Puerto Morelos --
Tonight I ate pork egg rolls and pad thai con camaron (shrimp). The pad thai was an odd mashup of Asian cuisine -- a bit too much soy and fish sauce for my taste. I bring this up only to mention one instance of the global flows of people, food and culture in our increasingly mobile world.

I also bring this up because it struck me (and perhaps you) as odd to be eating pad thai in a small fishing village in the Mayan Riviera. Why it does not strike me as odd to do the same thing in Mississippi or in Denver speaks to the expectations and exotic desires of tourists when they travel. Eating pad thai in Puerto Morelos strikes us a bit of culture jamming -- something an American tourist should not do in Mexico. If it is not subversive, then it is simply strange. But it certainly not normal to eat pad thai in a fishing village in Mexico. It is not normal, I think, because we are conditioned to consume the places and cultures that we visit, not experience something wholly foreign, like pad thai in Puerto Morelos.

Nonetheless, this is the place my friend Miguel recommended, so it is where I ate. And if pad thai didn't suit my fancy, I could have ordered spaghetti, pizza or chicken satay. Not a guacamole appetizer or enchilada plate to be found!

We live in quite a world.

Tonight we talk about Erik Cohen's phenomenology of travel -- basically why people are compelled to travel. Cohen has a few ideas, all of which get into notions of the sacred center and periphery, but we need not get into that now. Tourism, he argues, is a condition of modern life. It is an expectation. It carries with it cultural capital. So, tonight, we think about why we travel.

What does touring do to our self-identity? Do we identify as tourists, travelers, or pilgrims? How does traveling influence our understanding of what Said called the exotic "Other"? Finally, what are the implications -- both good and bad -- of our travels? Do we gain cultural awareness at the expense of ecological degradation, for example?

So many questions to ponder over my mixed Asian cuisine and Coca Light prepared by a Yucatecan chef and American expatriate owner.

Hasta pronto amigos!