Slow Traveling Soul Sister DaniLew of SelfishMe Travel

Episode 017 - Slow Travel: like attracts like
For the last several months I’ve been working very hard. I’ve rarely visited the beach that’s a 10-minute stroll away or the rooftop deck on my apartment that is 1-flight of stairs. In addition, I’ve neglected this podcast. 
Why you ask? Because travel is back in a big way and my clients (and potential clients) have been chomping at the bit to get out and get away this year and the next. Some have kept me so busy with multiple vacation plans or as soon as they return from one they want to start planning the next. It’s been so overwhelming that by mid-summer I had to declare and decree: “no new client inquiries for 2022”.
Anyway, my 60th birthday was right after Labor Day, so I decided to take the whole week off from work. Screw my quarterly taxes! I went to the beach and up on the rooftop deck, I meditated and prayed and remembered the past and made some plans for my future. I went out with friends for dinner and drinks and I sat alone eating popcorn and drinking Tequila. 😊
However, coming back to work on the following Monday, my unread email count was in the thousands! In between all of the normal ones from travel suppliers, there were requests for meetings, new inquiries, clients departing for their trips, and so much more travel work. Yep, it was back to the grindstone.
Well… early Thursday morning last week, I hear knocking on doors in the apartment building. I go out to the living area and listen and dismiss it after I hear a muffled conversation in the hall but before I can get back to my bed the knocking comes to my door.
I answer “Yes?” Then I hear in response “Danielle, we were worried about you!” OMG! I run to put something decent on and open the door to let my friends inside. They had not heard from me in a couple of days, I had not been seen on social media for almost 24 hours, and they’ve been calling and texting for the last few hours but my phone is on “do not disturb” between 9:00pm and 9:00am. They imagined the worst, so a wellness check was required ASAP! 
But how did they get past the security gate? And how did they know which apartment was mine? Secrets will not be disclosed about the gate but I do know that they knocked on every door (at 6:00am!) until they found me. 
I’m still giggling about it. 
So far, none of my neighbors have given me the side eye and the one neighbor that I spoke to last night said she didn’t blame my friends for worrying.
Yes indeed, they are all correct. I’ve been moving around the world by myself for so long that I forgot what it’s like to check-in weekly with anybody other than my Mother and my BFF.
 Mind you, I’m at least 10 years older than both of the ladies that showed up at my door and the other one that sent a text message later, however, I’m truly appreciative of the gesture. It seems I’ve been adopted into a most special group of Black females that have moved from different parts of the USA to form their own unique family down here in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
It makes sense though because after every Sunday brunch or dinner together, we all check-in to our WhatsApp group to
The Slow Traveling Soul Sister podcast is sponsored and hosted by SelfishMe Travel. 
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Episode 016 - Slow Travel: What is Slow Travel?

Slow Travel is an approach to travel that prioritizes connection: to local people, cultures, food, music, languages, and vibe. Slow Travel relies on the belief that a trip is meant to educate and have a long-lasting emotional impact while remaining sustainable for local communities and the environment. ‍
 Slow Travel ensures that you not only get the most benefit, but the local people and the world around you do too. Because you’ll have stories to share with your family, friends, and coworkers about the people you met in addition to the sights that you saw. And they might want to repeat what you did.
There are three types of slow travelers.
1. There are those who try to slow down as much as possible.  
2. There are those who focus more on the destination they’re visiting.  
3. There are those who choose to stay for a while.  
There are four good reasons why you should adopt slow travel now
 1. You get to relax and recharge
 2. You empower the local economy
3. You leave a positive footprint
4. You become part of the local life
 Why slow travel is the best?
You get to take your time, adopt a relaxed mindset, connect with the local people, try traditional foods, discover local traditions, go off-the-beaten-path, find unique memories, enjoy the unexpected, and transform a simple vacation into a life-changing experience.



The Slow Traveling Soul Sister podcast is sponsored and hosted by SelfishMe Travel. 
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, or join my travel agency email list. You can also email me at info@selfishmetravel.com and/or check out my website.

