Back in Mexico

Hey Friends,

This edition of the January W&R Newsletter is coming to you from the floor of our airbnb in Mazatlán, Mexico. Reyka is sitting to my left. Birds (I think they’re birds) are squeaking and squawking outside. A hammer pounds. Drops of water drip and I sit here typing another newsletter about our travels around the world.

Returning to the spot of an old vacation conjures up many feelings. There is the excitement to revisit the restaurants and sites you remember enjoying so much. There’s the deja vu - making it feel like ages (and only hours) since you last walked a street, saw a mountain, and swam between waves. And, ultimately, there is the dismay that this place never stopped existing while you were away. It's been 5 months since Reyka and I lived here and it's hard to imagine that for every minute we spent at home, in Puerto Rico, and galavanting around Europe, Mazatlán was always here.

All said, it’s good to be back.

Reyka and I just spent the last week at the El Cid All Inclusive Resort with 27 members of my nuclear and extended family. We ate an absurd amount of tacos and nachos, discovered how delicious a banana colada is, and just relished spending a tropical holiday season with loved ones. Here is a picture of a Mazatlán sunset from our four-hour yacht ride:

In other news, we are excited to evolve Wyatt and Reyka in the new year! Here are some of our goals for 2022:

• Pump out two videos a week on Youtube (including one today on traveling to Mexico and being reunited! Stay tuned!)
• Visit 15 countries to stay on track for our 50 country goal (covid permitting, of course)
• Create a full blown website with pictures and everything (it’ll be awesome!)
• Write Two Ebooks on Travel
• Make Wyatt and Reyka Merchandise

More abstractly, we want to:

• Figure out our financial situation. Reyka and I both have several thousand dollars of savings, the majority of that money coming from past jobs. Our current income streams are my teaching job in Spain which earns me a monthly income of €700 (~$840) and Reyka is making around 800$ a month from her remote social media position. Those numbers, alone, are not worrisome. That’s manageable. However, add in $46,500 in combined student loan debt and an insatiable desire to travel requiring plane tickets and airbnbs and food, and well … Now we have a problem. Figuring out our finances is one of our primary goals this upcoming year.
• Improve the quality of our videos. We’re proud of what we produce, but we still have a LOT to learn.
• Dive below the surface of the countries we visit. Our weekends in France and Portugal we’re amazing, but we didn’t absorb as much of the culture as we wanted to. This year we want to stay longer and immerse ourselves more in the places we visit.

Anyways, that’s about it. The next month will be full of Mexico, travel back to Spain/Columbus, and a few more weeks of distance for Reyka and me before we reunite in February back in Europe.

See you next month,

Wyatt and Reyka