A look into our adventures, travel tips, + reflections on a changing climate

WHY TULUM?

In February 2021, Jon and I were disenchanted with the “American Dream,” to say the least, we wanted to get out of the Colorado cold and travel for a month. This was right after quarantine & the shock of Covid was palpable. We were, as I imagine everybody was, very tired of being cooped up in our house and ready to explore.

​Originally, Jon and I wanted to move to Costa Rica but due to Covid 19, the borders were still closed. Mexico however, was open. So, we started researching places we could go and Tulum felt like it could be more than just a “Mexico beach trip.” We had heard it was an interesting place to explore with creative architecture, beautiful nature, cool art & design with a growing music scene. Tons of our friends had been there so seemingly it was a very interesting place to go check out.

We used points to fly into Cancun, rented a car and a nice little Airbnb townhome in Akumal, about 20 kilometers north of Tulum. It was one of the first times we actually did a long-term, remote work trip. Most of our days were dedicated to studying, working and growing our businesses by growing ourselves.

WE FELL IN LOVE:

I was so inspired by how international the Pueblo was in Tulum. We met 17 people from 17 different countries in the three weeks we were there. There was life there; all centered around nature, right on the ocean, in the jungle, with cenotes (fresh water holes that are all connected underground that lead to the ocean.) We were able to practice our Spanish and Jon and I fell in love with each other more and more as the days went on. I didn’t know this was possible, but this traveling really seemed to bring us even closer. We felt that there was a vortex in Tulum and everyone was talking about it. It felt like magic. 

DETAILS OF THE MOVE:

In two months, we packed up our Ram Promaster, Black Beauty with our BEST, most favorite items. We paired down using the “KonMari” method, asking ourselves with each and every item, “Does this bring me joy?”

We let go of lots of our furniture, clothes, and I gifted 45 of my indoor plants to my best friends. We kissed our beautiful Denver family and friends goodbye & off to Mexico we went.

​I did ALL this research to figure out what we needed to make the move happen and still we were not really sure we had everything we needed when we got to the border. We asked ourselves, “Do we have all the right paperwork?”

PAPERWORK NEEDED AT THE MEXICO BORDER:

     • Passports
     • Drivers licenses
     • Proof of insurance for our van
     • Up to date Registration
     • ​We had a lease on Black Beauty so we had a statement from the lease company saying we could take the van out of the US and into MX.

That was all we needed. I printed out SO MANY more documents and even paid for things that were unnecessary.

At the border itself, we paid a 6 month deposit for a Temporary Import Permit (TIP) for Black Beauty and they gave us a 6 month travel visa as well. I thought I needed to get all of these things ahead of time but I didn’t!

THE DRIVE:

We needed to drive fast because I knew I wouldn't have wifi along the way to see clients and Jon ended up getting a job throwing an event with our new friend Gunel at a Cenote in Tulum on May day. We also paid a deposit on a place to live in Tulum, so we were making it in time to start the lease and move by May 1st.

​We drove 15 hours a day, every day, straight through… First, we drove from Colorado down through Baja California via the Mexicali border. We decided to go this way because Jon works for Traction Sound and we needed to deliver a sound system for one of our dear friends & one of the Traction owners, Paul Vukovitch. We also wanted to spend some time with Paul and explore the Baja a bit. We also heard that the drive was beautiful and that this was a really safe route, so it was a win-win! And wow, the desert meets the sea, meets the sunshine, and the newly paved, windy road of Baja was gorgeous.

As we reflect now, this was probably one of the most notable drives during that week of driving the entire country of Mexico. The massive cactuses, the beautiful sunrise light every morning, the fog rolling in by the ocean: these wild, beautiful colors felt like we were driving in a windy, winding dream-cloud. As we approached small towns, there were checkpoints where we were asked to open our vehicle for guards to check out what we were bringing. At one check point, we used a translator because an officer tried to make us pay because Black Beauty was “too full and her tires were going to pop.”

Instead of money, we offered a guard an amethyst crystal for protection over his family. He didn’t even know what to do with our hippie offering. He said no, he couldn’t possibly take it, so we gave him tortilla chips and two warm Cokes instead! By the end of the interaction he was showing us pictures of his family and he fist bumped goodbye! It was amazing.

