Trusting in the Unknown: A Transformative Solo Journey Through Mexico

Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to embark on an Eat, Pray, Love-like journey? In 2022, I took that leap of faith and found myself swimming with bioluminescence and whale sharks in a paradise called Holbox, soaking in local culture in the vibrant city of Merida, and marveling at the ruins in Palenque, Mexico. Join me as I recount this transformative solo trip to Mexico, discussing the initial anxiety, the unique experiences, and how it ultimately led to a beautiful change in my life. 

Strap in as we journey through the enchanting towns of Cancun, Tulum, and Bacalar, and explore the historic Chichen Itza. Together, we'll relive the adrenaline rush of a hot air balloon ride over the ruins in Teotihuacán and navigate the vibrant city of Mexico City.

Towards the end, I'll share the wisdom I gained from my journey, discussing how this adventure taught me to trust myself, find comfort in being alone, and adjust to new environments. I'll also offer some valuable insights and tips for fellow travel enthusiasts planning a trip to Mexico. So, get ready for a rollercoaster ride through Mexico, full of heartwarming stories, exciting adventures, and transformative experiences!

Transcript

Nina Elise: 0:02

Welcome to the Receptive Impact Podcast. I'm your host, nina Elise. Hello, it is Nina, and I am here sitting on the floor of my bedroom on a Thursday night, and I have been sitting here for quite some time trying to figure out how I really wanted to present this episode. This is an episode that I honestly got really emotional about creating the outline for. It's all about my trip to Mexico. It was a sabbatical that I took last year and it was kind of like an Eat, pray, love trip. Quite honestly and you know, even a year and a half later, I'm still processing a lot of that trip and what that really meant and the impact that it had on me and, honestly, just really going through and writing down the outline it just made me really reflect on just who I was as a person at that time period and how much I have changed and evolved in the amount of deaths that I have gone through internally and externally, and just how different my life is since then in a very beautiful way, and so I hope that you enjoy this entire episode. It's very near and dear to my heart.

Nina Elise: 1:25

This is a time period of my life where I was going through some pretty major transformation and this was basically like the beginning, the kickoff of taking a really big leap. And so, to give you a little bit of context or background and I think it was March of 2022, march or April I lost my job. It was kind of a long time coming and I was expecting it, but I didn't really have a plan, and around that time period I was still kind of looking for other jobs, and there was at one point I had a thought that said well, what if you just took a little bit of time off? And that kind of snowballed into well, what if you just took some time off indefinitely without really having an end point? And that was a very scary but also very exhilarating thought, because I've always really liked to be in control of my life, as I think anybody really likes to have certainty and safety, and so it was something that I just kind of kept sitting with for a little bit, and I had actually wanted to walk the road to Santiago and Spain back in 2020, and then everything got shut down and so I ended up not going on that trip, and so I just felt like the universe was presenting this opportunity for me to finally take this solo trip to go and travel on my own.

Nina Elise: 2:51

It was something I had been wanting to do for a very long time and, quite honestly, when it happened, I was like I don't want to go. I was just kind of feeling like you know, I'm in my early to mid 30s, I just wanted to settle down, but I did not want this opportunity to pass me. And so at this time period in my life, it was a very pivotal moment and I was feeling very lost and just not sure what to do or where to go next, and I was terrified. But I, like I said, I didn't want this opportunity to pass me by. So what I ended up doing was buying a one way ticket to Mexico and I just took the leap. I didn't have a time frame of how long I would be there or when I would be back. I was kind of looking for a place that I could call home.

Nina Elise: 3:42

I never really felt like I fit in anywhere and was going through major transition with my relationships at the time and wasn't sure what I wanted to do with them and how I wanted to proceed, and I thought maybe this trip by myself would provide some clarity on friendships and relationships and where I wanted to live, and so what I essentially did was I picked a place to start in Mexico and said I will start off there and then I will just start to make decisions and I'll talk to people and see where else I want to travel. So the way that it worked is, whenever I would land in a city, I would basically stay there until, intuitively, it felt like okay, it's time for me to move on or I've seen everything that I really want to see here. So some cities I stayed in for a few days, some I stayed in for well over a month, and all of the experiences that I had, all of the cities that I visited, they were all incredibly unique and beautiful in their own special ways. And so I'm going to walk you through basically my journey, through the different cities where I went and what my experiences were and what I did and kind of like my journey and how I started to shift and change in a lot of ways during that time period. I was in Mexico for probably four or five months and it was incredibly transformative for me and I didn't really understand or see it at the time. I think for most people we don't really see ourselves. I think other people can see that more. So it's been really interesting for me to come back and reflect on this entire trip and really see how much I have changed and like how I did change during my trip and then the year following when I did return from Mexico.

