OR, OVER A YEAR AGO “THIS IS REALLY HARD MY HOLIDAY ROMANCE WITH SWIMMING DOG IS OVER.”
TODAY.
It’s now more or less one year since I left Punta Allen and my doggy. I’m still homesick for it all there but checked online and the prices are huge in Punta Allen Mexico at the moment. I’ll still to my Turkey plan for the moment. Plans are swooping in and out of my life at the moment as the political climate changes in a heartbeat worldwide and I don’t want to make a mistake and have to come home again. I want another long-term stay somewhere and Turkey so my present baby.
Turkey will nourish my soul for huge swathes of archaeological sites and magnificent countryside, that I have not yet visited. It will offer me fabulous food and incredible vistas, I will look into possibilities of living there to grow my veg and make my art. I will generally get back to my wandering ways and hopefully regain some lost confidence.
So a brief look over my shoulder to the last place I was truly happy, then onwards and upwards to pastures new. Come on old birds let’s rock it again.
A YEAR AGO FROM THE JOURNAL
Alert: Nostalgia and crybaby form most of this post. If you can’t be arsed with a grown woman and a tough old cookie at that, boohooing over a dog just look at the pics!!
My dear old birds this is why you keep moving because if you stay a while anywhere, you form attachments. I am so down it’s beyond belief. The weather isn’t helping nor are the dogs, especially Alkida, who is blissfully unaware of my departure. I’m down, really down. It’s ridiculous I can’t stop crying. Punta Allen has been a huge learning curve and these hounds have been my best friends (apart from Sonia of course).
My old veterinary experience, from when I worked at Dr Hanson’s surgery in Lewisham every weekend, (two bloody buses to get there from Chislehurst, numbers 227 then 1.) had come in handy treating Max’s terrible ear infection and of course, the exercise from swimming dog each day had helped both of us tone up. Caramel dog of the hazel eyes loved all the walks too as did Max when finally he was a bit better. I’m not sure who was Alpha dog, I have my suspicions it was swimming dog and she just let me think I was kingpin sometimes.
Travelling alone is wonderful but you do need to keep on the move or this happens. Obviously, in these times, things are very different and I doubt I’d have stayed more than a couple of days and thought swimming dog a bit of a crack, not my dearest and best friend. I’ve just gone to say goodbye to a neighbour and also the bloke who was on the bus the very first time I came down in the collectivo. I wasn’t going to whine or wine today but I reckon there’s going to be a lot of both.
I swam with Alkida far out, for it was very murky near in and no boats were out due to the lack of tourists. The water was so calm, like a millpond indeed, and we were able to go far out to that clean water and not be whacked in the face with choppy waves as we normally did. This was the last swim, or so I thought, I cried while swimming while also laughing at her antics as per usual.
My few belongings packed, and just my laptop out, I have nothing much more to do except wait for the electric to go off (in two minutes ) and hope that I will be allowed a siesta of sorts by her royal highness. My Google phone is constantly messing with my pictures and says there’s no space which is ridiculous but I’ll have to get to a larger town to address this problem. The weather is so bleak and it seems most people are leaving tomorrow so it’s good I made this choice. Roll on Tulum and seeing Sonia, Charlie, Pepe and Alex, I’m sure I’ll feel much brighter then.
Of course, as you will find out in the next instalment there’s always calm before a storm.
Old Bird Travels Solo! 