5 posts tagged “playa del carmen”

A couple things that made us laugh.

The following was taken at Xcaret, an eco-amusement park. I'm glad to know the good ol' greased pole is still providing hours of fun!

Here's the pole itself:

 

Alas, I did not try it. (I really didn't want to wash the grease off the entire front half of my body...)

You know, one thing you notice when visiting other countries is that they're not nearly as lawsuit-happy as we are here in the U.S. (and especially California). So Mexicans don't dumb everything down for you. When you're walking around, you're expected to look where you're going. No need to add unecessary banisters on 3 stories of steps that lead up to a bar.

 

Or rope off constructions sites, for that matter. Construction sites seemed to be a little, uh, iffy...

 

Who needs a dust mask?

Let's get to food, shall we? Starting out, I had low expectations. A foodie friend of mine who had been to Playa del Carmen gave me bad food reviews before I left.

Our hotel included dinner and breakfast, so our first dinner was at the hotel. Not so good. When they tried to do European food, it was just baaaad. Not mediocre, bad. Breakfast was really good though, and when they did a Mexican dinner, that was halfway decent.

On 5th street, the main tourist avenue of town, I didn't see a lot of Mexican food. There was French, Italian, American, seafood.... and all at American prices. Pshh. I was craving an authentic taqueria.

I made a point of asking every taxi driver and Mexican Playa del Carmen resident what their favorite taqueria was, and found a common answer: El Fogon.

The honey and I made our way out of the tourist section, down to 30th street, past some abandoned lots, past some residential areas, to El Fogon. It's a little hole in the wall place.

You can smell El Fogon down the street. Their grill is working constantly.

 

So. Good. I ordered jamaica (a drink made from the hibiscus flower), queso fundido with chorizo (sunken cheese with chorizo sausage - a hot melty bad-for-you-but-oh-so-good dish), and a grilled meat dish tossed with peppers, onions and cheese. Everything was absolutely delicious and fresh. Que rico! I couldn't finish it - my eyes were bigger than my stomach. If I went again, I would definitely order the tacos al pastor; they carve the meat off a spit kind of like a gyro place.

Another notable restaurant was La Cueva del Alux (the cave of the cave gnome). I had heard a few recommendations. The restaurant has a super cool atmosphere, as it is inside a real cave. Here's the honey descending into the entrance:

 

And here are the stalactites on the ceiling:

 

The place had a super-friendly waitstaff, Spanish guitar player, and a belly dancer!

 

The food was continental, and unfortunately, was just kind of mediocre. We ordered steak and lobster, which was just so-so. And pricey. For the same price, I could've gone to a really good steakhouse in the U.S. and gotten a good steak. However, this is one of the rare cases I'd say it was still worth going, just for the ambience. However, if going again, I'd stick to drinks and appetizers.

Here's my grand exit:

 

The best food we had in Playa del Carmen was at a Mayan restaurant called Yaxche. It was a little touristy, but the food was amazing, and the atmosphere was beautiful. Mayan food is similar to Mexican food, but I think the flavors are a little more complex - so complex I find it hard to describe. This is a culture that knows how to use spice. Sweet, spicy, and smoky flavors all mix together. We had one typical Mayan dish called puerco pibil - pork flavored with sour orange and I think cardamom.

 

And here's my shrimp dish:

 

If you're in Playa, Yaxche is a must.   

Now, in Cancun, it's uber touristy. So you have two choices: good hotel restaurants (no Mexican food), or crappy American chain restaurants. We started off with dinner at Aioli, the restaurant at Le Meridien. I'd describe it as continental food based on local ingredients. We had a table at the window overlooking the ocean and we were one of two couples there. The prices were reasonable - probably cheaper than Alux, but very fancy cuisine done well.

I ordered fish that was encrusted in salt and baked. Here's my waiter cutting it open for me:

 

So if you're in Cancun, Le Meridien is worth a visit.

We lunched one day at the Ritz Carlton. They really know food at the Ritz. I had a delicious ceviche made with red snapper, mango, and pineapple.

And we had a pretty nice view, too.

 

 

There was probably just one actual Mexican taco place in all of Cancun, which was the Taco Factory. Cheap, good, and surprisingly authentic.

All in all, there's some great food in Playa del Carmen and Cancun, but you've got to look for it.

This underground river was one of the most amazing things I've seen in my life... ranks right up there near El Templo de la Sagrada Familia!

There's still a ton of unexplored jungle all over the Yucatan peninsula. The flora is so thick that you couldn't even try to walk through it. Even with a machete, it would take a long time. Yet every once in a while, someone does explore, and finds a little cenote (a sinkhole) - they are all over the place. The cenotes are these beautiful caves filled with fresh water. It's so clear you can see really deep down.

Rio Secreto was discovered two years ago, by the landowner who was hunting an iguana. He was chasing it through the jungle, when it went into a hole in the ground. He looked down into the hole, and lo and behold, there was some water. He widened the hole, started exploring... and discovered a big underground river. Rio Secreto has been open to public tours for the last five months, so we felt pretty lucky to experience it.

