ASHLEY - April 18, 2008, Flight from Boston to Chicago, en route to Bueonos Aires

This all started when I was born. Born into a family that traveled the world and bred wanderlust into their children. I grew up traveling, living abroad both with my family and then when I was older, alone. I have stayed in one place for 12 years now and it is time to go again.

John and I are on route to South America via Chicago from Boston on our scouting trip for our year abroad. We head to Buenos Aires for one night, ferry to Montevideo, Uruguay for 2 nights, overnight ourselves to Mexico City to catch a 4.5 hour bus to Guanajuato for 2 nights, then head west to San Miguel de Allende for a night, back to Mexico City and then home. Our 10 day, 7 night (two nights lost in the air) whirlwind tour to pick our destination for our year away.

What will we pick? What at the end of the day will be most important to us? How much risk are we willing to take? We are hoping to have answers to all of these 10 days from now. We plan to depart our home in Wayland, MA come fall, for a year abroad with our two young girls, Noelle and Aydan because…well, because we want to. We want our children to appreciate another way of life, to become global citizens, we want to slow down together, we want to learn another language, meet new people, be treated to different customs, live with less and appreciate more. We want to get closer as a family, and have an adventure together.

“I think we should eat breakfast together every morning, be home for the kids when they return from school, take art classes and do whatever we feel like each day.” That’s my fantasy. John suggested bringing a juicer and a bread maker – both symbolize to me a slower pace of life.

“Let’s go for a new look while we are away,” John said. Why not? Maybe I’ll go for short, blond hair, and John will shave his head. Who knows, but we do know we are looking to switch things up for a year. This year will change all of our lives, we know that.

I have been struck lately by how empowering and overwhelming this is. If for one moment we doubt ourselves and stop moving forward on all the tasks that need to be done to get us away, we will not go. We are the only ones making this happen. The tasks are daunting – from renting our home, to getting health insurance, fixing everything in our house, picking a location and schools, finding a house to rent, figuring out where our cats will stay, getting vaccines, transferring funds, setting up electronic payments, managing this financially…the list goes on.

John and I are taking a leave from our jobs for a year, and are hopefully picking up a special assignment we created for ourselves which will provide both excitement and some income.

We committed ourselves to going away regardless of income, figuring if we can rent our home in Wayland, worst case scenario, we live cheaply for a year on $25,000. We are willing to forgo the money making potential we have for a year and cut into our savings for this experience. This is the going in premise, but our hope is that we will cover our costs at a minimum with a part time job of sorts.

So, what are we looking for in our new home for a year? We definitely want safe. We are not interested in danger or political unrest. We want access to good health care and access to treatment in a medical emergency. We want a lower cost of living and a slower pace of life. We want warm temperatures and friendly people. We want a different language and culture. We need access to the Internet on a regular basis. We’d prefer a time zone similar to the US.

We started with the belief that given our criteria, we might as well begin by narrowing our choices to Mexico, Latin America and South America. Then we started by talking to everyone we knew about what we were looking for and then talking to the people they referred us to. This lead us to consider Panama, Mexico, Ecuador, Belize, and Uruguay.

Belize lasted for one phone call until we realized they speak English as their primary language.

Panama was intriguing in many ways, but after a run in the cool early morning of in Sausalito hills, I decided sweltering heat for a year would be too much.

At a conference I asked Oscar who was from El Salvador and did a lot of traveling, if he could go to one place in S. America for a year, where would he go. He thought for a minute, and then it dawned on him, “Montevideo!” he said. It is suppose to have the best lifestyle of S. America – friendly, safe, Spanish speaking, temperature of Atlanta, beautiful, accessible to Buenos Aires.