Get ready to dive into the wild world of travel with Miguel Yga, the ultimate nomadic storyteller! In our chat, Miguel takes us on a whirlwind journey through his eight years on the road, where he's ventured from mystical Mayan ceremonies to heart-pounding shark encounters – yes, you heard that right! With a knack for immersing himself in indigenous cultures, Miguel shares his adventures while reminding us that travel is as much about the stories we collect as it is about the places we visit. He’s not just any traveler; he’s a vibrant storyteller on a mission to capture the raw beauty and depth of human experiences. So, whether you’re plotting your next grand escape or just dreaming from your couch, Miguel's tales are sure to ignite your wanderlust and inspire your next adventure!

Takeaways:

1. Miguel's journey from a corporate lawyer to a nomadic storyteller showcases the power of following your passion.
2. Traveling among indigenous cultures has deepened Miguel's understanding of human experiences and connections.
3. A near-death encounter with sharks taught Miguel the importance of staying calm under pressure during risky adventures.
4. Every travel story holds valuable lessons and can lead to profound personal transformations and growth.
5. The significance of childhood dreams can guide adults toward authentic living and fulfilling journeys.
6. Understanding the world through travel is about embracing different perspectives and being open to unexpected experiences.

Miguel Yga is a wandering writer and adventure traveler who has spent the past eight years living on the road — exploring forgotten corners of the world and the people who call them home. From sitting with Mayan shamans to narrowly escaping a shark encounter, Miguel has a knack for finding himself in the kinds of stories most people only dream about.

At the heart of his journey is a deep curiosity about indigenous cultures and the full spectrum of the human experience. He captures these adventures through his writing and, more recently, through his YouTube channel, where he brings his vivid storytelling to life in visual form.

But ask Miguel what he really does, and he'll tell you simply: he's a storyteller. One on a mission to collect beautiful, wild, and deeply human moments — and share them with anyone willing to listen.

You can follow his adventures at ramblingandroving.com and on Instagram at @ramblingandroving.

Links mentioned in the episode:

Website: ramblingandroving.com

Instagram: instagram.com/ramblingandroving

Facebook: facebook.com/ramblingandroving

TikTok: tiktok.com/@ramblingandroving

Twitter: twitter.com/ramblingnroving

Hello, travelers.

My name is Grace Simmons, and this is the Random and Wonderful podcast.

Settle in and listen to stories of wanderlust and transformation as you gain tips to inspire your next travel experience.

The Random and Wonderful is brought to you by the Amethyst Palava Hut, llc.

All right.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Random and Wonderful.

My guest today is Miguel Iga, and we are going to talk about travel.

We're going to learn a lot because Miguel has a lot of experience when it comes to travel, and so I'm really excited to kind of get into his stories.

Miguel, welcome so much.

Could you tell us a little bit about you before we get into your experience with travel?

Hey, Grace, thanks for the opportunity to be able to talk to your listeners.

My name is Miguel iga.

I am an adventure traveler and a nomadic writer who's been traveling and been on the road for the past eight years, especially among indigenous peoples.

As a part of this journey, I have quite a bit of everything, from traveling among Mayan shamans to nearly getting eaten by sharks to having beautiful adventures all over the world and writing about them, and recently starting my own YouTube channel and showing my stories in more visual ways.

In the end, I am a storyteller, and there's nothing I love more than to have, like, a beautiful experience and that I can torture somebody at the bar with.

That's how I was expecting you to end that.

That's funny.

We're going to talk about you almost getting eaten by sharks in a bit, because I need to.

I'm glad you're still here.

How did you begin your travel journey?

Did you always know you wanted to?

Because you talk about how your travel connects to people who are indigenous and understanding that culture.

Was that always the focus of what you wanted out of travel or how did that even come about?

It kind of all came out of a fever dream that I had, like, when I had, like, my existential crisis in my mid-20s.

Like, I'm sure, like, many of your listeners, like, do, too, but I'm originally a corporate lawyer, so I. I studied corporate law here in Mexico, and I started working as a lawyer since I was 19.

You know, like, proofreading contracts, like, paperwork, like, that kind of a thing.

And over time, I mean, I really loved it.

Like, I really do like it.

But over time, the more I did it, the more I had this growing feeling of, like, I am not experiencing the world.

I am not, like, fully living my life.

