Monthly Archives: July 2019

Digesting the Experience

“Far too often in seasons of transitions, we tend to do one of two things. Either we forestall the ending because we cannot face the grief of the conclusion of an era, or we leap over the finish line and bound headlong into the next race without pausing to reflect on where we have been on the road to where we are going. Transition– good, heartful transition– requires both. Experiences do not change us. Reflecting on our experiences changes us. For every shift between a then and a now, our task is to reflect on what was and, as a result, what can now be. We must digest our experience in order to [go into the future].”—Chris Bruno

Track of Take Two, March 2016-July 2019

When we bought Take Two in 2008, we talked of taking our kids down to the Caribbean, enjoying beautiful clear water, catching fish, seeing the world in the microcosm of islands, and maybe learning another language. On Tuesday, July 2, we finished that dream trip as we crossed our track and motored toward our mooring in Boot Key Harbor, a place we left over three years ago with our then 14-, 13-, 11-, 9-, and 4-year-old children. We left as coastal cruisers with kids, but we came back seasoned blue-water sailors with young adults. The world seems wider now, but the boat smaller. We came back because it’s time to let the kids begin their own journeys, and our family and support systems are here. We came back to the same place, but we are not the same people.

Take Two in Boot Key Harbor
Take Two, Marathon, Florida, 2019

All of us are “digesting the experience” in different ways. It is wonderful, but weird, to be back in Florida. Some of us were excited to return to “the Land of Plenty” and familiar places and faces. Others of us are happy travelers, reluctant to rejoin the daily routines of land-life. Most of us won’t really understand what the travel has done to us until we gain some life experiences here in the U.S. and get a little perspective. The memories of the last three years, complete with the whole range of joy and misery, friendship and loneliness, excitement and boredom—are still too fresh. Even so, I asked everyone in the family to pause, if for only a moment, before a “new normal” sets in and we’re off exploring in different directions, and to reflect on their experiences as travelers.

Happy hour San Pedro
‘ Jay, San Pedro, Belize

Jay: I’m not really a cruiser. I’m just a guy who lives on a boat. I like the self-sufficiency: the boat is our house, it’s our office, it’s our school. We’ve just been doing “regular life” in foreign countries. In that way, coming back to the United States represents conveniences like easy shipping, good grocery stores, and fast internet, but doesn’t really change my day-to-day. There’s not a strong delineation between then and now.

For me the travel was really about the kids. It started as a way to show them the world, have some fun, and learn new things. We wanted our kids to see different cultures and get a broader picture of the world, but also to avoid being indoctrinated in the U.S. with negative things like materialism, promiscuity, entitlement, and instant gratification. While we had a lot of fun in the Eastern Caribbean, the trip really changed when we went west at the end of 2016. We had wanted our kids to learn Spanish, and what better place than Central America?

I think all our goals were met. Some of the results of the travel remain to be seen, but I’m happy with where our kids are right now. I would have liked some of them to step out of their comfort zones more often, but I think they saw enough and picked up enough because we were there so long. My comfort zone definitely grew. Things that would have freaked me out early on didn’t bother me later, and I realized I really like Central America. I can imagine traveling again, being nomadic, maybe spending more time in South America. Having done it once, leaving again would be easier.

Happy Hour
Tanya, San Blas Islands, Panama

Tanya: I’m struggling with this “conclusion of an era” part. This is likely the last big sailing trip we take with all seven of us. I knew it couldn’t last forever, but part of me secretly wanted the kids to stay small so we could just keep traveling around as a family. The other part wants to see the result of this experiment—parenting and homeschooling and traveling—to see what kind of interesting people my children will become as independent adults. Seeing your child transform into an adult is like giving birth in slow motion—it is painful, requires a long labor, and inspires curiosity—and I’m dying to meet the person emerging into the world.

Eli will be 18 this month, Aaron is 16, Sarah, 15, Sam, 12, and Rachel, 8. I am well on my way to becoming the shortest person in the family (even Sam is passing me up and Rachel shows no sign of slowing). There will be a steep learning curve as we rejoin our culture and the requirements of life in the U.S.—learning to drive, taking tests, figuring out educational options, meeting with old friends and new, and finding our places here (both literally and figuratively). I am sure we will continue to travel, as it is more who we are than what we do, but some of our trips will be by land, others by air, and the ones by sea might find us short a few hands.