Nina Elise: 5:30

So where did I go and what did I do? So my first stop I landed in Cancun, and I had never been to Mexico before and I was a little nervous and I knew Spanish, but it wasn't like I'm not like advanced or anything I can get by, and so I was like I'm going to hire a private driver to drive me to Tulum, because I was not familiar with the country or any of the cities I'd never been, and so I just wanted to play it safe on this trip. So basically I went with a suitcase, my guitar and my laptop and I arrived in Cancun, got taken to Tulum at an Airbnb. I stayed there for about a week and a half until I found a hotel that I really liked, and when I was in Tulum, I ended up visiting a couple of different cities, like in the area, and taking day trips or weekend trips to Bacalar Lagoon. That was incredibly beautiful. I ended up doing a plant medicine ceremony there and I went to Chichen Itza. Of course, how can you visit Mexico without going there? And I'm totally going to butcher this, but I went to Valo de Lid. It's like really difficult to pronounce, but that was something that I went and visited on my day trip to Chitin Itza.

Nina Elise: 6:43

And there was also a day I run a or a few days, I think I run in a car and got to drive around a little bit on my own and go to different cenotes. And so when I was in Tulum like I had absolutely no expectations, I had an Airbnb, there was a bike that I would ride around, and it was a little bit of an adjustment because it was so hot and I was really exerting a lot of energy just riding my bike around on all these dirt roads. And so the way that I work when I travel is I kind of venture out a little bit and then I get more confident and I go a little bit more and a little bit more and I tend to attract and meet different people along the way. That really helped me, no matter where I travel. So when I landed, I found a place called Holistica. It's this beautiful. I don't know the best way to explain it, but there's places that you can stay there. They have a vegan restaurant on site and they have ongoing yoga classes and ceremonies and just like a smorgasbord of different classes and you can get massages there and they have like sweat lodges there and these are like daily classes that are going on every single hour and so there's just so much to do there and it's like this secret garden with these beautiful paths and they have a tree house and like this huge art exhibit at the end of these paths and these little like manmade cenote pools within the property, and so it's just like this really magical place and I spent a lot of time there.

Nina Elise: 8:10

Quite honestly, I met a lot of people when I was there and I'm so grateful. It was so close to my Airbnb and I ended up getting back into Ashitanga yoga and was doing that maybe like three to four times a week and that was really helpful to ground me and provide a little bit of consistency, because I wasn't working at the time and I was kind of like it was kind of like the first time where I was like wait, I'm not working, so what do I do with myself, and it was really helpful for me to go to places like this and do different things, because then I would meet people in these different classes or when I was out to eat, and people would come up and talk to me and they would invite me to different gatherings or events or ceremonies or just to meet other people. And so for me it was just kind of like I just went with the flow. I had no expectations. I wasn't trying to force anything, I wasn't trying to go out of my way to meet people. It was just something that happened really organically and I ended up meeting like really, really incredible people that I still talk to today and during this time period I really had like a lot of space to explore different things without pressure and for fun.

Nina Elise: 9:17

And what's really funny is I received the idea for my human design business in Tulum and I started actually making human design videos and that's been like probably the most popular part of my business, or like my YouTube channel or my human design videos that actually like help people. And this was actually something that was birthed in Tulum, because I had time to really begin to share my journey and my experiences with human design. And something I want to say about Tulum is you know, I think people are like, oh, the Tulum and Audi and you have all these like spiritual pseudo hippies coming in and they're all fake and, like you know, that's true. They're definitely a lot of interesting peoplecom a lot of influencers and celebrities spend their time there and it's not like a bad thing. For me, I feel like Tulum is this portal and you know it's built mostly on water. There's mostly cenotes underneath, so it can feel very ungrounding to be there.

