The Start of a New Adventure
Mexico. It’s a place I've danced with in my mind over the years as a potential home base, but something or other always had me going somewhere else instead. Now, with Coronavirus in full swing and many a border closed or travel significantly restricted, all arrows finally pointed to Mexico. I’ll preface this post (and adventure) by saying that I do understand how controversial it is to be traveling right now, but as a digital nomad who has spent the past five years calling her home “the world” locking it down in one place for much longer was severely killing my spirit. I do believe there is a safe way to move about while limiting the amount of movement and interaction and so far that is exactly how it’s been here in Mexico. Having spent most of 2020 in Cartagena, a destination that depends on tourism, I am acutely aware of how important it is that we do keep traveling and supporting tourism-dependent destinations in a safe and respectful way.
That being said, let me take you back in time to a few days ago when I boarded my JetBlue flight to Cancun. Cancun was never a destination I pictured myself visiting. Its reputation for me has always been made-for-tourism all-inclusive resorts and Spring Break. Not my scene or travel style at all. But when I saw that it was the cheapest destination to fly into from the States, I decided to give it a chance. After all, some sunshine, white sand, and Caribbean Sea after a three-day-strong snowstorm in Virginia sounded pretty enticing.
I decided to book a hostel in Cancun’s Downtown area instead of the hotel zone that skirts the ocean, figuring that a bus or taxi could get me to the sea easy enough and that I’d rather be immersed in the more authentic side of the city where I could chow down on some true Mexican fare. I’m staying at the Hotel Selina Cancun Downtown and it has been just perfect. It’s steps from all of the best sites for a traveler like me, including the street food mecca called Parque las Palapas and the open-air Mercado 23 where locals shop for everything from piñatas to pollo. The street art that adorns what feels like every few buildings is stop-you-in-your-tracks incredible and the smell of tortillas being warmed on the grill is enough to have you pull over for a quesadilla, taco, or sope a few times a day. This is the Cancun few travelers staying at those all-inclusive resorts ever see and boy are they missing out.
When I hopped on the plane a few days ago a lot was running through my mind. So much so that I actually gave myself a splitting headache that put me in bed much of my first day. Beyond the easier-to-quell self-doubt about traveling during Coronavirus, this was the first time in my life that I’m taking a trip and relying solely on my savings to pay for it all. You see, since quitting my job mid-pandemic, I haven’t yet fallen into whatever might be coming next career-wise. And though my savings should hold me over for many months in a place as inexpensive as Mexico, living on my savings while traveling is still a scary and foreign reality for me. Then to top it all off, Mexico is a place I have never visited before. Its customs and culture are brand new to me. And that, despite having been in this situation many times before when moving to both Cusco and Cartagena, still sends my heart racing and leaves me tossing and turning the night before departure. But it’s exactly this feeling that I live for. Crazy I know. Travel, especially traveling alone, tests my courage and the limits of my comfort zone like nothing else. It shows me exactly what I’m capable of and it awakens within me a sense of discovery and curiosity that just doesn’t happen at home or within my comfort zone. When I’m traveling, I get to experience the parts of myself that I am most proud of and the connections made with the people, places and the culture are absolutely priceless.
On my birthday a few days ago, I decided that 31 would be my year to fully surrender to whatever life it is I’m here to live. I want to get in the habit of living fully in the present moment, making decisions entirely from my heart, and settling for not one thing. I’ve spent the first 30 years of my life living a rather non-traditional life, but if I’m honest, it’s been a smidge unfulfilling. I haven’t gone all in. For example, I had a job that allowed me to travel and work on my schedule, but the job itself didn’t light up my soul in any way and left me feeling dissatisfyingly disconnected from the living, breathing world unfolding beyond my laptop. I clung to this job nonetheless because I didn’t trust that there could be anything better out there for me. I was too afraid to jump and find out if I could have the lifestyle and the livelihood that quenched every last desire of my soul. This year, now that I’ve fully taken the leap into the unknown, I’m handing over my future to God/The Universe/Spirit, whatever you want to call it, extinguishing any temptations to plan and plot my way through the next few months, and letting my heart be the compass that guides me in the right next direction. My heart led me here to Mexico. Why is not a question I choose to ask anymore. I’d rather just find out step by step because life can be one big adventure if you choose to live it that way. My adventure, by that definition, begins now and Mexico is the first scene.