DRIVING TIP:

BRING COKE-A-COLA (IDEALLY COLD), CRYSTALS AND CHIPS TO BRIBE. IT (SOMETIMES) WORKS LIKE A CHARM WHEN YOU REALLY HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING WRONG! OH AND ALWAYS BE REALLY NICE - THAT HELPS TOO.

We spent an evening in La Paz with Paul V, and early the next morning, we were able to buy tickets to hop on a cargo ferry that afternoon from La Paz and to Mazatlan in the mainland. It was hard to buy tickets ahead of time online, so we just went to the office and bought the tickets in La Paz. Luckily they still had room available on the ferry for later that day. The ferry went overnight and it took 17 hours. We took the Cargo ferry and we were able to sleep in our van but it was loud.

FERRY TIP:

CHECK THE TIMES, DATES, AND TYPE OF FERRY YOU WANT TO TAKE.

Once we got through that, we arrived at about sunrise to Mazatlan and then we had one day to get from Mazatlan to Guadalajara, which is quite a stretch. And the reason we chose to do it in one shot is because that part of the drive was reported as the most dangerous with cartel activity and not a safe place for foreigners. So we had enough food, water supplies to just go straight through. We slept in the van on a well lit street in Guadalajara.

​We woke up early the next day and drove to Veracruz. The next day after that we got to Tulum. It took us 6 days, driving 15 hours a day. Each night, we slept in Black Beauty on our squished King sized mattress with our face a few inches from the ceiling. It was quite an adventure. Once in Tulum, the first night, we stayed with our new friend Gunel.

TIME IN TULUM:

The next day, we woke up early to go to sign the paperwork for our new home in an eco-village and pretty much from that moment, we started noticing the challenges with Tulum.

We were very excited to be there, happy to have made the drive safely, ready to go sign this lease, meet our realtor, and unpack into our new home! When we got to the front gate, we were waiting for them to open the front gate. They couldn’t find our name. They were saying in Spanish that there were no rentals anymore. Maybe they didn't put our names down correctly or something?

Then our realtor, Jorge, called, freaking out, telling us that they sold the home the night before and that we were not going to move in there. So, we had just charged 3,500 miles to try to line up all these things and the house was pulled out from under us. Luckily we got that deposit back but it was quite disheartening. We tried to shake it off, reminding ourselves that this was happening for us not to us. We said to ourselves, “I guess we were not supposed to live there.” So, we went to the beach instead to try our best to ground our energies.

​We asked Gunel if it would be okay if we stayed with her for a while and she was very kind and said yes. We talked about a month while we looked; one month turned into two months, which turned into three months, which turned into the entire six months that we were there. I looked at dozens of places and came up with nothing!

HOUSING:

Clearly, one of the biggest challenges was finding a place to live. There were more people coming to Tulum everyday than the small pueblo had ever experienced in history. The beach town just didn't have the infrastructure for that kind of influx of people, including housing, sewage, water, and roads. It was just not built for this kind of massive growth.

Like us, many people were fleeing their countries and coming to Mexico where it was “open.” People from around the world were gathering in this sacred place and didn’t go home. Many people were choosing to buy houses and renew their leases.

Jorge our realtor, who grew up in Quintana Roo, said for the first time in his life, there was actually no slow season in the summer. In fact, the slow season was busier then the busy season previously. Jorge was concerned about the fact that no two bedroom was available for a $1,500 USD budget. Jorge said this used to be a very reasonable budget (even a few months earlier) but about halfway through our search, that budget with our requirements of big windows and natural light seemed to be nearly impossible to achieve.

​The influx of all the people seemed to be a catalyst for some of the locals to feel like they could really make an extra buck. Which, of course they could, you know, people like us were coming to integrate into the communities but there was also so many, hyper-elitist, super wealthy people coming through that were spending $5,000 - $10,000 USD at any given bar on the beach strip to have bottle service for their friends for the night. So, I don't blame the local gas stations for charging extra (but keep an eye out for this!)

