costa rica day 5 | jungle love, puerto viejo

Well. After being initiated into Puerto Viejo with shots of Guaro, I woke up in the starring role of the unfortunate movie, Guaro's Revenge. I was a little hungover. Okay, that's an understatement.

Zan woke up early to go fishing, and I slept in. Around 10am, I plopped into the hammock on our porch to plan the rest of my day. Next thing I knew, it was two hours later, and I hadn't moved an inch. By noon, Zan wasn't back yet and I knew it was then or never to get myself moving. I tossed on my bathing suit, packed a beach bag, and before I could leave Zan a note, he walked through the door. He was dejected from not catching anything, but "it was a nice boat ride." He always sees the bright side. Speaking of bright side, his arms were lobster red ("he's my lobster!").

We biked into Puerto Viejo for lunch at Soda Mirna, our first taste of Tico food in the south. It was a basic meal of braised chicken, rice, beans, and plantains. It was a hearty, good meal... but even at a restaurant as local as it gets, lunch was $20. I can't get over how expensive this country is!

We biked to a beach in Playa Cocles, a small town before Playa Chiquita, really close to the Jaguar Rescue Center. It wasn't as beautiful as the beaches yesterday, but in paradise, the beaches are all just shades of gorgeous. It's a locals beach, evidenced by the handful of guys we saw wading out to their thighs before throwing fishing line into the surf. A few had buckets of fish they'd already caught.

We left with enough time to check out Alice's Ice Cream Bar, a place we'd passed (and somehow resisted) the day before. An American expat couple owns it. The wife, Alice, makes all of the ice cream with hand run machines, and her husband runs the business side of things. The husband is from DC so we had plenty to talk about over the rich, creamy coffee and dark chocolate ice cream we devoured.

For dinner, we took a taxi ($8) to Jungle Love, a raved about restaurant in the quiet town of Playa Chiquita. We got lucky that a couple had canceled their reservation, and we nabbed one of the 5 tables right away. All of the tables are outside in the open air, a simple roof overhead, and the jungle encroaching from all sides.

The owners are an expat couple. Zamu is a character. He's a big guy - very muscular - from Oakland, California. He has a penchant for pithy, philosophical phrases and an ability to talk to anyone. He told us right away that it was our night, and the entire, beautiful meal made us feel that way. Most of the ingredients are either grown on their property (lemongrass and herbs) or locally sourced.

I had Zamu's sausage pasta ("I know the guy who makes the sausage"), and Zan had sea bass, the fish of the day. Zan had a religious experience with his fish and the basil-ginger sauce on it; I found the ragu a little sweet for my tastes but the dish as a whole hearty, warm, and crave-worthy. Zamu's wife (a charismatic, expert traveler with a contagious laugh) sold us on a cinnamon brownie with homemade coffee ice cream from a local farm. That ice cream was so rich and creamy, and I want more even thinking about it.

With a bottle of wine, two entrees, two apps, and a dessert, our bill came to about $65 with tip. It was probably the most reasonably priced meal out here, and we weren't even charged for incredible conversations with Zamu and his wife.

Zamu is an Army man and trained in hand-to-hand combat. I joked, "Remind me never to make you angry," and he smoothly replied, "It doesn't have to be like that. I just tell people, 'use your words.'" He's teaching his 9-year-old son martial arts and self-defense to carry on the family legacy.

I'd use my words around his son, too.

where the ocean and jungle meet | tulum

I admit that when I'm researching a new travel destination, one of the first steps I take is to type, "must do (x place)" into Google. Then I type in, "must see," "must eat," "must try," and any other variation I can come up with in that moment. Judging by the number of results for each search, it's how a lot of people start plan their travels. When we have a limited amount of time in a new place, it's human nature to want to experience the best of the best of the best. Unfortunately, a lot of those results lead us to what's typical, overdone, touristed, and easy.

So I make a list of the top 5-10 results I find, research those more in-depth and knock out all the ones that don't make my cut. That research usually takes me to smaller online forums and blogs that contain the real gems of wherever I'm headed. On average, I probably spend 15-20 hours researching before every trip I take.

I arrive wherever I'm going with a folder filled with my travel documents, hotel information, car rental if it's applicable, and all the other essentials, along with a list of my "must sees" and "must dos." I like to think my research is solid, but even then, at the end of every trip, I've crossed out half my list and traded the other half in for what I found while I was there. And then I get to tell you about that list.

Cenotes - must see, must do

Cenotes are natural watering holes, created from a collapse of limestone bedrock. Limestone is usually exposed, and it's green and sometimes jagged and sometimes smooth, and it's beautiful, and it's perfect.The cenotes are often in caves. A famous, much-touristed network of cenotes is Dos Ojos, between Playa Del Carmen and Tulum. It's a popular area for divers, as you can see incredible marine life and get into nooks and crannies that you can't while swimming.

