Tomorrow we head back to the Belize/Mexican border to Chetumal to try again to secure a vehicle visa for Mexico to drive to the U.S. They did not give it to us the first time because we did not have the correct paperwork.

After speaking to many people in the travel community, their advice was to try again. So on their advisement, we are doing just that.

If they don't give it to us this time round, then we will have to come up with an alternate plan. But I refuse to think about that for the moment in the hope that things will work out and we can head to Merida next week as planned.

We have been enjoying our stay in Playa Del Carmen - it has many great family-friendly options. And of course, we love the warm winter weather. No snow in sight!

So on this note, wish us luck! We will keep you posted.

Today we went swimming and snorkelling with another world schooling family from Chile and we had so much fun. While my kids don't take naturally to snorkelling, they both got over their fears and jumped in the water. 

Yal-Ku Lagoon is beautiful and suitable for families of all ages as it remains calm despite the roughness of the nearby ocean. And it is just a hop, skip and a jump from Akumal so very convenient to get to.

We enjoyed swimming in the water, browsing the statues that scattered the grounds and even managed to grab some lunch.

The Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico is stunning. We have been spending our time between Tulum and Akumal and our lifestyle revolves around water. We have the luxury of the beach, the pools and the cenotes surrounding us in every direction we look.

It wouldn't be an adventure if something didn't go wrong and this time our concern revolves around my health. I have been visiting the doctor to see if we get whatever is bothering me resolved. On the plus side we seem to have found a very good mechanic named Jesus who is currently working on our VW Kombi to see if he cannot repair a few things for us.

Life is good!

Once upon a time we decided to go on a road trip from South America to North America...

Chapter 1 - Poor service from Commonwealth Bank

My husband and I, along with our two kids, were happily volunteering at a hostel in San Marcos, Guatemala, our minds focused on making coffee and checking in guests. We made the obligatory visit to San Pedro to the nearest ATM and to our surprise my Australian Commonwealth Bank ATM card would not work. This was slightly problematic as all of our money was essentially in that account. We had a Canadian account but that was only receiving a small amount of money each month and had not been our main focus.

I called the bank and answered their questions; you know the ones - the obligatory pet name, your primary school name, your favourite food or whatever inane question they happened to be set up with. I was greeted by a helpful girl also named Michelle who said that all I needed to do was provide them with a mobile number and they would text me a new pin and reinstate it.

As I did not have a mobile number I contacted my mum who was only too willing to send me my new pin. So I called back with a telephone number only to be told by the person on the phone that this was in fact not correct and the only way to reinstate my card was to visit a local branch. I said I would call back and speak with someone else who may know more.

The third time I got a supervisor who told me that while the first person may have been polite the information was incorrect. They could not reinstate my card because I could not prove who I was. Knowing the ins and outs of my account and my passwords were seemingly not enough. Perhaps I could send a fax! Do we still use faxes these days?!

I am in Guatemala! With 2 kids! A husband! No access to my money which regularly hits the account every week and pay huge international fees for the privilege of accessing my account.

Do we know you are abroad they asked? Well yes I have been travelling for 3 years though South America and up to North America so withdrawals from random places like Colombia, El Salvador or Guatemala were hardly uncommon if they bothered to look at my account.

They were going to transfer me to fraud...5 minutes...10 minutes... 30 minutes... nothing. I hung up and dialled again watching as my Skype dollars were rapidly being swallowed.

Here we go again? Why had they frozen my account? Suspicious activity. Nothing was suspicious on my account - I check it daily as I have always done since I left for our trip. Let me transfer you again. Sorry the fraud department don't want to speak to you. You will have to visit a branch. Excuse me?

We are in Guatemala - North America; not some small town in NSW that would enable us to pop to our local branch. When are you returning to Australia? Well seeing as we are on a 2 year road trip from South America to North America, not any time soon. Sorry we are unable to help you. I swore at them (sorry mum!).

And there it was! No resolution in sight. They wanted me to travel to travel thousands of miles and spend thousands of dollars to reinstate my card of which I had no issue with in the first place.

Chapter 2 - TD Canada Trust hung up on us

So I did what any online entrepreneur would do - changed all of my PayPal payments to my joint account with my husband and sent all of my earnings to his account. We were concerned however as TD Canada Trust had already cancelled one of our cards when we first went to Peru because we were in Peru. But we told you we were going to Peru! There was nothing they could do they said.

