Hitting the Road

Reflections

My father died two weeks ago. Yesterday, I gave the eulogy at his funeral (you can read it here). In trying to summarize my father’s 74 years into 6 minutes, I got to thinking, what are my anecdotes thus far? What do I want to be remembered for?

The last few years of my life have probably over-indexed into fun and safety. I live in Lisbon. I work a cushy job. I have good friends and we drink wine at the miradouros. Yet I’ve been feeling under-fulfilled and rudderless. I want to challenge myself, to do something hard and snap myself out of the matrix.

So, I’m quitting my job and going on a big-ass trip through Latin America. The idea is one month in Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina, but let’s see how things shake out.

I’m excited and terrified, as I’ve never done a true solo trip before. I’ve traveled, but always with a safety net. Visiting friends, staying in Airbnbs, making lists on Google Maps.

For this trip, I want to go off the rails. I want to welcome adventure and do weird stuff. I recently read Vagabonding by Rolf Potts (which is like the dude’s version of Eat Pray Love). In the book, Potts encourages welcoming the unexpected, planning lightly, and not being afraid to make a fool of yourself. This is the attitude I’m subcribing to.

I don’t believe in a lot of cosmic stuff, but reading that book felt like the universe is pushing me to do this. There’s a Mark Twain quote from a book I was just reading. There was a Bill Bryson quote and a quote from my Dad’s favorite book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Reading Vagabonding felt like meeting someone who all your friends have vouched for. I take this a sign to go for it.

My dad once hitchhiked around the US in the 70s, taking acid in Harvard Square and panhandling free meals from Hare Krishnas in Colorado. My travels have been instagram-informed and training wheels on thus far. It would be very easy to let this trip take shape in a co-work with 50 other gringos and zippy WiFi, sitting in silence for 8 hours a day only to wake up and ask your neighbor what turbo-gentrifier cafés they’d gone to earlier that day. I don’t want to do that.

So, I’m going rogue. My job doesn’t know it yet, but I’ll be quitting momentarily. I’m partially writing this to put myself on the hook. There are other other jobs out there, right?

Heading Out

I fly to Mexico City tonight from Virginia. Once there, I jump straight in to an intensive Spanish class for the first few weeks to get my chops back up. I am a very low-confidence B1 and my Portuguese has definitely poisoned the well in my Spanish.

Other than that, I don’t have many plans in Mexico City. I’ll probably go on some dates, meet the natives, eat some tacos, see some museums, go see some pyramids. Any ideas?

I will try to post once a week. Comment or write to me if you have any thoughts, suggestions, or ideas for how to make these more fun.

Wish me luck!

Recent highlights:

• Punishing some pancakes with my mom, Big Amy, at Northside 29 in scenic Gainesville, Virginia.
• Destroying some Ben & Jerry’s Half Baked. Amy also partook.

Listening to:

• Pedro Infante. Big movie star and singer from the 40s and 50s in México. Would be like if Frank Sinatra + Jimmy Stewart were one dude.

Reading

• Like Water for Chocolate (in Spanish) - this is hard and I will probably give up.

Watching

• Belascoarán (Netflix) - Like Sherlock but in CDMX. Has been fun and mindless.