Getting Used to Strange Food and Travelling

Many experienced traveller’s visit Chacala. Lately I keep running into people here who have spent time traveling in Central America. Which is probably my next destination. Sometime in the not-near future.

But I love hearing about the towns and areas people especially liked. And pouring over maps with them. Following their travels. Two people who are in Chacala for a month are on their first leg of a three month trip, looking for a winter home somewhere. They are heading to Central American next week, and I am really jealous of their plans. It looks like a great trip.And another couple who are here now, staying at Isreal and Chata’s, have also spent quite a bit of time down there. And Memo was there for about a month a couple of years ago. And a guy named Eric from S.F. was in Chacala a couple of winters ago, on his way home from Central and South America.

I am not sure what the appeal is for me. Maybe just someplace new. But I like the vegetation and birds and the pictures I see of the beaches, so I am pretty sure I will make the trip sometime.I am so impressed by people who just take off and go somewhere, not seeming to worry about language, meals, bugs, etc. But I am getting much more adventurous and confident that I can find what I need, wherever I am.

Most of my life, until about ten years ago, I was very afraid of traveling, generally. Even when we went on road trips in the U.S. and Canada, my attention was always on what could go wrong. Car breaking down. No place to stay. No food. Lost wallet. My ex had traveled a lot before we met, and I think he would have liked me to be a better traveler. More adventurous.

Plus, I am the pickiest eater in the world. Not adventurous about food at all. And I have a limited range of foods I like. It’s a joke around Chacala that I eat Coke and cacahuates onlys (that’s peanuts). It’s not true, but it probably looks like that.My boss at my last job had traveled a lot to awful places, for Catholic Relief. He always stayed in hotels and ate in hotel restaurants, but he told me that everywhere in the world seems to have Coke, peanut butter, and Ritz crackers. And he was right. That idea freed me up to travel some. Bananas and oranges seem to be everywhere too. I could like on those five items for quite awhile, if I had too.

Although my first four visits to Mexican I stayed in nice hotels, with meals included, as a base. And went out on buses very day looking for little towns that might suit me. I was pretty nervous about food. Wanting to make sure I had meals I like, and was familiar with.I am getting better about taking chances. I have been eating quesadillas with carne and with pollo at Tres Mars, and that’s a big leap for me. The first couple of years here I mostly ate at my place. Where ever that was. Or had quesadillas with cheese only, or grillede fish, carne, or pollo.

I am pretty old to be learning new food tricks, but I am. It sure makes my life more fun to be able to happily eat a bigger variety of food.