11-15-2008
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#1 (permalink) |
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ruined
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 98
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JRM's quick Playa/Tulum trip report... with lots o' pics! (Nov 9 - 13)
Hello everyone! I have been on this site now for over a year and made two trips to Playa, and sadly, have never contributed a trip report. I know, I know... you can shake your head and wag your fingers. I deserve it. However, everyone on this board has been so wonderfully helpful and welcoming that I promised myself that on this trip I would bring my camera, a large memory card, and a journal (or at least the back few pages of a book). I've enjoyed reading everyone elses' trip reports so much that I thought it time to add my own.
Beware... there's lots of pictures... that's just how I roll. There's even lots of pictures of things that have been well documented already... oh well. As i said, that is how I roll. This was a very quick trip. We arrived late on a sunday and left on the following Thursday. That being said, this was a trip which had only one goal... to do absolutely nothing and relax on the beach. You're not going to find any info here on day-trips to the ruins, or to Xel-Ha, or Excaret. We did take a trip down to Tulum, but we'll get there in a bit. Day 1 - Travel My wife and I live in the ski mountains of Colorado, and whenever we want to take a trip, we often end up somehow displeasing the weather gods. This means that this year, like last year, the day we left brought snow and a slow 120 mile drive down to Denver. Here's what it looked like on my way out of work the day before (taken on my phone).... add a couple more inches and some drivers wary of the snow and it tries your patience to just get to the airport on time! But with visions on Playa beaches firmly planted in our minds we knew all would be okay.  The plane ride went as all do. Nothing to write home about, so nothing to mention here really. Just a few hours with a book, an ipod, and a pair of great earphones. We're off to a good start. This year we eschewed any private transfers in favor of the ADO bus. Due in part to you wonderful folks i was able to assure my wife that the ADO bus would be quick, painless, and easy. For the most part it was! Unfortunately, we missed a bus to playa by just about 2 minutes. RATS!!!! But, hey, we're on vacation! We'll just hang out a little while longer. One hour later our bus arrives and we get in. One hour after that we're stumbling out of the bus station with our bag and snagging a $25 peso taxi to our condo. Seriously couldn't have been more easy to get to Playa, and for a mere pittance compared to a private transfer. We're hooked on the ADO!!!! Thanks for the recommendations and patience as I asked all my questions! We were staying at the Arena Blanca building on the north end of town. It is on the corner of 38th and 10th, right next to El Emporio (which is under construction right now) and a block and a half up the street from Cueva Del Chango. I know there is no shortage of fantastic hotels in Playa, but I work in a hotel... so when i travel I enjoy staying at places that are non-hotel. We stayed at this building last year for our honeymoon and grabbed a different unit this year. It's 1 bedroom/1.5 bath, loft with two twin beds, has a full kitchen, washer/dryer, lovely patio and a private rooftop terrace complete with sun chairs, grill, table and chairs, etc... For anyone looking for an out of the way condo, you gotta give this one a shot. There's a lot of pictures to follow, but I really want to show you guys what this place is like. Our unit is the top one on the far right side of the building.  Here's the main sitting area and the balcony with a view of the pool:      My wife hanging by the pool.  This unit also has a private rooftop terrace. Killer views day or night... here's some night shots:  Looking towards Cozumel:  Looking the other direction:  So after falling in and throwing our bag in the corner we took a walk down 5th. My wife was in charge of picking dinners so we ate at La Parilla. Some guacamole (pretty weak), some tacos (okay), and some drinks helped us realize how tired we were. So after we walked a little more we snagged some gelato and ended up back at the condo.... making it an early night. More to come! Last edited by jrm; 11-15-2008 at 07:08 PM.. |
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11-16-2008
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#7 (permalink) | |||||
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ruined
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 98
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11-16-2008
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#8 (permalink) |
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ruined
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 98
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Day 2 - The vacation begins!
The beds here are pretty darn comfortable, yet despite that fact I woke up pretty early. So I laid there and thought of... breakfast. My wife's favorite breakfast place in the world is Cueva Del Chango. Luckily we are staying about 100 yards from their front door. So everyday (except one), we found our way down there to enjoy a leisurely breakfast. This morning we walked in right as they opened and grabbed a table in the back. Here's some pics:    The orange juice here is the absolute best. Other places I go at home say that they make their OJ fresh, but after having it here I highly doubt it! I had the special which was scrambled eggs and machaca (beef that has been dried and salted I think).. Crazy good! My wife had an omelet and a cup of coffee. She is a blatant coffee snob being from the northwest, so for her to like the coffee is a very good thing! Cueva is fantastic. Highly recommended! Here's breakfast:  After we paid the shockingly cheap bill for breakfast we strolled home, donned our beachware and walked down 38th until we hit the beach. 38th pops you out right on the north side of Hotel Las Palapas, so we made a right and shuffled down to a beach club. We ended up plopping down at Kool, a place we had visited last year. But, they've changed a bit since then. Chairs were $70 a piece. Last year when we rented chairs we were supplied with a towel and some water.. not today! Since we left our towels at the condo I went up to the "hostess" stand to see if their were towels to borrow... nope, only to rent. So towel rental for two was $50 pesos and a $250 peso refundable deposit upon return of the towels. No bigee. just the cost of doing business I guess! The beach wasn't crowded, the techno wasn't thumping too loud, the water was perfect, and the sand was soft. The first half of our day was being spent like this:   Not too shabby! After a little while we picked up and decided we wanted to walk around town a bit. So we packed up our stuff and returned our towels (got the deposit back) and cruised back to the condo real quick to rinse off. As the stomachs began to rumble we found our way to the BANNED place and had a seat at a table with a killer view and excellent breeze. Their guac was a little better than La Parilla. I had the much-acclaimed (deservedly so) coconut shrimp, my wife had some quesadillas. The breeze was interrupted by an octogenarian couple arguing over if they should leave a two or three dollar tip. No worries, they decided and left and we remained relaxing with the breeze and the surf rolling in a few feet away. While sitting on the beach that morning we decided that we wanted to give Tulum a try the next day. Not having a car that meant taking the ADO. So after lunch we strolled up to the ADO station and bought two tickets for the 9:00 am bus and were told to be there 10 minutes early the following morning. We walked around a little more and since I had my camera in my bag I just snapped away. here's a few things that we saw on our afternoon jaunt.     As if we hadn't relaxed enough we decided a nap was in order. So a leisurely stroll took us back to the condo for a nap. Dinner that evening took us to another touristy spot on 5th, La Adela. We sat up top and people watched the dinner hours away. We of course had some guac, and it turned out to be the best of the trip. they make it tableside and they do it all without physically touching any of the ingredients. It's pretty crazy to see these guys making a bunch of guacamole using nothing but a fork in one hand and a spoon in the other! Guac was simple and good. I had a caesar salad that was also prepared tableside. Excellent. The wife had a chimichanga. Dinner was very satisfying. We hung out on 5th the rest of the night people watching, taking pictures, and relaxing. I'm sure this is all stuff you've all seen and taken pictures of too...      We had to be up early to hit the bus for Tulum, so we went back to the condo for the evening. Tomorrow, Tulum! |
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