On travel pivots: Am I still going to Morocco?
This is the part of traveling I do not like one bit. The part that, regardless of all your plans, you find yourself possibly needing to pivot.
That’s been this week for me. Phone calls and texts and the possibility of rescheduling the entire first week of my trip (which starts Sunday, btw…eeek!)
When the earthquake happened in Morocco, I was unsure if that trip would still happen.
Here’s how it’s played out so far and the steps I’ve taken to deal with a potential pivot:
1- I asked, “What is the real story on the ground?” I’ve traveled to places before that have suddenly found their way onto national/international news. And there’s one thing I do know: the news will usually find the most sensational points to focus on. That’s just how it works. I’ve experienced texts from family and friends panicking by what they saw on CNN, but I was on the ground and knew it was a tiny blip that no one was even talking about here. Obviously, this isn’t always the case and an earthquake IS a big deal. But my point is…it’s important to check in with people on the ground. Not simply with news media.
So that’s what my friend (who was scheduled to meet me in Morocco) and I did. We talked to the hotel and our food tour company contact. We reviewed other sources of people actually in Marrakech, and they confirmed that while there was some damage in the city, most was in the process of being cleaned up and the city was going back to normal. The damage had been minimal, they said (but if we were traveling south, that was a different story). They encouraged us still to come, as tourism is important to their economy, especially in a time like this.
2- But did we still want to go? That’s what we needed to decide. Logic can only get you so far. So we both checked in with ourselves. As you have likely learned if you’ve been here a while, I’m on a journey from relying solely on logic and trying to control every little situation (which was largely my 20s, 30s and early 40s) to honing my intuition and listening to that inner Voice of Wisdom that we all have inside. So this step was essential, and here’s what I did:
First, I needed to tap into how my body felt about the whole situation. I’m an enneagram 9, so sometimes this is hard for me and it’s a work in progress. I’ve learned that walking, or even dancing helps me to zero in and listen. This time I put on some good music and danced around my house :)
I then found a quiet spot in my house and listened.
Here’s what I heard: Let this trip take you. This had already been playing out in the week leading up to this because the 1 month I had planned to be away suddenly became 3. (Another pivot!…for the behind the scenes story, sign up for my emails!)
So after a conversation with my friend, we decided to postpone Morocco and instead spend some extra days further north in the town of Porto, Portugal. This wasn’t an easy decision for me because the intrepid traveler in me wanted to go right away to Morocco anyway…maybe just to prove that I could. But that’s not always a great reason to do things.
Marrakech is not off the table for me. I think it might just happen on the back end of my trip. I now have extra time, so it might work out even better! Stay tuned for how this trip decides to take me.
I’m now just days out of my trip and figuring out refunds and potentially losing some of the money already spent. That’s definitely frustrating, and a reason to consider whether you use low-cost, non-refundable airlines. I have to say, I’m disappointed with my interactions with Ryan Air and also my Chase Sapphire card, which is supposed to cover trip interruption, but with all the fine details, it might not cover anything. But our hotel and the food tour we’d scheduled have been great.
If you’ve had similar situations with pivots, I’d love to hear how you navigated it!
I’m also suddenly packing for a longer trip and figuring out my luggage situation … so a lot is going on and I’ll try and take you along for the ride.
Do I have any words of wisdom to share about pivots?
Not yet. I’m in the thick of it. But once I’m on that plane, flying over the ocean, I’ll have some time to process.
To follow me more closely, I’ll be posting most often and Instagram and sometimes on my Facebook group and Facebook page.
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