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Chiapas

San Cristobal de Las Casas

I finally boarded my bus to San Cristobal and prepared myself for a 14-hour ride. I did my best to sleep, but we stopped every hour which would wake me up as soon as I’d get relaxed enough to finally doze off. After a very long night, I arrived in San Cristobal around 7:30am the next morning. I was delighted to see that I had phone service again and called an Uber to take me to the Airbnb I had booked a few days prior. I checked into my Airbnb and began to get settled. I was exhausted but also hungry, so I headed out to get some breakfast and supplies before lying down for a nap.

Progreso

After returning home from my 4-month trip in Mexico during the first part of 2022, I knew I wanted to return in the fall. I decided not to return to San Cristobal, mainly because things fell apart between Yajaira and me a few weeks after I left Mexico, but also because I wanted to do more exploring. I had been interested in visiting Mérida, Yucatan for some time, and had heard really great things about it.

Lake Atitlan

My first international trip after the pandemic was a 10-day self-retreat in Guatemala in May of 2021. I had been wanting to visit Guatemala since 2015 when I tried to host a yoga retreat with a fellow yoga teacher at Lake Atitlan. However, no matter how hard we tried, we could not get a single person to sign up for the retreat. I’ve led many yoga retreats during my teaching career and have never had that much trouble getting people to sign up. International retreats are naturally more difficult to fill because of the cost and time commitment, but I think this one was particularly difficult because of the location. Guatemala has a bad rap because of violence and cartel activity. Many people I’ve talked to have preconceived fears about the safety of traveling there. But for some reason I’ve always been drawn to visit, and after doing some research, I found that there are several places that are safe for travelers.

Antigua

After my week of self-care at Lake Atitlan, I headed to Antigua for three days. I had been loosely looking for a place to study Spanish in the future, and I had read that Guatemala was a good place to learn. Guatemalan Spanish is said to be clearer and easier to understand than some of the other Spanish speaking countries. I had also read that Antigua was one of the safer places in Guatemala for tourists, and therefore had a substantial expat population. So I decided to get a feel for the city and see if it would be a place where I’d want to return to spend more time in the future.

I typically save my international trips to just once per year so I can take an extended trip at least two weeks long. But after my last trip to Mexico for Dia de Los Muertos, I realized how quick and easy it is to go to Mexico, and cheaper than traveling in the US. I decided a couple months ago to treat myself to a shorter trip this year for my birthday and was initially looking at Miami. Read More

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. Read More