Last fall I went on a two-week trip to Mexico that ended up being a roller coaster ride of some highs and lows. I forget each time I leave the country just how awkward and uncomfortable it can be to visit a foreign place. I assumed Mexico would be a fairly easy country to navigate in comparison to some of the other places I’ve visited. In some ways it was and others it wasn’t, and I think it depends a lot on where you are. But this trip was just as humbling as any other I’ve experienced.
I try to take one international trip each year and earlier this year when I was contemplating where this year’s trip would take me, I heard from someone I had met three years ago while traveling in Thailand. She is also American, and we’ve stayed in touch over the past three years and have even met up once after we both returned from our travels in Asia. She presented the idea of going to Mexico in late October for Dia de Los Muertos. This aligned with the timeframe I was looking at and I had already been considering returning to Central America, and so we began planning our trip. She was only able to travel for about a week, but I wanted two weeks to have some time and space to integrate and explore, so I decided to go alone for the first week. At this point I’ve taken several solo international trips and although none of them have been easy, all have been rewarding in their own way, and always present opportunities to step outside of my comfort zone and experience real growth. This trip was by far no exception.
We decided on Mexico City as our destination for the Day of the Dead celebrations, but this was not a place I wanted to travel to alone, so I decided on Tulum as the first destination for my trip after hearing many great things from friends. And so, my journey began on a Monday evening in October when I arrived alone in Tulum. The travel itself was fairly seamless, arriving in Cancun and taking a pre-booked shuttle to Tulum. But by the time I arrived in Tulum the sun was beginning to set, and I was tired, hungry and disoriented. I had booked an AirBnb in the town of Tulum, away from the touristy areas, but didn’t realize how off the beaten path I’d be. 
I was about a 30-minute walk from the main road with many of the restaurants and businesses, and right in the middle of a developing neighborhood. The condo complex I was in was newly built and quite nice, but was one of the only complexes in the area that was fully built. There was construction all around me, and the neighborhood was full of locals that spoke little to no English. I asked the reception at my condo complex for a nearby restaurant. He gave me directions in broken English which I followed incorrectly and ended up walking along several roads that were dark and sketchy with scary dogs. I returned to the condo and asked another person, only to follow the directions incorrectly again. I continued to wander through the darkness, stopping at shops to ask locals where to find a restaurant in the little bit of Spanish I remember from high school and college. I felt scared, frustrated and alone. The tears began to come after searching for more than 45 minutes until I finally saw the glimmers of light from a small restaurant/bar. There were wooden swings at the bar and I released a huge sigh of relief when I sat down. I had finally arrived. The bartender was welcoming and accommodating. After a beer and my first taste of Mezcal, the stress began to subside.
I spent the following couple of days getting my bearings and becoming acquainted with my neighborhood in relation to the restaurants and the beach. My AirBnb had an awesome pool that I spent time in pretty much every day, despite the construction noise from the nearby developing condos. Tulum is a pretty sweet little town that is in the process of expansion. I heard it is the fastest developing city in Mexico and is on the way to becoming another Cancun. Tourist destinations like Cancun don’t really interest me so I’m happy I had the chance to experience Tulum before its major expansion.
Once I found “Avenida,” the main road in Tulum town with restaurants and shops, it became much easier to navigate. Most people spoke at least some English and I had no trouble finding incredible vegan food. The food in Tulum was one of the highlights of the entire trip, and some of the best food I’ve eaten in all of my travels. I rented a bicycle for a few days and found my way to the Tulum ruins and the public beaches which were slightly crowded but beautifully stunning white sand beaches. Biking around Tulum saved me a lot of time and was fairly easy, but because of the number of bikers and pedestrians and lack of real traffic organization, it was slightly stressful at times. 
I felt a bit safer at night returning to my AirBnb on the bike than on foot and I later learned from a local that I was staying in a somewhat unsafe neighborhood. I will say though that although there were moments when I felt uneasy while I was walking at night, nothing happened to really cause me to feel threatened or put me in danger, outside of the fears that were fabricated within my own mind.
A couple nights into my time in Tulum, I made a friend name Hiram. Hiram is a private chef originally from Mexico City who has lived and worked in the Quintana Roo area for a couple of years. Hiram and I hung out a bit, 
which gave me the opportunity to see Tulum through a different lens and get a taste of a more local experience. Once Clarissa arrived, my days became a bit more structured. We spent a day at Xcaret, a cultural theme park of sorts with an underground river, aquarium and other wildlife and nature, and lots of other interesting things. We also took a day trip to the ruins of Chichen Itza, which included a stop in the town of Valladolid and at Ik Kil Cenote. Chichen Itza was beautiful and amazing to have the chance to see. On our last day, we visited another cenote just outside of Tulum, and spend the rest of the afternoon at the beach with the sand, sun and water. It’s amazing how healing it can be to reconnect with nature and the elements.
Tulum was fun and fairly easy to navigate, and I feel that I will return at some point. Nine days was a good amount of time to do some relaxing, see the sites and feel ready to move on to something new. We had no idea what we were in store for when we headed to Mexico City.
