Playa del Carmen ….. a different Yucatan, Christmas celebration & a visit to a cenote

Apologies for the lateness of this post where between hosting our son for the holidays, general merriment, and a large dose of lassitude the writer felt disinclined to maintain a good work ethic….in any event here it is…

December 15th

This morning we are off to Playa Del Carmen (“Playa”) approximately 288 km from Merida and with the time change the trip should take us around 4 hours.

Our UBER arrives promptly and we bid adieu to Casa Gatita:

As usual, we are taking an ADO bus albeit an upgraded version ADO GL > WIFI, reclining seats, a water bottle and coffee at the station, and separate men/women toilets….luxury!!!

…an uneventful voyage as we travel non-stop to the coast where we are met first with gloaming skies which are then replaced with a torrential downpour, however nothing stops an ADO bus driver and we arrive in Playa on time and under sunny skies. Our taxi driver attired in crisp whites is unwilling to negotiate the price and for the 7-minute drive to our condo are charged (150 pesos (12 CAD)>>> welcome to the Playa taxi mafia >>> No, there is no UBER here!

The location looks great and as advertised on AIRBNB…

Settling ourselves into a sofa in the lobby, happy that all went smoothly, we awaited the local contact for the key handover (which had been arranged via WhatsApp messages the night prior) but no Ricardo….some messaging back and forth and he said he is down the road, reluctantly and with some misgivings we trudge down the street. As he starts to lead us to another condo we put a stop to this nonsense, he then double checks everything and explains he somehow confused our reservation with another party (change of computer system???) and we headed back to whence we came ….suffice to say we were a bit pissed!

In any event, the condo is legit and very nice with a lovely rooftop terrace…and even a small cenote by the entrance, we are keen to start this stage of our trip…

By way of introduction, Playa del Carmen was once a sleepy fishing village, now though it is a Riviera Maya destination in its own right. It’s a town built to accommodate tourists which it does quite well. Lively bars and cool boutiques sit next to local taquerias and chic luxury hotels—all with a bit more authentic Mexican style than you’ll find up the coast in Cancun. There are lots of activities for tourists of all ages with beaches, the famous La Quinta (the city’s main pedestrian thoroughfare), and outings to nearby sites for diving, snorkeling, and fishing. A bit further afield are the Mayan ruins of Tulum and Coba as well as the island of Cozumel.

Our first priority was to get settled in and organized. Although there are a myriad number of restos within walking distance one does need some groceries. Grocery shopping here was a breeze, as 5 minutes from the condo there is a Super Selecto Chedraui, a bit expensive by Mexican standards, but pretty well everything you could want is available, good quality, especially the meat and good value other than items like imported cheese and the like:

One bit of hassle was lugging back water jugs as you can’t drink the local water and the condo owner did not provide a water delivery service as in Merida…it is also interesting how you become more conscious how you us e water water when you are humping these jugs yourself haha…

The condo is about 150 meters from the beach but unfortunately a large amount of the beachfront here as well as further south from our area has been washed away…apparently, this is “normal” as the sand shifts in response to weather, tides, currents etc. The beaches in Mexico are public but the beach clubs do their level best to discourage the proletariat from their beachfront…a limited beachfront makes this line of demarcation painfully obvious especially when folks descend to the beaches on Sundays & holidays…

Soon thereafter though we “found”  Playa Coco

Beach accessed by a laneway beside the Reef Coco Beach Hotel, not a wonderful entry but functional and it did open up a wonderful stretch of beach leading to a point of land some 45-minute walk away called Punta Esmeralda. If one desired one could walk for quite a distance after that. The beach was about a 10-minute walk from the condo and we found this to be a very pleasant beach walk in the morning. There are no vendors on this beach so carrying water is imperative as by 11:00 it can be sizzling !! More about this beach in the next post.

Today we are excited as our son is coming from Toronto to visit us over Christmas, lots of food in place, wine, and spirits and we are good to go. He is here for a week but it goes by very quickly as we head to the beach, visit some cenotes, take in some local eateries, and generally have a good time…

Well if you are in Playa del Carmen you need to go to a playa and so we did, visiting Playa 72, 88 and Punta Esmerelda with a freshwater cenote flowing into the ocean…

Today’s day trip is Cenotes Azul and we head out relatively early to avoid the crowds to the extent possible. As we are now self-proclaimed taxi experts, we avoid the taxi stand on our street, head to 10th Avenue and the 1st taxi coming by agrees to a 50 peso fare to the collectivo station > a 100 peso ( 8 CAD) difference: the price of 2 beers for the good guys! The collectivo is ready to roll and 40 minutes later we are dumped on the side of the highway, no line-up at the cenote, pay our entry fee, change, shower and head down the path passing 2 shade shrouded pools before entering an oasis-like area…just a few folks here and it is quite beautiful, spotted a green iguana (first time I have seen this species on this trip) …Steve does the cliff jump, the water is refreshing and we even have some fish nibbling on the dead skin on our feet, we then have sandwiches under some palapas and head for home as the parking lot is overflowing and folks are streaming in…. a nice outing and easy peasy.

Christmas dinner was decidedly not traditional as we shopped up a storm at the Selecto and the chefs got to work ….a very pleasant and relaxed meal, albeit somewhat bittersweet without Ella/Trevor and the G-kids.

Meals at home are great but it was also fun to hang out at some of the local establishments…we definitely do not do a lot of that at home.

With our son Steve headed back to Toronto we are taking a few days off before diving into a few more day trips, it’s been fun so far and hopefully, things will go well until the end of the trip….