Nina Elise: 10:20

But for me the experience was it's almost like you can get sucked into the place and not leave until you have learned the lesson that Tulum needs to teach you. And I felt this energetically and it was really weird and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm going to be stuck here forever. But luckily for me, I felt like I went there and got the lessons that I needed to get when I was there and then, when it was time to go, I really felt like the city was like kicking me out. It was a really odd feeling that I felt, but it was really grateful. I spent about a month and a half there and Tulum to me was like a hall of mirrors my lessons there, like I really learned how to discern when I was in Tulum. There were so many different people, so many different energies that could suck you in and trick you and manipulate you, and I met some not so great people, but I also met really pure souls there, and so for me it was a really great place to be an observer and to not get sucked into all of these different energies that were there, because it was just like the circus of energies and people that you could choose from and really brilliant and creative and incredible human beings. But for me it was really teaching me to stay grounded within myself and really learn how to trust myself, and a few other things that I really enjoyed when I was there. I ended up staying at a hotel where I really got to know the owner and his family and they were just really beautiful people. They took me to Playa del Carmen and introduced me to other people in the area. When I was there, I took Spanish classes and I somehow went to a private concert with NACO and, just like I said it, met really, really incredible people.

Nina Elise: 12:03

I was just totally in flow with Tulum when I was in Tulum and it was almost like time worked very differently there. I would take a nap and then do a couple of things and then I'd be like, oh, it's the end of the day and I would look back and I'd say, oh my gosh, how did I get so much done when I really didn't do anything? It was like the most odd sensation, but it was really cool to experience and so I can see where people can kind of get sucked into this place, because there is a lot to do, there's a lot of interesting people, time works very differently there and it's a very creative place to explore and, like I said, you can really get sucked into the city. There's a lot of things to do, there's a lot of plant medicine, there's a huge spiritual community there and for me I felt like a lot of it was pseudo and pseudo-spiritual and they're kind of like these, I want to say dangerous energies, but just something to be aware of, like if you ever end up going there, just not signing up for random stuff, just making sure you're talking to different people and then also trusting yourself and saying does this feel right for me, because there are a lot of people that could take advantage of you while you are there.

Nina Elise: 13:14

So after Tulum I felt like, okay, where do I want to go next? And I decided to go to a place called Holbosch and it's spelled H-O-L-B-O-X, so you might pronounce it Holbox, everyone pronounced it Holbosch. So I was like, oh, I'll go there. It's kind of close to Cancun, like I think it's a little bit more north. It's this tiny little island that you have to take a ferry over to, and I ended up taking a bus over there and then taking the ferry over and I only booked a few days there because I was like, oh, it's a small island, there's not so much to do. But I actually ended up extending my stay to an entire week there because the island was so beautiful and, honestly, like cars were not allowed on the island, it was just cough carts, it was all dirt. It's just a really, really tiny island and when I was there I did different things, like I swam with bioluminescence and I got a massage on the beach.

Nina Elise: 14:11

I walked all over the place and, honestly, the best part of my entire trip in Mexico was swimming with whale sharks, which is what I did in Holbash, and you can do this from Cancun or other islands along the coast, but I think from where I was at, it was a much longer trek. It was an entire day, I think. It took a couple hours like probably three or four hours boat rides, to get to the part of the ocean where all the whale sharks were. But basically, like you put on goggles and you put on flippers and you jump in the water and you get to swim with whale sharks and I called them the vacuum of the ocean because they're like these huge whale sharks and they have these flat, open mouths and they just open their mouths and just swim and the plankton that they eat just goes into their mouth and it's really funny to watch. But I mean, these sharks are huge. They're like two or three times the size of the boat that we travel it in.

Nina Elise: 15:03

I almost didn't go because I was really terrified. I was like I don't want to swim next to a big marine animal like that. But it was an incredible experience and I highly recommend it. It's not scary at all. You have other people there. It's a really surreal experience and so I'm so glad that I went there. Like I said, it was one of my favorite parts of the entire trip and probably my favorite place that I stayed and went to in all of my travels in Mexico, and I will say like I really got addicted to mango on a stick, which basically became like my favorite snack while traveling all around Mexico. It's like the fresh fruit you could buy on the side of the road anywhere at any time, and it was like I don't know, maybe a buck to buy fruit, and it was just like bare feet in the sun eating fruit, like on an island. It was the best thing ever in the world, and so that basically like summed up my entire experience in Holvash.

