tulum // mexico

{tiny treasures in the town of tulum}

{tulum ruins in the morning}

{the eco-friendly//hippie//organic//cage-free//yogi resort area}

{cenote dos ojos}

{the beautiful town of valladolid}

{mayan ruins at chichen itza}

{a last beach wandering during golden hour}

mexico was pretttttty dreamy. it's not often that i walk away from a trip and think to myself that everything went perfectly. on most trips, a tiny, unplanned bump in the road materializes. sometimes, it's the 5-hour, sweat-filled ferry that takes you from central thailand to koh phangan; other times, it's the convertible chevy camaro that the rental car agency provides for your trip on the snowy, ice-slicked roads to the grand canyon. but for some reason, the travel gods were shining down upon us, and we made all the right choices this time around. perhaps it was because they knew that it would be our last trip before J descends into his medical school hole for the next 3+ years? perhaps!

after flying into cancun, we took two local buses from cancun --> playa del carmen --> tulum, and stayed right in the middle of the tiny town. we stayed at the inn posada luna del sur, an adorable little inn a street away from the hustle and bustle of the main road. the owner of the inn, an american guy who we met on our second-to-last day in tulum, provided each room with a map of the town decked out (a la the "paint" application on Windows) with his favorite local eateries and beaches - a godsend for our bellies! our three favorite meals - here, here, and here - were all suggestions from the owner, and we relished the fresh mexican seafood, homemade corn tortillas, and spicy jalapeños during each meal. 

just like southeast asia, the dollar-peso exchange rate was friendly to our wallets, and makes me never want to travel throughout the states ever again. one morning in tulum, we decided we wanted to visit the famed chichen itza ruins, and booked a hotel for that same night for around ~$30 american dollars. thus began a 3-hour trek to central mexico, with a stop in the charming little mexican town of vallodolid, a must-see for those wanting a more traditional experience in a mexican town. we were back the next day for our mayan clay spa massages that made us look like yellow smurfs before taking off again for our trip home. 

a few favorites/must sees:

• the tulum ruins, before the crowds. bring your bathing suit to swim in the bath-water-temperature private beach below.
• exploring the cenotes. we chose cenote dos ojos because it was a good mix between basic snorkeling and cave exploring near tulum. other popular cenotes include grand cenote, cenote ik kil, and the various cenotes located closer to pisto, the town closest to chichen itza. many travel to chichen itza with the intent of exploring the caves of the cenotes in the same trip. 
• walking the streets of vallodlid, horchata and paletas in hand(s). la plaza e parque francisco canton provides a beautiful view of the catedral in the center of town (the inside of which is a bit less enthralling:)).
• our trip to chichen itza at 8 am, when all of the vendors were setting up their touristy wares. 
• beach strolling through the "zona yoga" of the tulum beachfront properties. a beautiful, luxurious part of the beachfront located north of the sian ka'an biosphere reserve (which we never made it to!), this area is home to resorts touting the freshest green juices and the best yoga/mind/body/spiritual cleanses. truth be told, reading about tulum's emerging eco-friendly resorts on the internet brought me to mexico in the first place, but experiencing this area quickly made me happy that we chose to stay in the more local, center of town. nevertheless, a sunset beach walk through this area was the best last hurrah for our trip. 

“security is mostly a superstition. it does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”
– helen keller

taiwan, pt iii

{pebble beach at qixingtan}

{taroko gorge and coastal driving}

{su'ao, small fishing village on the east coast}

{and back to taipei to round out the trip}

the drive up the east coast of taiwan was the best. everything i love about traveling - the road tripping, the nature exploring, the small town discovering - was provided on our drive from pingtung back to taipei. i basked in the 80-degrees weather and beachy terrain, having been subject to spring showers and fog during our time on the west coast.

from pingtung, we drove north along a bumpy, dirt-road highway through the mountains. during the beginning of the drive, the adults in the car (read: not me) proceeded to have an enthusiastic conversation in chinese, which, at this point, was a cue for me to fall asleep, as i could make zero contributions to the discussion. when i woke up an hour later, i found out that we had turned the car around to take a "safer" route up north, which included two hours of backtracking and an eight hour drive around the southern tip near kenting. it was then that i vowed to learn chinese, if only to prevent the elders from ever making an eight hour detour ever again.

a few favorites from the last few days of our trip: a visit to the odd chihsing tan katsuo museum near hualien, dedicated to dried bonito flakes; exploring swallow grotto in taroko gorge, hard hats included; interesting ice cream, peanut shavings, and cilantro wraps in the small fishing village of su' ao (when i see a weird food abroad, i stalk the crap out of it until i find out what it is... and then eat it); a last dinner in the grand hotel taipei.

one for the books, as they say.

"every life has its trials and tribulations. we can navigate them more skillfully when we don't waste time and energy shooting ourselves with a second arrow - such as dwelling on how much greener our neighbor's grass looks, compared to ours." 

- thich nhat hanh