04-19-2009
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#1 (permalink) |
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reposado
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Jackson, MI USA
Posts: 1,063
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Spring Break – Food, Fishing & Fun!
Hola! Here’s the trip report I’ve been meaning to get to, hope you enjoy!
BACKGROUND We in our mid 30’s living near Detroit, Michigan and are mental health therapists- thus we need to heal our own heads periodically, so as our budget and careers allow, we jet off when we can to the Caribbean or at least someplace semi-tropical in the states where we can see the palm trees sway! We travel to the tropics 3-6 times a year. We are backpackers, budget conscious and go for the no frill hotels, since we opt to spend our money elsewhere! This trip was my 7th trip to Mexico and 5th trip to Playa. We seem to make Playa Del Carmen our home base for many trips. We have backpacked not only in Playa, but have also visited: Cancun, Cozumel, Tulum, Holbox, Isla Mujeres, Paamul, Akumal, Puerto Morelos and Punta Allen. We love Mexico so much we were married on the shores of Cozumel- hence the avatar photo! We ventured away from Mexico this December and tried Jamaica, but found ourselves drawn back to the Yucatan peninsula for this Spring Break. Here we are in Jamaica this past December:  We planned to stay 4 full days on this trip! Not long, but enough time for some food, fishing, sun and Fun! My husband is a huge fly fisherman- ironically enough (given we are from the Great Lake State and he fly-fishes in Michigan); he prefers salt-water fly fishing from shore and brings his portable fly rod where-ever we go. He seems to catch the beautiful fish in Mexico! WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THIS TRIP REPORT: Photos of Puerto Morelos, Playa del Carmen, Akumal and a beach area near Paamul. We spent the days snorkeling, visiting the beach, eating, relaxing and of course Scott went fishing—he hired fly fishing guide Edy Pena, a renowned fly-fisherman in Playa. Anyway…enough babbling… DAY ONE a beach day at PUERTO MORELOS Our flight via Spirit airlines landed in Mexico at approx 8:30 am, so we planned to stop 15 minutes south of the airport- in Puerto Morelos since we are trying to maximize our short trip we spent the day there before checking into our hotel in Playa del Carmen. We love Puerto Morelos, have been there on other occasions and love the small town vibe! First Stop: Posada Amor for breakfast: I used the bathroom to change into beach attire!...and what a swanky bathroom it is...  Posada Amor grounds:   Food consisted of: Chaquilles, eggs, beans, fruit and huevos rancheros. All this plus coffee, juice, water, pop and fruit ran us 194 pesos. On a scale of 1-5 (5 the highest)- we rated the meal/service a 3.5. Service was implausibly slow and the food was average.   Next stop: Alma Libre Bookstore to purchase some good reads! For those of you that don’t know, Alma Libra is a well known, distinguished bookstore on the town square.   Then…what we’ve been anticipating! The beach…  Drank some cervasa and relaxed...  Took a walk... ...a pooch gets a bath...  A beach house wall artistically painted...  and has some nice art in their garden...  more of the walk...   And later ate a snack at Ojo de Agua- a endearing hotel/restaurant on the beach- we’ve been here before and love the guacamole here!   ...as we listened to the 3 man band...  PLAY BOUND We stayed at Playa del Carmen’s Club Yebo for the first time-which we were very happy with. We paid a very reasonable rate and met very kind, fun people (you know who you are!) We loved the access to the Playa Palms and the Club Yebo location is tucked away, yet still close to everything!     
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04-19-2009
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#2 (permalink) |
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reposado
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Jackson, MI USA
Posts: 1,063
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Inside our studio room...
  Dinnertime at El Fogon: Our meal consisted of: Jamon con queso, Taco Al Pastor and 2 Pacifico’s. The tab ran us an exceedingly cheap rate of 105 pesos. This was our first visit here, but wanted to check it out due to all the hype and overall was satisfied. We rated the dinner a 4.5, just shy of a 5 because it was very hot, crowded and the tables are extremely close to one another, yet the food was exceptional.    After Dinner drinks were at the Luna Blue where we once again for the 2nd visit in a row missed the owners. We are told once again they were on vacation! We seem to be on similar vacation schedules!  After the Luna we head back since we are soooo tired!  We never slept the night prior and with the combination of the flight, sun, drinks and warm climate we are beat…we needed rest for our trip to Akumal where we went snorkeling. ….stay tuned! 
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04-19-2009
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#3 (permalink) |
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añejo
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: on an island in the sea.....
Posts: 6,041
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Hi guys! Here I am, not able to sleep due to our upcoming trip, and what do I see but this report?! I love it! Looks like you stayed in the same room as we're going to have
 And it's 6 am and I'm hungry for those pastor tacos Love the report so far  edit- that's a great pic of you guys 
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04-19-2009
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#4 (permalink) |
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beachaholic
Join Date: May 2003
Location: wisconsin
Posts: 392
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Great trip report so far! Thanks for sharing! Your pics from Club Yebo look very nice. We'll be staying there next Feb. for the 1st time - so it's always good to see someones pictures that aren't the hotel's own advertising!
