Im not sure how my body survived this year.  It was intense.  From work to travel to working and traveling at the same time.  I was only home a a few months this year and I am NOT mad about it.   It was jam packed with crazy adventures, almost injuring myself (its ok, Im ok, we are all ok), new experiences, first timers and new friends.  So many good memories.  Im fortunate that I have these images to take me back.  I can almost smell the exact smells I was smelling when these were taken.  I visited 12 countries this year alone, all of which were new countries for me except for Iceland, Guatemala and Canada.  I even took my butt to 7 states for work through the year too.  Its been a non-stop year and I CANNOT wait for 2019!  Im taking it to the next level for my final year in my 20’s and before I slow it way down on traveling in general.

2018 was bittersweet.   I remember my first big trip of the year to SE Asia.  I was FREAKING out. I was at my friends house and I was having a full blown panic attack.  I don’t have anxiety or suffer from panic attacks…. ever. So this was scaring the crap out of me.  I thought I was going to throw up and even thought about just calling the trip off and cancelling everything. I had been on countless flights before that trip but for some reason the thought of being on a 14.5 hour flight all by myself was really freaking me out.  If Im going down, I don’t want to go down alone!  haha Thankfully, I got my booty to the airport, on the plane and made it the Philippines in one piece and had one of the best trips of my entire life.   I even ventured down to Colombia all by myself.  You would laugh at the amount of people who thought I was weird for wanting to go to Colombia all by myself because well… cocaine of course.  Colombia was actually one of my FAVORITE trips of this entire year.  I spent two ridiculously expensive nights at Casa en el Agua with some of the best people a girl could meet and partied hard for 2 days straight.  I had such a good time, I got the Casa tattooed on me and still get compliments on that tattoo to this day. I also lived life on the edge.  I was in Costa Rica in August and one of the things us tourists do when visiting the Arenal Volcano area, besides zip lining cause thats a hard no for me, is 4x4s.  This was actually a great time but about 3/4 of the way through the track I lost sight of the trail and went down on the other side and flipped my atv and was flung from it.  I was a-ok but I was on edge after that.  I just kept thinking about how I broke my leg in Iceland and how I couldnt afford to get hurt again like that and had a mini cry fest after getting back on the atv.  Its ok, I got over it.  Still was a fabulous time but I think Ill pass on all 4×4 tours from now on.

But anyhoo, before I let my rambles carry on for too long.  Here is a quick and mini breakdown of the kick ass things that happened to me this year.

– scuba diving in Bali

– snorkeling in the philippines

– waking up at 4 in the morning to watch the sunrise at the ancient temples of Angkor Wat

– walking through the streets of Narita City in Japan. I MUST GET BACK TO JAPAN.

– road tripping down the coast of Portugal

– sitting beneath the cliffs of the algarve coast in Portugal.  Some of the best beaches I’ve ever done nothing at.

– witnesses Semana Santa in Seville, Spain.

– getting lost in the streets of Madrid. Not really but really.

– going back to Iceland to the exact spot I broke my leg a mere 8 months before. Ill no longer be going back to that hotspring.  Bad juju there.

– spending two insanely expensive but life-changing days at Casa en el Agua in Colombia. I drank lots of tequila and swam with bioluminescent plankton and LIVED

– Spent a week road tripping around the state of Washington.  I love the PNW.

– experiencing the most magical orca whale watching tour of my existence.  2.5 hours of non-stop orca goodness.  They were totally showing off.

– Road tripped from Jasper National Park down through Banff and Yoho National Park. It was INSANE its so beautiful there. The mountains, the glacial lakes. The thick smoke from the wild fires.

– walking on the Athabasca glacier in Jasper National Park

– hanging out in my hammock at the base of the 10 peaks at Moraine Lake

– Seeing sloths for the first time in all their slow glory in Costa Rica.

– Flipping my atv in Costa Rica and walking away with only a bruise on my thigh

– Taking a dune buggy tour through the Desert around Huacachina, Peru

– Getting crapped on by birds in Peru.  definitely a highlight haha.

– seeing Machu Picchu in all its glory while also realizing how out of shape we are because LORD there are so many steps

-Attending Wrkshp in Brooklyn and falling head over heels for simple Brooklyn life which says alot because I hate the city.

– Leaving NYC and heading straight to Oregon to attend the Lets Go Workshop and having a week of education in my favorite place in the world.

– visiting my family in Guatemala and exploring their country with them

– driving on the SCARIEST, boulder ridden dirt roads in Guatemala from Semuc Champey to Peten.  We survived, the car however, we trashed it.

– standing beneath the temples of Tikal in Guatemala

HOW WILL I TOP IT? 2018 was just insane and Im still so thankful for being able to explore so freely.  But enough babbling.  The photos really speak for themselves.