Nina Elise: 16:00

So after about a week there, I decided to go to Medida and I was there, I think maybe one or two weeks, and there's a really big market there and a couple of things that I wanted to see when I was there. So I stayed in an Airbnb which was owned by a guy and his mom in this historic building and they became like family to me. They cooked for me and the mom was so sweet. She was actually a nurse in California and she worked with a lot of celebrities like Lucille Ball and Richard Greer, and so I actually heard some really interesting stories of her time there when she was working in the hospital there in California and I was actually introduced to some people out there from friends that I'd met in Tulum, and they took me around the city on a motorbike and kind of gave me a tour of the history of the city and actually went and took a day trip to Progreso, which is on the west coast in the upper part of Mexico, and spent the day there and just hung out there and relaxed and that was really beautiful to experience.

Nina Elise: 17:09

And I went on an underground tour in the city. I walked around a ton and there was a really really huge market there which, honestly, it was really really overwhelming for me to the point where, like, and maybe I had like a little bit of heatstroke or something, but I like thought I was going to pass out after I was in the market. It was like so overwhelming to me I cannot remember the name of that market but I will never go back to it. Some people probably love it, but it was just so over-simulating for me. It was interesting to experience but I was like I'm going to get lost in here and I'm going to get kidnapped in here. So I somehow made my way out of that maze at that market. So also, I really want to note that at this time in my journey I started to begin somatic therapy and it really added an additional dimension to my experience. It was very challenging but, oddly, it felt very safe, despite being in a different country, because, you know, I was kind of digging things up and like going into my body and releasing emotions and while I wasn't in a different environment, it was interesting because I wasn't being conditioned by my typical environment and so it allowed me to explore different parts of myself and this was happening while I was in an Airbnb by myself and all the different places that I traveled. So I'm just going to put a pin on that and I'll probably come back to that later part of this podcast.

Nina Elise: 18:33

So after I was in Medida, I decided to go to Palenque. Palenque, oh my gosh. I think I took like a 12 hour bus ride to this. It's like in the middle of the country of Mexico. It's in the Chiapas region and just absolutely beautiful.

Nina Elise: 18:53

My favorite ruins, hands down and anywhere that. All the places and all the ruins that I went to in Mexico. There's so many different day trips that I took to different waterfalls and canyons that were just. You wouldn't even believe it if you saw them. It's like something you would see in like Avatar, like just totally just magical.

Nina Elise: 19:15

And even I think I stopped in Guatemala on a day trip when I was there and it was this cute little town and I know this was actually one of Terence McKenna's favorite places. It's a huge mushroom town everywhere that I went Like people would be asking me if I wanted to buy hongos, if I wanted to buy mushrooms, and I was like nope, how could it be Purchasing mushrooms from strangers? But it was very beautiful, it was very magical. And the ruins were magical in the sense that like they were just surrounded by greenery and the jungle and the forest and like it was kind of like this hidden place versus like Chichen Itza, where it was like completely wide open, there's no covering or like barely any covering, it's just this wide open space. And Palenque was kind of like the opposite and it was just very it felt very mystical and like safe and like sacred there and it wasn't like this super touristy place, because Palenque is kind of like a.

Nina Elise: 20:12

Really it takes a while to get there. Like I said, I took a 12 hour bus ride to Palenque from where I was at in Medida and anywhere else that you go, you're going to be taking quite some time, whether it's through bus or I don't even think you can fly directly into this city. Actually, you're gonna have to take some form of transportation on land to get to this place. So I spent about a week there and After about a week I was like, okay, it's time, time to go to my next stop, and I decided to go to San Cristobal, and this was something that someone had, a place that someone had recommended to me. I'd never heard of it, and so I took another 12 hour bus ride to San Cristobal and and I was sick, I think the first week that I stayed there. So I was just staying in my Airbnb and I had a kitchen and food from previous cities, so kind of hunkered down the first week that I was there. I was there about a month.