Despite my sounding a little sad about the conclusion, the bottom line is that I have no regrets: we did what we set out to do. Take Two traveled around the world without having to cross an ocean—her crew met people from all over the globe, heard many languages spoken, experienced the cultures of the Old World while traveling in the New, lived in Central America long enough to understand and passably speak Spanish, made lifelong friends, gave back to the community, came into contact with indigenous peoples and remnants of their ancient civilizations, encountered incredible natural scenery and wildlife, and broadened horizons.

While the results of our book-learning remain to be seen, the benefits of travel and real-life learning are evident: we can sail, tie knots, take a night watch, fish, cook, play musical instruments, solve problems, make art, wash dishes, converse intelligibly with people of all ages, perform in public, hail a taxi or catch a bus, fix broken things, weave baskets, teach a class, get lost and find the way back, express our thoughts in writing, freedive, speak another language, drive on the other side of the road, and make friends cross-culturally. Not all of us can do all of these things, of course, but a wide range of skills and talents are evident, and I believe we have all developed a kind of confidence and comfort in the world that only travel can impart. I am not minimizing the difficulty and discomfort of rejoining the flow of life in our own culture, but as citizens of the world, I think we have a leg up. Furthermore, I have memories to cherish (and write about) for a lifetime, and without a doubt, more adventures to anticipate.

Eli, Finca Paraiso
Eli, Finca Paraiso Hot Waterfall, Guatemala

“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.”              –Roy Batty (Blade Runner)

Eli: Now that we’re back, I’ve had some time to reflect on our grand voyage. So, what exactly did this whole trip mean to me? Well, my home was there, so it wasn’t really a “trip.” We only left people behind. We had all our stuff; we did chores; we did school. The only thing missing was the social environment in which we would have been immersed if we had stayed. But we didn’t stay. We went far away and had all sorts of awesome adventures instead of staying in the same place with the same people. We spent many years and months away from the United States. My “social development” basically stopped when we left our society, and barely advanced in all our time among the islands. I don’t have a phone, I don’t know how to pick up a check, I don’t know how to drive a car, I don’t have a job, I don’t even know very many people here. I’ve been left behind by all my friends, and I feel like I don’t fit in.

But I’m not sorry I missed out. Not at all. I don’t think I ever fit in, and I’ve never been very comfortable around other people. I like to travel. I liked seeing new places, and freediving and hiking and swimming and sailing every day. It was an amazing adventure. It was my life. But now that phase is over, and we’re here in the Keys, and I’m feeling both like I missed out on all my friends’ lives and like I would have regretted staying and missing out on the adventure. But I couldn’t have both. I’m happy with how things went, and I want to reconnect now. I want the relationships, but I also miss the cruising life. Technically speaking, our life now isn’t much different than it was in, say, Isla Mujeres or Guatemala. The real difference is that it’s not new. It’s an old place, with old memories associated very deeply. It feels totally different now than when we visited briefly here last year. It’s the end of an era, and that knowledge changes everything.

Our life didn’t radically change when we left “civilization,” but it did change in small ways. I feel that we became closer as a family, we became more conscious of our wealth in relation to others, and we learned to be more comfortable around the foreign. I came to feel sure and confident in that environment, and everything was good. Now, I don’t know what comes next, now that we no longer swim and hike and climb every day. School is changing, locations are changing. I miss the years spent on the ocean, if only because I know they’re over.

Aaron playing at camp
Aaron, Rio Dulce, Guatemala

Aaron: When we left the U.S., I was newly 13 and gave zero care to jobs, driving, college, and other related subjects, which was fine. Now that we’re back, I am almost 17 and still don’t care much about any of it, which isn’t so fine. I think I lost my motivation because I live on a boat, spend most of my time at home, and have next to no friends, so all of the aforementioned subjects seem far away and unimportant, while the opposite is true.

