Travelling Solo

After my husband died, I started traveling heavily. I was practicing how to become a vagabond. But Chat kept telling me that I am ‘running away’ from something. I don’t really care what she or anyone calls it; I get very restless so I just go. I read books about women traveling solo and in the last 2 years I have been to 5 different countries. And today I just got back from a 4-day trip to Cancun. When the shuttle driver picked me up from my apartment at 330 a.m. last Thursday he got nosy when I told him I was going to Cancun alone. “I always travel by myself, that way I can just do whatever I want to do. That’s why.” He seemed satisfied with that answer.

After I cleared security I got some coffee and headed to my gate and looking at the people I can immediately tell that everyone has someone with them. I like to ‘people watch’ and eavesdrop on people’s conversation so I sat close to everyone. Just then the ticket agent was calling out for “anyone traveling alone” she has a first class seat that she was giving away. I was the only one who raised a hand. Did I feel sorry for being alone? At other times maybe, but not then.
Here’s more reason why I love to travel alone.

1.When I’m alone, people (men or women) tend to help me more than they would if I had company.

2.I don’t have to wake up at a certain time to eat breakfast and no one will be knocking at my door or ringing my room number telling me “Breakfast time!!” as if I don’t know that a morning meal is called breakfast.

3.If all I want to do is hole up in my room and watch the European channel and the Mexican channel no one will be interrogating me “You understand all that?”

4.I don’t have to read my book under the palm tree at the beach; I can enjoy it just as well sitting at the lobby close to the buffet restaurant. And no one reminds me that I paid all these money “to come to the beach”.

5.And when I get to the airport late and the line is two States long and I’m about to miss my flight, I don’t panic. I just sidle up next to a lone man closest to the ticket counter and start talking to him like he had been waiting for me (preferably the ones who look like no woman could want him). You can’t do this if you’re not traveling alone.

Today, I did just that - sidle up next to a “lone man.” I did not arrive late, but being Sunday in Cancun airport, the line was scary long. The man I approached did not speak a single word of English but I accomplished my purpose plus more because in front of him was a Castillian good-looking young man. His name is Isidro Martin Gonzalez Guerra, a medical student from Guadalajara. He was on his way to Austria for a 2-week vacation with his girlfriend Merrina but the girlfriend was on another flight. We talked for over an hour and he gave me a free hug just as we hurriedly parted to our different gates. We exchanged email addresses and he invited me to come visit him in Guadalajara.
Guadalajara, here I come.