I cannot adequately express what it is like to be laughed at and despised by your own President when he asks, "Are there any Hispanics in the room?", to be followed by a "BOO!", or even as of recently, to have my family members called animals. To constantly be pulled over by the Border Patrol… Continue reading Border checkpoints are NOT my friend.
Oh, young love. I'm not sure many of your know this, but Shaun proposed to me in 2003 in an Amy's Ice Creams photobooth here in Austin, Texas. While I was working there, we had stopped in briefly after dinner to take some photos before heading home. Shaun took a serious gamble.He understood my love… Continue reading Young Love
Traveling is only for rich people, mija. I was devastated. Sweet 16 and wanting to take Marine Biology in high school and one of the major perks was that after the class was over, and during the summer, everyone went to Costa Rica to fully appreciate what they had learned over the last 4 months.… Continue reading WordPress Changed My Life
I’m sure by now you’ve noticed that I’ve taken quite the break from writing and photography. It has been over two years since my soul shattered into a million pieces and I’m just starting to be okay with talking publicly about what happened to Shaun and me Memorial Day 2015. I’ve re-written this post 10+… Continue reading Texas Flood – My Heart Broken into a Million Pieces
The hard metal slipped between my cold, clammy hands. Shivers took over my body as I hesitantly aimed the .45 at the target. Am I really doing this? I finally had the opportunity to head out to Monday night Ladies night at Red’s Indoor Shooting Range in Austin, Texas - Ladies’ gun rentals are free… Continue reading Ladies Night at the Shooting Range
“Como te llamas? (What do they call you?)” I asked the fidgety, energetic 7 year old in front of us. “Me llamo Fernaaaaaaaando!” as he flashed a not-so-toothy smile. I wondered for a moment if the tooth fairy visited this part of the world. I am always impressed by how energetic kids can be hopping… Continue reading My Friend Fernando – Memories at the Ollantaytambo Ruins in Peru
Do you celebrate Movember? If so, why? This year has probably been one of the hardest ones in our lives. Between settling back into a normal routine/reintegration and family health problems, we've had to step back a bit and rethink our priorities a bit. One of the ways we handle emotional responses is to act.… Continue reading I Moustache You a Question…
One of the little known aims of our semi-recent great Latin American adventure was to make a little more sense of my culture and who I am. I wanted to see mis raices, my roots, and the culture that I came from. Born of Mexican descent (well, actually, if you really want to get technical… Continue reading At the Bottom of the Latin American Social Totem Pole: Being a Backpacking Latina
We glided across the glass-like water of the Rio Dulce in Mother Jones’ dinghy. The only sounds that could be heard was the occasional “putt putt” of the motor, the lone bird that would sing out in the mangroves, and the occasional clank of the empty beer cans on the floor. “I hope there aren’t… Continue reading Dinghy-splorin’ the Rio Dulce
“You will be on the sailor schedule soon enough. You’re going to be OLD SALTS!” I didn’t want to believe it. How could we, who normally head to bed around 2am, possibly be asleep by 10pm (Sailor’s Midnight)? But to be honest, there were a slew of other things that happened over our three weeks… Continue reading Old Salts of the Earth, A Travel Story
Flying from Berlin to Austin this past March was probably one of the worst (if not THE worst) travel day that has befallen us. Now, on a normal, regular priced ticket, I’m sure this flight shouldn’t have taken more than 15 hours to get from point A to point B. My cheapskate self put us… Continue reading Worst Travel Day EVER
I glanced at my Facebook one last time before heading out on the road to Florida. “Also on New Years day we will be hashing, so bring a comfortable pair of running shoes. The theme of the hash is All Holidays attire meaning you dress according to your favorite holiday.” Wait, what? WTF is hashing?… Continue reading WTF is Hashing? Cedar Key, Florida
It is amazing how your travels can change once your mindset changes about your travels. For us, this European trip had been mainly business - something that was new and completely different for us. But Amsterdam? It had been on my vacation bucket list for quite some time and we were going to treat it… Continue reading A Little RnR in Amsterdam
Standin' on your mama's porch You told me that you'd wait forever Oh and when you held my hand I knew that it was now or never Those were the best days of my life Back in the summer of '69 The drunken frat boys wailed across the stage at a karaoke bar to a… Continue reading Belated 30 in Florence, Italy
We had no clue how tired we were. Like, mind-numbingly, horrifyingly, exhausted. I was on the verge of having a nervous breakdown and depression was looming overhead. Remind me why we do this again? Our bank account was almost non-existent. We had been doing back to back press trips for 3 weeks. We hadn’t had… Continue reading On the Edge of Burnout in Florence, Italy