Like, there was this growing feeling of that there was something I wasn't doing, and it Grew and it grew and it grew and I just kind of pushed, stuffed it down.

You know, I just did like the.

But what we all do.

And I just like kept like stuffing it down, kept like denying it.

I even like jumped into like a master's degree, like finished my master's degree.

And I kept working until one day the levy broke and it all just kind of came flooding out of this like huge existential crisis.

Just kind of did not know what I wanted to do with my life.

But I knew it wasn't law.

I knew I wasn't living authentically, but I didn't know what living authentically looked like.

So I just kind of started like thinking, trying to resolve this, this like crippling existential crisis.

At the time I had just started my, my law firm because.

Mainly because I really wanted to travel and I wanted to have like the flexibility to be able to travel.

In Mexico you get very, very little vacation time if you're not self employed.

If you're self employed, you get too much vacation time.

So I, I have been like starting to like warm up to travel and adventure and I knew I needed that shift in, in careers or in like in life purpose, right.

And I just kind of didn't.

I was looking for a sign, something that would tell me, okay, like this is the thing, because I was, I was going off, really up the deep end.

I was like, should I go back and study like biology and like become like a marine biologist?

As I'm sure like everybody does when they have an existential crisis, right?

Like, or like, do I want to write?

Because I always wanted to be a writer.

I was always like, like the book person in, in school I actually used to go like carry to school carrying all my book collection, like the whole stack of books when I was like in elementary school and stuff.

So of course I got bullied.

But I also wanted to travel.

I had recently started just traveling alone because my friends all had jobs and they couldn't or wouldn't or didn't have the money or whatever it was.

There was always an excuse and we never traveled.

So I started traveling on my own.

And I had recently had that shark experience in the Bahamas.

And it just kind of, I was kind of like, oh, like that felt good.

And I'm sorry, hold on.

We'll get there in a bit.

Okay.

Please keep going.

Yeah.

So it all culminated in this moment when I had this flashback to when I was in kindergarten and the teachers were asking us.

It was one of those like dumb little things that you would do in kindergarten.

Typical things where you, it's like, oh, draw what you want to be when you grow up and they give you crayons and you're.

You're drawing on like a piece of paper, you know, And I don't know why I had this flashback where like, I clearly remembered what I drew.

And what I drew was like this map of Africa, which for Mexicans was like the most.

The furthest place you could go.

Right.

It was the most like, yeah, like the most exotic, far off place, like safaris and like this whole like, notion of being an explorer.

And I remember I drew like the, like the continent and I put like the compass in there and I put mountains and rivers and I drew like little lions and the whole thing.

And I remember showing it to my teacher and just saying, I want to be an explorer when I grow up.

And I remembered that and it all just kind of clicked.

It was like, explorer.

Well, of course.

I mean, that's what you love doing.

Like, you love whether it's exploring ideas through books or whether it's exploring the outside world through travel or exploring stories and like, what they have to teach us.

Like, that's what I love to do.

I love to explore.

So how do I merge everything that I want to do into like something that's actually doable, something that has steps, something I can go to YouTube and look for advice.

And I love travel and I love writing.

Why not write about travel?

So I became a travel writer.

Wow.

But being able to remember that childhood dream, I think is something that if people don't take the time to actually go back and ask that question, what did I want to be?

What was that drive?

What was that exciting thing I thought I wanted to be when I grew up?

You know, if you're not able to find that people go through severe depression because you're trying to trace that dream that you had and you don't really take the time to evaluate that.

That.

Wow.

But I think that that's like the value of depression.

You know, depression tends to be your friend, but it's, it's usually the friend that tells you what you don't want to hear.

Things aren't going right.

You need a change.

And fortunately, at that time I listened to it and I was like, I knew I needed something different.

And it also provided the solution and just, it just spun my life around.

Just the whole 180 from like pushing papers in like an office in Mexico to like, okay, like, now let's go out and start exploring.

So A little after that, I quit my job and I.

Well, I had started my law firm, but I was broke because I didn't have any clients or had, like, a very small amount of clients.

This is way before everybody started doing, like, remote work and, like, all of that.

I actually started doing it kind of.

Kind of like in hiding here in Mexico, because it was very frowned upon.

Yeah.

So, like, I would pretend I was in, like, in my home city, but I was, like, somewhere else.

And I had, like a hundred dollars or so, $200 of savings worth left.