Nina Elise: 21:03

It was one of my favorite cities and I honestly didn't want to leave. It was very magical in the sense that you know it was this tiny little town that was tucked in like all of these mountains, like the bus ride there was terrifying, because you're just like Weaving in and out of these mountains and you see all of the valleys and all of the cities that were lower down, and so it was a really like hidden, magical city that I never would have known about unless someone had told me about. And what I really liked about the city is that in the small town there were these stores and they kind of reminded me of like Russian dolls in a way. Like you would see the door on the outside, but when the door opened it was like these magical worlds existed behind the doors, like just totally unexpected from what I thought would be behind the doors. And so every day it was like so exciting to walk around and peek into the different stores and restaurants During the day and at night, because it was always different. Some places were open at night, some places were open at day, and so it was just like there was so much to see and an experience. And so I really, really appreciated that about a sand crystal ball, and when I was there I traveled to different waterfalls in the area and I rode a horse to Chimola.

Nina Elise: 22:20

I'm totally gonna butcher all these city names, but Basically it's really well known for this church there it's called the Templotis San Juan Church and this is where families come and they do a variety of things in order to ward off evil spirits and heal their family members and, basically, when you walk in, there's dry pine needles covering the entire floor and you can't take pictures inside the church, so I'm just gonna describe this in the best way that I can. But basically, like there are candles, like literally thousands of bare candles, like just candlesticks, and they're on the floor, they're on the tables, like everywhere, and you're like this place is kind of freaking catch on fire. It was just a really interesting experience to walk into. And then you have the families that come in that they're trying to heal family members or you know they have their prayers or their intentions and they come in and they bring a live chicken and they bring coca-cola and they bring liquor and what they do is they basically sacrifice a chicken in the church and then they drink coca-cola and liquor and it helps, like it's supposed to, like Get rid of the evil spirits and the burps like Help, like in that process, which is why they drink coca-cola. And you have like kids down to like two years old and they're like taking these shots of of liquor and drinking coca-cola. It was really interesting to to observe their, their tradition and and be a part of that, and I felt really, really honored and special that I could witness that and just see what that culture was like, and so I highly recommend traveling there if you're in the area. And so yeah, like I said, I took a lot of day tours and ate at a lot of different restaurants.

Nina Elise: 24:01

I practiced Spanish, you know, I took Spanish lessons when I was in Tulum and was practicing on my own and then found actually people in the area that I could practice Spanish with and just have like practice conversational Spanish with. And there was one day where I was just like walking around the different markets and this guy I think he was from Brazil, it's like older guy, it was probably in his 50s or 60s and he's a solo traveler and he just randomly started walking next to me, was kind of starting to rain and we just started talking and it was just like we just kind of clicked and we Walked around and he helped me buy some things and then we went and grabbed some food and he introduced me to a couple other people and I end up going to like this movie night in this cute little vegan restaurant and they made us like this three or four course meal at that restaurant we watched. I think it was like these Argentinian films and it's just like these little things would happen where I would just randomly meet people. Or like one night I was sitting at a restaurant and someone came over and started talking to me and then we ended up hanging out that night and going to some like random art exhibit at a hostel. That was I'm not even really talk about what happened at that exhibit. It was really interesting and different and After that, like I ended up playing the guitar For like an hour or so on a rooftop, like just it was really beautiful.

Nina Elise: 25:28

Just the unexpected experiences that happened when I was on on this trip. It really helped me to learn how to trust myself and to surrender with each moment and I felt very supported. I felt very safe in all of the cities that I traveled with and Every place that I went, every city that I went, I always met like the most beautiful, like Like pure hearted people and I felt like so protected in my entire trip and I think that, honestly, people are like you know, oh, mexico is so dangerous and you're traveling by yourself and I never felt Unsafe. My entire travels and my family would be texting me and they're like cartels here and I'm like I'm safe, I'm okay. So After seeing Cristobal after about a month, I was like, okay, it's it's time to go and I was going to go to another city.

