The Beginning: Escape to Mexico - October 2020
No, this isn’t a “solo” travel story, but it was the catalyst that set it all in to motion, so it is where we’ll start.
2020 was a rough year…
some of you may relate.
When COVID hit the US, I was working in public healthcare oversight for a community-based organization serving 30,000 of New York City’s most vulnerable populations.
When we got the message, we were going fully remote, we had 2 days to pivot an entirely in-person, community-based program to virtual care management – simple, right?
I at once thrived and crumpled in the pressure of my job, the sudden “stillness” of not being able to go anywhere. I am a doer, a mover, a shaker (literally… my caffeine intake is unhinged) so when there was nowhere to go, I dove headfirst in to work.
I became almost obsessive with finding resources, providing support to our teams, running support groups for our staff, and advocating for patients and care managers.
My cozy S Bronx apartment became my office, gym, garden, bakery and padded room as I slowly started losing it a little it. I am not meant to be caged, and that is exactly how I felt.
I would take meeting after meeting on the literal road with me, walking the hills of the Bronx for hours with my headphones in, waving my hands in the air as I frantically tried to explain to the State why their absurd recommendations might work in the suburbs but not the hardest hit city in the county, wiping tears from my eyes every time we found out a patient or staff had died, screaming in frustration.
My type-A organization and routines were blown to bits, and I had to relearn how to manage the chaos that is often my brain while the world around me was also in chaos – I was “building the plane while trying to fly it”.
To say I was unraveling would be an understatement.
So, when I walked 6 miles to Astoria to meet my equally unraveling best friend for margaritas as soon as the bars re-opened in the city (before abruptly closing again) and she said, “We need to get out of here”, I couldn’t get the “yes!” out fast enough.
Options were limited as to where to go, so Mexico seemed the most viable option.
She suggested Merida, I said yes without even looking at a map or getting any further information.
I just needed to go.
6 margaritas later, we had booked flights for a 3-month trip and an Airbnb in Merida for the first month - we would figure out the rest when we got there.
Less than a month later, I met her, and her dumb cat, at Cancun airport to start an adventure that would quite literally change the entire trajectory of my life.
Five years later, this initial trip feels at once like a lifetime ago, and yesterday.
I have learned so much - about myself, the world, where I fit into it, and what I want out of it.
These are the stories.
The “lessons and the blessings” as a good friend would say. The magic and the madness, as I say.
They aren’t all pretty, but they are all real. I hope you come along for all the beauty, wonderment, chaos, near-misses (and actual misses), laughter, and light, because this life isn’t perfect, but I wouldn’t want it any other way.
These are the stories
an unfiltered, raw account of the adventure within the adventure of a midlife full-time solo traveler
