Brook Slagle • 2023-12-25

yo! brook here.

Happy holidays & merry Christmas to all who celebrate!

This is part 2 of my "I got lost in Mexico" story. If you haven't read part 1, you can read it here.

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I found my bus line. I stood there for a few minutes, waiting for the bus to arrive.

And then I found JESUS.

He took the shape of a mid-twenties white woman with a Peace Corp backpack.

She was my savior.

I struck up a conversation and got the low-down.

We ended up being on the same bus, and we chatted for a little while about her experience in Mexico, and she gave me some tips.

We got off at the same station, but that would be the last time I would see her. As we got off, I took a wrong turn before entering the station’s building and ended up walking around the bus parking lot in circles until finding the exit 💀.

I used a map from the guidebook to find my way to a hostel they recommended in the same guidebook.

Culture shock was hitting me like a train now.

Everything was in a different language, and I couldn’t understand any of it.

My body and mind were overly stimulated.

I was super hot, confused, nearly lost in a different country, and I couldn’t speak the language.

This was the most humbling day of my life.

After figuring out the map on my phone and matching it to the surrounding streets, I ended up at a hostel and finally found a base camp that had Wi-Fi.

The following days were soaked with intensive learning, but I eventually got the hang of it. I started to learn my surrounding and I grew.

I faced an overwhelming amount of challenges within an incredibly short period of time.

Here is a list of some of the challenges I faced:

• How to get cellular data on my phone (esims)
• How to find an ATM that wouldn’t charge insane fees
• How to order food
• How to find places without Google Maps (it isn’t consistently updated for Mexico)
• How to tip respectfully
• How much cash to carry
• Where the best hostels were, and how to get them for cheaper
• Where the safe spots where, and the spots to avoid
• Where to get the cheap, but incredible food that Mexico is known for
• How to ask for the check (la cuenta baby)

But you know what…

I wouldn’t change a thing.

I would do it again. Furthermore, I would go through that pain and shock again.

It forced me to learn and grow so much.

It allowed me to function at a higher level, and absorb so much information in such a short period of time.

I continued to live and travel throughout Mexico for three months and by the end, I was amateur-pro at the digital-nomad-mexican lifestyle.

Not only that, but before I left, I had secured my first few clients for my business.

I had gotten leaner and fitter.

My Spanish was exponentially better (still trash NGL).

I was 10x the person… All because I didn’t go crazy with planning.

I understood the dangers and obvious things to avoid, so I wouldn’t get murdered, of course. I wasn’t rashly stupid.

But I did force myself to figure out difficult things at the moment. And I am better off for it.

I recommend you do something similar.

Do something as small as trying a new restaurant without looking at their website or the Google Maps reviews first. This is a truly frightening task for the modern, overly cautious person (speaking from experience).

As always…

KEEP GOING

B.S.

p.s. have you done something like this? let me know, I would love to hear your travel stories!