Playa del Carmen Trip Report
February 2005: Includes Xaman Ha, Playacar, Beach, Restaurant and Nightlife Information.
PLAYA DEL CARMEN
FEBRUARY 20-FEBRUARY 28
February 24
We only went to the free continental breakfast buffet on the first day of our stay at Siesta Fiesta. We each like a nice, big cup of coffee in the morning, so we got two large cups across the street every morning at Cafe Sasta and just drank them out on the balcony.After we got our beach gear together we headed down to find the Xaman Ha Condos where Shari's family was staying for their vacation. I had never been down into Playacar before. We took the entrance behind Señor Frogs and just walked in on that street there. I saw a large group of people all sitting at the pool bar and asked Shar if that was her family. It was. The rest of the group-there were 15 at that time, with two more on the way in a few days-was at the beach. We walked down to the beach, which is next to where there is no beach over in front of the old Continental Plaza Hotel. They did have a nice little area of beach. It got a little more eroded past that again. Further down was the same situation as Continental Plaza, with waves crashing up against the retaining wall.
Shar's family is super fun and nice. They make big, huge containers of home made Pina Coladas in their rooms and bring them to the beach. Man, were those tasty on a hot, warm day under the sun on the beautiful Caribbean Sea.
Grounds of Xaman Ha Condominiums
Xaman Ha Condominiums are very nice, and I would recommend the place to anybody wanting to stay there.
The walk over to town takes about 5 minutes, so it is nice and quiet but just steps away from the action and convenience of Playa del Carmen.
Later that night Shari, some of her family and I went over to Cafe Da Bruno on 5th Avenue for dinner. It is an Italian Restaurant and is quite popular. I ate there before they were actually Da Bruno and it was very good then. Shari got Gnocchi, which was not anything like my Grandma used to make. They were too soft and doughy. Nobody was too excited by their dinners. I did like mine a lot, but I ordered fish. I had Mahi Mahi in a cream sauce that was excellent and it came with a baked potato and some very tasty vegetables in a breaded coating. My dish was about 13 dollars and the beer was probably 30 or 35 pesos, but I don't remember the price of the beer.
After dinner, we showed Shar's family the rooftop bar at Deseo and then they headed back to their condo.
Shari and I stopped to watch the band at Karen's. They were pretty good, with more Mexican music but not a Mariachi band. It wasn't the flute band that used to play, but they did have some flutes. Karen's has 2x1 beers all day for 40 pesos, so it is 20 pesos per beer. They also have 2x1 Margaritas that were, I think, 60 pesos for two. We got some Strawberry Margaritas that were strong tasting, but yummy.
We used the internet cafe at Karen's for a few minutes and it was 7 pesos for 15 minutes there and they don't have any printers.
Next we headed over to Captain Daves to see if we could get a table this time to watch Grady. We hung out standing at the bar for a little bit. Beers at Captain Daves are 20 pesos. I ended up chatting with a guy who has been visiting Playa for 15 years. Shari and I decided to move to a table so I asked the gentleman to join us since he was telling me about, ah...somebody's first trip to Cuba earlier that week.
A little while later his friend, Hammer, who recently opened Hotel Santa Barbara and Hammer's female companion joined us. They were both very nice. We stayed until Grady quit singing at 11 PM.
Then Shari and I headed back over to the Blue Parrot to see what was going on there and next door at Costa del Mar, but we decided to walk back up to 5th Avenue instead.
The guitar duo was still playing at Siesta Fiesta, but it was jam-packed. We parked it at the bar stools next door at Posada Freud and I told Shari they make a mean Rum and Coke so we ordered two of those. I think they were around 30 pesos, in a huge glass and about 3/4 full of Rum. The guy at Siesta Fiesta started singing All Apologies by my fav band, Nirvana. Now I really love that guy. If he was older I would have to go talk to that young man. I was loving that music and bar and we ended up chatting with a fun gentleman named Cam who is a scuba diver from Canada.
After Posada Freud closed and the band stopped Shari was ready to sleep, but Cam and I twisted her arm not-too-hard to go over for one more beer at the Beer Bucket. I don't usually hang out there, but it was fun and the bartender, Lucia, was very friendly and nice. Cam knew a whole bunch of people there he introduced us to and it was fun, but we only stayed for one beer and then we had to head back to the room.
We did a room check and didn't see anything crawling around, so we hit the hay and were out like a light.
