12/03/2024
“You like currents?” joked the divemaster as he picked me up. I chuckled, “No. I hate currents.”
I prayed for safe conditions, which turned out to be as such albeit the strong currents we flowed and navigated with. I suppose I wasn’t being specific enough in what I was asking for so Mother Nature decided to throw in some jokes.
I’ve been feeling homesick lately and therapy has also been quite intense recently. If the Philippines was just as close, I would’ve gone there but it’s halfway around the world and the jetlag is literally night and day. So, I went to the motherland’s cousin, Mexico.
“There’s a running joke that the Philippines and Mexico are like cousins.” I said”Yeah! When I was there the people were inviting me to come eat in their homes. Everywhere I went people were friendly but the Philippines was different. It felt like a Latin country. In some places, I felt like I was in Mexico,” he said about his recent backpacking trip. “And the foods you ate, ‘Menudo, Mechado, Adobo...”
Aside from the similarities in culture and history, Mexico also has the waters that I can compare to the Philippines with an added super bonus of caverns and very interesting mythologies that personally resonate with me. I don’t always fuss (diving takes priority) but I do love the food (I was living off nachos and churros tbh lol). I want to learn the language and diving is really good for my mental health. Also, their currency - while not of equal value (Mexican is more) - is Pesos like the Philippines. I mean, it feels like home, but not the OG home. It’s the cousin’s crib 🇲🇽
