Awoke and put beach towels on chairs at 7:30 a.m. The lateness of the hour meant our chairs were in the 3rd row back from the beach but we planned to go exploring today so that was OK. We then headed to the buffet for breakfast. Now I realize that there are those among us that are interested in food information, both written and visual, and then again there are those of us who are not – ever. Persons in the first category tend to hang on each descriptive forkful, savoring a cerebral cacophony of culinary sensations. Persons in the second category just want to know where to eat – period. Food is food, sustenance for the day ahead, and why waste time and cyberspace rattling on about it? It was for this reason that I have limited the buffet-blather, but like any decent Trip Reporter, it behooves me to address this with those of you out there that may actually be interested in what you may be eating when you come to the Sandos Playacar Hotel and Resort. (can your detect a “slow picture day”?)
Festival Buffet:
Located near the main check in palapa, the buffet serves 3 meals a day, buffet style. When you enter, most times there is a hostess waiting to seat you at a table, but you can politely excuse yourself from this formality and go directly to the buffet line if you like. In fact, we found this to be the quickest way to obtain our meals, as being seated and waiting for the understaffed wait personnel to come over and offer us a beverage often took a long time and on occasion, never happened at all. We quit letting ourselves be seated by the hostess and went directly for the food. Mmmmm….
Plates are to the extreme left as you approach the buffet, and their fruit choices and salads were very good – our favorite was the pineapple and plain lettuce salad with toppings. As you wound past this counter to the heated line, the breakfast foods included a number of warm dishes, my favorites were the Mexican sausage, mixed vegetables, pico, jalapenos, bacon, baked tomatoes and breakfast potatoes. You could then stand about the center cooking island and get eggs any style, an omelet, French toast or pancakes. Another island had bakery goods, freshly blended fruit drinks, and other sweets. A third island had an assortment of what Midwesterners would call “potluck” type salads and fruit mixes. I usually went for eggs over easy or an omelet, while Mamasita had a hankering’ for the French toast along with a variety of sides from the hot and cold buffet areas. We never went there for lunch as we were usually at the beach or off somewhere on an adventure.
Ola-La:
What we did for lunch while at the Sandos was venture into the Snack Bar, which is named Ola La and is the large restaurant near the pools and beach. No matter if you’d been beach-grunging all morning, as long as you wore a shirt and flip-flops, you could come in to the Snack Bar, grab a plastic plate & plastic silverware from the bar and load up your plate to take back to the beach with you. The Snack Bar featured a salad island, pico, guac, chips, many types of fresh fruit, pizza, hamburgers, assorted chicken seafood or beef featured on different days, and tacos or other traditional Mexican foods made to order. It also featured a self-service drink section, with soft drinks and cervezas available for self-pour. We would usually grab a plate of snacks (the pico was always good) and head back to eat on the beach. One day we sat down and ate there and other families chose to do so as well.
Dinner:
When you arrive seek out the Concierge to make reservations at the 3 formal restaurants during your stay. We ate at all 3, they were all good: Ol La (Mediterranean), Broccolino (Italian) and Los Alcatraces (Mexican). On nights we didn’t have reservations, we went to Festival. Depending on the day, they feature a theme each night: Mexican, seafood, Italian, etc… Also, there is another buffet in the rear of Festival that has Italian style food every night, and once we discovered this, we frequented it due to the quality. Go straight in and continue straight towards the glass doors near the rear and once inside, you can grab a plate, get what you want and sit anywhere – back room or front.
My running commentary to my lovely bride was, “I’m not going to post food pics on our trip report!” You can see how well that idiom was followed… In any case, I teased and pledged to post only one “food pic” – this one:
On to the real TR:
We’d been discussing what adventures we might have while in PDC for months, many such ideas coming from this forum. One thing we wanted to accomplish was an ATV ride. Earlier, we’d paid $5.00 for 30 minutes of Internet access time at the Sandos (
no free wireless! Yikes!) and looked up some of the tour operator sites we’d seen back home. The pricing was a bit cheaper than what the Sandos tour representative was offering, yet it was still high. My confidence in using public transportation to travel about the Mayan Riviera was bolstered by two things:
1) People who’d done it and written about it on this forum, and
2) Mapchick Maps with their detailed listing of descriptions, times, prices and advice on using it.