So I bought a plane ticket to Sonora, which is like, the most dangerous region in Mexico or one of the most dangerous regions.

It's just south of Arizona.

It's the Sonoran Desert.

Okay.

And I said, I am going to go to this desert, and I am going to visit the indigenous peoples there because they're very remote, they're very far off, they're very off the beaten path.

They live very much in their own little worlds.

And I had just been there for a wedding that never happened.

But so I got to see the town, and I came face to face with this mural that showed me all the different cultures in that region in the Sonoran Desert region.

And I just became entranced by it.

And I just decided that this is where I'm going to come and this is where I'm going to start.

So I. I traveled to sonora with only 40 in my pocket, which I spent drinking on the beach in three days.

And for the rest of that month, I traveled.

I hitchhiked around the whole region, over 2,000 km of worth of hitchhiking throughout the desert, visiting indigenous peoples, being part of dances, and, like, going into the desert, into these remote villages, like walking in the desert and just experiencing life through.

Through these different people's shoes.

For my first book, which is.

Is going to be published soon, and it's going to be called where the Deer Dance, because it.

The deer are the spirit animal of the region there.

And that's how it started.

It just really kicked off this whole journey of adventure, but mostly misadventure.

Yeah.

And finding flow in the outside world.

And in finding flow in the outside world, also having it reflect on my interior world.

So there's this, like, nice dynamic of outer.

Experiencing an inner growth, going on, personal transformation.

Travel, of course, is, in my opinion, as a professional traveler, it's always weird when I say that.

But travel has this very deep transformative effect, as many listeners I'm sure, know too.

And that's basically how I started.

I Mean, it's been many adventures since in.

In the jungles of Yucatan and the mountains of Guatemala, in the Andes with the Kasinga peoples, in the Alto Putumayo in Ecuador, in the US too.

I've done quite a bit of traveling in the US which for me it's kind of the same thing as if Americans come to Mexico.

For me the US is as exotic but in very different ways.

Blinkers for one are like a very exotic thing which we don't use here.

Canada in your car.

Oh yeah.

If you want to learn how to drive defensively, come to Mexico.

Yeah, I had a passenger seat experience with that and I was like, I'm never driving here.

It's fun.

I'm never driving here.

Yeah, I mean it's not for the faint of heart for sure.

So I was expecting you to say that this, this shark adventure actually happened amidst your travels.

This is before you even got that.

I was a corporate, I was still a corporate lawyer working in an office.

And it was a very good job because they gave you 10 days vacation for the whole year.

I mean by Mexican standards, Mexicans usually get like six or seven days a year.

So having 10 days basically gave you like two weeks if you stacked like the work days together.

So I thought, well, if I'm going to get just 10 days and so basically I'm going to be only be able to travel once for the whole year.

It'll be like a vacation that I really wanted to do.

And I am a diving aficionado.

So I said I'm going to take a dive cation.

And I had subscribed to Dive magazine, the scuba diving magazine.

And they had this like dive deal section in their website.

So being like the cheap Mexican that I am, I was always like browsing the deal, see what like some, what I could come up with.

And there was always this, this ad that would pop out called, it was called Blackbeard's Cruises out of.

Out of Florida.

Well, I mean they're a US company out of Florida, but they do these little live.

Live aboards out of Nassau so you can basically camp and live on the ship because it's, it's very like rough accommodations but in, in a very good way.

And you live on board, you sleep on board, you eat on board and they take you to all these incredible offshore locations in the Bahamas and you get to dive all of them and do like two to three tank dives every day for like a week or so.

So I thought like, screw it, why not?

Let's do this and during one of those dives I ended up in the water with my.

So I was the youngest diver that.

The least experienced diver of course on the, on the ship.

So they paired me with the.

Scuba diving has the body system.

You're never supposed to go diving alone.

It's perfect way to just disappear.

Right.

So you have.

Because of the body system, they paired me with the one with the old.

The oldest diver with the most experience.

So it was this guy, this English man who had, who was into like dive photography, had this like huge camera.

So we were always the last in the water.

And we're doing one of those during.

I mean mainly because, you know, you have to prepare the camera and all of it.

And I always double check like the, like my gear.

I mean I've done everything you shouldn't do in, in diving.

Like, I've, I've jumped in with like the air turned off.

