I’m Mayra Pettus. People who know me call me Maii.

For the better part of two decades I’ve been a person who travels. I traveled solo through my twenties — when “wanderlust” was a word I’d put in my own bio without irony, when I could book a flight on a Tuesday for a Friday and not blink. I traveled as a couple in my late thirties, after I met Christopher. Now I travel as a family — Christopher, me, and our daughter, born December 2024 and on her first flight at three and a half months.

Each version was different. None of them were less.

By day I’m Director of Sales at Decision Tactical, leading global market development across tour & travel, MICE, and DMO partnerships in North America, Europe, and APAC. Translation: my job is travel, even when I’m at my desk.

By night and on weekends and on every long flight where Emilia sleeps, I’m here. Writing this.

Inspired by the fear of being average.

That’s the line I keep coming back to. Average is what happens when you stop noticing things, stop showing up for the trip, stop choosing the harder version of the story. I’m trying not to.

I grew up in Norwalk, California. I’m bilingual. I have a dual master’s in International Business & Organizational Science (Azusa Pacific) and a BA in Entertainment & Tourism Communications. My career has spanned Merlin Entertainments, South Coast Plaza, Medieval Times, and now Decision Tactical. I tell you that because the travel obsession isn’t an accessory to my life — it’s the whole engine.

Who this is for

Specifically: the woman who used to travel solo and meant it. The one who saw “wanderlust” in her bio and lived up to it. The one who got married, then had a baby, and watched that part of herself go quiet — not because she stopped wanting it, but because the math suddenly didn’t work the same way.

Hi. Same.

If your travel persona feels like it took a back seat after kids — it didn’t. It just changed cars. The budget stretches differently, the planning gets more complicated, the pee breaks multiply, and the version of you that wanted to see the world is still in there. Maybe even louder than before.

I’m writing this for her.

What you’ll find here

The three-era arc. Solo trips through my twenties. Couple trips through my thirties. Family trips now. I write about all three — and what changes (and what doesn’t) between them.

Honest budgets. What I actually spent, including the embarrassing parts. Including how the math shifts when you go from one passport to two to three.

Travel with a baby that doesn’t pretend to be effortless. Emilia has been my travel partner since 3.5 months old. We’ve figured a few things out. We’ve also made plenty of mistakes. I’ll share both.

Encouragement. The kind that says: yes, it’s going to be harder. Yes, the budget might not stretch the same way. Yes, you can still be a globetrotter — it might just look a little different. Be patient with yourself. Find joy in the process.

What you won’t find here

Sponsored content I didn’t want to write. Itineraries presented as one-size-fits-all. The Instagram-perfect version of motherhood. Generic wellness platitudes in lieu of actual writing.

The verse in my bio

If you’ve come over from my Instagram you’ve already seen this, but it bears repeating: my bio leads with 1 Timothy 4:12 — “Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity.”

I keep that verse front-and-center because it’s the standard I’m holding myself to — in how I work, how I mother, how I travel, and how I write. Faith isn’t a separate compartment of my life from the travel; it’s the thing that holds the rest together. So: take it or leave it. Either way, you’re welcome here.

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If something here resonates, send me a note at Mayra@EstiloExplorer.com. I read everything. I write back. You can also find me on Instagram at @maiislife or LinkedIn (where I am significantly more buttoned up).