Hanging On

It seems the more I try to let go, the more I notice how many things I hold onto as part of who I am. I keep hearing in my head that phrase, “Wherever you go, there you are.”
I travelled around 6,000km, plopped myself down in a foreign city and found I had ALL my baggage with me. There I went and there I was.

 

 

One of my bags contains the belief that I don’t like cities. I grew up in the suburbs of a rather large city – Montreal. I remember standing on the corner of a street in Jasper, Alberta while the local hospital tended my aunt’s ankle. She had sprained it the night before in the woods. We were on a cross-country holiday trip and I was about 16.
I looked around, took some deep breaths and thought, “I want to live here!” It took a few years, but I did move to Jasper and stayed for about 12 years. Now, I’ve also spent 13 years living in a small rural community in southern Alberta. So, I know it’s not just a small community I want, it’s also a community surrounded by wild forests and mountains.
 In Mexico, once we left the city and started travelling, I began to relax. So although Merida is a wonderful city worth experiencing, I can’t see spending that much time there again in the future. I highly recommend it to anyone that does like city life, but it’s not for me.
The flamingo reserve at Celestun was amazing and I’m so grateful to the Mexican people for protecting that biosphere. The birds were amazing and in such numbers! 26,000 flamingos, thousands of pelicans, hundreds of egrets and probably more birds than I know exist thriving in the preserve created there. Definitely worth the trip there and if I can find a hotel there someday, I might go spend a few days and see how much you can explore there. That was a day I gleefully hugged my “I love nature,” baggage.

On the road between and Valladolid & Tulum.

Our favourite city was Valladolid. A local told us the population is about 60,000; which seems amazing because we walked from one side to the other. It’s also in the heart of the Mayan ruin sites and cenotes. I think, with a car, anyone could keep themselves amused for at least a week if they enjoy visiting multiple historical sites and swimming holes. There’s a cenote right in Valladolid.

Courtyard at Hotel Maison El Meson Del Marques, Valladolid

I also loved bouncing in the waves at Tulum. I suspect those waves are available all along the Caribbean coast and they are wonderful. The water is warm, the waves large enough to lift you and gently push/pull your body through the salty fluid. It is completely non-threatening, refreshing and beautiful as a classic Caribbean seascape. In those waves, it is possible to forget life on land.

Tulum ruins

Finally we landed on Isla Mujeres – the tiny spit of land off Cancun. That was my third trip to the island and the same hotel. The Roca Mar perches over the Caribbean Sea with nothing between you and the waves but the sea wall. Sitting on the balcony of our room, a person can become mesmerized watching the waves. Each wave becomes transparent aquamarine and magnifies the ocean floor just before it curls over and becomes white foam as it rolls against the rocks. Sometimes 2 waves rush toward the shore at opposite angles and where they meet as crests splash foam high above themselves as though they clapped with water between them.
This is where I found my baggage that won’t allow me to sit still for very long regardless of the view. It was possible for me to sit there, become mesmerized by the sights and sounds for oh… about 5 minutes. I can sit for hours and read, write or watch video, but not waves. The waves draw me in and then my mind goes off on tangents. By the time I realize I’m somewhere else, there is no way to know how much time has passed.

I’m reminding myself that it’s just over 2 months since I broke away from my former life. I can see that taking myself out of familiar surroundings and daily tasks allows me to see my component parts.

There are parts that I hold to very tenaciously as Part of Who I Am and pieces that appear to be fragments from times I’ve been shattered. There are pillars of competency, holes in my knowledge and locks that need breaking. I catch glimpses through windows to my soul and face dark corners that need illuminating. I’m looking for brightly coloured doors to open.
My camera and I arrived in Calgary on the same day and now we just have to get ready for Thailand & Cambodia. We have 2 weeks.