Aside from this almost complete lack of concern for untaken developmental steps and vacant area where “social status” ought to be, I think I’m basically the same person as I would have been if we’d never left. I grew my hair out, discovered new music, started working out, and started forming my outlook on life, regardless of location. I can understand the value of living in Central America for a couple of years, but it comes at a cost; it builds insulation from normalcy. I like being on the outside looking in, but I’m thinking that at some point I’m going to have to get in myself, and it won’t be any easier with such a late start. It’s a bit distressing to me to think that I could have been a licensed driver almost a year ago if we’d never left.

The most important things that I did while we were away were working at Agua Dulce Marina, making local friends in Guatemala, volunteering at Casa Agua Azul and the Rio Dulce summer camp, and climbing up the Acatenango Volcano. While similar opportunities in the U.S. might have built skills and self-confidence as effectively as the ones I had, I probably wouldn’t have been interacting with my surroundings in a different language and culture in the way that I was in Latin America. Also, our parents separating us from our peers was successful in sparing us from any teen drama that there might otherwise have been.

In conclusion, the position in which I stand isn’t entirely good or bad. I’m getting a late start in the flow of normal life, but I’m also entering with an outsider’s perspective. And I think Mom and Dad were right when they said, “trust us, when you look back on your life, you won’t regret this part of it.”

Sarah Diving, Roatan
Sarah, Roatan, Honduras

Sarah: All good things must come to an end. Not all good things are all good. And while I didn’t have a good time all the time, I think the last 3 years, 5 months, and 8 days we spent as a family traveling around the Caribbean were spent well, and I wouldn’t trade any of those experiences for anything. When we left the United States to begin our trip, I was 11 years old. When I was 11, I would think things like “Someday I’ll get a job” or “Someday I’ll learn to drive a car.” Well, now it’s “someday” and that is scary. I didn’t spend a lot of time preparing for “someday” while we were in the Caribbean, so now that we’re back in the States and about to be immersed in normal life (as normal as it gets for us anyway), I feel like I’m being hit in the face with responsibilities and choices that I’m not quite ready to take on. In a word: overwhelmed.

In a way, I feel like our trip back to the United States last summer helped me prepare for what we’re facing now. Before our visit I had very little idea of what was expected of someone in my age group, or how to accomplish those goals. Now I feel like I have a better idea of what to do and how to do it. It’s also great to be back in a place I can call home, to see familiar faces, and to know where I fit in. Living on a boat has always been, and always will be, a trade-off, and now we’re about to experience something completely different than we’ve been used to; but then, fear of the unknown is normal.

Sam Pacaya 1
Sam, Pacaya Volcano, Guatemala

Sam: Each country or island we visited is like an individual person; each has a personality, a culture, and a history. When we went on our three year “tripwe were not on vacation, hanging out on white sand beaches or relaxing somewhere in a resort. When we came to a new island or country, we met it and we made friends with the locals, and learned from it, if we could. So when we came back recently to the United States, I did not necessarily look different on the outside (besides growing taller) but I carry with me on the inside something from the places I went and people I met. I carry not only experiences, like swimming with whale sharks and jumping in waterfalls, but skills, like freediving and palm-weaving, for example, and lessons, like “never interfere with wild animals,” or, “the ocean is unpredictable.” We also came back to the U.S. with a knowledge of the history of the places we have been. I feel that I am a happier person when we are traveling and if I sit too long in one place, I tend to get bored with it.

Little Surfer Girl
Rachel, Nosara, Costa Rica

Rachel: We live full-time on the boat. I can’t really explain what that’s like because it’s normal for me, but I can tell you some of the places we have been. We went to the Bahamas and the Eastern Caribbean. Then we went west to Bonaire, Colombia, Panama, Grand Cayman, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize, Mexico, and back to Florida. I loved our adventures. I am a little sad that the trip is over (except for the times when I was seasick.)

Geography Report: Mexico

Note: This is the last of the Caribbean geography reports. As Mexico is such a large country, I have chosen to focus on the part of Mexico we visited, Isla Mujeres and the Yucatán peninsula.


