A SUMMARY OF MAY
Like most of the past several months, May has been a whirlwind. The first two weeks of the month started in Mexico City and ended in the small town where I grew up- Lafayette, Colorado (just outside of Boulder).
After two weeks in Mexico City visiting museums, seeing old friends, and making new ones, I flew to San Juan, Puerto Rico for a week. I have been dreaming of seeing Puerto Rico for many years. When I lived in Miami in 2017, I had my tickets booked for a long weekend in San Juan. Then suddenly I got laid off, left the state, and had to cancel the trip. Six years later, I managed to make it there.
My reason for going was the WITS conference. Women In Travel Summit. A gathering for travelers, travel creators, and travel bloggers. Majority women. I’ll be honest that I was a bit nervous to go. Even after 20 years of travel, and 18 months of focused content creation, I felt like an imposter. In this new world of travel, expertise is awarded to those with the highest number of online followers. Praise is awarded to those who manage to stay for free at hotels and book brand partnerships. And that’s great for them. But if I’m being honest, these goalposts have lately left me feeling, well, not good enough. Not qualified enough.
This contemporary travel industry often pushes the idea of “quitting your 9-5 and start living your life to the fullest and travel, travel, travel.” You see it in the targeted ads on social media, the posts, and the reels of travel influencers on Instagram. Quit! Travel! Be free! Being in the industry, it’s hard not to get swallowed up by this idea. To start feeling inadequate if you’re not doing it “right.” But then I remember, this is my life already. It has been for the past 20 years. I’m tired, and that’s okay. I’ve just done everything in reverse.
So it was with these feelings I’ve been processing for the past few months that I arrived in Puerto Rico. Feeling a little insecure. I have less than 3k Instagram followers. Just under 5000 YouTube subscribers. Can I still be a travel expert with such low numbers? Am I good enough?
But I arrived to find and meet incredible women. Genuine, kind, and open-minded women. Travel hackers, experienced bloggers, newer travelers, and those with full-time jobs who traveled locally on weekends. Even women who just enjoy travel and aren’t focused on content creation. It was refreshing.
The first two days in Puerto Rico were spent exploring the island. WITS organized several group tours, free to us and paid for by the conference, that allowed us to really experience what Puerto Rico has to offer. I went cliff jumping in the Yunque Rainforest and spent an entire day visiting various beaches to the west of the island. All with smart, kind, and brilliant women. New friends.
The three days of the WITS conference passed by quickly with sessions on improving SEO traffic on your blog, how to build an e-course, an evening welcome party, a night of awards, and a goodbye brunch where the next WITS conference would be next year - Salt Lake City. It was announced by the state’s tourism representative singing an original song, with the voice of Frank Sinatra, and lyrics about Utah’s beauty.
On my way back to Colorado, I made a quick two-day stop in Miami to visit some old friends.
I’ve now been back in Lafayette, CO for one week- the place where I grew up. My sister and mom live in California, but we’ve all met here for a little reunion for a few weeks along with my new nieces, and my sister’s boyfriend. I’ve pretty much abandoned everything I usually work on each day - blog, YouTube, etc. to spend time with them.
HIGHS AND LOWS OF MEXICO CITY
After 6 weeks of travel around the Jalisco, Guanajuato, and Querétaro provinces, I was excited to end my Mexico trip with two weeks in Ciudad Mexico. But that excitement almost immediately turned to surprise and sadness. I had posted a video on Instagram/TikTok about my first day in Mexico City, and immediately began to receive hate. Locals accusing me of being a gentrifier. That I had better be paying taxes. That I should learn to speak Spanish if I am going to be in their country (I do speak Spanish, but speak English on social media). Comments telling me “gringa, go home,” “go back to your fucking country,” “we don’t want you here.”
I spent my first two days in Mexico City crying. I know what you’re thinking- ignore people online. They’re trolls. They’re haters. They don’t know you. But I am sensitive, and I take it all in. I started getting anxious about leaving the house, wondering if this person or that person on the street actually wished me harm. That through their smiles and laughs they were actually wishing I would go back to my fucking country. Yes, they’re internet trolls, but they do exist somewhere in the real world. But who are they?
Ultimately I deleted TikTok and haven’t re-downloaded it again since. I imagine the 86 hateful comments have now multiplied, but I’ll never see them. And that’s fine with me. It was a total mindfuck. Everyone I met throughout Mexico was amazing and kind. Everyone I met in the street in Mexico City was fantastic. All my Mexican friends couldn’t believe it. Online I was hated.
On one hand, I understood them. Lots of Americans have been moving to cdmx since the pandemic. I’m sure most of them don’t pay taxes, and lots of them might not speak Spanish. Prices are rising, inflation is awful, and gentrification is harmful to communities. That must be very frustrating to feel that foreigners are making your life worse. On the other hand, as local friends explained to me, Americans were moving to the La Condesa neighborhood. An already wealthy barrio in cdmx, which has historically been expensive, and reserved for wealthy Mexicans. Gentrification is moving into lower-income neighborhoods and changing them so that only wealthy people can afford to live there. Gentrification is not Americans moving into wealthy neighborhoods and agreeing to pay the prices that local landlords are charging.
Of course, this conversation is much deeper, with years of development, modifications, and government corruption contributing to the changing face of the city. But it’s hard to be thrust into the center of it all, and be made out to be the representative of the problem, after just 48 hours in the city for the first time.
After the first hard days, and deleting TikTok, I really began to enjoy the city. I saw my friend Gesce who I met studying in Florence, Italy a few years ago. My friend Stephen, who I first met in China 16 years ago, was in town visiting his boyfriend, Antonio, who I also got to meet. I ate tacos, went to museums, and parks, and went shopping in local markets.
In the end, I enjoyed myself. But I’m not sure when I’ll be back to cdmx, if at all.
WHAT’S NEXT
I’m tired. I’m tired of traveling just to travel. It no longer has the same excitement it once had. In my 20’s, staying in hostels, meeting people, making friends, seeing new things. Travel will never not be a part of my life, but it’s going to look different moving forward. The most rewarding trips of my life were the ones with a purpose- the Camino de Santiago in Spain, the Transsiberrean Train in Russia, and studying yoga in India.
About a month ago, I got a notification on my phone from my astrology app. It read: “It’s okay to change your priorities.”
In that moment, a lot of things really clicked into place for me. Things I had been feeling for months: doubt, burnout, anxiety. I realized my priorities were changing, but my mind was slow to catch up.
My sister recently had a baby. My family is expanding. I want to be near them. There are many reasons I have chosen to live outside of the United States these last many years of my life. But now with my changing family, my desire to be near them is becoming stronger than my anger and frustration with my country.
I honestly don’t know exactly what is next. But I do know that I want to spend the next several months feeling calmer. Staying in one place. And… applying to jobs in San Francisco. If you know of anything, let me know!
Travel will never cease to exist in my life, but it will surely be starting to look a little different.
ARGENTINA GUIDES ON SALE
May 25 was a holiday in Argentina, celebrating the country’s independence. On that day, I ran a one-day sale for 25% off all of my Argentina guides on the Thatch app. As a special thank you to those who subscribe to my newsletter, I want to extend that discount to you and only you. From now until June 8, you can get 25% off of ANY Argentina guide. That’s 25% off the best-selling “Buenos Aires in 10 Days” Itinerary, what to do in Mendoza, Cordoba, Puerto Madryn, Bariloche, Salta & Jujuy, etc.
THANK YOU
As always, thank you to all of you who support me and my work. Thank you for reading my words and watching my videos. Buying me coffee and donating to my blog. My travels are self-funded, and I truly appreciate all your continued support and encouragement.