05-20-2011
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#1 (permalink) |
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toe in water
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Reno
Posts: 54
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Lurker Goes to Playa April 2010
As I sit here planning my next trip to Playa, I am overcome with guilt over having used this site a ton while planning my April 2010 trip to Playa and not posting a trip report. My trip last year would have sucked if I had not soaked up all the info on these boards. I have NEVER found a site like this for any other place I've traveled or dreamed of traveling. Such passion.
So here's a brief trip report from last April 2010! My payment for bogarting all the Playa info. No pictures of food or insides of rooms, which is what I love to look at in other people's trip reports. I never think of doing it. Too in the moment. Five of us traveling: me (missyfussy), hubby (mrfussy), 16-year-old son (teenscene), 10-year-old daughter (bossyfussy), and my mom, g-ma. I was cheap, got some screaming deal tickets from Reno to Cancun...but the catch is that we had two stops, one in Phoenix and one in Mexico City. Wow that was a treat schlepping around that Mexico City airport let me tell you. Arrive in Cancun and we hired a van ahead of time to take us to our home for the next three nights, Aventura Mexicana. We went ahead and rented van because by the time the five of us paid for a bus it wouldn't have been that much of a difference to get our own van. Oh who am I kidding we are lazy. But it was nice and the guy I made the arrangements through was super nice. I really have some self-loathing right now because I can't remember the company. Ah, here we go! It was USA transfers and it was $120 round trip. I think the bus would have cost at least $50 for all of us one way, so I'm really not so bad. When we got there we ate at some place I think with a ladybug as a mascot or something and it was good though a bit pricy. Right on 5th street. I know, rookie move but 12 hours travel and starving kids, ya know. Aventura Mexican was nice I thought. The grounds were lovely, the room was adequate, and the kids loved the pool. We just set up camp there the whole next day after our arrival, which was a Sunday. We lollygagged at that place let me tell you. One of the staff members saw us trying to round up enough chairs and do you know he brought out a bunch of new chairs. Not a lot of places for lounging around the family pool but we made our own little pool party. The service is great at this place and we ate breakfast or afternoon snacks at Mayan Bistro a few times and prices were good and so was food (here comes some pictures but it doesn't look right--did the photobucket thing but not sure. if they don't come out after I post, I'll come back in and fix. thanks for your patience. back to our program). kids in pool Aventura Mexicana  Family pool Aventura Mexicana--I think that's me with a literal monkey on my back.  The next day was Monday and it is time to cross a biggie off the bucket list: Chichen Itza. Yes indeed this was a lifelong dream of both my husband and I. It was all it's cracked up to be. You read about something, watch movies, etc. your entire life, and here you are at this place and it's overwhelming. Plus it was hot as hell and I got a little overheated but so what? We hired a van to take us to Chichen Itza. The ride felt pretty quick and when we got there, there weren't a lot of crowds yet. Our driver asked us if we wanted a guide and I said "no, I don't think so." Wasn't planning on it because I am such a cheapskate but g-ma insisted and said she'd pay (it wasn't cheap and we didn't haggle too much). Boy are we glad we did. We would have missed so much by having tried to navigate this place by ourselves. This guide knew so much about the place (well I guess that makes sense...) and well worth money. Here is the entrance. Wow are we really here??  Our guide. Honesty felt like a crash course in History of the Ancient Americas.  Here he is with teenscene and mrfussy (hey, who taught the Mayan guy to flash gang signs  ?) While I had heat prostration over by the bathrooms, my husband and son went and looked at a cenote and a few other things at the ruins. After I stuck my head under the bathroom faucet I felt better so we got back in our van and back to Playa. We asked the driver to stop by a local place for lunch and he stopped at what looked like the Mexico version of a truck stop and we must have eaten 20 tacos between all of us. I could tell the people working there were sort of irritated by our antics of ordering more tacos after we ate the ones we had and decided we wanted more. We bought our driver lunch but he was a shy older man and didn't say too much. mrfussy eventually got his life story out of him, though. back in the lobby at Chichen Itza. I am in bathroom with heat prostration but this is gma, teenscene, and bossyfussy.  More Chichen Itza--all of us  Can ya stand one more? this was our Christmas Card this year. Love.  Where did we eat that night? I don't remember...But it was good I bet. The next day we hung out, no big whoop, BUT that was the night we went to El Fogon. Holla! If not for the peeps on this board I would have NEVER known about it. My family really thought I was the bomb finding this place. Well it was everything it was cracked up to be. Service was great, we got the big stove thingie they put on the table and ate it all. The bill was shockingly low. To feed this crew which also includes a college-bound football player usually costs twice as much for this sort of spread. teenscene and bossyfussy at El Fogon. Owe you people my life for that suggestion.  