Big things are happening in this little bitty town!

I realize that many of you have no connection to Tulum aside from it being the home of your favorite blogger {wink} but it’s always encouraging to ME to hear about grassroots initiatives and positive growth happening around the world, so I thought I’d share three exciting developments in my neck of the hardwoods.

Along with Tulum’s recently-elected mayor came a whole slew of new billboards,

…Tulum’s second traffic light (that actually seems to have congested traffic flow) and…a recycling center! (Ask and you shall receive?)

It’s humble, it’s off-the-beaten-path (meaning I might remember how to get there again) and I’ve yet to see it actually open, but nevertheless, there is now a place I can take everything from beer bottles to car batteries, even if it means I drop my bags at the gate like everyone else.

We’ll take it!

I’d heard rumor of the second exciting development several months ago, but just recently noticed a new sign and stopped in for a look. El Centro de Permacultura, a sweet little permaculture site cultivating eggs, worms, veggies, bees and compost is literally a five-minute walk from my house, tempting me to abandon writing altogether and revisit a passion I set aside years ago when I was overtaken by babies. Okay, so I’m not gonna quit writing, but at the very least I now know where to go for worms, eggplant and inspiration!

The third happening is really really big for our family and huge for the community of Tulum…

The loveliest couple and their two kids moved here in December (from Austin, nonetheless) with the longtime dream of opening a school in Tulum. Equipped not only with vision and desire, but years of teaching experience, international school development experience and fluency in both languages, Rich and Valeria soon met a second delightful couple recently transplanted from the UK with an equally-strong desire for an alternative school here, loads of experience growing initiatives from ideas and just the right open-minded sense of adventure you need to take on something half as crazy. Charlie and Daniella (along with two of their kids) quickly jumped on board with the project.

I’ll admit, when they first approached us with their ideas, I was a little leery. We’ve been a part of enough school initiatives to know how precarious (and time consuming) they can be in the beginning, not to mention how hard school-hopping is on the kids. A few conversations in, however, when it became obvious that these guys were the real deal, that they were already making it happen and that we were all on the same page philosophically, we were soon dreaming right along with them, asking where to sign, and are thrilled to be the official third family at Tulum International School, opening in September!

(For those of you who don’t know, our girls have been attending a college prep school 35-minutes away, which has been great for keeping them up to speed in both languages and really really hard balancing the 5:30 am wake up time, highway commute, nearly 100% left-brained learning, tons of homework and two hours worth of driving for a simple play date.)

A passion and inquiry-based program with an emphasis on ecological sustainability and social responsibility, the vision of TIS includes not only high academic standards in a creative learning environment (with healthy lunches and fresh daily juice!) but contribution to the positive growth of Tulum through community ed classes, a juice and health food bar (already being built in the airstream Rich and Valeria hauled down here from Austin) and student-directed community service projects, to name a handful of ideas being tossed around.

Honestly, though, the fact that Valeria will be their teacher pretty much sealed the deal, because frankly, she’s kind of a bad-ass.

Crazy as it seems to be changing schools yet again (though Taos is staying put for now), we feel so fortunate to be involved in such a fantastic and much-needed project from the start, have no doubt the girls will benefit from a local school more consistent with our values, and how cool to be able to share the ins and outs of an organic, alternative school movement with all of you! (Check out Tulum International School on Facebook for more details and to follow the progress.)

Viva Tulum!!!

Reminder: Don’t forget to turn in Home Work Project #2 by Thursday for Friday’s post!