Looking back at 2025…and forward to 2026 (the year everything changes).
I’ve been writing these year-end posts ever since I started this blog in 2013. I always say it: I do these year-end posts as much for ourselves as for our readers. It allows me to reflect on the past year and compare what we achieved against the expectations we had for the year. I often look back at some of my old recaps to remember some of the places we’ve been and recapture certain memories.
Our recap from last year: Looking back at 2024…and forward to 2025 (and more travel)
2025 was the year both my parents died. Travel during the year revolved around that as well as the liquidation of a Mexican bank. More on that below.
2025 was also the year that we obtained, after 5 years, our permanent residency in Spain. That means we’ll be getting back to full-time travel in 2026.
Details on all that below.
A quick summary of 2025
January
I had mentioned at the end of last year’s year-end post that our landlord wanted to terminate our lease. He “wanted to give it to his son” (quotation marks because that’s usually a bullshit reason – a clause in any Spanish rental contract that allows an owner to retake the property after a year, usually to sell).
So we had spent the first week of January looking at apartments and found one. We told our landlord and he abruptly changed his mind: we could stay in the apartment for another year. That suited us. As I’ve previously mentioned, we needed to have a lease until the end of the year to be able to qualify for permanent residency. Once we had that we would terminate our contract.
A detailed post on our experience with our landlord in the context of rental rights in Spain.
Having survived the early year scare, we settled in and planned a trip for February.
February
We had planned a trip covering eastern Andalusia that would take us up through Alicante province: covering places such as Almeria, Cartagena, Murcia, Villajoyosa, Benidorm, Calpe, Guadalest and Denia.
We were in Calpe when I had a call from my mother. She had been taken to the hospital because of a bad cough/infection/dehydration. That doesn’t sound serious but it was – she had been suffering from lung problems for 10 years and doctors had only made it worse.
But she had other issues including severe arterial blocking. Doctors wanted her to stay in the hospital but she was having none of it. She didn’t want to be in a hospital at the mercy of doctors.
A few days later, back at home, we talked. She asked me to come to Mexico: “I’m going to die” she said, “and I would like you here with me”.
March
A week later I flew to Mexico. My mom was visibly weaker and pale. But she was happy to see me.
We spent 10 days together. On some days she was fine, we would go out for coffee and breakfast, sometime take a little walk. On other days she just wanted to lay down and rest, hooked up to the oxygen machine that she had rented.
On March 11th she died, her heart giving out. I held her hands during her final moments. She was 78 years old.
Besides Lissette, my mom was the most important person in my life. She was unconventional and adventurous, having lived in both Thailand and Mexico but having travelled all over Africa, Oceania and Asia. It was my mom who introduced me to travel.
I wrote in depth about both my mom (and my dad) in this post: Celebrating Two Lives.
April and May
Back in Spain with Lissette, April and May were mostly about getting through the paperwork and bureaucracy having to do with my mom’s death. Although my mom had been well prepared, there was still a lot to do and organize. It was also an emotionally difficult time to tell the truth and I wasn’t up to doing much.
In late May I got a message from Louise, my dad’s wife “your dad has been hospitalized. He has a cancerous tumour”. He was given 3-4 months to live. I told Louise we would come to Canada to spend time with my dad in his final moments.
June
My dad had been sent home but relapsed a few weeks later and was re-hospitalized. It was late June and within a few days were on the plane to Canada.
My dad was in the hospital in Levis, right across the river from Quebec City. Right off the plane, we visited him. I don’t think my dad recognized either of us on that first visit, his brain functions were limited because of the tumour.
We had rented an apartment in Quebec City and explored the city while also visiting my dad a couple of times a week. He was actually getting better it seemed, more lucid because of the drugs which reduced the swelling of the tumour.
July
Being back in Canada (the first time in 5 years) ended up being practical: I still had a few things related to my mom’s death that I could only arrange in person. So we took 10 days to visit Ottawa and Montreal and sort things out with banks and notaries.
We were back in Quebec City when I got word that one of the banks that my mom had investments in was being charged for money laundering by the US Treasury. What to do? We decided to go to Mexico and get the money out.
August
The first week of August we were in San Miguel de Allende resolving our banking problem. In hindsight we made the right decision, because CI Banco was put into liquidation by the authorities in October.
Being back in San Miguel (the 3rd time in less than a year) was bittersweet. It was great spending time there with Lissette, she ended up falling in love with the city. But every corner I turned brought back memories of my mom.
During our week in Mexico I got word that my father died.
