A tireless traveler named Mark Twain once said …
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”
This is for me and many more, was something that didn’t make any sense until the moment in which we decide to break the routine, travel long distances and unknown terrains, because that’s how our perspective begins to enrich, which gives us the opportunity to value everything with other eyes; from within, outwards and without limitations.
My name is José Miguel Ambriz De la Torre and I am from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Time ago I had the wonderful opportunity to carry out a project together with Daniel McGill, my partner and brother by choice. Together we founded a group of eco-holistic tours called VIAJART.
We came up with the idea for VIAJART during a weekend we spent at one of Mexico’s many beautiful beaches. We wanted to create the opportunity for like-minded people to travel in a group and truly connect with the place that are visiting. We believed that Mexico had the beautiful potential to bring people together and giving them the chance to explore and discover in a unique way. That’s why we chose the Riviera Maya as our destination for the trips. The Riviera Maya is an extension of the Caribbean coast in the Yucatan peninsula in northeastern Mexico, which was and still is, home of the Mayans, a pre-Hispanic culture that flourished thanks to great discoveries in mathematics, astronomy, architecture, among others, more than 2000 years ago.
We believed that Mexico had the beautiful potential to bring people together.
Last summer, team VIAJART had the opportunity to guide in the Riviera Maya, a group formed with people from different parts of the world, such as Brazil, Japan and Saudi Arabia. During our tour we visited beautiful places like; Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, Tulum, Bacalar, Valladolid, Holbox, Chichen Itza, among others. All the time we were surrounded by incredible scenarios; beautiful beaches, with crystal clear water and fine white sand; coral reefs full of life; majestic ruins and archaeological sites, full of mystery, culture and history; dunes and tropical jungle; and my favorite part of the trip, the cenotes.
The cenotes are natural pits, or sinkholes, resulting from the collapse of limestone bedrock that exposes groundwater underneath. Dive and swim in the fresh crystal-clear water of one of these natural oases, surrounded by beautiful mangroves and under a fascinating tropical climate, it’s one of the most enriching and satisfying experiences that there can be. And at the same time, there is also the opportunity to practice snorkeling or diving to appreciate the flora and fauna that lives inside them.
Throughout the trip the experience that each of us took was unique, completely exceeding all our expectations and breaking paradigms, but without a doubt an incredible place that marked the trip for all of us was the island of Holbox. The island, a sanctuary for flamingos, pelicans and other exotic species of birds, is a hidden paradise that can only be reached by ferry from the port of Chiquilá, in the state of Quintana Roo.
We had the opportunity to guide in the Riviera Maya and
all the time we were surrounded by incredible scenarios.
During our last day on the island of Holbox, we gave ourselves the opportunity to have a nice walk on its beach, being able to appreciate in a better way all that it had to offer us. I remember in detail how pleasant it was to simply walk along the shore of the beach in the company of those people who, from one moment to another, went from being a group of strangers, to friends, and from friends to a very close group which we decided to call family.
After a long walk, we stopped to observe how the sunset painted the different shades of blue in the water and the horizon with a range of warm colors. After having witnessed that spectacle of nature, we continued walking aimlessly, and after a while we bumped into the place that would close our trip with a flourish. On the southwest of the island, a small shallow watered cove, not more than one meter deep, surrounded by tropical rainforest and under one of the best starry skies I have ever seen, showed us the bioluminescence that emanates from the microalgae that inhabit the surface of its water, giving the sensation of having that beautiful starry sky both above and below us. And, as if that were not enough, right in front of us, and without a doubt, the best moonrise I’ve ever seen in my entire life.
That huge and luminous full moon was the perfect outcome for an incomparable trip, full of incredible experiences, beautiful places and great friendships. That magic moment taught us how important it is to conserve that incredible capacity of amazement that we possess, in order to continue nourishing our soul.
Nowadays, and at the end of each trip that I have made, I can reaffirm, something that a long time ago a good friend told me; “It’s not enough to go back to a place to stop missing it”. And this is because, by missing a place, it is not precisely that we miss that piece of land in which we were once stopped. That “place” that we miss, that experience that we treasure within a series of beautiful memories in our mind, is the magical combination of the place, the moment and the right people. So, the greatness of this, is that every single time we go back into a known land, we can create a whole new experience.
Our eyes aren´t only viewers, they are also projectors that are running a second story over the picture, so let’s give ourselves the opportunity to write this story with totally enriching experiences; trips, adventures, friendship, culture, places, love. Let’s give ourselves the great joy of dreaming, exploring and discovering, because at the end of the day, we regret more of the things we do not do than the things we do.
Article written by:
José Miguel Ambríz
Founder at VIAJART
E-Mail: teamviajart@gmail.com