Like, I mean, all kinds of like, things.

Okay.

I mean, just to start.

So I was really careful because like you always do like little stuff like that.

And so we were always the last in the water.

And I remember during that one of those dives I went in and we were going to go see this like, this rock, this like, rock with like underwater caves with.

And coral reefs around it.

But the ship had anchored and it was all sand beneath us.

So I look down and I see nothing but sand.

And you have a compass, so you're navigating more or less.

Okay.

Like where you're going because you can't really see that, that far underwater, even though the Bahamas, in the Bahamas you can.

It was still all sand.

So we both go in and I asked the people on the boat, oh, where, where's the.

What bearing is the rock?

And you go, oh, just go northwest and you'll, you can't miss it.

So, so we start swimming and we reach the rock and we're, you know, we spend this amazing hour because it was a very shallow dive.

We spent this amazing hour like looking at sea turtles and like all kinds of corals and fish and I mean the Bahamas is amazing.

It's a paradise.

Like if it, if people think it looks beautiful outside, you know, like on the beach and on the coast, it's even more beautiful underwater.

That's really incredible.

And I mean, this guy would spend like, you know, 15 minutes taking a picture of like a shrimp and I'd just be like whizzing around, you know, swimming and everything.

And then we just spent like that hour like that and we had all the other people from the boat around us until there came this moment where I just kind of looked around, and there was nobody around us.

I just had this, like, feeling of, like.

Like loneliness, you know?

Like.

Like, oh.

Like there's.

There's nobody around us.

Like, everybody's gone back.

So I checked my year, and I was starting to run low, So I just go to this guy.

I start putting on his fin while he was taking a picture of, like, a sea slug on, like, a fan or something.

And I go like, hey, Like, I mean, underwater, right?

I'm just, like, signaling with, like, my hands and stuff.

Like, hey, like, everybody's gone.

Like, how's your air?

He's like, oh, like, I'm starting to run low.

So I tell him, like, let's go back.

And he's like, okay, like, let's swim back.

So he starts swimming, and I start following him.

And I'm following him for, like, five minutes, and we don't see the boat.

Ten minutes, we don't see the boat.

So I pull on his fin again, and I just go like.

Like, hey, like, where's the boat?

He goes.

He just signals to me, like, I don't know.

I'm following you.

And I'm like, well, you're an idiot, because I'm following you.

Because, I mean, I was not the experienced diver of the two, so I was just following, like, his.

His lead.

Right, Right.

So he just kind of goes like.

And like, okay.

So we were going northwest, so I just thought, okay, let's just go southeast, and we'll, like, retrace, like, our.

Our steps, right?

So we go back, we get to the coral rock again, but we're running very low on air, so we surface, we do our emergency.

Our stop, you know, like that.

The compression stop, and then we surface, and we see this ship.

And the ship is maybe, like, a hundred meters or away or so.

So it's like, okay, there it is.

We inflate our.

Our dive vest, and we start swimming.

And you put the snorkel on when you're.

When you're on the surface because you have, like, the waves battering your face and stuff, right?

And it just makes it easier to just keep swimming.

We're swimming towards the ship, and I look down, and there's a shark, like, going around us, just circling us at the bottom of the.

You know, like, by the bottom of the sea.

And I'm just like, okay, it's just a shark.

I just had my first shark encounter, like, on the previous dive, and I have basically Just jumped into like these guys arms and just like pointed at the thing like in the cartoon.

Like, you know, he just like looks at it just like, he's like, oh, we're fine.

And just like kept taking a picture of like a crab or something, right?

And so it's like, okay, if this guy isn't panicking, like, we're fine.

Yeah.

So I just looked at it and I just kind of took that feeling back, you know, like, okay, like we're fine.

He's, he's not panicking.

He's not an experienced cipher.

We're, we're okay.

It's just one shark.

Two versus one good odds.

So we start swimming and as we're swimming, I look down again and now there's two sharks.

Oh.

And they're a little bit like that much closer.

And I'm like, still good odds.

It's like if you're in a bar, it's like man on man, like one versus one.

Like still pretty decent, right?

Like, the thing with sharks is that you shouldn't read like you should always be facing the shark because the sharks tend to like sneak up on you.

Because they're smart.

I mean, they're very, very smart.

And you could kind of tell by looking into their eyes that they're just like analyzing every situation, right?

