After four months of pedalling, eating, and drinking our way around Europe, it’s time to leave.

Winter is coming to this hemisphere (even if it never really felt like summer anyway!) and, as we vowed not to spend another day in the cold and icy grip of Old Man Winter, it’s time to find the sun.

So tomorrow (or today, or yesterday, or three days ago, depending on when you’re reading this) we fly to Mexico!

I dreamed of Mexico all last winter. As we braved (ok, ‘braved’ is a probably a term better saved for those around me who had to endure all my snivelling and whining about how cold it was), the -20C temperatures and snow-banks-as-tall-as-me in southern Ontario, I dreamt of white sand beaches, palm trees, fresh lime margaritas, spicy tacos and, of course sunset beers.

Clichéd, I know, but damn it was cold last winter!

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Talk about cliched!

We’re not sure exactly where we’ll end up in Mexico. I want a place that is near the beach and quiet, yet close enough to a town so we can pop in for a beer and meal once in a while. We had thought that Playa del Carmen would be it but I have been worried that it might be too developed and ‘touristy’ to have what we’re looking for.

And so the One Giant Mexican Road Trip was born. Our plan is to pick up a car at the Cancun airport and spend a few weeks driving around the Yucatan Peninsula searching for the ‘perfect place’ to settle in for a couple of months.

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It should be fun and having a car will mean we’ll get to see parts of the peninsula that we wouldn’t normally see. We’ll be able to really look around the places we visit and get a sense of what it might be like to live there for a while. We may well end up finding that Playa del Carmen is the perfect spot for us but we’ll have battled the FOMO by checking out some of the other great spots first.

Our Big Plan (in so much as we have any plan at all!) was to spend the whole winter in Mexico, hence the worry about finding the ‘perfect spot’, but opportunity came knocking and, in the spirit of saying ‘yes’ to whatever we can, we stepped into it.

My friend Darlene runs the most amazing photography tours to Nicaragua. This time she, and her husband, are interested in staying for a while (to also avoid the dreaded Canadian winter) and asked if we would be interested in travelling farther south to share a house with them in Granada for a couple of months.

Nicaragua!! Who knew?!

So, plans change, time frames are adjusted, and the research starts! How do you get from the Yucatan Peninsula to Granada, Nicaragua? I’m guessing it’ll be One Giant Overland Bus Journey. Stay tuned!