Sid's musings: Traveling

As the 1st stop in our multi-city world itinerary, we arrived in Cancun, MX on Wednesday, 6/12 - we're spending about 18 days here (yes, blessed and lucky!) and splitting our time between Cancun proper (hotel zone) and Riviera Maya (about 45 minutes south of Cancun). 3 days in, lots to feel grateful for and lots to ponder upon! As I've thought about the best way to capture our experience and preserve it for posterity as well as share it with our friends and family, I decided that it would be pretty cool to try and blog through Aiyana's perspective (our 7.5 month-old daughter) and write-up imaginary conversations that I think she's having with us (while I still have the chance to guess what goes on in that head of hers) - not sure how exactly that will play out but I figure it's worth a shot! I intend to tag each of these conversations with a theme that is important to us - love, compassion, beauty, gratitude, perseverance, courage, the power of dreams etc. etc. But first, here are some highlights of our arrival into Cancun and our stay thus far!

- The inbound journey was eventful - it was Aiyana's first international trip and while she did great, we hit a few snags along the way. Snag #1 was with our hometown airline, Delta - minutes before our boarding our connecting Atlanta-Cancun flight, they decided that we needed a separate ticket for Aiyana. This despite the fact that I had confirmed and re-confirmed with Delta via phone that no separate ticket was needed for her and she only needed to be listed on my itinerary (which she was) - of course, this issue did not pop-up when we boarded the first leg of our journey in Memphis. Trust Delta to throw you a curveball - so, we scrambled and got Aiyana a ticket and boarded the flight with seconds to spare (literally!) - we were the last people to board the flight! Upon arrival in Cancun, we headed to pick up our car rental where we hit Snag #2 - there was a $200 difference between the confirmed reservation price and what the counter agent wanted to charge us. After some back-and-forth, they adjusted the reservation to reflect the confirmed price and we were on our way (or so we thought) - less than half-a-mile into our trip from the car rental place to the hotel, I discovered that the blinkers/indicators were not working so we looped back around and had to wait for them to get us another car - of course, Aiyana was way past her bedtime by now and beginning to get fussy! Finally made it to the (absolutely fantastic and beautiful) hotel around 10:30pm after having left the house around noon - long and eventful journey but we were sure glad to have arrived! 2 life lessons reinforced on the inbound journey
1. Stay flexible and adaptable as challenges present themselves - that's what gives you the best shot at resolving them!
2. A smile and a friendly disposition goes much further than an aggravated disposition - during the course of our car rental issue, I discovered that the agent at the counter had a 5-year old named Camille who was born in Vegas so we chatted about daughters for a while - I have no doubt that that conversation made her more willing to go above-and-beyond to help us out! :-) - how often do we make a customer service person the recipient of our wrath/ire? Of course, they're just doing their job as well and they're as human as any of us!

The first few days in Cancun were spent lounging by the pools and the beach and were the scene of one of our imaginary conversations with Aiyana.

Me: Wow, look at this place, look at the water, the ocean, the sky - all so pretty
Anshu: It's magical - so glad we made it. I already feel very relaxed looking at the azure blue water. This place is really really beautiful! And I love the view from our balcony - just mesmerizing!
Aiyana: I agree mom and dad, this place is incredibly beautiful but I have a question
Me: Shoot!
Aiyana: Have you noticed lately how beautiful Memphis is and how beautiful our home is? I find them both to be exceedingly pretty - the river, Beale St, downtown Memphis, Autozone park, FedEx forum, the art and photography in our house, the layout of our house, my play area, our cars, our neighborhood, the golf course, the restaurant we went to last week, the gym, the pool you took me to, the kitchen in our house, our yard, the dining area, the Memphis Zoo, oh and I almost forgot - did you see how beautiful the flowers are in the yard that's just around the corner from our house - I see them everytime we drive by and smile... everything around me is so beautiful and it's all so new for me - I love it and I love noticing how pretty our surroundings are and how pretty even the simplest things are. Didn't I hear you say once that "beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder?" so, do you see the beauty all around you?
Me: Stunned Silence (mouth agape)
Anshu: Stunned Silence (mouth agape)

Note to self: Consciously look for the beauty in everyday people, things and places. There truly is magic around us if only we pause to look and ponder. Updated life manifesto below!