They have these like big like, almost like drunk eyes, but they're thinking like, you can tell that they're thinking like, like when you see a dog, when you hide the ball from your dog and the dog is like, where's the ball?

And it's like trying to figure out where the ball went.

That's kind of the feeling I got.

But much more menacing, right?

Because it's like, because it's like hundreds of pounds of, of pure muscle and evolution.

Like.

And teeth.

Yeah, mostly the teeth.

Powering this like beautiful majestic creature.

So I'm like, okay, it's just two sharks.

It's fine.

You know, we can both face him and they're not going to get close.

So we keep swimming.

And I look down again and now there's four sharks.

And they're much closer now.

Goodness.

The problem.

And the problem was that if we would have been underwater, you can just kind of be at their level and kind of like face them.

Like, you're fine, right?

For the most, I mean, depending on the shark species, but you're usually fine.

But we were on the surface, so we're vulnerable.

We're these like floating like dinner belts, right?

Just like swimming, kicking along.

Yeah, just, just chilling, kicking along.

So at that point I look to my buddy and I go like, hey, dude, have you seen that?

There's like a ton of sharks beneath us.

And he just goes like, yeah, swim for it.

We're just like, just.

I mean we're not in a panic, but we're like swimming with, we're swimming with a purpose.

Right.

There's a reason why we're swimming now.

So I look down again and now there's seven sharks.

Oh my gosh.

And they get between us and the boat.

So now we're basically far away from the ship.

We're surrounded by all these sharks and they're getting closer and closer and closer.

I mean you can just tell that they're at the very least, if they're not hungry, they're curious.

And the problem is that sharks are kind of like dogs in a way, that dogs feel the world with their mouths and their teeth.

And sharks do too.

Yeah.

So their curiosity hurts.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah.

So we're just swimming and I just have this moment.

There comes a moment like we're bunching together so that we are this like big mass that they think a little more about approaching.

And I just had this thought just rush through my head where it's like, crap, I'm dead.

Like I'm about to witness my death.

My mom was right.

I should not have got to the Bahamas.

I should have stayed home.

Like, like every good Mexican boy does.

Like, I should not have like left on this adventure.

Like, screw this, I should, like I should be working.

I should be pushing papers in an office somewhere.

Like I'm just having all these thoughts rush through my head and I just kind of realized like if I panic, I am going to signal to the sharks that I pray.

So I just, I don't know how I did it, but I just summoned up all like the weapons that I have and I just really chilled out and I just kept, I just focus on swimming, on getting to the, to the back of the ship.

Because everybody by this time at the, on the ship, like they were blasting music and drinking and just basically having a party.

And nobody was like really aware that we were on in the water.

I mean they knew we were not on the on board, but they weren't because it was more of like a self guided kind of thing because they you to be more of an experienced diver.

That's why they put me with the most experienced one.

So it was more your responsibility to come and go from the ship.

Right.

And I'm just like, well, nobody's going to realize we're gone.

They're just going to find our fins or something like later.

But we kept swimming, and the sharks are getting closer and closer and closer, and there's no way to keep them at bay.

Right?

Right.

Because you can't really face them because if you're facing one, there's three behind you who are getting.

Who are sneaking up.

And then at one point, the sharks.

Sharks, when they start exhibiting, like, territorial and aggressive behavior, they start swimming and moving their fins in a certain way.

So they started getting aggressive, and one of them basically makes a go for my.

For my buddy.

So this guy turns around, sees the shark, like, like, duck, starting in.

So he takes his camera, smacks it on the nose.

The other sharks just kind of go like.

Like, what's going on?

Right?

And they just.

They just step back a little bit.

And that gave us just enough time to get to the back of the ship.

And that was this, like, long, long rope trailing behind.

And I grabbed a hold of that rope.

I don't know if you're.

If you're a diver, Grace, if you had experience with, like, well, the equipment is very heavy because you have, like, you have the tanks, you have.

I mean, you're strapped down by lead weights.

You have a ton of gear.

Right.

And it tends to be very heavy, very clunky.

So you usually take everything off in the water and you pass it to the person on the boat, and then you.

You leave the water with no.

With no gear because it can be dangerous to step out with all the gear on.

You can slip and hurt yourself.

I jumped out of the water with everything I had.

Lead weights, tank, everything.