CARTEL & FEDERALE:

And then there was the cartel and people whispering to us as we walked by, “weed, cocaine.” And the Policía Federal who are supposedly “trying to stop the illegal drug sales,” driving around EVERYWHERE. Standing in the back of trucks, they had huge guns, the biggest guns I've ever seen in my life. They were all over; on every street, to get into every hotel, to enter into a bar and it was scary. I didn't like that. This really started to increase because where there was money pouring in, and where there is money, there is the cartel, to sell drugs to the tourists. Then, we learned from some locals that another cartel tried to come in to “take the territory over,” so that was why there were a lot of the shooting that started happening more and more.

DESTRUCTION OF THE EARTH

The more time we spent in Tulum, the more we started noticing the horrible destruction that was happening to the Earth, especially along the “trendy” Beach strip. Things said they were “eco-friendly,” but the green washing was horrible. So much of this seemed like a show.

​Along the beach, there is one, small road and Black Beauty was way too big for it. We drive it but it was a tough go. The road could fit too small sedans side by side, one going one way, and another one going the other. There were no sidewalks with at times, hundreds of pedestrians, bikes, and motos, so people were just walking down the busy street. It was crazy navigating this chaos and eventually I turned the driving of Black Beauty over to Jon entirely. Not to mention the potholes and destroyed topes (Mexican speed bumps) everywhere…

Oh, and the sargasso, the seaweed that was starting to take over the beaches was horrible. The Secretary of Communication of the state of Quintana Roo informed that so far in 2022 more than 18 thousand tons of macroalgae have been collected, which form mounds of more than 90 centimeters high in less than 24 hours, making it almost impossible for people to walk on the seashore. The foul smell and the floating sargassum made the warm ocean water itchy to swim in.

An incredible tour guide & concierge we had named Ernesto Salazar, has a service called Mayan Roads. He shared that the ocean was communicating with the seaweed that she needed more sand on the beaches and for people to stop building so close to the ocean. In time, when the seaweed is left to dry, it will turn to sand but people are collecting it and dumping it, who knows where! The Earth IS communicating to us that she's not well but we are not listening, in fact, the building is increasing more and more each day.
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​We spent time free-diving in the cenotes but the coral was dying. What used to be beautiful marine life and vibrant coral was colorless and decaying. Jon said he remembers going to Cozumel, an island near Tulum, when he was young. “It was so beautiful and alive there. This sacred land has all been polluted and a lot of it is unhealthy and dying. It was sad to go to these various areas and see the impact of this influx of the destruction of the land and beaches. We saw videos of trucks dumping sewage and trash into the cenotes, the sacred waterways. I could feel my heart breaking the longer we were there.”

​The worst part for me is that the hotels all along the beach strip are running almost exclusively on diesel powered generators, because they still don’t have power down to that area of the town. So generators are powering all the hotels! And again with the influx of people over the last few years, they've been rapidly building structures and putting more and more on the beach trip, inevitably needing more and more generators. And it's just allowed! It smells like gasoline on the beach and when we were walking down the streets, we could feel the vibration of the generators shaking the land. It was going from bad to worse.

Vie - praying for the healing of the Earth.

A lot of this time, I was actually on my own in Tulum because Jon was in Denver, building Beacon. Jon was really excited to be back and it was tough for him to hear that I was feeling pretty ready to go. Jon didn't really get to experience Tulum in the way he wanted to, but he was open to leaving since I was feeling the messages from Mother Earth.

HÁBLEMOS EN ESPAÑOL, POR FAVOR!

We were also frustrated because we were also in the process of trying to learn Spanish and it seemed everyone would just speak English back to us. I know sometimes people are trying to learn English and they want to practice but we moved to Mexico and we wanted to speak Spanish. So that always felt a little funny to us.

FAMILY TRIP

My family was planning to come down for Thanksgiving so we decided to finish out November there and then pack up and drive in December to get up to Mexico City. Right when we were considering leaving, I had an incredible opportunity arise for us to move to Mexico City to record my first online course _Ground_. So we gave ourselves like three months to soak up Tulum as much as we possibly could! In those three months, we remembered why we moved there and fell more in love with the place and we were equally heartbroken by what was happening to the Earth.