Here we were, on a semi-trecherous jeep ride on our way to the entrance of the underground river:

So, the Yucatan peninsula used to be underwater... it was the sea floor back when Pangea was separating, I guess. It's all limestone, which is pretty brittle, and it collapses a lot, which is how they often find these cenotes.

Here's the honey and I, fully donned in our spelunking gear:

Our route along Rio Secreto was 600 meters long, but they are still exploring the river, so it's probably much longer. The cave has more formations, and more types of formations, than nearly any cave in the world!

 

It was pretty dark throughout most of the cave, but they added lighting in select spots.

 

Here I am, squeezing through a narrow passageway in the cave...

The company that runs the tour (AllTourNative), I am happy to say, is very intent on being an ecologically responsible company. They only take small groups through the river, which makes for a better tour anyway. You're not supposed to touch anything inside the cave, because the oils from your skin inhibit the formation of stalactites and stalagmites. I am, however, afraid that even small groups are bound to effect the cave. Anywho, here's our little group staring in amazement at the formations of the cave:

This picture gives you an idea of how totally clear the water is.

 

Here are a couple of the creatures that find a way to live in the near-total darkness of the cave:

 

As you can see, tree roots find their way into the cave and ultimately reach water. Eventually, the tree roots sometimes get covered by minerals and form their own stalactites.

 

Rio Secreto was a spectacularly beautiful and not overly-touristy tour. Our guide, Christian, was really friendly and super-knowledgable about speliology (that is, cave studies) and geology. Plus, he spoke probably 7 languages. You could tell he just loved his job, which made it fun for everyone.

 

The day in general was the most perfect day of the vacation, and probably one of the best days of my life. After the tour, we had a leisurely afternoon, then went to a really good yoga class held in a palapa in a jungle-like garden right across from our hotel. It was seriously idyllic. The honey and I were the only people in the class, and it was just wonderful and deeply re-centering. Afterwards, we had the best dinner of the trip, too, at a place called Yaxche... more to come on that in the food post.

Hey neighbors,

I'm officially caught up with 430+ post-vacation emails.... yesssss. Now I can get to fun stuff: reliving my vacation via blog. I'm going to do this topically rather than chronologically.

Here's a preview of upcoming posts:

• Rio Secreto
• Dia de los Muertos
• Food (you didn't think I'd leave that out, did you?)
• Funny things you see in Mexico
• El mar

But now, I'll start with Playa del Carmen. We stayed in Playa 5 1/2 days, and in Cancun for 3 1/2. Playa del Carmen was my favorite of the two; it's still fairly small, although I heard it's the most rapidly growing city in the world... so enjoy it now while it lasts, I guess. Cancun tends to be the spring breaker destination, whereas Playa is a more chill destination popular with Europeans. The main reason I liked it more is because there, the locals mix with the tourists. You feel like you're in a real city (even though it has a main tourist thoroughfare). Cancun is kind of like tropical Vegas.

We stayed at the Shangri-La Caribe resort. It's an older hotel, but had the best stretch of beach in Playa:

 

Here's what the hotel looks like:

 

And here's the view from our balcony:

 

I spent several mornings laying in my hammock on the balcony, reading. And it felt. so. good.

Look, they even made little animals out of our towels (yes, I get very excited by these types of things, what can I say):

 

 

On our first day of vacation, we just bumped around town. I slept for about 10 hours and it was the first night of good sleep I had gotten in a while. We had a great breakfast, then walked around 5th avenue, the main touristy area. I've seen enough cheap Mexican souveniers to last a lifetime, so we mainly just walked and got some food. We got stuck in a little 15-minute rainstorm, it was kinda romantic.

The next day we went to Xcaret, an eco-park. Kind of like a cross between Disneyland, a zoo, and the beach.

 

It was a fun day! At the end, of course, we had to take a little siesta:

More to come soon!

The honey and I have been trying to plan our 2008 vacation for some time. The current plan for our week-long trip is Playa del Carmen! I've read that it's a lot less commercial than Cancun, and I've always wanted to visit the Mayan ruins, since I studied them in college as an anthropology major. Here are the things that sound really fun:

• Mayan ruins - I read that Chichen Itza is a better visit than Tulum if you only have time for 1
• cavern diving
• trip to an eco-park (Xcaret or Xel Ha?)
• swim with dolphins
• nightlife - I read about some nightclub in a cavern in Playa del Carmen, that sound cool
• and plenty of beach-lounging

Based on a Frommer's guide, we're thinking about staying at the Shangri-La Caribe. We're planning on going in November for 7-8 days.

So, neighbors, have any of you been to Playa del Carmen or Cancun?  Do you have any recommendations, must-sees, "don't"s, etc.?  Thanks in advance!

P.S. I am hoping my work sends me to Tokyo in July and Amsterdam in September (and the honey and I are dying to visit Tokyo and some friends in Okinawa)... more on this later!