 Keep the report coming!
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04-19-2009
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#7 (permalink) | |
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reposado
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Jackson, MI USA
Posts: 1,063
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Quote:
 Glad everyone is enjoying the report. |
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04-19-2009
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#8 (permalink) |
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reposado
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Jackson, MI USA
Posts: 1,063
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DAY 2: An OVERCAST day didn’t ruin our fun at AKUMAL!
We awoke early, knowing, we don’t have a lot of time to waste by sleeping in, for our trip was short and we had a snorkeling trip planned. Out of all our places visited in the area, we have never visited Akumal, so were excited to venture to a newfound land and check out the vast snorkeling it had to offer. I’m was kind of disenchanted after waking to find that the day looks very gloomy, but I’m was not too upset, since I got enough sun the day prior. We do our normal breakfast routine in Playa, which consists of a trip to the nearest corner store for some Bimbo muffins – bunt cakes, juice and water.  I liked this garage-gate, near Club Yebo and I found it giving a cheerful mood, given the dark day.  We headed to the colectivo area on 2nd street and I took some snap shots of some various hotels….     We were bound for Yal Ku Lagoon in Akumal, from the research on the internet it avowed it was perfect for amateurs like myself. I was surprisingly a bit nervous to snorkel since I’ve only done it a few times, not sure why I was fearful, perhaps a fear of the unknown….  My fear was a bit calmed when I saw the stairs leading to the water. All in all, it turned out to be an amazing, unforgettable experience! These photos do not do the area justice, due to the dreary weather.     Here’s…one photo where the sun peaked for a moment…  Yal Ku, was very tastefully decorated with statues of Mayan art. The jungle area has little paths leading to different water entrances.    The fish were plentiful and we saw many varieties, I especially favored these little guys who liked to nibble on your skin and were abundant all over the lagoon.   Parrot fish?…    We spent most of the day here, until our skin was became puckered and water logged. We dried off and decided to check out what the beach area of Akumal had to offer. Again…the photos do not do the beach justice due to the weather, plus by the time the photos were taken it was late afternoon and the little daylight there was beginning to fade…    After the beach strool, we walked down the strip, caught a colectivo back to Playa and decided that Akumal was a place to visit again, perhaps on a brighter day and we would definitely go back to Yal Ku to snorkel!
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04-20-2009
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#9 (permalink) |
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reposado
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Jackson, MI USA
Posts: 1,063
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On the colectivo ride back, we realized we were absolutely starving and could not wait until dinner- so we decided to have a pre-dinner snack. We walked in the nearest taco joint and little did we realize… TACO GOMEZ would service us the BEST TACO’s we have ever had!
 Taco Gomez is a quaint, cute, simple little taco joint, right on 2nd Ave near the colectivo area. The menu is simple and painted above the kitchen area. We were amazed to find that 6 tacos and 2 sodas cost a mere $68 pesos! We visited this place one other time before our short trip ended, for its taste is unforgettable. Obviously we rated it a 5 out of 5! Highly recommended!    We walked back to Club Yebo, chatted with some new friends about our day, shared beer and later cleaned up for a night in Playa. Some of you may know, but Scott is stickler when it comes to cutting his hair, it seems to be like pulling teeth, to get him to get it cut, yet in Mexico, he always manages to go to the barber shop! He loves the convenient late night hours and incredible cheapo prices. Scott was a little disappointed to find that his traditional $4 USD haircuts were now running $5 USD! The barber did a great job! The salon was on 15th street between 2nd and 4th.   We were destined to have a late night dinner at Yaxche- known for its very authentic Maya Cuisine. We were warned that the food was good, yet a little pricey for the Playa area and found this to be very true. Everything was very yummy and the service was exceptional. We chose a seat outside and enjoyed the night atmosphere. Our meal consisted of: Chicken-lime soup, shimp palanuchos, chicken faquitas, conchinita pibil, 2 beers, 1 pina colata and one “sweet virgin” dessert. The meal ran us $638 pesos, very affordable compared to the US-given all that food! Overall we were happy and give this place a 4.5, a little short of a 5 due to the prices being a bit high compared to others in the area.  Nice haircut- huh?        Overly stuffed, and getting tired, we decided to make the night short, stroll to Hotel Jardin Art Gallery on 5th- to check out the art. We visit this art area every Playa trip and were shocked to hear the staff tell us the art area is going out of business. I was unhappy to hear this since I love to look at this art, yet I wonder how many visitors just look and not buy…     After our lovely day, we walked back to Club Yebo via the beach trying to find Bad Boys… to meet up with some of our Yebo friends and.later we found out we missed it by a block! We strolled back to the hotel, sipped on some Modelo in a can and feel asleep. We had a busy day planned for day 3….Stay tuned for Scott’s fly fishing trip with Edy Pena. He had very good luck fishing near the shores of Paamul…and the weather was perfect, so be sure to come back to view more photos!
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Hold on...a vacation is not too far away.
