Visiting Mexico after the winter holiday; four months, until the end of April. Flying non-stop on United Airlines, Newark to Mexico City, using frequent flyer miles. Visiting eight colonial cities, including: Puebla, Oaxaca, Morelia, Guadalajara, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, and San Miguel de Allende. Each city is reasonably close; less than four hours apart, by local bus.
Living two weeks in each city; more like a resident than a tourist. As I grow older, travel more slowly, with less urgency; it’s less tiring. In the morning, anticipate writing, or working on projects; in the afternoon, anticipate exploring Mexico. This is a nice time of year to visit; the weather is dry, free from monsoon rains; the temperature is mild; 70-75 degrees during the day; 45-50 degrees at night.
The trip will begin and end in Mexico City; I visited Mexico City in 2016, and the city is a convenient access point. The heart of the city is easily accessed from the airport, by subway, costing only $0.25 USD, one-way. During my last trip, I got off the subway at the Zócalo, also known as the Plaza de la Constitución, and the large expanse is quite surreal. The James Bond film, Spectre (2015), opens with the Day of the Dead parade (El Día de los Muertos), and the subsequent helicopter scene, takes place over the Zócalo. If you’ve never been to Mexico City, the movie provides a useful reference point. Mexico City has many cultural venues, including art museums, and murals painted by Frida Kahlo, and her husband, Diego Rivera. Mexico City is an international travel hub, and has multiple locations for rapid antigen testing, prior to flying back to the US in April.
Visiting Mexico is an opportunity for Spanish immersion. I enjoy learning foreign language, and while apps like Duolingo are beneficial, nothing takes the place of speaking with locals on a daily basis. Learned Mandarin for five trips to China (2008-2012); learned Russian and German traveling on the Trans-Siberian railroad in 2010; learned Spanish visiting Mexico in 2016, Dominican Republic in 2017, and Cuba in 2018. My language skills are functional at best, however, locals often seem to appreciate the effort. Studied French in high school, didn’t enjoy it, likely, because there was limited, practical application. When it comes to learning a foreign language, there’s something to be said about the value of being a life-long student; the value of neuro-plasticity, and challenging the brain.
I would like to visit Central America: Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, and Belize. Traveling in the winter is ideal; temperatures are comfortable, and the weather is dry, free from monsoon rains; however, the current travel restrictions are cumbersome, particularly for Costa Rica.
Travel budget for Mexico is $1,000 per month; lodging (AirBnB) is quite affordable. Travel budget this past fall, visiting the national parks, was $1,500 per month. I often annualize travel expenses to evaluate affordability; given a travel budget, could a person afford to travel year over year, forever. Mexico is $12,000 per year; national parks was $18,000 per year. Assuming a million dollar portfolio, and assuming a 2.5% “safe” withdrawal rate in perpetuity, the annual withdrawal is $25,000. In the case of either trip, a person could travel indefinitely, spending the portfolio’s passive income, and “gifting” the million dollar principal at time of death.
As this post is published, the world is two years into a global pandemic, and trying to better understand omicron SARS-CoV-2. Is non-essential travel irresponsible, maybe. In support of travel, multiple vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson) are freely available in the US. The omicron variant highlights the need for the vaccine to be freely distributed to less wealthy nations, if the virus is to be effectively contained. In support of travel, COVID will likely never go away; with effective containment, it should transition from pandemic to endemic. Similar to the common cold, COVID is a virus that mutates as it passes from person to person; the world will need to learn to co-exist with COVID. Likely, seasonal flu shots will incorporate some protection for the prevalent COVID strain.
Assuming that the world doesn’t come to an end in 2022, here is a look ahead at travel plans for the remainder of 2022. Intention is to visit Alaska, including ferry to the Aleutian Islands; visiting Denali National Park (second time), driving the un-paved Dalton Highway to Deadhorse and the Prudhoe Bay oil fields; driving the Alaska-Canada (ALCAN) Highway; driving across Canada on the Trans-Canada Highway; visiting the eastern provinces of Canada; driving the Trans-Labrador Highway (recently paved); and taking the train to Churchill MB, on Hudson Bay, to see the winter polar bear migration, and northern lights.
I enjoy traveling; it helps me to understand the world. Anticipate that I will continue traveling until I find a more compelling opportunity. Acknowledge that travel is selfish, and that it likely doesn’t help others; but, at least, it’s less selfish than S. I enjoy working; I would like to be constructive; I would like to be useful; I would like to make an impact; find a problem and fix a problem. I don’t miss office politics. What is worth my time; what do I find so compelling, so fascinating, that I would work for free.
garthmonroe 