Viva Mexico!
I needed a vacation to recover from my vacation! (have I said that before?) :)
Playa del Carmen was beautiful. For the most part, hurricanes Hannah and Ike left us alone -- though we did get a few minutes of heavy rain every afternoon, which reminded me of being in Miami!
We stayed in a 3-BR, 2-BA condo, nicely furnished, at an apartment complex with a lovely pool, free wireless, and few people (that we saw). It's one of those places that rents out the apartments when the owners are not there, like the flats we've enjoyed in London. We generally had the pool to ourselves, and the water was perfect.
The adventure began on the way to the condo, as apparently the driver of the airport van didn't know where the condo complex was. Granted, it's pretty new -- some of the apartments are still under construction -- but every other taxi driver we had knew about it! And unfortunately, the helpful guy at the airport didn't know where the condo complex was either! The place he pointed to on the map was nowhere near the actual condo, which only added to the confusion.
The condo complex is in Playacar, which is a new development of nice houses, beach resorts, and condos at the south end of Playa del Carmen -- but there's no food, unless you're at one of the resorts. So we had to go into "town" (by taxi, $5 each way per cab) to find lunch... and boy, we were starving! Our first meal was at a Mexican place right on the beach. Huge margaritas, lots of chips and salsa and guacamole. YUM. Yep, we're on vacation!
Then we wandered around a bit, but we were all dying to go back and get into the gorgeous pool. We knew we couldn't have a very late night, because we were getting up early in the morning to go snorkeling with the sea turtles! :)
We decided that the munchies we had bought in town weren't going to be enough for dinner, so Faith, Janie and I trundled off to Wal-Mart (the biggest supermarket around) while the others tried to figure out how to order pizza. We got some good munchies at Wal-Mart, some fresh fruit, peanut butter, milk for coffee, etc., and came back. The pizza, however, was elusive - we had the wrong phone number! We finally managed to get some pizza, and all went to bed pretty early.
Friday, we took a taxi to the ferry pier, where we met the tour leaders for snorkeling. We had already put on our biodegradable sunscreen (a requirement) at the condo - bleh! - so we were off to Akumal in a little van, along with two British girls who came over from Cozumel for the tour. Here are some of the girls with life vests on (we didn't have to inflate them) when we were getting the rest of our gear.
The first snork
eling adventure was in the Yal Ku lagoon. It's a small area with lots of interesting fish swimming around... not terribly deep -- though I did have a few minutes of nervousness that something would come out of the rocks below me. [I tend to prefer swimming pools... probably saw Jaws when I was too young.] There's a little set of steps for the snorkelers to put on their flippers and get in carefully. Unfortunately, this didn't stop Atesha from slipping and landing on the stairs pretty hard - she's still got bruises all over, poor thing!
We swam around for a while and took pictures of the fish, but the water was kinda murky. Then they took us to a resort on Akumal bay, where we went back into the water to see the sea turtles. Ah, the sea turtles. :) They were SO beautiful. [Here's one I snapped a picture of as I was swimming over it. Unfortunately, I got salt water in my snorkel as I did this! bleh!] We saw four or five of them, a stingray,
some barracudas, and lots of other little fish around the coral reef. But after all that swimming around, I was exhausted! (and starving!) Our tour price included lunch at the resort buffet, but I have to say, we weren't all that impressed. It was good enough - salad, pasta, some chicken or fish, nice rolls, and dessert. And beer or margaritas. Then they let us lie on the nearly empty, white sand beach for a few hours, under the cabanas, before bundling us back into the van to go back to town.
All in all, Friday was exhausting. We went back to the condo and swam for a bit, and then the rain came... and then we got ready to go out to dinner. We didn't really have a plan, we just wandered down Quinta Avenida (5th Avenue, the "main drag" in Playa) until we found a place we all liked. Turned out to be the sports bar. We had nachos and guacamole and margaritas (again), and watched the people go by. I have to say, the people-watching was tremendous, all weekend!
More tomorrow...
