Drop-in tourism and privilege

Mrs. Ramirez on her family's organic vegetable farm along the Xochimilco canal. The land gets passed from generation to generation and is strictly regulated. She is shown here with a photo of her beloved dog Max who had passed. She would put his photo on the altar created for Dia de los Muertos celebrations that were upcoming when we were there.

I recently returned from Mexico City, Puebla and Oaxaca. I've wanted to go to Oaxaca for a long time. In fact, it was so long ago that I wanted to go there that as the years have piled on, I'd stopped wanting to go there if that makes any sense. 

Then while exploring possibilities for a short vacation off the Intrepid Travel website, it just sort of came up as a possibility that fit the time, the schedule, and the cost of what I was willing to spend for an eight-day vacation. I had not been to Mexico in 27 years when in 1997 I went through the Yucatan Peninsula to Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Merida, (Chichen Itza), Tulum, Palenque and San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas.

Maybe it's age. Maybe it's travel experience, but this time, more than last, I felt more relaxed once I'd arrived, the culture was vibrant, the people were friendly and I would consider returning for a longer time period, at least to Oaxaca, and more specifically to the Indigenous villages that surround it which they call Pueblos Mancomunados, six small mountain communities open to visitors. Google Translate helped.

It never ceases to amaze me, possibly because I don't travel all that frequently to overseas destinations, that it's possible to be sitting in my sedate little apartment one day and the very next be in Mexico City in Frida Kahlo's house and gardens or riding a camel in the Sahara Desert, or cycling around on a small island across from Phnom Penh, or riding down a world-famous and protected canal (Xochimilco) in a strange little boat powered by a young guy with a pole as his only propeller and decorated for what was the upcoming Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) festivities, in a foreign environment impossible to have imagined just 24 hours before.

The privilege of "dropping in" as an international tourist is astounding. Each time I set foot on a plane, I do think about the environment. Intrepid Travel uses local guides and tries to give back to the places where they do their tours, including through their Foundation, and they have a B-Corp rating related to social and environmental responsibility.

I consider my footprint to be pretty small. I don't own a car. I belong to a car cooperative, Modo. I walk seven minutes to work when I'm not working from home. 

But, life is short and there are more international destinations I hope to get to and obviously, I'm not alone. From January to November 2023, Canadian residents returned from 43.4 million trips abroad representing 83.9% of the pre-pandemic level from 2019. (Stats Can)

WiFi, Travel, Staying Connected and Da Plane

I'm on a plane right now, typing this, using my laptop and I can't help but think about all those years ago when the first time I ever travelled alone, at 19, flying all the way to Finland for 3 months and how I almost never connected with my family during that entire time. I didn't call them and they didn't call me - except for maybe one time. Now, that was partly because of the way they were and partly because I was clued out about how to call internationally. I know, I know, dare I admit that now.

At that time,  I was so naive that when they offered me a drink on the plane, I declined until I realized they didn't actually cost anything. I can see myself so clearly. Oh me.

No Twitter. No Facebook. No E-mail. Thinking back to that time,  I can hardly believe it. It was like being relegated to some deserted island or something. Most 19 year olds aren't even entirely disconnected from their parents for more than an entire day these days, let alone 3 months. And, yes, I know this sounds like, when I was young, we used to walk 7 miles to school and have to milk the cows before we left.

Now, you must forgive me because, I don't often travel, especially in the last 3 years and haven't been on a plane since 2007 when i returned from New Mexico so I'm sure to be observing things that many of you just take for granted but here are just a few things I've noticed or thought so far:

1. Just because you work for Customs, is it not possible to be friendly? I mean, does one preclude the other? I'm not sure why really.
2. Don't ask me why I was thinking this but you don't usually see a pilot or groups of pilots walking around looking depressed. In those uniforms and those hats, they just exude confidence don't they? We like to think there's a correlation between mood ad being present right?
3. Watching the ground crews with their vests, I just couldn't help but think, are they like the fighter pilot boys of the ground. I saw a group of them heading out on the tarmac, as if they were just arriving at work, looking like a bunch of miners about to start their shift and I thought to myself, now that's a work environment and a group I just have no clue about. I'm curious. What do they talk about when the day is done? I'd like to know that, just out of curiosity.
4. I'm heading back to the big island of Hawaii (Kona and Hilo) and all the little hang loose hippie points in between and I'm wondering, having experienced what it's like to live on a little island myself now, how I might see things differently there. I went in 2005 and I specifically felt compelled to return for reasons I'm not totally clear about except to see a few of the places I wanted to see again, maybe even write something about them on my return.
Anyway, that's it for now. I'll keep this short. As predicted, Turbulence beginning over Northern California.\
Aloha.