gma and bossyfussy El Fogon  The next day, time to move to Mahekal. Another bucket list item crossed off. I have been looking at this place for years on the Interwebs even when it was Shangri La and used to just stare at the pictures of it. Again all it was cracked up to be. We had a garden view bungalow and they are just cute as heck. G-ma had one room, me and the mr. had another, and the kids went back and forth between the two. Wow. The beach on the Caribbean side of Mexico. We've been all over the Pacific side and love it but there's no comparison. The sand is different, the water different. We spent a lot of time on that beach and in that water. Minor digression: bossyfussy isn't much of a beach/ocean person. I know. I would send her back if I could but too late. Plus a bad thing happened to her the night before we left for our trip. She was taking a shower and got out of it looking like a stuck pig bleeding profusely from the leg. She said she scraped it on the door...and I thought it was fishy. Yes indeed I won't go into the GORY details but I eventually figured out bossyfussy tried shaving her legs and ugh. I can't say how I figured it out and ruin everyone's good time here. So she was sort of trussed up in the leg region and I was really scared of her getting a serious infection. She was dying to get in that pool, though, and she spent a lot of time in there while we all took turns supervising. We lured her in the ocean a few times but the water stings and hurts her eyes and leg and who knows what creepy crawlies are in there (her words not mine). (so apparently I went over the word count so this will be continued...) Last edited by Missy Fussy; 05-20-2011 at 01:19 PM.. Reason: did the pictures show up? doesn't look like it dangit. |
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05-20-2011
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#2 (permalink) |
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toe in water
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Reno
Posts: 54
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Lurker Goes to Playa April 2010 Part 2
beach at Mahekal. Good Lord.
 She also painted pottery. No bargains to be found here at the pottery painting place at Mahekal but so what? No more expensive than those pottery places here and kept her happy for hours. The guy running the pottery thing was so sweet to her and it was a win-win situation. She has some nice souvenirs of her trip. Pottery Times  There's a happy hour at Mahekal, dos por uno. I had read about the Miami Vice drink on these boards and mrfussy and I were hooked. Well unfortunately so was g-ma but she is a total lightweight and I am sure when my kids are 80 years old they will still remember hearing g-ma say "oh kids, gramma is so drunk." Bossyfussy and gma. I don't think gma drunk here  The food at Mahakal, good. Breakfasts good, dinners good, some more than others, but never bad food. I'd give the food a B to B plus. My daughter has Celiac and can't have wheat, flour, etc., but we didn't have a problem finding things for her to eat. The guys working in the dining room...you'd see them at breakfast then again at dinner. Some couldn't have been older than my son and I pointed that out to him on an hourly basis. How hard they worked, etc. They bonded with my son over American football. One was a die-hard Broncos fan. They were all lovely and there was some nice music in the evenings as well. A real laid back fun atmosphere. We tried not to drag back too many souvenirs, but my son was dying for one of those poncho--sweater thingies and so he rented a bike from Mahekal one day and rode all around finding the best deal on ponchos. He found a good one. My daughter was pestering all week about braids and I made a deal with the devil (mrfussy) that if he took her I'd do ANYTHING he wanted. Totally worth it. Hammocks at Mahekal--nice touch. Gma fell out of one and wasn't even drunk but gma is in incredible shape and bounced right up. Mrfussy had attached it incorrectly or something. Bossyfussy not falling out of hammock which is a good thing because I don't think she would have fared as well as gma  Mrfussy and I walked to the Mega one day and got provisions and a cooler and took a cab back to Mahekal. We got some nice drinks and snacks and saved some money. Bought a bag of ice every day from the nice guys at the bar to fill our cooler. We had coffee in the little coffee area at Mega and I ordered the whole thing in Spanish. She gave us little pastries to go with and didn't charge. Not used to getting free things. I'm sure it's just a thing you get with your coffee, but still nice. There are guards guarding bags of ice at Mega. Mrfussy tried to grab one to put in our basket to pay for and the man stopped him in his tracks. You know how you do it here well you don't do it that way there. Pay first. Then show guard receipt. They also had a good bandaid/disinfectant department so we got all sorts of provisions for bossyfussy's leg. Oh if you look at this picture you can sort of see the offending leg and what it looked like after 7 days.  Mrfussy took his laundry to a place one day and picked it up the next and it was cheap to do it plus the best-smelling laundry I have ever smelled. This bodes well for the future because he usually packs enough for a North Atlantic crossing in a steam ship so maybe he will be encouraged to pack lighter next time knowing that the best smelling clothes in the world are in store. We ate at the bagel place one day (Karma Bagel?) and then another time we ate at a place on the corner that was sort of obnoxious and over priced with bad service. Meanwhile gma and teenscene went and had some magnificent pizza but since we had bossyfussy our Celiac, we did not want to drag her in a pizza place. So bummed we missed the pizza but a mom's gotta do what a mom's gotta do and a dad too. We ate at Cuevo del Chango thanks to peeps here and once again I was the hero of the day. We met a nice and hot gal who lives in Playa--she is originally from Canada I think and does something there in Playa with rentals or real estate or travel. Beautiful and sweet and when we saw her in town she always said "hi" first. Not showing pic of Cuevo del Chango because I look like a