Playa del Carmen and Tulum - Mexico

PLAYA DEL CARMEN
We left Cancun at 12pm on Thursday for our 1 hour journey to Playa del Carmen, a beautiful town further down the coast on the Yucatan Peninsula. The town itself is a lot smaller and more relaxed than Cancun, and after checking into our stunning 3 bedroom en suite apartment with Plasma TV and Sky, we made our way down to the pool to relax and enjoy the sun. Yep another gorgeous apartment on our travels, no complaints from us. After an enjoyable day at the pool we dressed up in our best shorts and t-shirts and made our way into the town. The main street in this town is 5th Avenue, and we had an enjoyable walk past multiple bars, restaurants, shops and boutiques. Being a tourist town the restaurants on the main strip were pretty pricey, but we managed to find an authentic and cheap Mexican restaurant called Aca Los Tacos and promptly tucked into some burritos, fajitas, guacamole dips, ice cold beers, and cocktails. The food was great and messy, and after a few drinks we made our way home for some TV and bed.

We woke up on Friday morning and made our way straight to Coco beach. The beach was only a 2 minute walk from our apartment, and we dived into the clear blue water which was warm and inviting. Unfortunately despite being hot and sunny the wind was strong that day so we made our way back to our apartment pool complex for some shelter. It was another scorching day and we lapped up the sun for most of our afternoon, while tucking into some beers and tasty tuna rolls that V had prepared earlier. After an exhausting afternoon doing nothing, we made our way up to our apartment for a quick nap, before making our way back into Playa for some dinner and a few drinks. We met some Americans at the pool that day, who had either retired to Playa or were living and working there – tough life. One was a real estate agent who was obviously working very hard over there, at the pool by 12pm on a Friday afternoon – nice work if you can get it ;-). Anyway he kindly recommended a restaurant to us and we set off to find it, unfortunately the steaks which were so highly recommended to us were nothing great, maybe we were just too spoiled in Argentina. The Chilean wine was good though so can’t complain too much.

After dinner we walked 5th Avenue scoping several bars for a drink on a hot Friday night. We stopped off at a bar called Kitxen which was really good, as were their cocktails. The live band were good, and the lead singer and guitarist was hilarious as he ran wild on the small stage thrashing his hair around and generally going wild. We were waiting for a stage dive but he managed to compose himself! This was to a crowd of no more than 20 people, imagine his antics if they ever make it big! After this we took a slow walk home and stopped off at another bar on the way for a goodnight tequila and ice cold beer. After a couple more beers and cocktails for the girls, while enjoying some people watching as the locals and tourists cruised up and down 5th Avenue, it was time for bed as Saturday was Halloween and promised to be a big night in Mexico.

We woke up on Saturday to a very cloudy and rainy day, so had to settle for sitting in the apartment watching football on Sky – could have been a lot worse. We were also up early to try and watch the Currie Cup Final back in South Africa, but couldn’t get a live feed over the Internet – anyway congrats to the Bulls who won in what sounded like a cracker of a game! After a hard day of doing nothing indoors the girls went all out to setup a Halloween night for us. They went out and fetched costumes for everyone earlier, and Georgie (with a little help from the girls) spent most of the afternoon preparing food and the decor for a big night. The apartment looked amazing with pumpkins, ghost pictures adorning the walls, and a scary jack o’ lantern or two scattered around. We were all dressed up in our costumes, with makeup applied, by 7.30pm and dinner was served. After an amazing dinner Georgie then proceeded to chair a drinking fines meeting, whereby all previous mistakes and stupid deeds or comments were duly punished. The girls had also prepared a huge bowl of Margarita for this, with some additional tequila and vodka in case we ran short. Needless to say by the time we left the apartment around 9pm spirits were high!

We headed out into Playa for our Halloween evening, and instantly came across the cutest Mexican kids everywhere dressed up to the max in their outfits, and trick-or-treating along 5th Avenue. The girls swiftly popped into a shop to stock up on sweets and spoil as many as possible. We made our way down the street and stopped off at our first bar for the night, the Tequila Barrel. After drinks were ordered we noticed some girls dancing on the bar who were quickly rewarded with a free tequila. Like a red rag to a bull, the girls could not resist and within no time at all Lara, Georgie and V were on the bar strutting their stuff. They were duly rewarded with a tequila, not their first or last for the night. We then left to go to a club called Paradise, where we were given wristbands and promised free drinks until midnight. They weren’t kidding, and the free tequilas were doubles which were pretty potent.