Episode 015: Black History Month.
What is Black History Month and why is it celebrated? 
Black History Month (originally known as African-American Heritage Month) really dates back to 1915 when Carter G. Woodson, known as the ‘Father of Black History’ and the pioneer of African American studies in the early 20th century, created an organization called the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. 
And in 1926, Woodson initiated the first Negro History Week in February, specifically because of two significant birthdays: Frederick Douglass (February 14) and Abraham Lincoln (February 12). The main focus of the Negro History Week was to encourage the teaching of the history of Black Americans in educational institutes, particularly at the primary level. However, most school systems around the country ignored the curriculum or denied the need to teach it.
However, more than 40 years later, in 1969, Black educators and students at Kent State University in Ohio proposed a month-long observance to reflect on more than 400 years of American African history and heritage that have shaped the American culture, and the first Black History Month took place one year later in 1970. And by 1976, Black History Month was widely being celebrated across the country, and not only in schools, but in colleges, and community centers.
 I’m torn. Does it matter? Does it truly matter? Black History Month began as a way to remember significant people and events. But we are still mistreated or treated as 3rd class citizens in the USA. And I feel, that as punishment for helping to elect our first Black President, the USA is going backwards; actually retreating into the Jim Crow era or worse...

You see, I never watched the George Floyd video, nor did I watch the Ahmaud Arbery video or any of the others or the trials – or even the Rodney King beating - because I see the killings and the brutality in my nightmares. I saw it as a child growing up in the 60s and every year that has passed since, I was even a victim a time or two (and survived, obviously) but no thanks to the racist cops that I met driving while Black. It just added to the PTSD I’ve been suffering since childhood. And obviously, absolutely nothing has changed a half-century later.
So to me, Black History Month (year, century, millennium), it does not matter any more. It never did, really. I mean, I appreciate what the month was supposed to do and I appreciate the allies that stop by to express their opinions online, in emails, and in videos, the conversations that sparked better representation, identity, and diversity in America’s history but… as long as we are feared, they will never stop hunting us and hating us.
I watched a young poet’s video the other night, Kyla Jenee Lacey, and it made me tear up. Here’s some of what she had to say: We learned your French, we learned your English, we learned your Spanish. We learned your Dutch, your Portuguese, your German. You learned our nothing, yet you call us stupid...

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Episode 014 - Solo Travel – Australia: where I discuss my 3-month trip to Australia and New Zealand and the forever friends I met there.

I worked for the same company in the DMV (that’s Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia) for 26 years but then I did something totally out of the ordinary. What did I do? I volunteered to be laid-off. 
The company was hurting financially, and they were laying off groups of people every month so… I volunteered at the age of 50 to be laid off. My upline was, of course, shocked but I figured that for 26 years of loyal and dedicated service, I deserved to be treated with respect as I walked out the door, unlike most people who get laid-off and are literally dragged out the door and can barely get their purse or their keys. And respect is what I got. I planned this lay-off exit over eight months…
So what does this have to do with Australia? Well, one of my lifelong travel dreams was to visit Australia. However, I knew I wouldn’t get my fill of the continent in a 2-week run-through as most people do, so I plotted for a longer stay.  I retired with nearly three million points and miles all for my 3-month Australia and New Zealand retirement trip.
 Almost every flight and hotel to and between Australia and New Zealand cost me slightly less than two million points and miles and because of my consulting strategies, I had high status in the four major US hotel groups and two of the three major US airline alliances. 
 So from February 1, 2018 through April 29, 2018, I visited the following cities and met some incredible people:
(1) Sydney, Australia;
(2) Launceston, Tasmania;
(3) plus a 10-day escorted tour around Tasmania;
(4) Hobart, Tasmania; 
(5) Melbourne, Australia; 
(6) one month in New Zealand visiting both the North and South Islands; 
(7) back to Sydney, Australia again; 
(8) Brisbane, Australia;
(9) Cairns (Great Barrier Reef), Australia;
(10) Perth, Australia;
(11) Yulara (Uluru/Ayers Rock), Australia; 
(12) Adelaide, Australia;
(13) Canberra, Australia;
(14) Melbourne, Australia again; and 
(15) Sydney, Australia again
I was truly saddened to leave. After 55 years, the freedom of waking up and getting ready for the day (or not), going where and when I wanted to, and not worrying about being pulled over by corrupt cops or someone shooting me down because of the color of my skin was, to say the least, a huge relief. 
I truly made some “forever friends” on my Australia and New Zealand 3-month odyssey. We are all facebook friends but for the majority of them we also email and/or message each other on a regular basis, just to keep up-to-date on our lives.

