I literally had to search “2021” in my photos on my phone to remember all that we got up to, and where we were.
I’ve been doing these reflection posts for 10 years now. Ten years!
Each year, I do a round-up on this blog and reflect on our lives over the past 12 months. As with my previous posts, this year has a word (well, a few words actually) that can sum up how it felt to us.
For Nick and I, 2021 was a mixed year filled with uncertainty, indecisiveness, and overwhelm surrounding the current state of the world and some things in our personal lives. But, it was also a year of travel, love, and wine… a lot of wine.
Us on the beach in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. This is where we rang in 2021!
The main theme that sticks out from the year, however, is connection . This year we wanted to be surrounded by friends, family, and strangers, and I think we succeeded in doing so.
Apart from connecting with people, two of our goals going into 2021 that I wrote about last year were to: “Live off the fruits of our labor and move around as much as possible — while working as little as possible.” And to “Do things that we enjoy”.
As you’ll read below, I think it’s safe to say we accomplished the above goals this year. Read on to see how our year progressed in terms of business, life, and travel. And, what’s in store for 2022!
See the previous reflections posts here:
2012: A Very Memorable Year
2013: A Year of Firsts
2014: It Started and Ended With Mexico
2015: A Year of Spontaneity
2016: A Year of Big Decisions
2017: A Roller Coaster Year
2018: A Year of Achievements
2019: A Year of Highs and Lows
2020: A Year We Won’t Forget
Thoughts on Travel in 2021
At the end of 2020, I think we had all thought (hoped) that life would return to “normal”. Yet, here we are two years later, still dealing with the life-altering aftermath of COVID.
Rather than a 3D, physical connection with people, 2020 was filled with virtual get-togethers. Instead of going to restaurants, people ordered in. Rather than joining a tour with other humans, online experiences were the norm.
That may have been fine for 2020, but I prefer to be with others, shake hands, hug, and stand closer than 6 feet apart!
Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinions as to whether or not they feel it’s safe or appropriate for them to travel right now. Personally, we went for it and jumped in with both feet this year, and have zero regrets about that.
Friends of ours, Sarah and Nathan, got married while in Mexico and this was the perfect reception party!
We couldn’t wait to explore, interact and connect with people, try new foods and experience unique things. In 2020, we were mostly just in Portugal and Mexico. The world was waiting!
By choosing to travel, we helped the local economies, small businesses, and the travel industry as a whole — not to mention, our mental health and overall wellbeing.
We’re aware that not everyone is able to travel right now, which is another reason why we didn’t want to take our ability to explore for granted.
Considering we were still in our apartment in Playa del Carmen until May, I think we did pretty well this year in terms of living a “normal” travel life.
Living in Playa del Carmen, Mexico
The year started with a bang, literally.
As we counted down to midnight, Nick and our good friend Tom almost lost their eyebrows, and singed their leg hair while lighting fireworks on the beach in Playa…what a way to ring in the new year!
At this point, we had been living in Playa del Carmen, Mexico for almost 4 months. We were next-door neighbours with Tom and Anna, and had other good friends and fellow bloggers like Nathan, Sarah, Jen, and Sean living nearby as well.
We even met up for coffee with one of our long-time readers! That was so great.
The year started off surrounded by friends, which was perfect.
Life in Playa del Carmen
The city really is one of the best digital nomad destinations in Mexico .
With super fast wifi, loads of accommodation options to choose from, endless restaurants and bars, and lots of coworking spaces, it’s no surprise that many people put down some temporary roots here.
Our apartment in Playa del Carmen had a huge rooftop pool
It had everything we were looking for at the time and then some.
When we weren’t working on our laptops, swimming in the sea, or going for walks, we volunteered walking dogs at the GSPCA, ate at some fabulous restaurants, and hungout with friends.
For the most part, however, we simply enjoyed living and having a bit of a routine at the start of the year.
As it felt when we were living in Grenada , it was great to have a “home” again, to be surrounded by a community of like-minded people, and to be in the sunshine.
Nick focused on work at Ah Cacao Cafe in Playa del Carmen. It was nice to have a home base for a while.
In the end, we spent a little over 8 months living in Playa between 2020 and 2021. Funny enough, I didn’t actually write about our time spent there! But I did write a complete guide to living in Playa del Carmen as a digital nomad if you want to read that.
Border Run to Costa Rica
As Canadians, we receive a 180-day stay in Mexico when we arrive at the border. But, we stayed for 8 months. We were able to do that by going on a border run to a nearby country.
Our country of choice was Costa Rica!
All it took was one text message to Tom and Anna, and we had our 12 day Costa Rica road trip adventure on the books. Other good friends of ours, Dan and Casey, live in CR so our first stop was to visit them for a few days in the beachside town of Uvita.
Hanging out on the beach in Costa Rica with Tom, Anna, Dan and Casey. Such a great roadtrip around Costa Rica!
The rest of the road trip brought us to the pristine Osa Peninsula in the southern part of the country which is filled with interesting wildlife, and to the northern area of La Fortuna with the Arenal Volcano towering over the town.
Here, we finally met up with fellow travel bloggers and friends Sam and Yeison. They live in Costa Rica and run the popular website, My Tan Feet. It was so great to finally meet in person.
Our Costa Rica trip was incredible, and as we stamped our way back into Mexico, we started planning our next moves for a few months later.
Travelling around Costa Rica with Tom and Anna was so much fun. A beautiful country
The holiday was better than we imagined, and again, we enjoyed more time spent in person with great friends.
Exploring More of Mexico
Over the years, we’ve been pretty lucky to see numerous destinations in Mexico . It’s one of our favourite countries in the world.
