Combining New Age ethics, arts and electronic music, and sustainable agriculture, Ontopo is an ongoing series of site-specific retreats. Photography by David Brandon Geeting

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Over a million acres of turquoise blue water as far as the eye can see, it&rsquo;s hard to believe this fresh-water wetland isn&rsquo;t the ocean. The biosphere preserve made up of marshy beaches and sprawling mangroves became a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1987. The mangroves are incredible for managing climate change &mdash; they sequester huge amounts of carbon and protect coasts from hurricane storm surges. On low-impact tours led by locals, you&rsquo;ll be taken out by boat and dropped off for a &ldquo;lazy river ride&rdquo; through the scrubby wetland brush. As you float along through a gentle path carved into the mangrove plants, their twisted roots reaching through the crystal clear water, you&rsquo;ll likely wonder &ldquo;is this even real life?&rdquo;

Sian Ka’an Bioreserve

Come hungry to this restaurant on the beach with a distinct locals-only vibe. Before your meal, take a dip in the bay &mdash; the shallow water is calm and warm like a bathtub. Then camp out on plastic chairs branded with Corona logos and dig your toes into the white sand while enjoying heaping plates of fresh seafood and deep-fried fish. If you&rsquo;re as lucky as we were, while you eat, you&rsquo;ll be serenaded by a ten-year-old crooner in black-and-gold Mariachi regalia. With charisma and flair beyond his years, he belted out Mexican classics while the man at the table next to us sang along.

Chamico's at Soliman Bay Beach

Cenotes are natural sinkholes exposing reserves of fresh groundwater. At the Cenotes Dos Ojos, you can take your pick of several different stalactite-decorated caverns to explore with a local guide. First, you&rsquo;ll be fitted with a wetsuit, fins, snorkel, and lifejacket &mdash; or whatever combination of gear you prefer. I forgo the wetsuit but regretted it a little because the water in the shady caves is pretty chilly. There were both Mexican and international visitors on cave tours, adults as well as families with kids. The whole experience was touristy but in a quaint sort of way. Cenotes seem to be everywhere in Tulum &mdash; there&rsquo;s even one in a nightclub! After visiting the Cenotes Dos Ojos and Sian Ka&rsquo;an, I meditated on whether Tulum&rsquo;s spiritual draw has something to do with all the fresh agua. After all, water is life.

Cenotes Dos Ojos

When I arrived, the man in the admissions booth asked me: English, Spanish, or Mayan? While sites like these ruins might reinforce the misinformation that Mayans are some sort of lost civilization, in fact, that&rsquo;s an erasure of the people and culture very much alive today &mdash; i&rsquo;s pretty common in Tulum to overhear people speaking Mayan rather than Spanish. After the long walk from the parking lot to the entrance gates, a stunning vista of grey stone walls and temples will emerge into view. To get to the beach you first must stroll through the resilient pre-Columbian structures marked with educational signposts. Then you&rsquo;ll arrive at an oceanside cliff. The steep drop down is embedded with stairs descending to the sandy shore. We visited over the weekend and it was crazy busy, but also cool to see that the site is a popular destination for locals.

Ruins of Tulum

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