To be continued...

Life Manifesto (ever-evolving; in present tense and not future tense):
I live a life that minimizes regret.
I strive to be passionate in all areas of my life.
I strive to be a love magnet and a love transmitter.
I dream big.
I do not kid or cheat myself.
I own my things vs. letting them own me.
I am grateful.
I take the risks needed to chase my dreams.
I do not rely on the crutch of excuses that prevent me from living the life I want.
* I constantly see the beauty in everyday people, places and things.
* I stay flexible and adaptable especially when things don't go exactly according to plan
* I smile and resolve issues by being cheerful vs. being agitated and angry

And here are some pictures from our trip so far...

Anshu and Aiyana stylin' in the balcony

The bartender at this awesome authentic Mexican restaurant we went to - La Parrilla - he carried the margarita glasses expertly balanced on his head right across the restaurant!

At La Parrilla - great Mexican food!

The view from our balcony1

Beautiful grounds!

Note: Needless to say, this is another relatively long blog post. It probably won't be as long as some of the previous ones. As is becoming practice, I have included key takeaways/thoughts at the end.

Day Seven: Friday, May 13th

Day Seven began with our cab driver (Germinio) running about 30 minutes or so late - the concept of time in Salvador is different than what we're used to in the US. As I've posted previously, people are more relaxed and easy-going and this is evident everywhere - from restaurants where the server takes their own sweet time to get to you and will not bring a check until you ask a couple of times to Germinio - any time we call him to check how much more time he'll take, his answer is "Dez Minutos" (10 minutes) - and this Dez Minutos represents a range from 2 minutes to 45 minutes! :-) He doesn't speak any English but we've gotten to like him quite a bit and enjoy our morning and evening cab rides with him. Which leads me to another thought - it's amazing how a little bit of respect can go such a long way. If one respects people without regard for title, rank, status, job etc., it can totally light up someone's day - something as simple as remembering the name of the person who brings you coffee or the name of the janitor or the name of the security guard - how often do we make the effort to show some respect? And treat people as human beings before we put any label on them! Hmm...

Once Germinio got here, we headed to a tour of the city - our clients wanted us to see the new building that they're likely to get from the Government and also show us around town a little bit. The new building has a beautiful facade but is currently boarded up as it is in need of extensive renovation - it's right alongside a major Carnival route and very accessible to everything so we're hoping that the Government allocation comes through for our clients. Around the prospective new building is a great park, a view of the ocean and a Military compound - we walked the grounds of the military compound and I've included some pictures at the end of this post. Around mid-morning, we visited a local school - even though the kids were not in, we got a pretty good tour of how the school runs (incl. a kitchen) and how they survive even with limited supplies (one teacher told us that they discuss what needs to be printed during their staff meetings since toner supply is limited - hard to imagine that and, again, I feel overwhelming gratitude). One thing that continues to strike me is how devoted folks are to what they believe in - the teachers get meager salaries and still continue to teach secure in the knowledge that they are shaping the future - I shared the story of how my mom has been a teacher for 35 years and how she always maintains a positive attitude - she's often said that if she can shape the future of even one kid in her class, she's making a difference! Kudos to you mom. I also had a very engaging conversation with one of the directors of the school - she said that the school was in her neighborhood and her parents had always invested in the local community by serving on various boards and committees - despite having several "better" opportunities, she chooses to continue staying in the same neighborhood out of a sense of responsibility. She told me that "strong neighborhoods make a strong country" and she's committed to doing all she can to make her neighborhood and community strong - wow!

