An all-inclusive resort released me from the impulse to post about my trip online

Peers in Mexico City live in terrarium-style accommodations for digital nomads, eat well for less, and bring locally made items while tasting mezcal and staying near culture without fully immersing in it. The narrator instead stays at an all-inclusive resort outside Cancún, lying on chaise longues by a pool with water aerobics in Spanish and hearing pop music during naps. Meals are a carb-heavy, mixed style rather than distinctly Mexican or American. The narrator avoids using dollars, pesos, or Apple Pay, and experiences a controlled environment of sand, lapis water, and sterile interiors. The narrator previously disliked indulgent tourism but now feels no need to curate, post, or create content, choosing to relax among other tourists.

"My peers are 1,000 miles away in Mexico City, in terrarium Airbnbs advertised for digital nomads. They are eating better than they've ever eaten, and for cheaper, too. They are packing hammered silver jewellery and locally crafted cowhide sandals into their carry-on luggage; they are tasting mezcal by brands they hope to one day creatively direct; they are not immersed in the culture per se, but they are definitely proximate to it."

"I'm at an all-inclusive resort just outside of Cancún in a perfect line of chaise longues with my family and boyfriend, on the perimeter of a pool hosting water aerobics in Spanish. The Justin Bieber version of Despacito is interrupting our naps. At the resort, I have not made a decision in a week; the food is neither Mexican nor American but some strange amalgam (really, mostly carbs)."

"Aside from the neon flecks of a cocktail or wristband, my universe is sketched only in the whites of blinding sands and blues of lapis waters, which match the hotel's sterile interiors as if they are the official colours of this preplanned commune. At the resort, all my consumption is preordained, and for once I feel no desire to curate or post."

"There are no small-plate restaurants I must try or artisanal shops I must visit. I need not play influencer or content creator of my own leisure. If the paradox of the traveller is that she can never escape all other tourists, I can relax and join the herd. I am, in fact, a tourist, and finally, I need not pret"

Read at The Globe and Mail