Thankfully my card to the joint account was still working. But it meant we were down to one card - panic was slowly setting in. Our credit card had already expired and apparently they don't mail those out - you have to go to the bank in Canada to collect so we had no back up if the ATM card failed to work.

On the day in question we had spent a couple of hours touring around Tikal with a guide before our plan to cross the border to Belize on the way to Mexico. Insufficient funds the first ATM machine  said - and the second. But that definitely wasn't right. The third ATM machine spat it out with no comment at all.

We had $20 in our pocket and no place to stay for the night - no access to our money and no backup thanks to the abysmal service offered by our Australian bank.

My husband tried calling them from an Internet Cafe while I sat in Burger King minding the kids. Of course that wouldn't work as it was MY card to OUR account. Obviously a huge difference to them but not to us. I was in no mood to speak to them. Did I give my permission for my husband to speak to the bank about our joint bank account. Well of course, it's a joint bank account. Can you let us know one of the recent transactions from your account? From our checking account or savings account we asked...and the line went dead! They hung up on us.

It was the second bank who didn't care that we had no money to feed our kids.

We called back. And went through it all again. Do you do online banking? Well no I don't.

And there it was...

Sorry we are unable to help you. We cannot verify who you are so you will have to visit a branch to get a new card.

We are in Guatemala. We have no money to fly to Canada. We have no money for our hotel tonight. We have no money for dinner. Sorry we are unable to help. This time I did not swear. I was scared. The line went dead.

Chapter 3 - Taking the matter in our own hands

We were stuck - neither bank cared that we had no fraudulent activity on our cards. Neither bank cared we were not in our respective country's in which the banks reside. Neither cared we had no long-term access to our money. Both failed to offer quality customer service and aid our plight.

We transferred some money to a friend who was able to send us money via Western Union. Today my husband has booked a flight to Canada for next week from Mexico to sort out the issue. $500 wasted because they were not there when we needed them. The kids and I will stay behind in Mexico in a pre-paid apartment while he tries to sort it out and spends our hard-earned money chasing the banks.

This is the inefficient state of banking these days. In a world where things are meant to be easier - often they are not. In a world where access to our money should be simple, it can be cancelled by the banks at the drop of the hat without a care in the world. As long as they have a bed for the night or food on the table; why should they care about a travelling family part way around the world.

Let's hope we are able to find a more empathetic bank who understand that popping into the local account is not as easy as it sounds.

Despite the idiocy of banks we are resolute in our strive to live happily ever after!

We are currently volunteering in San Marcos in Guatemala at a lovely hostel called Hostel Del Lago. We are serving up coffee and cocktails and checking in guests and the kids are enjoying the beauty of the lake.

New friends, glorious views and lots of karaoke and fun to be had!

​We have been here for about three weeks and have two more to go before we make our way to Akumal in Mexico. If you ever find yourself in this part of the world, we guarantee you will stay longer than you intended.

Embarrassing stories happen a lot when you are full time travellers however the story about our van breaking down on the first day of our Peru to Canada road trip definitely ranks as one of the most embarrassing.

We had left early from Pisac with intent to drive to Puerto Maldonado to stay a few days at the Anaconda Lodge for a mini Amazon Jungle experience. We had taken our newly painted Volkswagen Kombi to the mechanic prior to leaving Cusco and she had been given the all clear to do the long drive ahead. It all started out relatively okay but when we hit some of the major mountains on the road we knew we were in trouble. As we were on our own schedule we decided not to rush and made the most of the beautiful drive through the Andean mountains. We pulled over for a picnic lunch, scenic stops and even let the big lorries on the road overtake us as we slowly crawled up the hills.

We stopped for dinner at a campground to let the kids stretch their legs and give the van a rest before we completed our journey for the day. Approximately 25 kilometres outside of Puerto Maldonado we smelt something burning and pulled over to see what was wrong. Unfortunately we had broken a fan belt.

As we had chosen to take the journey slowly, the time of our final demise was approximately 10pm. We decided it wasn’t safe to leave the van unattended so the two tired kids and I flagged down the next vehicle to take us to the nearest taxi stop while my husband waited with the van.