After a total of 8 months in Playa del Carmen, we decided that rather than go on any more weekends away, or border runs to nearby countries, it was time to pack up and move on.
We spent a month and a half travelling to Manzanillo, the Valle de Guadalupe, Ensenada, Puerto Vallarta, Guanajuato and San Miguel de Allende.
Manzanillo
It had been 3 years since we’d seen family, so our first stop was Manzanillo to visit with Nick’s dad and stepmom. It was so nice to see them and we enjoyed numerous fun outings, tasty meals, and catching up.
Three years is a long time and it was so great to get in that quality time together.
A beautiful sunset in Manzanillo
From Manzanillo, we flew north to Tijuana on the Baja peninsula. Here, we picked up our rental car and headed for the Valle de Guadalupe — the wine region of Mexico.
Valle de Guadalupe
Prior to this recent stint in Mexico, we didn’t realize that the country is known for its big, bold, juicy red wines! The Valle de Guadalupe is an extension of the Napa Valley to the north, but with more reasonable prices.
Cheers from the Valle de Guadalupe. We enjoyed many fantastic red wines here
We spent 10 days here, including our 14th anniversary, while sipping on fantastic wine, enjoying the acclaimed cuisine, and sleeping in some beautiful accommodations. You can read more about our trip to the Valle de Guadalupe, here .
Puerto Vallarta
We returned to Tijuana and flew to Puerto Vallarta — a city we’d been to numerous times.
On this trip, since we’d already seen most of the highlights of Puerto Vallarta , we were able to just chill out and spend time at the beach, wander around town, and hang out with friends Juri and Nathan who live in PV.
So much fun in Puerto Vallarta hanging out with our friends Nathan and Juri
It was the perfect week-long stay, filled with beach time, sunsets, and laughter.
Guanajuato
We hit the skies again and flew to Guanajuato — our favourite city in Mexico!
This time around, we spent 10 days hiking in the surrounding mountains and seeing corners of the city we otherwise wouldn’t have thanks to our expat friend, Donna.
Hiking around the hills of Guanajuato City – amazing!
We walked everywhere, ate tasty food, and enjoyed the bands that play all over this musical, cultural city.
San Miguel de Allende
This would be our first time in San Miguel, a destination that is very popular with retirees and expats. We’d heard it’s a very picturesque place, similar to Guanajuato City, but more “polished”.
After 2 weeks here, I’d say that’s a pretty fair assessment.
We weren’t here to experience just the colonial city, we were also on a mission to visit the surrounding towns and the wineries of Guanajuato state .
The streets of San Miguel de Allende
And while we preferred the varietals on the Baja, we were blown away by the unique wineries and fantastic food in the area. Again, I can’t believe we didn’t know Mexico produced such fantastic wines!
Yet another item to add to the list of reasons why we love Mexico .
Now What?
When I mentioned at the start of this article that we felt a lot of uncertainty, overwhelm and indecisiveness this year, it mostly started when we weren’t sure where to go from San Miguel.
It was the beginning of July at this point, and we were totally unsure of what to do.
We wanted to return to Canada to visit the rest of our families. It had been three years and we were overdue for a visit for sure. With rules, regulations, and restrictions literally changing daily , it made (makes) planning almost impossible.
We spent a week in Cozumel and loved our time there! But, after 6 months in Mexico in 2021, it was time to move on.
We were constantly checking the internet to see what the Canadian government was choosing to do.
With a 2 week quarantine on arrival (3-5 days of which were spent in a hotel at our own cost), and 3 PCR tests — restrictions on entering the country were really strict, even for citizens at this point.
We didn’t want to deal with any of that, so we decided to wait it out.
Where should we go in the meantime?
We had 2 months left on our Mexico visa, should we just stay here? No. It was time to move on. Go to Europe? No, that was too far away from Canada.
Central America? Maybe, but we weren’t really “feeling it”. Back to Grenada? We wanted to, but again, lots of restrictions for entering.
We really felt like we were in limbo, until…
The Perfect Plan Forms
One evening while we were in San Miguel de Allende I had a thought.
Me: “Hey, who is taking care of your bother’s house in Montana? He hasn’t been able to cross the land border from Canada for more than a year now…”
Nick: “I don’t know, why?”
Me: “Weren’t you saying you wanted to live in a cabin in the woods, by a lake, and go fishing every day? Maybe we could go there.”
Nick immediately picked up the phone. The idea was brilliant and in fact, Nick’s brother wished we had thought of it sooner as he really wanted a house sitter.
Within a couple of days, we were on a flight bound for the USA.
A Peaceful Time in Montana
It had been a year and a half since we’d been in a country with English as the first language.
It’s something we don’t often think about when travelling the world, but being able to communicate exactly what we needed while in the USA made our stay much more streamlined.
Even though Nick’s brother had owned the house for more than 2 years, this was the first time we’d seen the summer home we’d be staying at.
Our home in Montana for 2 months!
As soon as we pulled into the driveway, we knew it was exactly what we wanted (needed) at that point. Surrounded by forest and just a short stroll from the lake, we were looking forward to the next 2 months!
Many Canadians own summer properties in the neighbourhood we were in, but due to the land border between Canada and the USA being closed, no one could drive across…
This was very unfortunate for the Canadians with empty homes in Montana, but for us, it meant we had the whole place pretty much to ourselves.
Our only neighbours were deer, and the only sounds we heard were the wind and birds. It was the most peaceful place.
For two months, we enjoyed the Big Sky state — a place where it felt like life was completely normal.
Weekly concerts in Montana. While here, we wore ball caps and drank canned beer
