After talking with my neighbour at Haven Caroline at the start of this month, I crunched some numbers and made a decision I’ve been sitting on for a while: taking a trip home. I will be traveling to Haven on September 7th and returning to Mérida on the 15th.

I was exhausted and left in such a whirlwind when I was last there and the weather was not conducive to spending much time in Miranda. So it feels like I have so much unfinished business there. I want to go through and make a proper inventory of what I left behind so that I can then focus on being here. I plan to travel there with a minimum of carry on and return with two full suitcases (Caroline is keeping an eye out at the thrift store for suitcases for me). I know I have important papers and things like photo albums to bring back, but I’m sure other things will come to light as I poke through the property.

Getting to Haven at this time of year is not easy. In the winter season, starting later October, it would be a cinch: bus to Cancún, Cancún to Regina, then a long drive from Regina to Haven. At this time of year, I had to be very creative and come up with my own route. After trying out many permutations of the variables, I decided to fly in and out of Mérida. I have an airport minutes from my house and a three-hour drive from the airport at the other end. Might as well make one airport trip easier. Plus I don’t particularly feel like dealing with the chaos I’m told Cancún airport is and I will also be juggling luggage when I get back. It will feel great after a nearly 24-hour trip (yup) to land in Mérida, get in a cab, and be home in about 20 minutes!

So the trip home is actually pretty good. I fly out of Mérida early to land in Mexico City for a brief layover, then on to Toronto, then on to Regina to arrive around 10PM. Caroline will be waiting to pick me up. Of course, I’m staying with C&C since Haven has neither power nor water!

The flight back to Mérida isn’t quite so neat. I leave Regina later in the day to arrive in Toronto very late (because of the time zone difference). As of now, my cousin who lives 10 minutes from Lester Pearson will pick me up and take me back to his apartment so I can get four or five hours of sleep and then he will get me back to the airport at the crack of dawn for my flight to Mexico City. Another brief layover and then on to Mérida to arrive in late evening. Whew!

The tickets were actually not that expensive, just over 600CAD round-trip (but excess baggage fees will take that to perhaps $800 or $900). The financial hardship is more in the fact that I will have to take that full week off from work because of the no internet situation at Haven. I do have almost 10GB of data saved up with TelCel, which should in theory work in Canada, but Caroline and Charles’ signal booster has been acting up and there is no telling if TelCel will still work on SaskTel’s network. It’s just too many variables to make it worth bringing the office with me.

I look forward to going home to my beloved Prairies and the family there that I made for myself. The cooler weather should also bit a bit of a relief. I’m struggling with using up precious vacation time, though, but I know it’ll do me good.

My new friend M’s temporary lease is coming up while I’m away so he’s going to duck out early and just move into the guest room here so he can mind Bonita. He intends to move into his new home before I get back, but I told him there’s no rush, of course. I’m so pleased I won’t have to worry about Bonita and that she’ll stay in her routine (to a point). What a win-win for everyone involved!

So if you’re looking at the calendar, this time in two weeks, I will be somewhere in the air between Mexico City and Toronto, a good halfway covering the immense gulf between the home my heart chose and the home my mind chose. Aren’t I lucky that either direction I’m travelling, I’ll be heading home?

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee.
And revery.
The revery alone will do,
If bees are few.