I just sprang out of the water, like, nope, nope, nope, nope.

This is not gonna happen today.

Not today, maybe tomorrow, but o.

No manana.

And I think that that was the first serious adventure I had.

Like, the first, like, real brush with death.

The first real, like, risky.

Like, oh, this is like a bar story I'll be telling for the rest of my life.

Kind of.

Kind of a. Yeah.

Oh, wow.

Now, do you still dive?

Oh, yeah.

I love it.

Yeah.

The irony is that sharks are my favorite animal.

So I was going to say, is there any, like, lesson learned from that experience or is this that just, like.

That's just one of the things that could happen?

The.

I think that the lesson is listen to your mom and don't, you know, don't.

Don't leave your corporate job to turn pirate and travel the world.

No, I'm kidding.

But I think just keeping a cool head under pressure always helps.

Like, not, not.

Not giving into panic for that one in particular.

But yeah, no, it.

It was.

It was quite an experience.

But there have been many, many other adventures besides.

I mean, everything from like, near runs with death, with.

In machete motorcycle accidents in the jungle, with traveling among.

Among Mayans, to traveling some of the most dangerous places in Colombia and Mexico and Guatemala, but also very beautiful experiences, like, very spiritual and deep and connected travels, like among shamans and among indigenous shamans.

Like, a lot of my friends in Guatemala are Mayan spiritual guides, they're called.

So I got to travel and experience a lot with them, to go around pilgrimages with them all around Guatemala, visiting all these sacred sites, being a part of these.

Of these mystical fire ceremonies in jungles and caves and even in ruins.

We even had a major ceremony that we did in front of the pyramids in Tikal in what was a very significant ceremony for them.

And then getting to write about all of this and, like, tell it my share my stories on YouTube.

And I unfortunately started to do YouTube very late.

Like seven years too late.

Like, I. I always took notes for my books, but I never really took video for a lot of these adventures until fairly recently.

And I mean, it would've been incredible to have seen some of these stories come to life, like, on, on screen, too.

But it has all been like, a part of this journey where you're constantly growing and learning more things about yourself, discovering new passions.

Like, everything started with writing, but it would soon spill over into photography and videography and into speaking and like, recording podcasts like this, for example, with you.

There's no small amount of personal growth that happens when you travel because you're constantly putting yourself out there.

You're constantly testing yourself, testing your mettle against these very uncomfortable situations.

Anything from, you know, like, tight bus rides where you're 24 hours on this, like, jumping bus, going through these, like, remote parts of the world.

You know, you can't feel your legs anymore.

You're trying to, like, shift like your butt.

It also to.

So that.

To kind of spread the pain around so that you can not be as uncomfortable.

And then you just kind of give in to the pain and you're just kind of like, sitting there uncomfortable, and you're just used to it by then.

Or meeting all these amazing people doing amazing things all over the world with, like, all these, these unsung heroes and amazing artists, people who started not out in, like, the public eye or in the media, but they're doing these incredible things, you know, or have these amazing stories and just having your mind blown constantly, like having that be the norm, right.

Of like having spiritual encounters and I mean run ins with the paranormal.

I don't know if like some of your listeners are into, into that kind of a thing, but like when you travel, especially among indigenous peoples, you have all kinds of things happen.

It's everything, it's.

It's the world.

There's a whole world of experience out there and it's just kind of waiting for you.

Right.

And not necessarily because you have to go out on these like crazy adventures like I do, but even just going to a place where you have always wanted to go or to go for like a festival that you will, you have been wanting to see or to just kind of get out of your comfort zone, like that's enough to just have these incredible experiences.

Right.

Like travel always meets you right where you are.

Exactly, exactly.

And one of the things that we or I share with other people is that when you are traveling you don't need to do like the big, you know, gigantic, expensive trip.

Right.

You can start where you are.

But I think what you mentioned is so key.

It's having that mindset to be open to get to know other people, to get to know other cultures and fully like immerse yourself into what's happening so that you can experience new and different, mysterious.

And like there's so much that you can get out of an experience outside of.

Yeah, I went there and that's it.

You know, you come back with stories and internal change.

Yeah, I love sharing my stories and every time I open up and I share them like, you know, everybody else just, everybody has some kind of a, of a story.

Right?

And you can tell that every time they tell these stories, they're always some of the most cherished ones.