Lunch on Day Seven was at another "kilo" buffet place - yes, there's a lot of those - this one was opposite the university so it was packed with students on lunch break and was the best "kilo" place we've been to yet. The food was simply out-of-this-world and the desserts were something else - one dessert in particular (fresh tropical fruit in a sugar syrup with cinnamon and cloves) was just amazing!

We continued the afternoon by working at the client site and finalizing our scope-of-work through the end of this assignment. We've begun to divvy up the work and have things cut out for us over the next couple of weeks.

The evening of Day Seven was rather fun - first, we went to a Capoeira performance (from Wikipedia and my earlier post, Capoeira is a Brazilian art form that combines elements of martial arts, sports, and music. It was created in Brazil mainly by descendants of African slaves with Brazilian native influences, probably beginning in the 17th century. It is known by quick and complex moves, using mainly power kicks and quick leg sweeps, with some ground and aerial acrobatics, knee strikes, take-downs, elbow strikes, punches and headbutts.) - quite an experience - I've uploaded a short video at the end of this post. After the performance, we headed to dinner and I had the most delicious fresh guava juice. We followed that up with spending some time at a local Samba bar - the music is great! And the Brazilians have the music in their souls - hard to describe. Our local guide said that music is one of the reasons why Brazilian people are happy - I can see that now!

Day Eight: Saturday, May 14th

Day Eight was mostly low-key - the week had been rather hectic so I tried to take it easy for the most part. I did make a quick trip to the supermarket - it's owned by Wal-mart and is called Bompreco - much like the US supermarkets. On the way back, had some fresh coconut juice (for all of 50 US cents!) and bought some custard apples that were, quite simply, mouth-wateringly delicious!

Skipped lunch on Day Eight and substituted it with the fresh tropical fruit - also had a mango (after a long time) - tasted totally amazing - pics at the end of this post.

Dinner on Day Eight was quite an experience - we went to a local pizza place and, hold your breath, paid R$100 (approx USD 60) for a single pizza! Not being local, we were given the extra-special tourist bill - had to pay for cheese separately and also had to pay a 10% surcharge for having multiple toppings on our pizza! By the way, the even had a pizza on the menu called "Smell of Pizza" - pic below. No more pizza in Salvador!!!

Day Nine: Sunday, May 15th

Day nine was pretty low-key as well - again, relaxed for the most part - did some work and made some revisions to the scope-of-work. It was raining the whole day so didn't really do much - we'd initially planned to go for a soccer match - the final of the State Championship but our local guide was only able to procure 3 tickets - not enough for the whole lot of us so only a few folks went to the game. They said it was quite an experience - with drums, a full house and very passionate support. Unfortunately, the home team lost and there were a lot of disappointed fans at the end of the day.

Heading into Week 2, I'm reflecting on this whole experience - continuing to be grateful and looking forward to the weeks ahead. I do feel a little homesick but you can't have it all! As a final note, a blog I read on ways to be a traveler (and not a tourist) provided some good tips!

- Learn before you land (learn the basics, customs, geography etc.)

- What's the rush? (Slow down, savor the simple pleasures of traveling, don't overschedule your itinerary)

- Foreign people are people too (real travelers know that people are extraordinarily similar the world over)

- Get local (eat, walk, talk, learn, observe and immerse yourself)

Key Takeaways/Thoughts:

- A little respect goes a long way: A simple case-in-point is the effort we're all making to learn Portuguese - out of necessity but also out of respect for our clients and the country we're in - when folks see you being respectful and making an effort, it warms their hearts and makes them more receptive!

- Be a traveler, not a tourist: Immersion is really the only way to travel - proven time and time again!

- Music and Samba are hard-coded into the Brazilian soul and DNA: These folks know their music and love it!

- Strong communities build strong nations: Do a little something in your local community - volunteer, donate time and money, get involved in whatever way you can - a small contribution from you can have a big big impact. Make it happen!

- Avoid Pizza in Salvador: