Sex, Travel and The Pandemic

Mexican Adventures, Winging It, and the Turtle Religion

I spent a couple of months again in Trinidad after that rainy weekday night. Most of it was spent working and preparing for my world trip. The goal was simple: Travel from Mexico to Patagonia, stopping in every country in between. I felt in some ways liberated. Being single was great but I was also free to spread my wings and travel across the globe. It was the first time in my life that I could travel to this extent. The "One Way Ticket" life. I could, without restriction, pack my stuff and leave Trinidad with the wind at my back. I was still young, and I had the opportunity to escape the monotony of regular life into a life of adventure and I was intent on taking it.

During my preparation, I would open the world map so many times and visualize the route I would take to get to Patagonia. I would visualize all the food I would eat, all the different types of people I'd encounter, and all the cultures I would experience. I'd eat tacos with the Mexicans, hike volcanoes in Guatemala, and ride llamas in Peru. The list went on and on. Unlike the first part of this story, my mission had nothing to do with restoring a failed relationship nor anything to do with sex or women. Even though sex and women would play a part in my nomad journey, they were just a small part of the bigger picture. The bigger picture of experiencing Latin America at its fullest and learning the language. That was the plan.

So, I did it! Months later.

July 16th, 2019. I flew to Mexico.

I started my nomad journey in the Quintana Roo city of Cancun. I stayed in a crowded and very lively hostel somewhere in downtown called Nomads Hostel. It wasn't the best location because it wasn't near the beach as I would have preferred. But it made up for its proximity to the beach with its proximity to some of the best tacos in Cancun, which, if you've been to Mexico, is saying a lot. Cancun is known for a lot of things, but tacos are not one of them. If your heart's desire is to taste the culinary masterpiece that is Mexican tacos then do yourself a favor and go to other parts of Mexico, like Oaxaca, Mexico City, or Chiapas, or even Jalisco. Back then I only knew of tacos from Quintana Roo which for some reason didn't possess the mixture of ingredients you'll find in the rest of Mexico. Don't get me wrong, tacos in Cancun were good, but not legendary.

I liked the hostel I stayed in. It was so easy to get along with the other guests. This seemed to be the defining factor of most hostels in Mexico, friends were so easy to make there. Most of us were in the same boat. We were solo travelers, escaping our lives back home to venture into the unknown in search of something. What that something equated to, was different for all of us. For some, it was inspiration or sun or a spicy Latin American lover. We were all searching for something, and at the same time.... nothing at all. Winging it, taking life by the day, enjoying every second with the people you met along the way.

They go by many names, travelers, backpackers, adventurers, nomads, square pegs in round holes. But what I called them was "My kinda people!"

I met so many people in Cancun it's hard to even keep track. One person, in particular, was a young Australian lad named Led. He introduced me to a silly, yet highly practical new religion or Philosophy called The Turtle Religion. The Turtle Religion follows the belief that there is a giant turtle in the sky and all he wants is for us to have a good time. Now, I don't particularly think that there is a giant turtle in the sky, but I do believe that if there was one, he would indeed want us to have a good time.

"Before you make any decision in your life, always consider if it's what the turtle in the sky would want. Whether it be work or play, if you're not having a good time then it's probably not what you should be doing right now." Led said.

I took that to heart. Because why would you waste this short life that we have, this blip in time, this slice of pizza, on things that wouldn't make you happy, either now or in the long run. Life was too short to be miserable. We were young, frugal adventurers enjoying life and gawking at all the wonders that it came with.

Led would often use the Turtle Religion as a way to get us to go out and have fun when the energies and inspiration were low. He would always ask us the question "What would the Turtle want?"

He was right. The turtle wouldn't want us to be slumping around, wasting our lives away being boring adults. He would want us out on the streets of Cancun living our best lives as world travelers.

"Flip a coin! If it lands on heads, we hit the streets. If it lands on tails, we all stay at the hostel. However, feel yourself, gauge your reaction to each side of the coin. If you become excited and elated if it lands on heads, then that was the right decision. If you feel disappointed in it, then forcing yourself to do it may not be in your best interest. Flip again and reevaluate your feelings. If it lands on heads again, see if you feel the same. If it lands on tails, evaluate how you feel about staying at the hostel. Do you feel happy and content about that? You then flip one more time to secure your decision. If heads won the best out of three then you must either act on that within five seconds, without hesitation or you don't act on it at all. And the same if it lands on tails. In this way, you're not letting the coin decide for you. You're letting YOU decide for YOU, and that's the turtle way. You're making the decision that you wanted to make all the time but were too indecisive to make in the first instance."

Tails won the best out of three. This meant that we had to stay at the hostel. We had five golden seconds to decide and act.

5..

4..

3..

2..

"I'll go out!" I said.

"Me too!" Someone else said.

"Yeah, I'm down for a little music and dancing," another followed.

Most of us decided to go out that night after the coinflip. A few people however, felt excited and elated at the idea of not going out and decided to stay at the hostel and have a chill night. The decision was split but everyone made the decision that they really wanted to make, and everyone was happy. To each their own.

Some people, however, changed their decisions later that night and joined us at the club we were at.

"It's okay if you change your decision. The decision isn't set in stone. Even if you make two decisions, the idea is to act and not let decision paralysis well....paralyze you," Led said. "You can use this technique even for micro-decisions like which drink you should buy, which girl or guy to woo, or which fruit to buy at the Farmers Market. It is especially useful in decisions that require courage and will."

I soaked up Led's teachings about The Turtle Philosophy like a sponge. In the instance when I would be having an exceptionally good time. You know those kinds of good times when everything in life ceases to exist besides the here and now. When those moments occurred, I would secretly, and in the privacy of my own mind, tell the turtle "Thank you!"

And I would imagine the Turtle giving me a quick wink before floating off to the next group of boring adults in need of some invigoration.

Ever since Led taught me about the Turtle Religion, I became intrigued and obsessed with turtles. I read books and watched videos on the amazing animals. Turtles were the world's first backpackers. They were! They traveled the world, going with the flow of the ocean and carrying their homes on their backs. But one of the most amazing things about turtles is their ability to find their way back home regardless of how far away they have strayed. They use the earth's magnetic fields as a guide back home. This was the inspiration I needed. Knowing that, as a turtle, I would always be able to find my way back home. It seemed like a generally easy task for a human given the ease of travel, but there would come a time when the world's travel sector would shut down. I didn't know it yet, but the Turtle Religion was preparing me for a time when finding my way back home would consume me.