Playa del Carmen Trip Report
February 2005: Includes Xaman Ha, Beach, Beach Erosion, Playacar, Restaurant and Nightlife information.
PLAYA DEL CARMEN
FEBRUARY 20-FEBRUARY 28
February 27
Our last full day in Playa.Man, this week went by so fast!
We walked over to Xaman Ha. Wowee, how things changed in two days. The beach was a lot different than the first few days. Which is why it is very difficult to answer people's "how is the beach in front of X" questions. It changes. This was the first time in my five years that I have witnessed such a dramatic change in such a short period of time.
Xaman Ha's Beach on February 25
I walked back to our room to get my camera to take some pictures of it. On the way back I took a walk down to the beach in Playa, and it was a lot different there, too.
Xaman Ha's Beach on February 27
After I hung back out at Xaman Ha Condos again for a while, I took a walk up to take some pictures over by some of the Mayan ruins that still stand inside of Playacar. I also took a nice walk further south down the streets and it is a very beautiful place. I can't picture myself hanging at the all-inclusives further down, but I'd definitely recommend the condos there to anybody thinking of going that route.
I went back to the beach further down and took some more pics of the beaches there that day. I did not head down as far as the Reef Club, since I couldn't walk the beach any further than I was at that point, due to the condition of the beach area.
I met Shari back at the condos about 5 PM. We hadn't even checked out her family's rooms, yet. They were very nice. Each one had three bedrooms and two baths. One condo was a little nicer. That one had brand-new appliances in the kitchen, nice furniture, a DVD player and stereo in the living room, a tv with VCR in the master bedroom. They had a nice, roomy balcony overlooking the pool with palm trees and Bougainvillea framing the sea behind the swimming pool. Breathtaking.
We decided to stay for a bit and drink some more piña coladas with the gang and then it started pouring rain with thunder and lightening. It looked pretty cool and the ocean got pitch black.
We wanted to get going, though, since our plan was to have dinner at my favorite restaurant for our last night. However, this was not one of those 5-minute rain showers, so we had no choice but to drink more Piña Coladas on the balcony and watch the storm.
The rain let up a little, so we ran over to check out the other condo the group had.
About 8:00 PM it stopped raining, so Shari and I made a dash back to our hotel. It started raining again a little bit, and boy did we look like crap by the time we got back to Siesta Fiesta.
Some newbies (you could tell because they thought the vendors' "do you want to buy some bling" was hilarious) to town with nicely coiffed hair were walking ahead of us when it started to drizzle again. Then one lady got mad and started shouting "this is ridiculous" and started hauling butt back to her hotel. They weren't, you know, making it rain on purpose.
We got ready faster than usual, and headed out the door to go over to Ajua about 9:30 PM. It was all cleared up and the streets were back in full-swing. We got a street-side table at Ajua. The waiter asked Shari for a dance, but she did decline.
Ajua has live music in the evenings. I think it was the same band we saw at Karen's this year. I asked what happened to the flute band, with Alejandro, that used to play there. The manager told me that the time limit on their work cards ran out and they went back to the Dominican Republic.
I ordered my Mayan Lobster and Shari got 10 1/2 ounce lobster tail with drawn butter. Our entrees were served with rice and fresh broccoli and some delicious bread with a flavored butter. Our lobsters were 30.00-35.00.
Lobster at a 5th Avenue Restaurant
Our waiter was new, and a little bit nervous preparing my Mayan lobster tableside. It was his second time preparing it. He was very nice, friendly and sweet and my meal was excellent, so he did a great job.
We were wondering how the poor guy would take it when we ordered the Mayan Coffee. If you haven't tried the Mayan Coffee, you must. It is coffee prepared with liquor and costs about 7.00 dollars each. It is worth it, for the show itself, which involves several waiters, a ladder and fire. People on the streets were stopping and crowding around just to watch them make our coffee dessert.
Afterwards we were ready to join our waiters in a streetside dance. We used the discount coupon from Ajua's website-but we still tipped 20 percent on the price of the bill before the discount. Ajua is one of the places that hasn't changed since my first trip, and I hope they don't.
After dinner we headed over to the bus station to purchase our tickets for the 8:00 AM bus to the airport for 65.00 pesos. Then we went back to our Siesta Fiesta to pack up our room. It didn't take too long, since our room didn't have any drawers or a closet to hang our clothes, which meant most of my stuff stayed in my suitcase the entire trip.
