articles delivered straight to your inbox:

Or add us to your favorite feed reader by clicking the orange icon!

*Please remember all photos on this website, unless otherwise noted, are copyrighted and property of Beers and Beans Travel Website, Nariko’ s Nest Weddings & Bethany Salvon. Please do not use them without my permission. If you do want to use one of them please contact me first because I do love to share and I would be flattered. Thanks!