We called them from our hotel
(I never got the hang of making local calls so I always dialed 0 and had the front desk do it) and booked the 11 a.m. tour. With reservation in hand, we took the bikes up to Playacar Plaza and the ATM to get some cash, then straight back to the Sandos to head out on our first off tourista-zone adventure: ATV Explorer! Ole! ☺
We actually used a taxi to get us to the ATV Explorer site, which is maybe 3-5 lm south of Playacar. This driver charged $10.00 (:-o) but he also knew that we’d be done at 1 p.m. so offered to come back to pick us up. Perfect! 10 minutes later, we were there and paying the fee at the check in palapa:
They recommended a bandana to keep the dust out of your lungs. I had one along in my suitcase, which did me absolutely no good at this point in time. Conveniently enough, ATV Explorer sells them for 50 pesos each, so we buckled under the intense pressure (everyone else had one) and each bought one. BRING YOUR OWN BANDANA:
The had us wait in the waiting area as the previous tour finished:
Then we got to pick our ride – I thought this might be good for my Mamasita:
Then again, there were some better choices:
Soon we were off on the trails. A guide leads the group, and one of the first things they do is stop the line and parade you one at a time past the photographer, bandana removed. At the end of the tour you can purchase the pic for $10.00. We chose not to at this time.
The trails are great fun, pretty safe and there are both fast areas and bumpy, curvy slower runs that are a blast to travel through. The bandanas are necessary to keep the dust off your face and out of your lungs – on a dry day, which 15 minutes into our adventure, our day was not. The skies opened up and it poured, which was both beneficial and detrimental: The benefit was that there was no longer any dust. The detriment was that now we were eating mud spattered up by the tires of the ATV in front of you. There was also slim chance of a bandana refund either.
Our first stop was to Cenote Luna for a short walk into the jungle. As we were walking, the man in front of me (here in white) thought that this might be a good time to share with me that of the 14 known snakes in the Ycatan, 12 were poisonous. All of a sudden, every tree root looked suspicious:
On to the cenote safely and then a refreshing swim:
Already soaked, so why not?:
It was fresh, deep (up to 70’), cool and life jackets, snorkels and masks were available. Cenotes are sink holes filled with fresh rainwater runoff, and this one has a very slowly moving current. Our guide explained cenotes and that Cenote Luna eventually mixed with salt water as it emptied underground into the ocean. The swim was refreshing and there were some very small and cool catfish type fish swimming there.
Some very cool plants in the jungle:
We trail rode for a while then headed for an underground cavern. In this one, there was an opening near the entrance where roots and vines from the jungle above dropped down and grew into the cave. There were also stalactites and stalactites and a pool of rainwater. I think one bat flew overhead too. The guide explained that since most of this area of the Yucatan was limestone, the rainwater runoff had eroded away the rock to form both cenotes and caverns over time. The guides did a good job explaining (in English and Spanish) these stops along the way:
Bats?
Back on the ATV’s:
A short ATV ride finished our adventure. Our cabbie, true to his word, came back exactly at 1 p.m. Some of the other ATV’ers tried to hijack him but he held out for us (tipping on the ride out was perhaps a wise investment) yet he did call his dispatcher to call some other taxis out to fetch people.
Once back at the Sandos, we headed out to the beach to retrieve our completely soaked towels. Due to the rain, many chairs were available, and the coolness may have driven some away as well. We found a nice spot and had some beach time:
Looking south:
Sandbag chasers:
Cooling off:
It was cool and windy today with white churl in the water. Chatted with a family from Chicago about prices, ATV-ing, food, etc… One of the nice things about the Sandos was being able to chat with many people from many different places:
For entertainment, two birds landed near us and began to fight, or mate, not really sure:
Around 4:30 we headed to our room to get ready for dinner, with reservations looming at Los Alcatraces. The service and food here were great. Mrs. Had fajitas and I had a crusted chicken dish – highly recommended!
OK, I’m caving: Desert pic (it was hers!):
Afterwards we hung out at La Bamba and listened to the music from 2 gal singers – quite good! Try a Mayan Riviera or Blue Scott at La Bamba – quite good. We sat on the plaza while enjoying refreshments outside on a beautiful night:
Reiterating - Beautiful:
On the Plaza:
No siesta today with all the activity so as eyes grew heavy sleep grew ever more attractive! Back to the room only to find…
Kleenex Art!:
Buenos noches!