Tulum and onward

Getting more into Tulum has been so much fun. Spending 3 full weeks here has really given me the chance to see and experience a lot of cool events and places. Making a friend here has made all the difference too. I put out an open call for a ladies night in a local facebook group for women a couple weeks ago and Alina was the sole attendee. We had a good, chill evening chatting over happy hour margaritas. She invited me to a beach cleanup event she saw on Instagram and I invited her to a plant medicine ceremony I’d learned about at a cacao lounge earlier that week. So we’ve been hanging out all over the place, chatting with other people too and learning more insider tips about Tulum. The beach cleanup started at 7am at a beach club called Arena. That day, I learned not all beach clubs have to cost money. Yes, some of them do have a minimum spend requirement (like you have to buy food & drinks to stay), but others don’t. Some of them have a minimum spend requirement to use one of the lounging beds, others don’t. Some even require you to make a paid reservation. It’s more of a mixed bag than I thought which is nice. Arena beach club was really comfortable and surprisingly empty. When we arrived at 7am, we walked through a lovely entryway with tropical plants and a path laid with stones. Entering the beach club, we saw a small group yoga class going on at an outdoor studio, which we walked past quietly. There was a lovely crescent moon-shaped infinity pool, hammocks, a restaurant area, and lots of comfy looking outdoor beds. We walked past all that to reach the beach where there was a woman having a photoshoot. There was a ton of sargassum seaweed on the shore and in the water. It was really bad, way worse than what I saw the last time I went to the beach. We weren’t sure where to go, so we stood around for a few minutes. A woman walked up with a puppy. A good number of people let their dogs run around off leash in Tulum and this puppy was free and adorable. We chatted for a couple minutes and eventually saw that we were supposed to go up a small hill to a cliff. The organizers were there with gloves, sieves, and bags for us to use to pick up microplastics from the sand. There were tiny bits of plastic EVERYWHERE.

Degraded brittle pieces of milk jugs, bottles, packaging, toys, you name it. With 8 of us working for 2 hours, we made a pretty good dent, but I couldn’t help but wonder what the cliff would look like in 2 weeks as the wind and ocean bring new bits to shore continuously. Its disappointing and sad to see firsthand how reckless we’ve been with this planet, the only home we have. But it was a beautiful group effort and everyone there was so kind and chill. The beach club staff brought us some horchata, ginger shots, and mushroom toast as a thanks for our efforts.

We chatted about Tulum, nature, permaculture, childhood development, life. Everyone in the group except for me had spent a good amount of time in Tulum previously. Several from the group ended up moving here because they love it so much. To me, it’s extremely inspiring to see people forging their own path in life as unexpected as it may look. An Italian man who grew up in a very spiritual home, worked in finance internationally, spent some time as a monk, and now spends his days barefoot and shirtless organizing community events and developing permaculture food forests for the community. A French woman who traveled and lived all over the world, writing and performing beautiful music. I was lucky enough to enjoy her performance at an event the next evening and there isn’t a morsel of doubt that she’s doing exactly what she’s meant to be doing. There are just so many ways to live life and I’m thankful every day to have so much freedom to explore and figure out for myself what my path will look like. That was a long tangent but really it was great conversation and very interesting talking to everyone. When we finished with the cleanup, Alina and I spent the rest of the day relaxing at the beach club and it was glorious. Sleeping and lounging lazily, chatting and chillin in hammocks and on sunbeds, using the free wifi. Somehow, Alina managed to enjoy two hot coffees while sitting in direct, overwhelmingly hot sunlight. We were at the beach club from 7am until around 4pm and it didn’t get crowded at all. More people started showing up in the afternoon, but it stayed laid back all day. I didn’t see anyone get in the pool aside from me.

Some people were just there to eat, some to relax, a few people were working on their laptops in the sunbeds that were in the shade. Just chill vibes, nice ambient music, and a super friendly server who checked on us and brought us ice when the water in our bottles started to heat up.

