Beginning of my nomad journey

It has recently been brought to my attention that in my last post I said I’d publish weekly. In the spirit of not making excuses, I’ll be honest and just admit that I just haven’t been writing for other people. I’m proud to say though, that during my first 13 days here in Mexico, I have picked up and remained consistent with some good daily habits, one of which is writing. Unfortunately that writing is in a paper journal and it’s just for me. With that said, please allow me to apologize for not keeping my word, dear precious reader. But also props to me for keeping my promise to myself to write every day. 😂 May the winds of time guide me towards keeping my promise.

Anyway, MEXICO!

There are 5 main reasons I chose Mexico as my first stop on my nomadic journey. Of course, my thoughts and plans can change any time- the beauty of being free. But for the time being, here are my motivators for being in this country.

1. Warm climate. This is a non-negotiable.
2. Affordable (more on this later)
3. Great place to speak plenty of Spanish. I aspire to be fluent, so I’d say 90% of the time I’m outside, I’m speaking Spanish. I’ll self-assess as skill level 6/10.
4. Reliable infrastructure
5. Mexico is huge and has so many great towns and literally legendary history.

I’m wrapping up my second week in Mexico. I feel as free as a bird and much closer to the type of environment where I feel happiest and most at home. My first stop in the country is Tulum, a beach town on the Yucatán Peninsula in Quintana Roo state of Mexico. I know Tulum has a reputation for drawing in a specific type of tourist that doesn’t really align with my personal vibe, but I picked it because I found a good place to stay and figured I’d take it from here. Tulum attracts a lot of upper-middle class, yoga-loving, fitness influencer, feathered-headband-type tourists who enjoy new-age spirituality and luxury wellness retreats. Americans, Mexicans and Brazilians are the people I’ve been seeing around the most. A few people I’ve spoken to have described Tulum as “bohemian”, which I haven’t seen here outside of the shops, restaurants and experiences that are placed here exclusively for tourists. As I explore new cities, I’m trying to keep a solid foothold on what a place is really like rather than what it’s dressing itself up to be for tourist approval and profit. So far, as expected, I see some disconnect between what Tulum is touted to be and what it really is.

The environment is hot and pretty humid. The major roads are paved, but walking through the neighborhood, the roads are dirt and rock. So even though it’s humid, it also feels dry with clouds of dirt drifting through the air with every passing car. If you look at the Yucatán Peninsula on Google Maps, you’ll see it’s mostly green and for real, it really is a lot of jungle outside of the town and various neighborhoods. I was pretty shocked to see how expansive the jungle was when flying in. As a result, I expected mosquitoes to be a serious issue, but I’ve only gotten one bite so far. The neighborhood I’m staying in, La Veleta, has a main street with lots of restaurants, shops, cafes, etc. Taco stands and motorbike/ ATV rental stands are sprinkled throughout as well. I thought I’d see plenty of people in cafes working, and maybe it’s the neighborhood I’m in, but it’s pretty dead during the day- understandable since the sun is BLAZING. The place really comes to life in the evening, which I didn’t notice for the first week because I was staying in and dining on a $8 grocery store rotisserie chicken with potatoes and veggies. My first couple of days here, I spent around $60 on food and was like whoooaaa ok I need to reel it in. Because of the type of tourist attracted to Tulum, the prices are highly inflated, so it really does take care and intention to not overspend, especially when that nighttime sugar craving hits and delivery dessert is calling your name👀. To offset that initial lunacy, I went to the grocery store the next day to stock up on food ($40 for a week’s worth, that’s better) and had a few no-spend days, just eating at home. As a result, I was spending a lot of time in the apartment. Sleeping, wasting way too much time scrolling (booo), learning a new editing software (yaaayyy), and trying to avoid going near restaurants for fear of my own sense of yolo. When I did finally venture out in the evening about a week ago, not only was it a lot less brutal to spend time outside, it was also a lot busier. Not hectic, but plenty of people walking out on the road- almost exclusively tourists and immigrants in my area. Lots of people walking their dogs, going for a run, or going to dinner. Still, I do see some pretty big restaurants with beautiful patios that always seem to be empty when I walk by. So maybe the people aren’t having it with these crazy prices. Especially if what’s being served isn’t IG-worthy.

