The Magic of Travel
What is it to travel? Technically speaking, it’s really just getting yourself from one place to another. Yet for those who have sacrificed the security of familiarity and embarked on a journey of enlightenment through exploration, travel can be magic… it is that incredible feeling of arriving to a new place, a new culture, and a new energy into which your senses have never delved. For those intrepid souls bursting with wanderlust, arrival to a new place is an incredibly strong drug; it is something that reminds them of the immensity of our planet and the beauty of the human condition.
The last 48 hours have been one of these experiences for me. It has been 48 hours of new faces, incredible works of art, observance of man’s great ancient cultures, and all within the company of those who call this place "home." The place I’m talking about is Mexico City: a city of almost 30 million people of all stripes and social economic classes, and the living reminisce of the clash and later blending of Aztecan and Spanish culture. My time here has brought back a flood of memories from my own past, having arrived with just a backpack to countless countries and communities; it has awakened those deep feelings of why I began my journey of exploration so many years ago, and reminded me of the people which such a life has allowed me to know.
I’ll be spending my time in Mexico City in a beautiful, tree lined neighborhood called Condesa, a place with quaint sidewalk cafes, fashionable young people, hipster hotels and locals whose presence give insight into its simpler past. Most of urban Latin America, while still learning to provide a healthy civil society for all its inhabitants, reminds one of the frivolous and naïve belief that cities in Latin America are only places of chaos and corruption; the barrio of Condesa, however, belongs alongside those great and renewing urban landscapes anywhere in the world.
As we're in the business of sharing our explorations with others, you can be sure that the group of dauntless explorers we call SA Expeditions will be back. We will return to Mexico and its communities to become a part of its fabric, to learn its history, to understand its challenges, and to be amazed by its wonders.
... And then, yes, we will share it with the world!