Reflecting on travel and living in a desert

A long time ago I took the picture above the blog article. It was in Zaandam, Zaanse Schans, an open-air museum filled with mills and cheese and other Dutch stuff. I was a tourist in my own country first before I moved away in 2015 and headed for Asia.

I started traveling when I was 17, at that age I went to South America for a long time. When I was married I traveled a lot also with my family. But always a house to return to. Now there is no home, no house, nobody awaits me, not even a cat. That is a weird feeling.

So far I have traveled from 3.5 years in the Philippines to Kuala Lumpur, to Shanghai, to Italy, passed through the Netherlands again to get a visa for Mexico.

Now I live in a desert village in Mexico

I have arrived at my destination after a motorcycle trip of 9000km from Cancun to La Paz, landed somewhere near La Paz in a small village, close to the Sea of Cortez and on the edge of the desert.

Me, the girl that once lived on a white sandy beach in a house with a nipa roof, searching for shells every day. Me that once lived high on a cliff overlooking the Bohol Sea, me that loves the ocean so much, I now live in a small village in the desert.

Doing business while traveling

My business is doing okay, my websites get over 10k visitors each month. I am dedicated but I realize how vulnerable those numbers are. I work hard every day, to write content, to work my SEO, to invent new products, to learn from the good examples and the bad all over the internet. I brand myself and although it grows, it does not grow as much as I wanted it to do. But dividing my 2 websites into a Dutch and an English one just over a year ago, focussing on those Dutch that are so longing to leave the country looking for new horizons, was the best business decision I have made so far.

I am not complaining but I have to adjust again

The motorcycle trip was long and the weather was not always in our favor. Upon arrival; here in the house I rented through the internet, I felt drained. I didn’t want to get anywhere near the motorcycle for at least a week. But with no grocery stores whatsoever in my village, I have to make regular visits to the city. And with the extreme cold weather in de Baja California winter I long for junk food.

I know, I am complaining. I know I focus too much on the bad and less on the good. I long to be in a beach chair on a white beach, surrender to the absolute art of doing nothing, yet I cannot. I have to do things. Paperwork for the motor, for my resident status. I have to work through endless video footage, decide on what to do with it regarding the YouTube Channel.

Sometimes I feel so lonely, although I do enjoy being alone

I celebrated New Year on the rooftop, listening to the karaoke in the surroundings, looking for fireworks that were not there. It was a sober celebration, and it was very cold.

I told my ex once again he and I coming back together is not going to happen. Maybe if he treated me better I might consider it, but I also realize that thought comes from a place where I feel isolated and lonely. Without a goal.

When you drive for so many miles, day after day, you are so focused and so adjust to moving along. And now, there is nothing. This village is so dull and quiet, Google Streetview did not even map it.
I cannot even watch the grass grow, for there is no grass here. Only dust.

I cannot help but wonder where I will celebrate the next New Year? Will I still be here? Most likely for half the world is in lockdown. Although some happy people say the pandemic might end somewhere around March.
But I simply have no clue, I rented this place for indefinite and I have no further plans.

After today comes tomorrow, and after tomorrow there will be a new day again.
I will turn 61 this month……jeez, I am getting old.

Nostalgia rules, I guess it is that time of the year?

I was a bit nostalgic yesterday, my son and I talked about the best beaches in the Philippines we have visited. And we compared them to Mexican beaches.
We have seen gorgeous nature in both countries, the clearest oceans and the most majestic mountains. We saw dolphins in the wild, monkeys, eagles. We have crossed rivers running wild, enormous canyons and endless valleys, and crossed two deserts.
The two countries are very similar yet so different and both so unique.

I moved to Mexico because after living in an archipelago like the Philippines I was ready for a country that had borders and more land beyond them. So I could easily cross, but now I might be on an island again because all borders are closed.

So I grow a herb garden, I buy some stuff to make the house more mine and more comfortable. And I rest my feet here for a while. Opening my laptop daily writing…….maybe I should finally start writing that book.