Don't Worry Madre

Do you even work?

  This past August I had the pleasure of traveling to Kansas for the traditional Family Reunion, where I had the opportunity to reconnect with distant family members I hadn’t seen since I was in high school. Although we hadn’t connected face to face in over 5 years, thanks to social media, many of my relatives had been following my life choices from a distance.  They have watched me graduate with…

On Sunday I wrote a post about my time in Venice last year. While going through my pictures for the post I stumbled upon a couple (about 500) more shots. I couldn’t fit all of them in my short post so I decided to write another solely dedicated to some of my favorites. I hope you enjoy.

At the moment, Venice is flooding. Every day, during high tide this wonderful city floods by 2-3 feet. In honor of this city, and for my dad who is currently there, this week I’m going to write the post about my 3 day trip to Venice last summer. Venice was one of the two locations that I was surprised by during my trip to Europe last year. I went to Venice expecting it to be hot and full of…

OK, here we go. Dealing with money as an US citizen is such a pain in the ass. Before we go into all the details here are some important things to know

USA banks don’t work in Cuba. No debit, no credit, no nothing

There is at 10% fee on top of commission on currency exchange with US dollar

Because US banks don’t work in Cuba whatever money you bring with you is all the money you’ll have for your…

Recently I did a post talking about my arrival and first day in Cuba. Today I’m going to talk about the rest of my time spent on this lovely island. During my time in Havana I stayed a Hostel Casa Caribe Havana a place I would highly recommend to any budget travelers. It’s about a 20ish minute walk from Havana Vieja, and was clean and cheap. During my stay I saw four other travelers both coming…

Wandering through my mid-to-late 20’s

Last year I visited a dear friend in Germany that I met about 5 years ago when we both were volunteering on a farm in Spain. Even though we lost contact for a couple of years she opened her house up with open arms, and we picked up right where we left off.  During one of our many conversations during the trip, we started talking about all of her various jobs: teacher, coach, opera singer, and…

Arriving in Havana, Cuba

  There was no way that I was going to miss out on an opportunity to go to Cuba while I was staying in Mexico City. Not only was it substantially cheaper and easier than going from the states, I had also been taking Cuban Salsa classes 4 days a week for 3 months. More than the old cars, more than the people, more than taking pictures, I wanted to dance in Cuba. I had dreams of dancing the night…

Havana Day 1, Cuba

Cuba!! Ya’ll I was so excited to go to Cuba. Cuba has literally been on the top of my bucket list for years, and I could barely believe I was actually going. I was bummed I could only find 4 days to squeeze the trip in, but I was literally counting down the days till I could walk through the streets of Havana. After talking to a bunch of my friends who had already made the trek to this beautiful…

Cuba!! (Things to know)

This past week I had the amazing opportunity to spend 4 days in Havana, Cuba. Even though I just left, I already can’t wait to go back. This upcoming Sunday I have a post talking about my experience during my four days, however I also wanted to write a quick post on some important information and tips for travelers, particularly travelers from the USA visiting Cuba.

Cards with USA banks DO NOT…

Nevado de Toluca, Mexico

If you ever find yourself in Mexico City with more than a day or two I highly recommend taking the trip out to the Nevado de Toluca. About one and a half hours north of Mexico City, for me, it was a great day trip to do something different and explore the countryside of Mexico.

To be honest I hadn’t even heard of Nevado de Toluca before one of my friends reached out to me and asked if I was…

December 23, 2016 I found myself hunched over my journal under the dim lighting of my hostel dorm room in Tofo, Mozambique. My pen scratched across the page describing the journey from Baton Rouge to my current location. First the flight to Washington, to meet up with N and spend the night with my cousin. The next day we took our first flight (13 hours) and then a 5 hour flight before a 2 hour…

Dia de la independecia, Mexico City

  Viva Mexico! Viva Mexico! Viva Mexico!

This past week I was lucky enough to spend the 15th in Mexico while the City celebrated  their independence day. Although the true Independence day is the 16th (not 5 de mayo you fools) most of Mexico City ramps up their celebration the 15th. There are festivals, parties, fairs, dances, and more. All of which accumulate with “el grito” or the yell at…

Ok this throwback we’re going to go way back to 2016 and the trip I took with one of my childhood friends to visit our childhood best friend as he worked in Mozambique.  In December of 2016 N and I spent two weeks visiting M in Mozambique and South Africa. We spent one week in Maputo and on the shores of Tofu, a couple of days on an informal safari in the North of South Africa, and finished our…

Fabrica de Vidrio, Mexico City

This past Thursday I had a really great opportunity to go to the local glass blowing workshop. This wasn’t your, wow look at all this really fine, delicate, expensive art, no. This was a workshop where a group of men worked incredibly hard and efficient to create a large volume of recycled glass products.

The workshop space itself was relatively small and packed with stuff. All the glass and…

Even though I haven’t spent that many weekends in Mexico City, one of the times I did actually stay in town I had the pleasure of going to the Bazar de Sabado. I love, love, love markets. I love being able to walk around and seeing what the people have, while also watching what people want. It’s such an interesting dance.

The bazar de Sabado is a market offered every Saturday in San Angel. It’s located very closely to the Insurgentes del sur Metro stop. From Coyoacan I just caught a bus going in the direction of Oasis and it took us all the way to the Insurgentes de Sur stop. You could also walk from Coyoacan if you wanted and I think it would talk you about an hour.

While I loved Bazar de Sabado you need to know that IT’S REALLY EXPENSIVE. Well, let me put it this way, it’s relatively really expensive. When you compare it to the Market in Coyoacan or the Bazar in la UNAM then it’s quite a bit more. I’m planning on writing blog posts for both of these markets so keep your eye out in the upcoming weeks.

Once you arrive at the Bazar de Sabado I recommend walking around all the stalls on the outside. You’ll see rows and rows of artwork and hand made masterpieces. I was able to find a gift for my “nephew” that I have been looking for for months.

To eat the restaurant on the inside of the market is decently priced if you pick the “to-go” option. You can watch the women make the tortillas while you wait for them to fill your quesadilla. Once you get your food walk back out the one entrance and you should be able to find a ledge to sit on while you eat right next to the door.

I recommend going relatively early to beat the crowds and the heat. All of the stalls are open around 12, but you can arrive earlier and still see a lot of really cool and interesting things. When your feet start to ache grab some food before heading home or to the centro historico to wander through the original “Mexico City”

For this weeks edition of “Throwback Thursday” I’m bringing it all the way back to last August when I met up with my BBWANEF * on the Isle of Kos in Greece. I’ve known M almost my whole life. From the moment his family got two new kittens and his mom let an 9 year-old curly headed blonde monster into his house to present day, some 16 years later, I’ve had the pleasure of calling him one of my…