Weekend Getaway: Playa del Carmen
One of my favorite places in the world is the Mayan Riviera, or more correctly the Riviera Maya. Located on the east coast of Mexico, the clusters of resorts and towns that comprise it embrace warm, clear, shallow turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea. Its proximity and easy access from home (a couple hours’ plane ride from LA!), respectable exchange rate and breathtaking vistas have made it one of my favorites for a quick weekend getaway.
So when I spotted a Groupon deal ($185 for a three-night stay at the boutique BRIC Hotel) in Playa del Carmen, Cancun’s smaller, quieter cousin, , I snatched it up and shelled an extra $50-60 for a fourth night. Normally, you want to be suspicious of deals that are too good to be true, but a little digging on several web sites yielded no scary reviews. I don’t have super high standards when it comes to foreign hotels; I simply ask that there be warm, running water, clean beds and honest employees. I don’t need a lot of bells and whistles, and the BRIC provided more than adequate amenities.
It was a small, no-frills establishment a couple of blocks from the beach, on a side street off the busy (read: tourist trap) Quinta Avenue. It was also on the (quieter) northern end of town. It had a pool, available poolside massage, and an open-air dining area (no bar) where a complimentary breakfast was served daily by a lovely local cook.
“When do you leave?” she asked me and my friend Cece.
“Sunday.”
“I will make you my special chilaquiles then.”
“Me gusto! Muchas gracias.”
Upon our arrival, our friendly reception clerk suggested dinner at Alux, a restaurant in a cave frequented by moneyed locals more than tourists. “I take my wife there for special occasions.” He proceeded to make reservations for us and hired a taxi to take us there.
I have a thing for caves so I was quite excited. I instantly fell in love with it the minute we descended the luminary-lined staircase leading into the main dining room. I’ll talk more about Alux in an upcoming post. It was a lovely way to kick off the long weekend.
The one thing I wanted to do on this trip was to visit the famous Mayan ruins I had heard so much about. But with limited time, I wasn’t sure which one to go to, and surveyed my social media community for a recommendation. It was an even split between Tulum and Chichen Itza. And, as it turned out, we were able to hit both.
Our friendly reception staff helped book our tours, and our first excursion took us to the ruins at Tulum and Coba. These ruins merit a whole blog post unto themselves, which I will publish next week. We spent the following day on a tour of Chichen Itza and Valladolid, where we were allotted some swimming time at Cenote Zaci (cenotes are limestone pits filled with clear water, or groundwater, and they are all over the area). There were platforms at various heights from which the adventurous could make daring cannonballs into the lake. I fancied myself one (a daring cannonballer) but upon reaching the precipice of the highest jumping point, found that I was too chicken to make the leap.
Initially, there were only a half a dozen of us there, but a crowd had built up and started cheering me on. All I could think about was the kid from my high school who was paralyzed from the waist down after jumping off a cliff in Acapulco. The crowd dispersed disappointedly as I walked away from the jump.
Later, I finally worked up the courage to jump, but only from a lower height. I swum back to solid ground and promptly threw up.
We spent our last day in PDC frolicking on the beach and squeezing in a quick trip to Cozumel, taking the ferry on which it was Cece’s turn to vomit. We rented a car to get around the island (no more than an hour’s drive.) We followed signs to tequila tasting but were unsuccessful in finding it.
When we returned the car, the “enterprising” folks (I’m being kind here) at the rental place tried to charge us for damage to the car which we swore up and down wasn’t there when we pulled up. We tried to argue our case with the best Spanish we could muster (Cece, being from Brazil, understood Spanish well, though my spoken Spanish was better. Between her listening and my talking, we made a great team.) When it looked like they weren’t going to budge, I resigned to letting them charge us. Cece muttered under her breath that we can dispute the charges with our credit card company when we got home, but it turned out the charge was only $50.
Pfffft. Worth every stinking penny to let it go, but what a scam. Lesson learned there.
We spent our evenings dining at various restaurants on the Avenida Quinta, my favorite being a Uruguayan cafe that served the most delectable corn and cheese empanada I had ever tasted. On one post-dinner walk back to the hotel, I even popped in to order a couple to-go, to snack on while we shopped for souvenirs.
I cannot sing enough praises for Playa del Carmen’s pleasant low-key, kick-back vibe; coming here feels more like visiting family than a strange land (albeit a family with an awesome beach.) And as promised, the hotel cook made her signature chilaquiles just for us on our last day. How could we not come back?
Getting the party started on the flight (Virgin America LAX -> CUN)
Our lovely hotel
Hotel dining “room”
Alux – Restaurant in a cave
Suntanning iguana
Tulum: Ruins with a view
Swim break at Tulum
Going tribal
Climbing the ruins at Coba
Chichen Itza
“Calaveritas”
Cenote Zaci
Mayan woman making tortillas
Local fashion
In Cozumel
Quinta Avenue
Sinking my toes into fine white sandy beaches in Playa del Carmen
Life’s a Beach
Life’s a beach, part dos
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[…] I took off for my trip to Playa del Carmen, plenty of friends and family insisted on making Chichen Itza my priority, given that I only had […]