After a few drinks and a quick dance for the girls, we made our way to a huge club called The Blue Parrot, which was voted in the top 10 in the world recently, and sits right on the beach. We found a table on the sand, and sat drinking while listening to the waves crashing in the background, it was really amazing! We went up for a dance and suddenly out of the blue a fire show began on the beach, involving men and women fire eating and juggling – a hugely impressive sight! After the treat of this show we made our way to the second dance floor for some great dance music and to strut our stuff with the rest of the partygoers. By the time we made our way home through the pouring rain and puddle streets of Playa (some of us in bare feet), it was 4am. When we walked in the front door we found the lounge floor flooded a mystery we have yet to solve.....

We arose on Sunday after a long sleep, and made our way to the pool for some sun and swimming on what was the hottest day so far. Most of this time was spent in the pool as it was too hot to lie on the sun loungers. V and I then went for a walk to the shop to get some essentials for lunch, most importantly a large bottle of water and some ice cream to help us cool down. Even on this short 10 minute walk we were sweating by the time we got back, the deadly mix of heat and humidity! After another afternoon nap it was time to make our way back onto Playa for our last dinner in this beautiful town, and we came across an excellent restaurant the girls had spotted earlier called Don Mario. This day was supposed to be the “Day of the Dead” which is apparently a big celebration in Mexico, but we either got our dates wrong or it was just a bad night, as we saw no celebrations or costumes – still trying to work that one out too! After an excellent dinner we made our way home to catch the end of one of the World Series baseball games and crash for the night.

TULUM
We woke up nice and early on Monday and after packing up and dumping any non essentials, like a bag of V’s clothes, we made our way to the bus station. Our rucksacks have been slowly gathering weight, and the walk to find taxi’s in the heat was not much fun, but we finally found a couple and off we went. We boarded our bus to Tulum and after a relatively short journey arrived in this pretty little town situated further down the peninsula. We caught a quick taxi ride to our hotel called Posada 06, and swiftly dumped our bags so we could get to the famous beach asap. As we approached the beach you could see the stunning blue and turquoise waters ahead of us, and what a stunning beach it is. We settled into the Mezzanine restaurant for a quick lunch of Thai food and cocktails (ice cold beers for the boys) which were all excellent. Then it was time to hit the beach. We walked along the sand looking for a perfect spot, and the sand was softer than powder! We picked our spot and then ran into the sea, which was crystal clear and warm. After frolicking around in the water for a while it was time to dry off and walk along the beach trying to find the famous Mayan ruin.

We walked for quite a while along the beach, past several mini resorts with holidaymakers scattered around. We finally came across the ruin in the distance, but as we were unable to reach them from where we were, and time was running it, we took a couple of quick snaps to at least prove we had seen them. We then made our way back to our hotel in Tulum. This involved walking to the main road to find some taxi’s, and while doing so we walked through a sheltered tree lined dirt road and were instantly attacked by swarms of mosquitoes. This caused panic and we quickly whipped on our t-shirts and started spraying our repellent like madmen! This was no doubt hilarious viewing for any casual observers, but having been bitten so often on our trip and itching in all sorts of weird and wonderful places, we were keen to avoid – too late though we had all been nailed at least 4 or 5 times! Could have been much worse though

For our only night in Tulum we walked along the main street (called Tulum street) past a few bars, restaurants, and gift shops. The restaurant recommended to us was closed, so we weren’t having much luck on the recommendation front the last few days. We found a nice authentic Mexican restaurant on the main road, and sat outside to enjoy our last Mexican meal and Margaritas. Then it was home to bed for an early start the next day as we left the beautiful country of Mexico and headed to Belize.

Adios and thank you Mexico for an amazing time in your country, here are our highlights and lowlights:
- The people are incredibly friendly and helpful
- The girls fell in love with the kids here, the cutest yet and so well mannered
- The beautiful golden beaches and crystal clear water, especially Tulum beach which is stunning!
- Hot weather and amazing Margaritas – the ice cold beers were good too!
- Tequila – cheap and plentiful....
- Mexican food, we love it!!!!