Nina Elise: 26:17

But at this point you know, I'm a couple months in and I was like I'm getting a little bit tired of living out of suitcase, just living in a country where I didn't really speak the language. You know that. Great, but I'm still wanting to complete a couple of things off of my bucket list, and so the plan was to go to a Spanish immersion before I left. And thinking about this now, I probably should have started my trip with this, but it was still like a beautiful experience. So I decided to fly into Mexico City. So I stayed there for a few days and I explored the city. It kind of reminded me of like New York City in a way, but like the Mexican version, it was dirty. There were like upscale places and then like dirty places you didn't want to go to and it was okay. I was like I don't think I want to come back here, but what I will say is I appreciate that there's so much to do there, and the number one thing that I highly recommend to anyone going cause this was another one of my top favorite things I did when I was in Mexico was actually take a hot air balloon ride, and it was in the again, I'm going to butcher this name, but it's the TOT Joaquin Ruins and so basically, I got up at like three or four in the morning, took a ride out there and got to ride in a hot air balloon as the sun was rising over these ruins.

Nina Elise: 27:38

It was just incredible and life-changing. And I'm not going to lie, I did have a small panic attack but, funnily enough, I was in a basket with a bunch of pilots from like Sweden and Norway and like different parts of the country, and they like they called me down and I was like I need to be in the middle of the basket. I can't be near the edge part right now and so everyone in the basket was like super sweet and they were like taking pictures, and some of the pictures that were taken it's like it doesn't even look real, but cause there were like I don't know 50 or a hundred hot air balloons that were all in the sky at once as the sun was rising over all of these ruins and it was. It was beautiful. Last it probably like an hour or two was. We were up there for quite some time and then when we landed, we all drank champagne at the end and we got to walk around the ruins and I actually really enjoyed these ruins. They were very different than other ones that I went to and somehow it felt oddly familiar, like like maybe like I had like a past life there or something. Maybe that sounds silly, but there was something that I was like wow, this feels like home or like comfortable to me, and I've never really felt like that before. So it was interesting to to walk around and like feel that energy in that space.

Nina Elise: 28:51

So, after Mexico City, I ended up going to Cuernavaca, which is about an hour or two south of Mexico City, and I decided to do a Spanish immersion. I was just going to go week by week and see how I liked it, and so basically I took all day Spanish classes for two to three weeks, and the first week it was like a group class and then basically everyone went back to school. I think this, I think it was like August or September when I was here, and so it was just me. I ended up getting like private Spanish lessons when I was there for the price of like being in a group, so that was really cool. I got a lot of one-on-one attention. So we basically had class in the morning and we would take a break at lunch and I'd walk to the Walmart or to like a restaurant nearby and get a smoothie or something and then I would have classes in the afternoon.

Nina Elise: 29:37

So it was actually a very, very long day and I am not typically a morning person, so for me, having to get up and like go to these classes was really difficult and challenging for me, but I was able to to adjust and the the immersion part of this was I stayed with a host who was so lovely and so sweet and she was like invited me into her family and I had my own room and she would cook dinner for me every single night and they would have the the telenova on and someone would come and teach like meditation classes in Spanish at her house, which I loved. It was really cool to experience that. I actually taught a yoga class to my host in Spanish, so I got to practice with her a lot, like everything was in Spanish, like no one spoke English, and so it was a really interesting experience to to be immersed in like the culture, like that, because, quite honestly, I normally live my life in a complete opposite way, where I am a night owl and I eat dinner really late and I think they had a really they had trouble understanding that, because they ate bigger meals during the morning and the afternoon and then they ate really light and they ate an early dinner on maybe like three or four and I'm like, yeah, I don't eat until like nine o'clock at night and they're like what, and I don't normally eat like a really big breakfast, but I felt like I had to. So it was difficult and challenging for me to really make that adjustment when I was there and like that language barrier was really tough because even though my host had been hosting families for I don't know how many years, she didn't know any English and so kind of like it helped with the like experience of being in an immersion, but I felt really like it really helped me improve my Spanish because of that. I was like forced to look things up and I was forced to learn Spanish versus like talking in English instead.

Nina Elise: 31:32

So when I was there. I actually took a day trip to Tip Botslin. Oh my, I totally butchered that. I'm so sorry. It had the cutest market One of my favorite ones that I went to the entire time I was in Mexico and I hiked almost all of the way up to the Tepetzco pyramid.