hot mess take away the hot. Oh ya. Someone mentioned about nobody having change in Playa and they are right. My son ended up with a $10 ice cream cone from Hagen Daz because so change. I chastised teenscene and felt bad afterwards and feel bad thinking about it now. It's vacation, missyfussy, so what you spent $10 on an ice cream cone. I need to text him now to apologize again. We spent a total of 7 nights in Playa--3 at Aventura Mexicana and 4 at Mahekal. That area of Mexico is magnificent, everything we'd hope it would be and more. Except now my husband is spoiled and doesn't want to go to any of our old stomping grounds on the Pacific side. How about a quick trip to Cabo? No. Zihua? No. PV? No NO NO. (and it's not like we go to big mega resorts when we are there: http://majahuitasresort.com/) Someplace new...Manzanillo? hell to the no. How about a month in San Miguel de Allende soaking up the culture? Woman have you lost your mind? there's no beach! I agree with him. We love Zihua (http://www.hotelbrisasdelmar.com/) but we haven't even begun to scratch the surface of the Yucatan Peninsula. (hope it's ok to put those links in...just want to give people an idea of the sorts of place we like to go to be able to put this trip report in perspective--laid back to a fault and lazy as hell). There's just something about Mexico, isn't there? Even when we try to branch out to other parts of the world, we still compare it to Mexico. Bermuda? Well, let me tell you pink sand beaches are nothing to sneeze at but we missed the Mexican people, food, vibe. Thanks to everyone on this board for the great suggestions--really pushed our trip over into spectacular category knowing all I did from lurking around here. Mahekal just a few steps from our bungalows  oh and since I've gotten so freakin good at putting pics in here now, and since there's more pics of bossyfussy and I don't want teenscene to get jealous, one more for posterity. 
Last edited by Missy Fussy; 05-20-2011 at 01:39 PM.. |
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05-20-2011
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#5 (permalink) | |
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toe in water
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Reno
Posts: 54
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Quote:
 . It's like a portable hibachi or something. We just saw other people with it and said "we'll have what they're having. Doesn't matter what it is, just please bring one over."
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05-22-2011
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#7 (permalink) |
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añejo
 Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: The Gem State
Posts: 16,176
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Wonderful trip report! Thank you for sharing the highlights of your trip.
I love that you visited Chichen Itza.  Those truck/rest stop places are the best for food. We had a great meal at one on our way to Mérida. Also the convevience stores at these places have the best junk...I mean road trip food!
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05-22-2011
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#9 (permalink) |
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beachaholic
Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 311
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I love this trip report! You have a great writing style - I'm not surprised that you write/edit as a career.
I too wrote a trip report almost a year after the trip. It was a nice way to relive it, actually. Thanks again for taking the time to post!
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05-27-2011
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#12 (permalink) | |
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Canada Dry
 Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Saskatchewan, Canada
Posts: 49,561
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Great report- thanks! You all don't sound too fussy to me.
I so agree about the change thing. It can be tough to get it for sure.  Quote:
hmmm...was it Heather? She is from Chicago not Canada, but does rentals and also works for PI. She is nice, and hot, though.   That is funny, we have been to Zihua 4 times and love it there- and our last trip, we stayed at the Brisas del Mar...last August! There is a trip report of mine from there on here somewhere, in the 'Trip reports from other parts of Mexico' forum. I agree the water is a lot nicer on the Caribbean side. But we have a real soft spot for Zihua and for Huatulco too.That was cute about bossyfussy trying to shave her legs- but that was a heck of a cut! Tweens!
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09-24-2011
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#13 (permalink) | |
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Nutty Peep
 Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Posts: 6,017
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Quote:
Ahh, that is an "anafre" or a mini version of a coal stove or grill, very cheap and used all over Mexico. 
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09-25-2011
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#15 (permalink) | |
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Nutty Peep
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Posts: 6,017
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Quote:
 maybe you can get one made with a big can and a grid on top, the idea is to have the coals on top of the grid and air coming from below, here in Mexico, fan is used to push the air trough, but lately at food carts I have seen an electric hair dryer instead,  The lower chamber is used to hold some paper to lit the charcoal. searching with Google I found this one from Honduras, very interesting  you can use solid alcohol instead of charcoal. |
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