The Journey Ahead

So that’s it.   Lisa and I are finished with our Latin American odyssey.  After a last meal of chicken mole and cheap cervezas in San Cristobal de las Casas, we made a tired descent to the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez to their brand-spanking new airport, and we caught our flight to Mexico City, then to Guadalajara, then to California, aboard Mexicana Airways (by the way, don’t ever fly Mexicana Airways if you can help it).  It was a little sad to come to the end of this leg, yes, but we both had an easier time of it this time around.  Leaving Bogota last November was hard to stomach.  Will we ever get to do this again?  At the time, the future Central American leg was just an idea, I didn’t think it could or would happen, and as such, I sank into a typical post-travels depression.  As an American, I felt it was impossible to go for another round of travel, nobody here ever does that.  But suddenly we were in Costa Rica, traveling again, slipping seamlessly back into the stream of backpacking energy, reminding ourselves how easy it is to do this, how much of an impact these experiences make on our characters, how illuminating it is to remove ourselves from our safe, clean and wealthy communities and see how others live.  This time, departing Chiapas, we’re not looking back in desperation, we’re planning the next journey, confident we’ll be back on the road soon enough.

For now, the journey ahead will be taking the form of graduate school.  Lisa has been accepted at the University of Pennsylvania’s excellent school of nursing, and she’ll be settling into Philadelphia this summer, eating cheese steaks and rooting for the Phillies.  I’ve bamboozled my way into architecture school and will begin my M.Arch. at the Rhode Island School of Design, moving to Providence this fall.  It is altogether deflating to know that Lisa and I won’t be able to settle into the same city for now, but we’re both confident we’ll make it out of school unscathed.  We’ve climbed volcanoes, become lost in third world slums, and hitch-hiked across El Salvador, for god’s sake.  Ok I admit I’m becoming a little verklempt.  Talk amongst yourselves.  Here’s a topic: Rhode Island is neither a road nor an island.  Discuss.

So here we go.  Touchdown in San Jose, Lisa will fly north to Tacoma, WA to help her sister get hitched.  I’ll go camping in Boonville, CA, smoke a cigar, and maybe play some late-night kickball.  We’ll rendezvous with old roommates and good friends, pay our respects to our old stomping grounds, eat enough burritos and drink enough Lagunitas to last through school, and we’ll generally be complete mooches, to friends and family and complete strangers alike.  We’ll move all our belongings to the East Coast and relearn how to shovel snow. Thunderstorms!  Harpoon IPA!  Turnpikes!  Jerry Remy!  This is where the trip gets interesting.  Wish us luck.

Advertisement