Nina Elise: 31:51

I'm so sorry, guys, please like forgive me for butchering these names, but unfortunately the top part was closed, but it was still like a pretty, pretty tough hike up there. It was kind of raining when I was walking up there but it was so, so beautiful. And I just remember, like sitting or like standing in the road and looking up at the mountain where the ruins were and just being like wow, like I would love to experience this with with somebody. Like just kind of like near the end of my travels and I was just like wow, things are kind of coming to an end, and happy that I had that solo experience, but knowing that I didn't really want to travel unless it was with somebody, that my husband or somebody that would go with me and be able to have these experiences with me, because I mean, it's cool to have them by yourself. But I think I was just at a point in my life where I was like you know, I'm ready to just settle down and, like, do this with somebody else. So another thing that I experienced when I was in muy cool and music and dancing and everyone was taking lots of shots of tequila and it was. It was a lot of fun. It was cool to have that experience in that culture and just everyone was so happy and just seeing the families together and they're just so passionate and like it was just there was just so much love there and it was such a beautiful experience.

Nina Elise: 33:24

And I would say I think was it the second or third week, I was kind of just feeling overwhelmed and having to like study every single day and, honestly, just feeling like I just wanted to go back to the US. I was tired of traveling, I wanted to get back into my own routine in my own space and the the final week I got, I think I got food poisoning. I was really sick, I was throwing up and had to miss, miss my class and at that point I was like you know, I'm just gonna book a flight home and just get out of here. I was just ready to be done and so I ended up taking a red eye back to the States a few days after I got sick because I was like I just need to get out of here. I want to be back like my home base, even though I didn't have a place to return to. When I got back to the US like a home home base, I still. I went back to Florida and I ended up helping out a friend open up her Airbnb and so like everything all worked out. So it was like a perfect ending to well not the food poisoning, but it was just the way that everything wrapped up. It was like I was just ready to come home and had a really beautiful place to land and that was my trip.

Nina Elise: 34:29

Those were all the places that I went when I was in Mexico. I don't think I missed anything, but I kind of want to go through like you know what lessons to learn, like how did I change as a person and what were my favorite parts and where the things I was worried about. So, like I said, this was a very transformative time period for me. I did start those weekly somatic therapy sessions and it was kind of like the beginning of my healing journey, of really learning to love myself and feel more at home. So in a lot of ways I changed energetically, or it was almost like prepping me for, like, the next part of my journey when I returned back to the US, and that was in itself was very difficult and challenging for me when I returned to the US and that's for, like a way, a whole another like podcast that I may never actually do.

Nina Elise: 35:20

It was a very personal, challenging journey, kind of like a spiritual awakening that I went through, and so I feel like this trip to Mexico was kind of like the catalyst, it was like the instigator, that kind of like pushed me to kind of go through this awakening and really grow as a person in a lot of different ways. So I'm so appreciative that I had this opportunity to travel and you know there were so many cities that I didn't get to, but honestly, I felt very complete in my travels there and I was just ready to come home and so, like I said, you know, at 35 I was happy, or, 34 years old, I was happy to have had my solo trip that I've been wanting since my 20s, and so the trip made me appreciate the US more and just realized that I just wanted to slow down and settle down and get married and just kind of enjoy a simpler life, and I realized that I didn't want to be alone in my travels anymore and I really wanted to share my experiences with somebody. So maybe it was just me getting older, but it just felt nice to have that journey, complete the journey and be able to satiate that desire to travel on my own for a bit before I actually did settle down. Another thing is, you know, I only packed a suitcase and my guitar and I ended up buying an extra bag because I bought gifts and like I was carrying around food from city to city because I would stay in Airbnbs with kitchens, and you know that got a little bit difficult or challenging at the end because I was lugging around, so it seemed like so much luggage and so I don't know how I could have packed any lighter, because it's like I went to so many different places where you know, tulum was really hot and really warm and then I went to San Cristobal and I end up having to buy like hoodies and like warm clothes because it was so cold there. I was in the middle of the mountains and so that was a little bit challenging for me, but it really learned. Like I really learned is like you know, I'm just gonna pack clothes that I can discard easily and make sure that I can leave a little bit of space in my suitcase to bring back some, some things. And you know, I did feel incredibly safe the entire time I was in Mexico.

