Fiona - Oaxaca, Mexico April 2025
Free walking tours are one of my favorite things to do in a new city and I was excited to do one in Oaxaca. I was even more excited when there were 2 other solo travelers on the tour.
One was a man from… somewhere in the US, and the other was a woman around my age from Toronto.
While everyone on the tour was cordial and friendly, it wasn’t especially social. The man from the US was chatty but took off as soon as the tour ended. The woman from Toronto and I both stayed to chat with one of the guides and get some recommendations and then it was just the 2 of us so I told her I was planning to go to a restaurant we had passed on the tour for a drink and asked if she wanted to join.
She seemed a bit hesitant at first but said she would come for “a drink”. I respect the boundary; in case I was a total weirdo.
Two minutes into the 10 minute walk to the restaurant, Fiona and I were becoming fast friends. We chatted a lot about travel and Mexico and our respective trips.
The conversation continued at the restaurant where we sidled up to the bar for cilantro-mezcal cocktails and ended up ordering some delicious tacos. Food was definitely something we both love and had a long conversation about (my kind of friend!).
We ended up striking up a conversation with Sean, who was sitting at the end of the bar and had overheard a part our conversation and he and I had something shocking in common (stay tuned for his story) and discussed meeting up with him and his friends later that night for drinks.
After finishing our tacos and second drink, I had a cooking class to go to, so Fiona walked with me to check out the place and consider taking the class another day.
We agreed to check in after the cooking class about meeting up with Sean and co.
After my class, and many, many mezcal shots, I went back to my guest house to freshen up… and the second I sat down knew I wasn’t going back out. I checked in with Fiona who was feeling the exact same. It turned out, Sean was too so we group-chatted our goodnights (yay for being mutually old).
Fiona and I agreed to meet up the next night after our respective dinner reservations.
