Sian Ka'an Biosphere – Tulum, Quintana Roo, Mexico

You learn a little something about yourself every time you travel. You learn what you like, you learn how to deal when things don't go your way, and you even learn to communicate without a single word.

Lesson #1: My FOMO trumps all, even spiders. I want a free day to be a beach bum, but there is a biosphere further south, and there is absolutely nothing in the world that can convince me to save it for the next trip.

Sian Ka'an is WORTH IT. We start by getting into boats and speeding through a blue lagoon. Lesson #2: Our new GoPro is also WORTH IT.

A brief visit to what remains of a Mayan trading post...

And then we don our life jackets like diapers for a float down the Ancient Canal. The mangroves add their mystique, and tranquility settles in as we coast through the tunnel of trees. The freshwater is cold, and the sand is squishy at the bottom...and Lesson #3: I am prissy AF. Gorgeous cenotes, and a mangrove-lined canal, and all I keep thinking about is whether or not slow-flowing freshwater is all that sanitary.

The floating ends too soon, but a brief boat ride leaves us on an isthmus of a beach, white sand jutting out in a small strip.

There is no such thing as too much sun on your (sunblocked) skin or too much wind in your sandy hair, but if I said the boat ride back wasn't exhausting, I'd be lying. Fortunately, there is a generous feast waiting for us, and there's nothing like a great meal to take the edge off.

We sit down to lunch, and Lesson #4: My Spanish is terrible. As is my French, my English, my Italian (which I don't actually speak), as well as the other two languages the woman across the table speaks. She is remarkable, switching from Spanish with the tour guide to English with myself, French with her family, and Italian with two other tourists at the table. She switches between them imperceptibly, to the point that you're confused. You literally don't understand her for a full minute before you realize she switched. And here I am boasting of my 5 year-old Mandarin and broken French. Donde esta el bano?

I am so entranced that I almost forget to eat. Almost. The flavor in their Pibil Chicken runs even deeper than Hostaria del Marques, and there is a spiciness to it that finishes slightly bitter.

The Pibil Fish is ever better, a clean, flaky grouper smothered in seasoning with the same achiote base.

Lesson #5: I will never escape the mosquitoes. No one else has a single bite, but they find me all the same. They bite the dime-sized spots where my bug repellent has missed, and there is no place too bony, no spot too small. I only get a few, though, which is far better than my usual 10-15. But it's worth it. It's worth all the bites in the world to get to see this nature preserve, and of all the tours I've taken, they definitely win for best food.