Back in Quebec City, we attended my dad’s wake. My dad was a well-known figure in the town of Ste. Marie de Beauce and we saw a lot of people, most who were strangers but a few who had been childhood friends. One of the best aspects of this trip was rekindling some friendships.
It had been 5 years since our last time in Canada and much has changed. I wrote about it here: What’s Canada like in 2025?
September
We came back to Spain in early September. We had some issues with Air Canada but they were resolved and we were refunded…unlike my battles with crappy Iberia that have now dragged on for more than a year.
The first thing we did upon getting back was putting our paperwork together for our application for Permanent Residency. Done, we sent them off to our lawyer.
Otherwise September was about settling back in after a busy few months of travelling.
October
October was about getting physicals. We hadn’t been to doctors in 5 years so it was due, especially with our plans to go back to full-time travel in 2026.
There was nothing catastrophic, but we both have medical issues that we could be better about. In mid-October we resolved to get better: we began dieting and working out. As I write this in late December, we’ve both lost about 10 lbs and can fit in pants that we haven’t been able to get into in years. And honestly, we don’t miss the sweets, pizza and pasta. We’ll be continuing our better habits into the new year.
November
In early November we got notice that we had been approved for permanent residency in Spain. Finally, after 5 years.
More here on our Spain-only blog: We got our Permanent Residency in Spain! Reflections and on where we go from here…
What it means to us is that we have a lot more liberty as far as travel goes. We no longer have to be tied down to a lease in Spain and we aren’t really restricted in how much time we can be outside of Spain.
It means we’ll be going back to full-time travel in 2026.
We went for the usual fingerprint appointment and then, a couple of weeks later, went back to the foreigner’s office and picked up our permanent Residency cards. It was official.
With the end in sight here in Granada, we also had to put the gas on exploration in the region. In late November we spent a night in Jaén (a very underrated city) and then explored the twin UNESCO cities of Ubeda and Baeza. We still have a few places to explore – sometime in the new year I’ll have a post on the best day trips from Granada, all special places in the province.
December
On the 1st of December I paid the rent and had the pleasure of telling our landlord that we would be terminating our contract (and vacating the premises on the 31st of January).
Since then we’ve been getting our documents and belongings in order. We’ve downsized in preparation over the last couple of years but we still need to clean out a few things – the goal being to travel with 2 carry-on sized suitcases and 2 small backpacks. Nothing more.
We’ve also done some planning for 2026.
Our Plans for 2026
On the first of February we’ll be leaving Granada. We’ll spend the first 2 months travelling around Spain, visiting regions we haven’t been. In April we’ll cross into France we’re we’ll spend 3 months including a month in Provence and another in Paris. Summer will be in the UK with month-long stays in Edinburgh, York and London. In October we will be in Prague (one of our favorite cities) for medical checkups. Prague is the place where we started our 6 years of full-time travels back in 2014 and was always the place we liked to stop for administrative things. Then, in November, we’re hoping to take a repositioning cruise from Barcelona to the Caribbean. From there we’ll explore Mexico’s Yucatan and Chiapas before crossing into Guatemala and going down through Central America.
That’s the plan for now.
Despite having travelled full-time previously, I’d be lying if I said we weren’t a little nervous about it. The world has changed since 2020 and we’re 6 years older (I’ll be turning 60 in 2026 and Lissette is just a year behind). I wonder if we’ll pick up where we left off or if the lifestyle will wear on us. I worry about the state of the world heading into 2026, it feels like the world is heading not towards peace but into greater conflict.
But we can’t worry about that. Travel is a passion both of us share and we love the adventure of seeing new places and having new experiences. It is also about finding our next base, be it in Spain or somewhere else. Maybe life will throw us an unexpected twist.
I’ll be writing a lot more about all that going forward. As I write this in the last days of December, I still feel the weight of 2025 and don’t yet feel the liberation or enthusiasm that I should be feeling. But I know it will come and it will probably be the second we walk out that door with our suitcases 😊
All the best to everyone for a great 2026!
See our past recaps in the Travel Diaries section of the blog.
Finally, this is the one time of year where I beg and remind you that if you enjoy reading the blog, to please keep us in mind when booking hotels, flights, tours or car rentals. It doesn’t cost you anything and it helps support us in travelling and writing the free content you see on this blog. This page will help you out with that. You might not be travelling anytime soon but if you remember us when you do we very much appreciate it.
Thanks for your continued support!
Thanks as always for sharing your year with us. Both the highlights and challenges. It sounds like a terribly tough year. All my best for 2026.
Thank you Ric! I hope you are well. All the best for 2026 🙂