To be honest, I haven’t been getting into the swing of self-employment activities with as much rigor as I hoped. I’m still keeping up my good daily habits I established on day 1 of my nomad journey and I’m slowly ramping up at working more diligently on a couple of project ideas (one of which, my first YouTube video is finally published. I personally don’t like it very much, but I have to start somewhere and perfection is 100% the enemy of my progress, so upward and onward!). So many afternoons in Tulum have turned lazy as the day reaches peak heat and all I want to do is lay down and rest. This is one reason I’m really looking forward to my move tomorrow. I’m going an hour north to Playa del Carmen and found a great apartment to sublet that looks like a big upgrade from where I am now. In Playa, I’ll have a better table to work from, a larger and cleaner kitchen, and some really lovely private outdoor space that will give me somewhere to start my mornings in the sunshine. Last week, I took an impromptu trip up to Playa del Carmen to look at the apartment and check out the city a little and wow is it different from Tulum. It makes Tulum look like a village for real. It hasn’t even crossed my mind that I haven’t seen shopping centers or mega-stores (aside from a big grocery store at the edge of town), or even any movie theaters since I’ve arrived here. It isn’t crowded in Tulum. Outside of Carnaval, I don’t think I’ve seen crowds of people assembling. But in Playa, those things are happening. Its a lot of tourists, a lot of color, a lot of people trying to sell things. A very different vibe. So when I came back to Tulum at the end of that day-visit, I realized how much I appreciate and almost now can see what people mean by it being “bohemian” here. The word I’d use is “natural”. Especially in La Veleta, plenty of buildings made from natural materials; thatched roofs, stone and wood walls, rustic wooden benches, that kind of thing.

Knowing I only had one week left, I had to decide where I wanted to put my time and money as both are limited. I can always come back here, so I don’t need to see everything. I decided I really wanted to go to at least one cenote in Tulum even though they are sprinkled throughout the Yucatán peninsula. [Cenotes are natural sinkholes that are filled with groundwater. Fun fact: there are no natural rivers on the Yucatán peninsula, only cenotes offer water sources inland]. So on Sunday, I rented a bike for the day and made my way to a cenote called Corazón del Paraíso. The bike ride there was tough. The only bikes available at the rental place were rusty old beach cruisers, so riding for 10 km in the hot sun along the side of the road was an experience. It was absolutely worth it though because when I reached the cenote, I found a very peaceful and relaxing place to spend the afternoon. I don’t mean peaceful in the sense that it was quiet and tranquil, just that it was not chaotic. There was a big family there, cousins, aunties, uncles, abuelas, everybody. They were having a good time. There wasn’t any riff raff, just people there to enjoy their time in nature with loved ones. I found a spot to sit and enjoy the view of the cenote before I took the plunge and jumped in from the platform. The water was cool, refreshing, and so clear you could see fish swimming around you. It was such a beautiful, lovely place to spend the afternoon, going in and out of the water as I pleased. Eventually I did what I do best and fell asleep.

Shortly after waking up, I knew it was time for me to go get cake. There was a bakery in Aldea Zama neighborhood that I’d set my sights on the week before called Holy Bakery. So after a slow departure, I got back on the bike and headed towards the bakery for what should have been a 27 minute journey. About 1.5 hours later, I finally made it to the bakery drenched in sweat and with grease and grime all over my hands. The bike chain fell off no less than 5 times during the journey. Since I took a different route to the bakery than I did to the cenote, I didn’t realize 90% of the ride was on bumpy rocky dirt roads. Looking back at the route now, I don’t know how but I also kept making wrong turns. I was maximally irritated and hot, but I mean it when I say that stepping into the bakery dissolved my struggles into nothing. It smelled amazing, the relaxing jazz music was instantly soothing, and everything looked so good. There was air conditioning, so it felt nice in there and thankfully the employee non-judgmentally showed me the way to the bathroom to clean my hands. A Holy Bakery indeed. I ordered a mini red velvet cake and each bite felt like heaven. I was so happy. I was ambitious (greedy, ambitious, call it what you like LOL) and also ordered a chocolate chip cookie sandwich that I ended up packing for the next day.

