Tuluminatis

Road trippin' with three Mexican allies

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As I mentioned in my first post, I was inspired to start this Substack at a writing retreat in a beautiful Italian villa last October. Over the years, I’ve attributed songs and albums to many amazing trips, and sometimes I’ve created playlists to remember them. That’s how I came to the title “Soundtracks to Adventure.” Initially, the idea was to focus on travel writing, but then I realised that my “adventure” needn’t be physical or geographical, if the story and the soundtrack were worth sharing. Having said that, travel writing will be a feature of this Substack because travelling is a hugely important facet of my life. Here is the first post in a series about the month I spent in Mexico three years ago.

Mexico City, March 2021. Photo by Gina Badenoch

On 13 March 2021, I hopped in a SUV with three fortysomething Latinas and a rescue dog named Luna and we drove from Mexico City to Tulum. We crossed seven Mexican states, stopping in each one to sample the local culture and delicacies. I don’t consider myself a foodie; I usually remember more about the atmosphere, the company and conversation at a meal than what I ate. But what I recall most about this trip were the delectable smells, sights, and tastes. Green, orange and red peppers and pumpkins, so bright and bulbous they almost looked fake, but became smoky and crunchy from roasting on an open fire. Delicious. A dozen varieties of my beloved beverage, the margarita: fresh and limey, frozen and sugary, or salty and smoky (swapping tequila for mezcal). Yum! We ate and drank our way through the country, from tourist restaurants in town squares to rooftop cocktail bars to dingy, dirt-floored taquerias. My favourite meal was the simplest and cheapest, a snack from the side of the motorway, somewhere in Tabasco: a clear plastic cup of sliced pineapple, covered in a sticky red sauce, topped with chilli salt. The sauce was radioactive red and tasted sharp and sour, with the chilli adding a kick against the tangy pineapple. Incredible. I’m salivating at the memory of that snack as I write this, three years on.

Greatest snack of my life. Enjoying it in the backseat with my pal Luna.

On the road, my travel companions mostly chatted in Spanish, leaving Luna and I with our thoughts as the Mexican landscape rolled by. The ladies handled the driving and trip planning; I was a last-minute stowaway, who had the good fortune of being in Mexico City at the right time and there being a spare seat in the vehicle. As we started driving, I felt a sharp pang of insecurity, the realisation that I was butting in on this girls trip. I’d known Gina for a couple years, when she lived in London, and she was long-standing friends with Maria and Fabi, who I had just met. What could my gringo ass possibly add to their adventure? Without overthinking it, I offered to contribute in the best way I knew how: providing hours of positive vibes via my phone and the car’s stereo. I was a few years younger than them — and I grew up in Canada, not Mexico — so I had to make guesses as to their musical tastes. I played it safe with an assortment of 80s hits. At the start of each track, I’d watch for a response from the women; a tap on the steering wheel, a smile, a head-nod in time. The best moments were when their rapid-fire Spanish conversation paused to focus on the stereo, and all four of us sang along to “Friday I’m in Love” or “How Will I Know.”

When we arrived at our destination, the city of Tulum on the Mayan Riviera, our fun times together (and my playlists) continued. Travel and music can unite people like nothing else can, so the four of us and Luna became a close crew for the next three weeks. I guess I had earned their trust, as a courteous travel buddy and capable DJ. At some point on the road, Gina chose the name for our group, and I like to imagine that we were a Mexican-Canadian-British travelling musical revue (although, on paper, the name seems more fitting for a Mexican metal band): “Tuluminatis.”

Here is the first playlist I saved from our road trip together. A soundtrack to our adventure.