Happy New Year and Second Anniversary

2013 is already here.  And for my blog that only means one thing: we are celebrating Tanama Tales second anniversary!

If after a year of blogging, I felt a sense of surrealism, imagine how I feel about reaching this, two years, a milestone.

One thing I know: I am still in love with my blog.  As in the beginning, I put a lot of love and passion in every post I publish.  I have tried hard to improve my writing and photography. I do heavy research before starting to write.  I tweak all the photos that appear in here. I want you to have a cultural, personal and visual experience with every post.  I definitely believe my readers deserve the best of me.

And it is not only me.  You, the person who is reading this, are the one who keeps me working on this project.   Every time I want to quit, you bring me back to life with a greeting, comment or action.

I am happy to say my readership has doubled in the past year.  At the beginning of last year, that looked like a goal so hard to reach.  But again all the people who support this blog have made it a reality (one that I never dreamed about).

And there is nothing else I do but to thank all of you who have stopped by here to take a peek at what I have published. 

Here are some fun facts about the blog:

• 371 posts published
• 5,616 Twitter followers
• 1,245 Facebook fans
• The amount of page views doubled during the year.  I went from 10,000 to over 20,000 visits per month.
• People from 150 countries have read my blog.
• Recognized by the Washington Flyer Magazine as one of the Best Travel Blogs of 2012.
• Cutest e-mail – I received a message from a sweet, 8-year-old who told me how much she loved my blog and how I was inspiring her to travel the world.  Seriously, it left me speechless.
• Rudest comment – One guy had a lot of strong words for me when I wrote the article about getting scammed in Playa del Carmen.  He said I was making up the story and proceeded to insult me.  Looks like some people don’t want to hear the truth.
• Stardom moment – A producer asked to use some of my photos for a TV show.
• I still don’t understand spammers – Spammers still think I am going to approve their weird comments about escorts, Viagra, NFL jackets, and carpet cleaners.  The big announcement here: I am not going to approve comments not related to what I publish.

Most Popular Posts

There hasn’t been a lot of difference in terms of popular posts.  The ones who were popular last year continued being popular:

• It is just me or is Brazil expensive?
• Bloggers Advice on How to Add More Adventure to Your      Life
• 20 Bloggers Advice on How to Make Travel a      Reality
• Avoid being robbed while traveling

The article about the prices in Brazil has also been my most commented post.  People from around the world write to me often about their experiences in the country of samba and soccer.

What posts I recommend

I have written some posts where I discuss some of my life and travels views.  It would be great if you can take a look at them (and let me know what you think):

• Travel Makes Me More Polite
• Are You a Different Person When Traveling?
• Is it worth it to travel to that country?
• How to Live an Off the Beaten Path Life

What is new for 2013

This is a hard topic to discuss at this moment.  In “real” life, I am overwhelmed looking for a job.  Therefore, I am dedicating most of my time to that endeavor.

A new job can have a lot of influence on how much I will travel this year.  At least, I want to visit one or two new countries this year and return to Mexico.  You know me, some places (bargains) are high on my list.  Anyway, I am always looking for opportunities to explore more of California and the surrounding states.

In terms of the blog, there are a lot of things I want to do.  I am looking into getting a new look.  Also, I want to focus more on inspirational and helpful posts (but those require more time to write).  As the number of articles in here grows, I am thinking of ways to organize the content in an effective way.  I still have a lot to write about Puebla and Oaxaca (my favorite new city in Mexico) and have some posts about my local area pending.

Many Thanks to You

Again, many, many thanks to all of you who have read, commented, followed, tweeted and/or liked this blog. It is very humbling to know that you have used some of your precious time to contribute to the growth of this dream of mine. Hopefully, I will be able to go from a second anniversary to the tenth anniversary!  Feel free to leave me a comment.  I would like to know you.

Happy New Year! Happy Second Anniversary! Keep loving, keep living, and keep traveling.

P.S. If you want to see more of Tanama Tales in the future, please help me to increase my readership by liking me on Facebook, following me on Twitter, or subscribing to my RSS feed or e-mail updates. I appreciate greatly any help you can provide me!!