They're always like almost like these outlier stories where it's like, like these like life defining moments where like you had this like encounter or you had this like one misadventure.

And, and everybody just has like those stories and, and it's, I think that they add a lot of value to your life.

Like they add like a lot of like.

I think fluff might not be the substance.

They had a lot of substance.

Like thinking to your memories, like thinking back and like, oh, I did this and this happened and I lived through this and I experienced this and it is always amazing.

And also to tell your story, I think you are reminded of some things that maybe the 1st, 5th, 12th time you tell the story, the next time you're sharing it.

You're like, oh, I forgot about this part.

Or, you know, I never noticed how that experience affected me until like three years from now.

And now I realize how much I've grown since then.

So it's something that it continuously, you know, it's continuously working in you.

It's the gift that keeps on giving, right?

Yeah.

Because you keep finding these different layers of meaning as you're maturing, as you're growing, that you keep finding these, like, new.

These new things.

Right?

Because maybe in the moment, things just feel very raw or material in the sense of like, it's real life, right.

And you're just experiencing it, you're just living it.

But you don't regularly assign significant.

Sometimes you do.

Like, when you're very aware of, like, what you're seeing, sometimes you do.

But a lot of that comes later.

That's a very helpful part of being like a writer that, like, I get to process all these experiences in very deep ways that something like video wouldn't.

Doesn't allow, for example, in to like, a level of depth that no other medium really allows and just really exploring, like, the inner workings of like, what happened and what the significance of that was and what the impact has been over the years.

Right.

Like when I was running around with my enchantments, for example, it was cool, it was amazing, it was mind blowing.

But I. I wasn't fully aware the degree of what.

Of the importance of what they were doing for themselves and for the world and for me.

And that just kind of comes with time, right.

So the.

These stories become like aged wine the more you tell them, like, the better you get at telling them, and also, like, the more meaning you can assign and it really is the gift that keeps on giving.

I like that our stories are like, aged wide.

That's true.

And think about, you know, if we had a new traveler or somebody who wants to step a little bit further outside of their travel experience, what's some advice that you would give them to.

To start their journey, especially if they're a solo traveler?

I would say the water's warm.

Don't think twice about it.

Don't dally.

Just dive right in plan.

If you're a planner.

I'm not, frankly.

But travel has a way.

And like the universe in general, like God, whatever higher power you believe in combined with these experiences, like, has a way of softening your.

You're landing and just putting you right where you have to be to live exactly what you need to live.

Like that adventure is out there waiting for you.

And all you have to do is keep an open mind and just go seek it.

And I assure you, you will find it.

And it doesn't have to be this big, like dangerous adventures in some remote part of the world.

It could even be the next town over.

Travel is not so much.

It is the actual, by definition of moving around the world, right, of seeing different parts of the world.

But it's more the mindset, the travelers mindset is something that you take with you when you go and when you come back.

So just go, just go on that adventure.

We all have it.

We all know what it is.

I mean, as somebody who used to repress those urges and now doesn't, I can tell you that we all know what that adventure is inside us, what we want to, what we want to experience.

And you will always figure out the hows, and you will always figure out the whens and all of that.

But as soon as you have the what, just go seek it out.

Those are powerful words.

Thank you for sharing that.

Before we go, can you tell us what's next for you?

I know you mentioned your book, but what else is going on?

And just remind us of the title of your upcoming book, please.

Well, you guys can find more, more about me and my travel stories through my online platform, which is Rambling and roving Miguel Iga.

You can find me like that on YouTube.

Rambling and roving Miguel Iga.

And I recently also wrote a book about decolonization.

It's actually my first book.

I decided to prioritize it over my travel writing because I. I thought it had more of a social message and more of a.

It had a bit more of less indulgent message.

Right.

So I just decided to prioritize that.

It's called the Embrace of A Story of Hope and Healing during the Guatemalan Civil War.

You can find it on all platforms, all major book platforms, online in print and in ebook form.

It's the story of how do you heal the unhealable, the unhealable wounds of such a traumatic event.

It's about the.

The paths of the lonely, paths that we walk on the way back to wholeness.

And it's exploring this whole theme of decolonization and violence against indigenous peoples and, and also how you can find that inner strength inside you despite the painful things that happen to you.

So I Think everybody.

I think it's a message that can speak to everybody.

We all have something that hurts us or that has caused pain in our past.