Even though Tulum is a major beach destination I’ve only ventured out to the beach once so far. I took a colectivo, which is a local bus. Except it isn’t a bus, it’s a van with 4 benches around the perimeter inside the back. It cost 25 pesos, about $1.40, to go one way to the hotel zone. The buses pick up in town at a park that was about a 30 minute walk from my place. The rides are pretty uncomfortable as the colectivo will accept passengers until we are maximally crammed in- people slouching to stand between the benches and all. What I’ve heard is they’re mostly used by locals for transport to and from their jobs at the beachfront resorts and restaurants. It took about 25 minutes to reach a public beach called Playa del Pueblo. In Tulum, the public beaches are free for anyone to use. Alternatively, there are beach clubs all over the place where you pay to get in and get access to a maintained beach, a pool, and usually they have a bar, restaurant, wifi, a building with AC, etc. Luxury beaching, ya know. From what I’ve seen, a day pass to one of those will cost around $75 USD and up. [EDIT: there are free beach clubs, I didn’t know what I was talking about. I’m relaxing in a hammock at one as I write this. Free entry. ]So, I went to a public beach. It was pretty crowded and there was a TON of this seaweed called sargassum. There was a thick carpet of it from just beyond the shore and going back at least 10 feet, forcing everyone to settle in a pretty narrow strip. I knew sargassum was a thing, but it was impressive seeing the scale. I was able to find a relatively quiet little spot and relaxed, went and swam among the sargassum in the water, and sunbathed for a while before heading back out to the road to catch the colectivo back. Since I and the others waiting to board the colectivo were near the front of the beach zone, the colectivos kept passing by us because they were full. So I walked back for some time to catch one from a point closer to the start of the route. Lucky me, I got a seat, but that thing was PACKED by the time we left the hotel zone. After being dropped in town, I walked through the carnaval celebration, which was a fair with lots of rides, games, and food vending. I saw pizza, popcorn, cotton candy and some cream-filled pastries being sold. There was a stage where a cumbia (a genre of folkloric Latin American music) band was warming up. A beautiful fair out in the middle of town with free entry for all.

So far, I’ve had a few interesting experiences. I’ve hit up a couple of different taco stands ($5 dinners I can get on board with), the grocery store a few times, and sat on a couple of patios to enjoy happy hour margaritas and mezcalitas. I went to a juice stand and had a great conversation with the owner – he recommended a free outdoor calisthenics gym across the park that I visited one evening for a nice workout. The park was pretty great- lots of football (soccer for the Americans) fields, basketball courts, a baseball diamond, and a building with a boxing ring and floor mats for wrestling and gymnastics floor routines. It was a really lovely evening walking through the park seeing so many families out together. A dad explaining how baseball worked to his young daughter. Another racing his little girl to the playground. Adorable scenes all around and lovely weather on top of that. I found a cafe near me that has chess boards on the tables. I’ve stopped in a couple times and the other day saw a guy eyeing a board, so I challenged him to play. He promptly and swiftly whooped me. Losing in Spanish is somehow so much worse than losing in English… As he explained his strategy to me, I was like oh man this is a lot of learning at once, my head is spinning, but in a growth-inspiring way. I made a post in a local facebook group for women here to try to organize a girl’s night and ended up meeting a kind Romanian woman- the only person to show up out of the 8 who showed interest. It hasn’t been as easy to meet people as I expected. The few local facebook groups I joined is mostly people trying to sell stuff to each other. A stereotype that I’ve seen on reddit about the “Tuluminati”, thin, tan women selling their life coaching services and decked out in really expensive hemp clothing, seems to really be a thing.

 I’ve reflected on how much different my time here has felt so far versus every other trip I’ve been on. I’ve asked myself…why am I spending so much time inside? Not as a judgment, but as a question. And the difference is that this isn’t a short term trip. Yes, Tulum is stop #1 as I venture around, but me being in Mexico is part of a life that I’m trying to make as sustainable as possible. A life outside of the US, as disconnected as I can possibly be from the demanding lifestyle I led there that felt very stressful and extractive. Having the blank slate and free range that I do, I’m working towards being intentional about how I spend my time and energy. At the moment, a disproportionate amount of my time is being spent sleeping and lounging in bed – because it’s free, it’s comfortable, and my bnb only has a bed and a couple of not-so-comfortable barstools. Also if you really know me, you know sleeping is one of my favorite pasttimes. But really, I need to keep in mind the main goals I set for myself while traveling. These are my focuses.

1. Launch a digital business. My ultimate professional goal is to run my own successful business – I know, keeping my life stress-free is unlikely with that choice, but let’s see what happens.
2. Take care of my health above all – physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, social.
3. Improve discipline. I’ve slipped and fallen hard in this area. Focusing has become an issue as I’ve gotten myself too used to turning to cheap dopamine sources for entertainment (short-form media). This is a problem I’ve solved for myself before and am now tasked with solving again and in a way that’s sustainable and travel-proof.
4. Stick to the budget. A must if I want this to last.

Point #4 has me the most concerned at the moment, but it does give me comfort to know that things should only get better from here since I did choose one of Mexico’s most expensive towns to start. Since my overenthusiastic first couple of days, I’ve managed to reel it in and am now keeping expenses low by primarily relying on home cooked meals with a few meals out here and there – mostly inexpensive street tacos and snacks. With my 9 remaining days in Tulum, there are a couple of places I still want to see- the ancient ruins and I’d like to check out at least one cenote, beautiful sinkholes that you can swim in that are scattered throughout the region. More on that in the future.

Write later!