My 21st birthday was a fairly forgettable event, celebrated with two fellow CSUS students in a dodgy Irish pub in San Francisco.  However, this year I’m turning 30 and thinking that it’s high time I did something momentous.

I debated climbing Mt Kilimanjaro or going to Victoria Falls, but in the end I settled on going for an extended backpacking trip for 6 months through Central America, hopefully diving the Blue Hole in Belize on my actual birthday!

So I’ve now booked my flights, with a short one-week stop in Florida to check out the Florida Keys and hopefully dive the former USS Oriskany. Then I fly to Mexico City, where I will make my own way all through Central America – Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama – to end up in Colombia.

Along the way, I will be doing lots of diving, learning Spanish, getting a tan, relaxing, and hopefully visiting my World Vision sponsor child.  I will also be revelling in my longest ever period of unemployment. Bliss!

I never thought I’d say it, but hey, I’m looking forward to turning 30!