Zan's and my first cenote experience was in a cave near the Mayan ruins of Coba. Thirty feet above the water, climbing down steep, winding stairs, we could see the very bottom of the pool. Small fish darted around. Limestone stagtites and stalagmites decorated the interior. We saw a bat dart from one alcove to another. Every 10 feet down the climb was a ledge off of which you could jump. Zander and I both jumped from 30 feet. 

A few days later we swam in the cenote where the ocean and jungle meet. We learned about a beach that I honestly, readers, won't even name, it's so special and barely touched. But if you go to Tulum, email me, and I'm sure I'll spill the beans. This beach is all white sand and famous for snorkeling and for seeing sea turtles lay their eggs and make their way back to the waters during the right season. The path to the beach, and to the nearby cenote, is a 1/2 mile dirt road, and the entrance fee is a voluntary donation and your John Hancock in a visitors log.

From the beach, the only guide to the cenote is a wooden sign, the stake stuck deep into the sand with an arrow pointing from the beach into the jungle. We showered outdoors before the trail head, as any sunblock, product, dirt, or chemicals on your body can harm the ecosystem of the pristine pools, and trekked further into the jungle, the sounds of waves crashing the only reminder that the ocean is only a stone's throw away.

Swimming in a cenote is the most refreshing experience I've ever had. I wanted to immerse my head and arms and whole body and come up for air over and over just to feel the coolness and fresh air mixed together one more time. I felt like a Mermaid, and an explorer at once.

I've never seen or experienced anything like cenotes while traveling, and for good reason - they're only found in that part of the world. 

Tulum Ruins - must see, must do

If you Google, "Tulum," you'll see a thousand of the same images, taken from every angle: Mayan ruins sitting atop a hill, with the turquoise Caribbean ocean lapping at the ancient rock. That image alone has put Tulum on the map. It's so breathtaking, it's hard to exercise self-restraint and not immediately book a ticket.

So you'd think we visited these ruins the second we stepped off the bus in the city. But we're not normal. We're weird. And so we did it last. We waited until after we'd seen the famed Mayan ruins of Chichen Itza and scaled the perilous temple of the ruin Mayan temple of Coba, In truth, I didn't expect much; I expected the Tulum ruins to be overrated, especially after what we'd seen.

I was so wrong, and the Tulum ruins blew me away and brought tears to my eyes and lit up my face and my heart. The Tulum Ruins are the smallest of the three sets we saw. There's a cracked wall around the old city that stops short of the beach, because the elevation and the ocean - well, what imposters and enemies could challenge that?

The ruins themselves are spread out. It's a small area, but I could walk around it for days. The sun shines brightest here, stays in your eyes and paints your skin. It's crowded; you should get here before 8:00am to beat the tour buses. But not a single one of the too many tourists can diminish this place.

The real magic is the ocean. There is a private beach below the ruins; you have to be a patron to use it. Swimming while looking up at towering, strong, defensive ruins is an experience I can never replicate anywhere else in the world. There's a reason that one image is so iconic of Tulum - you can't take your eyes off of it.

travel tuesday | the beaches of tulum

I have a rule when I travel. One that's solely for myself, and one that I've rarely said aloud - as though the spoken, admitted words would undermine joy of every moment I have in one place, on one trip. My rule is this: I only go once. No returns. 

I've always traveled on a budget and as smart as I can, meaning I jam-pack my trips but stop just short of packing it so full I forget to just be where I am. And I have so many places and things I want to see and experience, and locals I want to meet, and food I can't wait to try, that I have to keep going to new places and not circle back. Having my rule also builds on my passion for each place I visit; it drives me to soak in every moment I possibly can (any more passion and I'll be making shrines to destinations).

But for the first time ever, I think I'm going to break my rule. Zan's and my seven day trip to Tulum, Mexico - a small beach town two hours south of Cancun, was just the beginning for me and us. We found ourselves talking about how to convince Zan's brother and sister-in-law to come back with us next year, as naturally as any couple would talk about their yearly vacation. We checked out real estate "just for fun," to see for how much property goes in that neck of Mexico's woods (loan status: so far from pending). We romanticized moving to Tulum and owning our own small bed and breakfast or boutique hotel. Zan would run fishing trips out of it. I'd build itineraries and trip options for travelers that fit their budgets and interests.

So why did Tulum break my rule? I can't quite put my finger on it, exactly. There are the practical considerations that I haven't had with any of my other travels: proximity - it's relatively close and inexpensive from D.C.; money - it's an inexpensive trip, if you want it to be; culture - it's beautiful, chock full of history, ancient and modern; and the people - they're friendly, and we felt safe. 

But there's something more. Tulum welcomed us in and welcomed us back..... despite the fact that we both got nasty cases of Montezuma's Revenge, argued probably 100 billion times because I'm nutso and basically balls to the wall insane about travel (what do you mean you want to pay $6 for a taxi when we could experience a local bus?!), and got so sunburnt we're still peeling 10 days later. 

I'll be back (Terminator voice).

Tulum is just one of those places. It's a rule breaker.