Basic Facts

Capital: Mexico City

People/Customs: Nearly 30 percent of the Mexican population is indigenous (Mayan, Mixtec, Náhuatl, Otomí, Purépecha, Zapotec), 60 percent are mestizos, and the remaining 10 percent are white or other ethnicities. Most of the people practice Catholicism and even the indigenous people have mixed traditional religions with catholic practices. Most holiday celebrations include fireworks, music, and dancing. Day of the Dead (Día de Los Muertos) celebrations commemorate family members who have passed on by decorating tombs and creating elaborate alters at home.

Language: Spanish is the official language, but there are 68 Amerindian languages also spoken.

Climate: The climate zones of Mexico vary from snow-capped mountains and alpine tundra to tropical islands, making Mexico attractive to visitors looking for variety. The main regions include: tropical wet, tropical wet-and-dry, semi-arid, desert, temperate with dry winters, humid subtropical, and Mediterranean. Where we were, in Isla Mujeres, the weather was warm, sunny, and breezy with predominant easterlies, cold fronts with north wind in the winter and spring, and tropical waves and risk of hurricanes in the summer and fall.

Food/Farming: typical Mexican meals consist of corn, beans, rice, tortillas, squash, chilies, avocados, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and a various meats, like turkey, beef, goat, pork, chorizo, and chicken. Mexico is also known for its delicious tacos. Corn has been Mexico’s most important food for thousands of years, and it has a religious significance for the Maya, Huichol and many other indigenous groups. Fruits grown in Mexico include: pineapples, citrus fruits, star fruits, mangoes, papayas, melons, tomatoes, and other tropical fruits. A popular drink is tequila, made from the agave plant.   

Government: The United States of Mexico has a Constitutional Republic, with a President as head of state.

Currency: Mexican Peso, about 18 pesos to the dollar.

Art/Music/Culture: The culture of Mexico is a mixture that comes from its history of Old and New World influences. Cultural influences include traditions from the Maya and other indigenous peoples, Spanish language, music and religion from the conquistadors and settlers, and a mixture of European, African, and Asian cultures that arrived later in Mexico. The Spanish brought Roman Catholicism, which became Mexico’s main religion and slowly mixed with the indigenous religious practices. Mexico has a rich artistic history, with world-famous artists like Frieda Kahlo, as well as arts and crafts like weaving, pottery, leather-working, and wood-carving. Decorated skulls are a common motif. Popular musical styles include mariachi and ranchera, which use the sounds of various guitars as well as violins, trumpets, and accordions.

History of the Yucatán Peninsula

The Yucatán’s oldest traces of humanity date back 11,000 years according to artifacts found in the Loltún caves and Tulum. It is supposed that the first Mayas arrived in the Yucatán around 2500 BC. The Maya had a knowledge of astronomy, math, and architecture, the evidence of which can be found all over Mexico in the form of pyramids, palaces, and other structures. The Maya were also good artists, based on jewelry, carved limestone, and plaster artifacts found at ruins.  

Around 600 AD the Maya civilization was at the height of its Classic period. The Maya lands at this time were not ruled as an Empire, but as a collection of independent city-states. Near the end of the Classic period, the Mayans moved to the Yucatán, with ruins like Chichen Itzá showing us construction very different from earlier Mayan settlements (Tikal in Guatemala, for example). After the Classic period, the collapse of the Maya came very suddenly. One theory is that as the Maya civilization grew, they were not able to grow enough food to feed the people. The Maya then weakened and were taken out when the invaders from central Mexico came.

Mexico was “discovered” by the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes in 1485. The Spanish came to the Yucatán in 1513 when Juan Ponce de León and Antón de Alaminos set out to find land west of Cuba and came across a large peninsula. The first attempt at the conquest of the Yucatán was made in 1527, when the Montejo family and a band of other men were sent from Spain to Cozumel, but they decided to sail around the peninsula and quell the unrest in Tabasco. They decided to establish their base near Campeche and push inland to conquer the Yucatán, but four years later they were forced back to Mexico City. In 1542, after allying with the Xiu, the Montejos defeated the Cocomes, and founded the city of Mérida. In four years’ time they had put most of the Yucatán under Spanish rule. The Mayans then became slaves for Spanish settlers.  