And I think that the.

The stories that I.

This.

This is actually a real story.

So I was in Guatemala for three months interviewing survivors of the civil war.

And I turned their stories into this epic story that spans several decades, ranging from before the war, during the war, and after the war, and just kind of the lingering effects.

And I think that the stories of these women are very inspiring, and it'll.

Everybody can find some kind of deep meaning and learn and take away deep lessons from.

From my book.

So there's that.

And what's next?

I'm actually a couple of weeks away from going to Micronesia for a couple of years and traveling that side of the world, which is a.

A new part of the world for me.

Mostly I focus on traveling closer to home in this hemisphere.

And now I'm branching out towards Asia.

And I got a job teaching English as well as an English teacher on a remote island called Yap in the middle of the Micronesian Sea.

Why they would hire a Mexican to teach English, I don't know.

But.

But yeah, I mean, it.

It kind of that.

That experience.

I mean, that opportunity dropped into my lap, actually, at a Hustle in Guadaljara.

I spoke to this.

I just out of a random hostile conversation, and I got this amazing opportunity to experience life among this.

Among the Yapes people of Micronesia.

So just this perfect opportunity that again, that's.

Try that.

That's travel.

Keeping on giving.

Yeah, that's exciting.

I'm very surprised.

I actually have heard of Yap.

I'm looking forward to hearing your adventures after that.

I have a question about Guatemala.

Did you get a chance to.

Or the women that you interviewed for your book, were they a part of.

And please correct me if you know the name of the tribe.

Was it Gafunda?

I traveled among?

Yes.

Okay.

Can you say it again?

Garifuna.

Galifuna.

All right.

Yeah.

Okay.

Very cool.

Did you get to interact with that group?

Yeah.

I spent time in Belize among the Garifunas in Punta Gorda.

The main town where most of them live is in Dangriga in southern Belize.

There's quite a bit of other populations in Guatemala, like on the coast, on the Caribbean coast and in, I think, I believe, Honduras.

Upload to Honduras.

They have some communities there too.

But I. I actually met this incredible healing lady, this Gari from a healing, Healing woman.

Medicine woman.

And she just kind of Took me in and then she got me a stay with a Garifuna family in Punta Corda.

Shout outs to you, Andre, if you're watching this.

And it was just amazing.

I mean, they have this whole story of how they are going back to, like, more sustainable ways of farming and agriculture, these deep spiritual traditions.

And the setting in southern Belize is just beautiful.

I mean, it's all.

It's jungles and coast and very, very exotic.

Very, very exotic.

So, yeah, if I remember correctly, something like three weeks among them.

Wow.

Okay, that's cool.

Yeah, you mentioned it and I was like, I need to get the name before I say it wrong.

But no, that's.

That's, you know, it's a huge world, but a small world, too.

Yeah, no, it's incredible.

I mean, I have bumped into people.

I've met people in like, a hostel in Merida in southern Mexico, and then been in, like, the middle of, like, a small, random town in Colombia, and I, and we bump into each other and say, what are you doing here?

What are you doing here?

And why didn't you invite me?

That's the more important question.

Yeah, exactly.

Why are you traveling without me?

What is this?

It's a very Mexican thing to say, guys.

Put it.

Thanks for inviting me.

Invite me next time.

Yeah.

There's so many cool little stories, and there's always one that comes up from, like, every single trip.

Well, Miguel, thank you so much for being a guest on the podcast and sharing your stories.

And I always say it's funny how, like, sometimes I try to have like a.

A very broad but general plan of how the conversation is going to go, and then it goes completely different.

And I am so happy at the end, like, this is how we.

This is the discussion we had instead.

So thank you so much.

That's exactly how travel is.

That's exactly how it is.

You think you're just going to go have like, a simple little trim and it ends up being this whole other thing that you have planned, but in the end, it was just perfect.

Thank you so much for this conversation, Grace, and for the opportunity to talk to your listeners a little bit and share my stories.

And, yeah, I mean, this was an amazing conversation.

Hey there, Grace.

Here.

I hope you enjoyed today's episode and gained some useful takeaways.

Thank you so much for listening and staying until the end.

Don't forget to rate the show or share it with some friends.

Have a wonderful week.

Take care.

And remember, be bold, be curious.

Be ready to tell your story.

You never know who needs it.

Bye.

Bye.