After my mini-feast, I took a stroll around the Aldea Zama neighborhood and found a very expensive, luxurious, all new- construction, walkable little enclave. They are very lucky to have Holy Bakery over there. Also, lots of people out with their dogs, many of them shuffling around off-leash. An adorable sight.

One other thing I really wanted to do before leaving Tulum was get more of the inside scoop on cacao. There are tons of flyers and ads online for cacao ceremonies, which I wasn’t too interested in honestly. To me, they seem more like a money grab than a genuine, sacred and spiritual ceremony. I’ve been lucky enough to participate in deeply spiritual and community-oriented cacao ceremonies held by a friend in Seattle, so passing on it here feels easy and natural. Alina told me that she went to a great cacao shop where they walk you through the process of how cacao is grown, harvested and processed and you get to taste several different varieties. Now yes I could have waited to go do this experience at a cacao farm, but chocolate is one of my favorite things about life on earth, so I’ll just do that on another day. I wanted to go to this shop in town, so I did one day when I was out running errands. The tasting did not disappoint. I loved the flavors and the explanations of how cacao is made. This is something I’ve learned too many times and has yet to stick in my head, but something about the way they explained cacao there made it more clear. It isn’t chocolate yet- its the beans in pure form. They’ve only been washed, sun-dried, fermented and ground into a paste. To become chocolate, those beans are roasted, ground and mixed with sugar, milk and other fats. In its unprocessed form, the theobromine in the cacao hits pretty hard. It’s molecular structure is very similar to caffeine and (even though this isn’t always the case with molecules of similar structures), has much of the same effect. So the cacao made me feel nauseous just like coffee does if I drink too much. Thankfully it wasn’t too long of a walk home, so I got to lay down and give my stomach time to settle before evening arrived. Even though the cacao made me feel sick, I’m excited to continue exploring the natural elixir in all it’s wonderful forms.

As my time in Tulum comes to a close, it’s easy for me to say its a nice place. The weather is beautiful, I’ve only encountered friendly and welcoming people, and even though it’s quite expensive for Mexico, you can still have a good time on a budget. As I write this, I’m sitting 10 meters away from the seashore at a no-minimum-spend beach club called Dos Ceibas. I brought my own water and snacks for the day and just bought tea as a courtesy, especially since the staff is so nice. I could have taken a colectivo from town for $1.70, but instead split a taxi with Alina for about $11 both ways. Housing here is fairly affordable. I paid $32.44/night to stay in a fairly new apartment. There’s so much new and ongoing construction in Tulum, it isn’t unreasonable to try to find a good deal around $700 USD for a 1 month stay.

Just like any place, there are dark sides to Tulum. I’ve seen so many stories online about the police pulling over tourists for the dumbest reasons and taking ridiculous amounts of money from them. With all the new construction and even the new airport, I expected to see many more tourists, but was surprised to walk past a lot of empty restaurants and shops. Honestly, my impression is that the tourism sector in Tulum is struggling. I’ve seen and heard multiple opinions – Youtubers saying tourism is suffering because of the sargassum, facebookers saying the corrupt police are discouraging potential visitors, and some people I spoke to in-person saying tourism hasn’t suffered at all. I will say, there’s noticeable room for more visitors. Also, if you’re considering starting a luxury bohemian clothing brand based in Tulum, please don’t. The market is oversaturated and I saw zero patrons in the many shops there. For me, someone who didn’t rent a car, I haven’t had any issues with the police. I’ve walked, biked and used public transit. It’s felt a bit restricting, but it works. When it’s hot outside, sometimes it takes a while to muster up the strength to leave the apartment and within minutes of walking outside I feel like I’m melting. You know what’s funny though is that even in those moments, I’m still so happy I’m not cold.