With limited Spanish I managed to convince a taxi driver to call a tow truck to pick up my husband. I had booked ahead for our accommodation prior to leaving Pisac so instructed the taxi driver to take us to our hostel so I could at least settle the kids into bed. Unfortunately when we arrived there was no one to greet us so we had no choice but to instruct the taxi driver to drive us back out to my waiting husband while we waited for the tow truck. We sat by the road for over an hour waiting for the tow truck to arrive – thankfully it was a pleasant night so sitting outside by the major highway was no hardship for us.

​I daresay we must’ve looked quite a sight. Once the tow truck arrived we then asked if the taxi driver could follow it into town and then help us find some accommodation to settle in for the night. We weren’t due to arrive at Anaconda Lodge until the next day and as it was so late, I did not want to cause them any extra bother. By the time our heads hit the pillow it was well past 1am – it had definitely been a long few hours.

​Unfortunately for us it was not the last time our Kombi broke down on the stretch from Cusco to Arequipa and we had to invest more money than we would care to admit to get it back on the road again.

As I write, we are now in El Salvador heading to Concepcion de Ataco in El Salvador so we have definitely come a long way since then.

As we are having vehicle troubles (what's new!), Matt contacted the VW Club in Granada, Nicaragua to see if he could get some recommendations on parts or mechanics. And what a friendly bunch they were!

Not only did we get a recommendation on a mechanic in Managua, but we also got an invitation to a VW meetup in Granada itself and lunch in the town square.

Unfortunately we couldn't make their afternoon plans to visit the lake for a second photo shoot due to work commitments, but we had a whole lot of fun checking out some other VW vehicles.

And of course we just had to share this group photo taken by Nahum Nicaragua. What a classic shot!

We spent an enjoyable boat ride cruising on the waterways in Tamarindo, Costa Rica. We saw birds, manta rays, monkeys and even a crocodile.

Sometimes you visit a place that makes you feel like a child again. Today we found such a place in Boquete, Panama. We weren't sure what to make of this little whimsical garden called El Explorador at first, however, we can definitely say it grew on us. Here is our essay in pictures.

Travelling with kids around countries like Ecuador and Colombia is not the norm, not by any stretch of the imagination. But the longer we are on the road, the more travelling families we meet. While it may not be the norm at present; the tide is turning and more and more families are taking the plunge, moving out of their comfort zone and exploring the beauty this amazing world has to offer.

Termed world schooling, we are giving our kids (Emilia 10 and Matthew 5) an alternative education, an opportunity to learn from the world around them. They can learn about Ecuador from a book or they can experience the diverse backdrops the country has to offer. They can read about the troubles of Colombia or they can come to the country to understand that it is a beautiful country, worth visiting despite its colourful history.
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We choose to partake in slow travel – we spend a number of months or even years in some cases in a country to understand what makes it tick, and each of these countries we visit becomes our home for a limited period. We have ‘settled’ in countries such as China, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia and our journey is not over yet. In a few weeks, we will cross over to Central America and start the slow return to Canada, our home for as long as we choose to stay.

And again we are not alone. We enjoy catching up with other travelling families on the road, as few and far between that might be. More common in well-known countries like Peru, we are yet to meet other travelling families in Colombia, but I have no doubt they are here somewhere. The people we meet on our travel journey is what, in reality, enriches our travel.

As a ghostwriter, I choose to write for clients on the road and earn money as we travel. To save on accommodation, we offer our services as a volunteer which creates many new travel experiences. Today we are managing a hostel just on the outskirts of San Gil, Colombia; one month ago we were helping set up a permaculture and eco-hostel in the heart of the coffee district in Colombia; in a month who knows where we will end up. That is all part of the journey too.

Not everything has gone according to plan on our trip. We have broken down on numerous occasions, been ‘robbed’ by mechanics charging through the nose for shoddy work and even had all four of our tyres slashed. But we persevere as that too is all part of the experience.

Long term travel is not easy; in fact, some days it is more difficult than we would like to imagine. But the rewards are worth the heartache and the hard work that needs to be done to make it happen. We aren’t on a permanent holiday as many would like to believe; we are just living our lives like everyone else. We just choose to do it out of the confines of a traditional lifestyle. We might not do it forever, but at the moment it suits us.

​“What will you do once you get back to Canada?” is a common question asked of us. Our response is always the same; we have no idea. That too is part of the fun – the not knowing. That space provides much room for adventure and we like that a lot.

(Originally published on Helium Whale.)