My photos have been posted here on kodakgallery. I'll be snagging some photos from the other ladies to make a full slide show later. :)
Playa del Carmen was beautiful. For the most part, hurricanes Hannah and Ike left us alone -- though we did get a few minutes of heavy rain every afternoon, which reminded me of being in Miami!
We stayed in a 3-BR, 2-BA condo, nicely furnished, at an apartment complex with a lovely pool, free wireless, and few people (that we saw). It's one of those places that rents out the apartments when the owners are not there, like the flats we've enjoyed in London. We generally had the pool to ourselves, and the water was perfect.
The adventure began on the way to the condo, as apparently the driver of the airport van didn't know where the condo complex was. Granted, it's pretty new -- some of the apartments are still under construction -- but every other taxi driver we had knew about it! And unfortunately, the helpful guy at the airport didn't know where the condo complex was either! The place he pointed to on the map was nowhere near the actual condo, which only added to the confusion.
The condo complex is in Playacar, which is a new development of nice houses, beach resorts, and condos at the south end of Playa del Carmen -- but there's no food, unless you're at one of the resorts. So we had to go into "town" (by taxi, $5 each way per cab) to find lunch... and boy, we were starving! Our first meal was at a Mexican place right on the beach. Huge margaritas, lots of chips and salsa and guacamole. YUM. Yep, we're on vacation!
Then we wandered around a bit, but we were all dying to go back and get into the gorgeous pool. We knew we couldn't have a very late night, because we were getting up early in the morning to go snorkeling with the sea turtles! :)
We decided that the munchies we had bought in town weren't going to be enough for dinner, so Faith, Janie and I trundled off to Wal-Mart (the biggest supermarket around) while the others tried to figure out how to order pizza. We got some good munchies at Wal-Mart, some fresh fruit, peanut butter, milk for coffee, etc., and came back. The pizza, however, was elusive - we had the wrong phone number! We finally managed to get some pizza, and all went to bed pretty early.
Friday, we took a taxi to the ferry pier, where we met the tour leaders for snorkeling. We had already put on our biodegradable sunscreen (a requirement) at the condo - bleh! - so we were off to Akumal in a little van, along with two British girls who came over from Cozumel for the tour. Here are some of the girls with life vests on (we didn't have to inflate them) when we were getting the rest of our gear.
The first snork
eling adventure was in the Yal Ku lagoon. It's a small area with lots of interesting fish swimming around... not terribly deep -- though I did have a few minutes of nervousness that something would come out of the rocks below me. [I tend to prefer swimming pools... probably saw Jaws when I was too young.] There's a little set of steps for the snorkelers to put on their flippers and get in carefully. Unfortunately, this didn't stop Atesha from slipping and landing on the stairs pretty hard - she's still got bruises all over, poor thing!We swam around for a while and took pictures of the fish, but the water was kinda murky. Then they took us to a resort on Akumal bay, where we went back into the water to see the sea turtles. Ah, the sea turtles. :) They were SO beautiful. [Here's one I snapped a picture of as I was swimming over it. Unfortunately, I got salt water in my snorkel as I did this! bleh!] We saw four or five of them, a stingray,
some barracudas, and lots of other little fish around the coral reef. But after all that swimming around, I was exhausted! (and starving!) Our tour price included lunch at the resort buffet, but I have to say, we weren't all that impressed. It was good enough - salad, pasta, some chicken or fish, nice rolls, and dessert. And beer or margaritas. Then they let us lie on the nearly empty, white sand beach for a few hours, under the cabanas, before bundling us back into the van to go back to town.All in all, Friday was exhausting. We went back to the condo and swam for a bit, and then the rain came... and then we got ready to go out to dinner. We didn't really have a plan, we just wandered down Quinta Avenida (5th Avenue, the "main drag" in Playa) until we found a place we all liked. Turned out to be the sports bar. We had nachos and guacamole and margaritas (again), and watched the people go by. I have to say, the people-watching was tremendous, all weekend!
More tomorrow...
My photos have been posted here on kodakgallery. I'll be snagging some photos from the other ladies to make a full slide show later. :)
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