Nina Elise: 37:32

You know I was a woman traveling alone and you know I took, like I said, I took a handful of 12 bus rides alone and I was taking day trips where sometimes I was the only tourist on that day trip and I rarely drank and if I did, maybe like a few times, it was just a glass of wine and I was with people and I that I trusted or I was like right by my Airbnb. And so I think it's like you just need to be smart about traveling, like what you're doing, and just be aware of your surroundings. And ever I traveled, it was like people would tell me like don't go to this place or avoid this area, because it is pretty easy to ride your bike through areas that aren't so good, which I actually did a few times in Tulum, but it was during the day and I was like, okay, I'm a mental note not to use Google Maps to return this way to my Airbnb. So, you know, I think when you explore during the day, it's a little bit easier too. But, again, just being really smart about about traveling, and I didn't really have any issues at all and you know, people were so nice and so helpful. I felt safer in some parts more than with some US cities that I've been to, and so for anyone who is like Mexico is so dangerous or traveling alone is dangerous, like, like I said, I never felt unsafe. I just made sure to be smart about where I was at and who I was interacting with and what parts of the city that I was in. And I really appreciated this trip because it taught me how to be more in flow and how to relax and just trust the universe, trust myself. It was a very surreal experience where I wasn't, I wasn't working, and you know I was able to fully give myself that time off to be like OK, like let's get to to know yourself a little bit more Because, honestly, when you're in another country and you don't know anyone and you don't know the language, you learn a lot about yourself and the fact that you're in a different environment.

Nina Elise: 39:34

It's like you're not being triggered by a familiar environment that causes you to act in your normal, comfortable ways, like you're forced to do things in a different way. You surprise yourself in the way that you react and behave and how you do things. And so I really really learned a lot about myself when I was traveling and like how I can I can react to things or like, if things got hard, like what did I do in those situations? Or when things are really great, like where did my mind go or what were the things that I did. And so I really kind of really got closer to myself when I was traveling in that way and I learned how to really trust myself in a deeper way. You know I've traveled solo in different countries before, so this wasn't my first rodeo, but you know it is still a little terrifying when you don't speak the language and you've never been there before so you're not really familiar with it. So for me it was a lot of like venturing out a little bit at a time until I would feel comfortable, and then I just eventually felt really, really confident in most places that I stayed in.

Nina Elise: 40:38

And you know, would I do it again In Mexico? Honestly, I would go back to visit some of the people that I met and the places that I went to, but I don't really feel the need to do it again. It was an incredible experience and, you know, while every town was unique and special in their own way, after a while they all kind of started to seem the same to me, like there were markets, there were touristy spots and things like that. You know you're going to have your unique special experiences in different places with different people, but I felt like any other city that I went to in Mexico would be similar in that, like energetically, and so I don't necessarily feel the need to return, but also, at the same time, I was also feeling burnout from living out of a suitcase and was ready to come home after five months. So some people may really really love that and they love being the nomad and living on the road like that. But you know, I really learned that about myself. I thought it was something that would be exciting and fun, but I was like no, this really taught me that I wanted to settle down and have a home base. So, wow, okay, I believe that is it. This is the first time I've ever really talked about my trip and its entirety to anyone like this before. It was very transformative and beautiful, and I will always remember this time period of my life because it was the first leap of many, many big leaps that I began to take in my life and the beginning of my journey back home to getting to really know and love myself.

Nina Elise: 42:10

And you know I'm sure there are so many more things that I could go into more detail. I've shared a lot of different places and things that I've done, so if there are any questions, I'm happy to share in more detail or places that I want. If you're planning on going to Mexico, I love to share all of this, so you can shoot me an email at hello at Nina-Elisecom, and if you enjoyed this episode, feel free to share with anyone who may be interested in traveling around Mexico. It's such a beautiful country and I highly recommend traveling to different parts. It's different and bright and people are so incredibly nice there, and it has been one of my favorite countries that I have traveled to. And that is all that I have to say, and I will talk to you all in the next episode. Bye.