I GOT LOST IN MEXICO - KEEP GOING Newsletter
I GOT LOST IN MEXICO - KEEP GOING Newsletter
Part one of my rocky start at becoming a digital nomad.
Brook Slagle • 2023-12-24
yo! brook here.
Merry Christmas (Eve) and happy holidays to all!
This is part one of my rocky start at becoming a digital nomad.
Enjoy!
I had a dream of becoming a digital nomad…
When choosing a destination for my first digital nomad expedition, I had a few criteria:
I wanted some place close-ish to home-USA (less perceived risk)
Needed to be cheap - I had no business built yet and was planning on building it while traveling
It needed to be safe-ish
Mexico filled that criteria rather well.
And so, I booked the flight.
It was finally time.
I was finally going to be jumping on a plane, one way flight, to a foreign country.
Time stamp: circa March 2023.
The flight is set to leave mid-May 2023.
The plan?
I’ll figure that out later.
First matter of business: graduate college.
Successfully graduated from college:
Second order of business: pack up everything and put it in storage.
This is a process where you realize how much shit you really have, and it is probably the greatest opportunity for you to get rid of things.
After all, things you own end up owning you.
Third and final order of business: get to Mexico.
The time has finally come. It's May 14th.
I am heading to the airport at 5am for a flight at 8am.
I start to get tingles in my stomach, butterflies.
Is this really happening?
I get through security, and get ready to board the first flight to Atlanta.
It sets in.
Damn. I am really about to get on this plane to Mexico, without a flight back.
And I know I am belaboring this point, but I had NEVER done this before.
I HAVE gone on cross-country road trips, flown across the USA and back. But never outside the country.
This was my first international flight. And my first one way flight.
And now I was really doing it, I was beginning the true digital nomad lifestyle.
As I landed in Atlanta and was getting ready to board my flight to my final destination, I got a little antsy.
I thought to myself…
“I should probably download a guidebook. It would be a good idea to know what I am getting myself into.” and I did just that.
And so… I browsed the Lonely Planet guidebook on my flight, looking at recommendations. Slowly I started to see turquoise waters out the window and white sand beaches followed.
I was arriving in paradise.
But… This is probably a good time to disclose a fact:
I HAD NO PLAN.
I had no reservations, no accommodations, no friends already there.
I was by definition WINGING IT.
I had to figure it out. I had one goal: get to downtown Cancun and find a hostel to sleep at.
Fortunately, I read the guidebook while on the flight and figured out a couple of things:
DON’T get a taxi at the airport unless necessary - they charge crazy fees and rip off tourists.
DO get a bus ride into downtown, that’s where all the cheap hostels are at.
I got off the plan and the culture shock hit me. Everything was in Spanish. This was just the beginning.
I attempted to follow the guidebooks recommendations, and after figuring out how customs worked, I made my way though. My bag was searched for illegal foods and passed with flying colors.
Then I was spat outside into a courtyard of screaming taxista’s (taxi drivers) all trying to get my money to give me a ride to a resort.
The tropical warmth hit me, and it was HOT. 90% humidity and 95 °F (35 °C).
It took a while, but I eventually found the bus counter, and the lady behind it asked if I could use efectivo (cash) to pay for my ticket.
Ha. she thought I planned enough to have pesos…
Guess what? I had ZERO pesos on me. In the end, I paid a HEFTY conversion fee but got a ticket into downtown Cancun.
She was kind enough to point me in the right direction with broken Spanglish and my sub-kindergarten level Spanish understood it.
I found my bus line. I stood there for a few minutes, waiting for the bus to arrive.
And then I found JESUS.
Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow →
As always…
KEEP GOING
B.S.