Throughout the colonial period, the native Maya and other indigenous groups continued to resist Spanish rule. The harsh treatment of natives by the Spanish led to many revolts, most of which were unsuccessful. In 1821, after a war with Spain, Mexico succeeded in becoming independent, and the Yucatán became part of the Mexican Federation. Despite the new government, the Maya were still forced to work under horrible conditions which led to the Caste War. In 1847, Mayan chiefs led a revolt against the descendants of Spanish settlers who had political and economic control. This act started an all-out war between the Maya forces and the Yucatecos (Spanish descendants). The war officially ended in 1901 but some of the small settlements and towns refused to acknowledge Mexican control. The war spilled the blood of over 200,000 people.

From 1876 to 1911, when Porfirio Diaz ruled Mexico, he brought the country into the Industrial Age. He passed laws that created an even larger number of landless peasants and concentrated the wealth in the hands of a smaller elite. In the Yucatán, wealth was acquired by making rope and other products from plant fibers. Diaz was removed from power in 1910 when a war broke out, sending the country into chaos for the next decade.   

By the 1970s, huge oil reserves were discovered in the Gulf of Mexico, which brought new investors to the country. With new money coming in, Mexico invested in infrastructure on a large-scale, and installed a central oil processing complex in the Bay of Campeche, which was producing a million barrels of crude oil a day by 1981. The influx of oil money also led to the development of the Quintana Roo and Cancún as tourist destinations. With white sand beaches, crystal-clear turquoise-colored water, and nearby ancient ruins to explore, this area soon became known as the “Riviera Maya” and attracted tourists from all over the world. While oil prices fluctuate, creating booms and busts, the tourism industry remains fairly constant, despite the occasional hurricane causing damage and requiring rebuilding.

Landforms/Flora and Fauna

Mexico is a large country and has a very diverse landscape. To the north is the U.S.A., to the east, the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea, to the south, Belize and Guatemala, and to the west, the Pacific Ocean. Baja California is located in the northwest, a jagged finger of land with mountains and desert bordered by the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of California. Mexico has the world’s largest volcanic field. Central Mexico has the Sierra Madre mountains and a central plateau. Mexico City is in the south-central part of the country and boasts a population of 21 million people in the greater metropolitan area. The Yucatán Peninsula is flat, with a coral limestone bedrock covered by littoral forest and filled with sink holes, caves and cenotes. Isla Mujeres is a small island to the north of the Yucatán, surrounded by beautiful water and coral reefs. Because of this variation in land forms, the flora and fauna are found in equally diverse habitats—from pine forests to tropical jungle, from cactus-covered deserts to palm-fringed beaches, from treeless volcanic peaks to the fertile Bajío region where produce is grown. Some animals you might see in Mexico are spider monkeys, the rare axolotl (salamander), cacomistle (mammal), Mexican prairie dog, ocelot, cenzontle (bird), zoloitzcuintli (hairless dog), quetzal (bird), endangered vaquita porpoise, coati, and Mexican gray wolf. Near Isla Mujeres, you might go in search of whale sharks or sail fish, or see barracuda, snappers, colorful reef fish, and marine invertebrates while snorkeling and diving.

Things to do in the Yucatán/Isla Mujeres

On the mainland there are cenotes to explore, Mayan ruins like Chichen Itzá and Tulúm, beaches along Cancun or on Isla Mujeres, snorkeling and scuba diving along the Caribbean coast, visiting the Spanish colonial city of Mérida, horseback riding, and deep-sea fishing. Also, good tacos can be found almost everywhere!

Bibliography

“11 Awesome Native Animals You Must See in Mexico.” www.theculturetrip.com . Accessed July 2019.

“Mexico.” (Basic Facts) Wickipedia. Accessed June 2019.

“Mexico’s Seven Climate Regions.” www.geo-mexico.com. Accessed July 2019.

Onstott, Jane. National Geographic Travelor: Mexico. 2006: National Geographic Society, Washington D.C.

“Yucatán Peninsula: History.” Lonely Planet. www.lonelyplanet.com . Accessed July 2019.