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The Slow Traveling Soul Sister podcast is sponsored and hosted by SelfishMe Travel. 
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Episode 013 - Solo Travel - winning the lottery: where I discuss the latest rumor about my life.
 The first weekend in October 2021, saw me, my BFF (best friend forever), and a good portion of my high school classmates together for our 40+1 reunion in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. It was a wonderful weekend and I won a prize (a neck pillow!) for traveling the furthest. I was surprised to learn that some of my classmates decided that I had won the lottery and that’s how I was able to travel to all those exotic and faraway places.
 I thought it was a joke when I heard it the first time.  However, this month, it was re-iterated by a high school friend that my life was actually discussed/debated several times throughout the last few years. I don’t know who took part in those debates – I didn’t ask – but it certainly wasn’t anyone who truly knew me.
 If they had known me, or had asked my close friends, or had asked classmates who actually knew my family; they would’ve known the truth. #1: hard work, #2: no children (the day-to-day costs are astronomical), and #3: some early investments that paid off in the long run. Simple as that. 
 Why do we have to be reductionists about our successful friends? Why couldn’t I have just learned to do better financially, despite my upbringing? Nope. Either I found a rich man who set me up for life or money dropped out of the sky, or something else… anything else, except for the fact that I thought about the future as a 21 year-old young black woman and planned ahead. Seriously? My Mom, who would probably never leave “the Hill District” in Pittsburgh, but I definitely would’ve set her up in a nicer apartment, have her groceries delivered at least, and have her driven to the casino instead of her catching the bus in the snow and ice. Right? I guess not.
 I’m not mad at my classmates, not at all. They are a small part of the whole reason why I wanted to get away. But I am disappointed. A lot of my classmates are successful – thank God – but while their dreams differed from mine, some of them assumed that I could not have traveled the world by myself for myself at my own expense.
Anyway… No lottery, no sugar daddies, or other ridiculous theories about my worth and worthiness should ever need to be discussed or spoken about again.


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The Slow Traveling Soul Sister podcast is sponsored and hosted by SelfishMe Travel. 
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, or join my travel agency email list. You can also email me at info@selfishmetravel.com and/or check out my website.

Episode 012 - Slow Travel: I’m back in Playa del Carmen 
For nearly 35 years of traveling worldwide, I refused to visit our neighbors to the South. Why? Because I’m a foodie and the Mexican food that I had experienced living in and around the DMV (DC, Maryland, and Virginia) just did not ignite my pilot. No, I didn’t base my tastes on Taco Bell or Carlos O’Kelly’s – ugh! They both made me sick to my stomach – but there just wasn’t any Mexican restaurants around that made me want to get in my car, let alone get on an airplane for a week’s stay only to be miserable.
 I mean, I love Guacamole and Tacos but I just can’t narrow down the entirety of the Mexican cuisine to a Taco, can I? No. There's also Quesadillas, Street Corn, Mole Sauce, Nachos, Burritos, Enchiladas, Huevos Rancheros, Pipian Stew, Tamales, and Gorditas de Nata (cream inside a pancake)… and so much more!
 Well, my indifference to visiting Mexico changed when I started a consulting assignment in Arizona in 2014. I begged my new coworkers – especially since they had bragged about it – to take me to a real good, authentic Mexican restaurant. Thankfully, there were a number of excellent spots that they showed me in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area and I frequented them regularly. When I consulted in Dallas Texas in 2015, I asked my coworkers for same – insisting that I did not want Tex-Mex just Mexican. They came through for me there as well.
 And the rest, as they say, is history!
 I was unstoppable. From 2016 to 2019, I had visited Mexico (both the Caribbean side and the Pacific side) four times. Cabo, Cancun twice, and Playa del Carmen – for at least one week, each visit. Plus a week-long Mexican Riviera cruise. Unfortunately, the food on that Carnival cruise was less than satisfactory but I made up for it in the ports of Cabo and Puerto Vallarta and on the shore excursions. Only one visit to Cancun was at an all-inclusive resort because I truly believe that you can’t get a feel for a country while being insulated in a cocoon-like environment where every meal is catered to the American and European tourists’ tastes. All my other visits during that period were at standard resorts, with restaurants, but I felt no obligation to pay for standard fare. I wanted local flavors, I wanted the local experiences, I wanted the good and the bad of going off-the-beaten-paths to try to find that hidden gem. And rarely did I find a bad or sub-par culinary experience.
 Mexico quickly became a favorite! And I spent nearly the entire month of July 2019 in Playa del Carmen as part of my retired nomad life. And loved every bit of it. I had an Airbnb apartment so I went grocery shopping even though I lived half-a-block from the famous Quinta Avenida (5th Avenue) which is basically a 30-block long street of restaurants, bars and shops for the tourists. It can get expensive eating in restaurants all the time, even in Mexico. And the tourists spots are priced for the tourists, not the locals, and aren’t necessarily good eats. However, there were some nice surprises on 5th Avenue but mostly just a block or two off from the main street.

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The Slow Traveling Soul Sister podcast is sponsored and hosted by SelfishMe Travel. 
Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, or join my travel agency email list. You can also email me at info@selfishmetravel.com and/or check out my website.