74. Playa del Carmen

After a couple of days in Valladolid and a week in the Yucatan Peninsula, it was finally time to meet up with Eitan and his parents in Playa del Carmen. After a two-hour bus ride, I arrived at the station then took a taxi to the Airbnb. I had already met Eitan’s parents after they came down to visit us for a week on the boat while we were in the Sea of Cortez, but was surprised to meet his brother since I didn’t think he would be joining us until later in the trip. The Airbnb was lovely and included three master bedrooms and a hot tub/pool. Upon arrival, I immediately changed into my bathing suit and shoved all my clothes into the washing machine for some much-needed cleaning.

After some naps, and when the effects of their red-eye flights had word off, we headed out to grab some dinner. I was amazed at the endless options for dining and Eitan’s brother selected a Mexican restaurant for us to try. After a couple of minutes of looking at the menu, Eitan’s mom asked if there was a menu in English, so I passed my menu over. To my surprise, she said my menu was also in Spanish and I hadn’t even noticed. I guess living in Mexico for the past year has finally rubbed off on me! And so began our week of eating out at a restaurant every day, twice a day, which felt like such a luxury after getting used to cooking onboard with the occasional splurge on dollar tacos. I loved that Eitan’s parents were on vacation and didn’t want to be bothered with buying groceries or preparing food at the house. They wanted to maximize their time doing other things, as a vacation should be.

Our first full day was spent exploring Playa del Carmen with the family. We weren’t in rural Baja anymore and the number of people at the beach was overwhelming. Similar to Tulum, the water was filled with seaweed and was a bit choppy. We walked along the beach for a while and struggled to find anywhere appealing to roll out our towels, as the shore was packed with other tourists. After finding a spot, we laid out for an hour or so until it appeared the dark clouds in the distance were coming our way. Soon enough, everyone on the beach scattered as the rain poured down and we sought shelter in a hotel lobby.

A bit turned off by our crowded beach experience, the following day we decided to taxi to a nearby beach called Playa Xpu-ha. To access the beach, we either needed to pay 50 pesos per person or 200 pesos per person redeemable at the restaurant. Although this seemed a bit ridiculous, we would be eating at the restaurant anyway and decided to pay them the more expensive option. After lunch, we paid another sum of money to rent two lounge chairs on the beach to have a shady place to put our things, then Eitan’s mom and brother rented snorkel equipment. The snorkeling wasn’t great as the swell and wind proved a bit rough. Considering Cancun and the Yucatan Peninsula are some of the biggest tourist destinations in all of Mexico and are known for their beaches, it reminded me how lucky Eitan and I are to know a completely different Mexican coastline that most will never see.

On the third day of the trip, Eitan’s parents rented a car for three days to explore more of the surrounding area away from the craziness of Playa del Carmen and Cancun. Eitan and I did some cenote scuba diving, which I will describe in the next post, but most of our time with the car was spent exploring some of the different cenotes. We tried to cover all different types of cenotes which included:

• Cave Cenote: completely enclosed with no natural light
• Young Cenote: part of the ceiling is collapsed, creating a hole at the top where light can enter
• Semi-Open Cenote: half of the ceiling has collapsed, creating a half cavern
• Open Cenote: the entire ceiling is collapsed and appears more like an open lake

As I touched on in my post about Valladolid, each cenote has a different level of commercialization. Some are private and don’t allow visitors, some charge a small fee, and the more popular ones charge up to $25 per person to enter. Some require you to wear a life jacket while others couldn’t care less. I spent several hours reading reviews online about the different sites and trying to pick locations that were relatively cheap and didn’t require life jackets for swimming.

One of our favorite cenotes was the Garden of Eden. Upon entry, the manager explains that all sunscreens, lotions, oils, etc. were prohibited because they impact the natural flora and fauna of the ecosystem and threatened to kick out any person he observed with a sheen on the surface of the water around them. He was quite serious and we saw him ask several groups to leave! The open cenote was stunning and looked like a little slice of paradise. Eitan, his brother, and I took turns, along with the other guests, jumping off the lip and falling about 20 feet into the water.

Once I was in the water, Eitan threw me my mask and snorkel and I swam around, enjoying the fish as they munched on the vegetation that coated the submerged rocks. I saw one guy sitting on a rock with his feet in the water, surrounded by tiny fish. I decided to give it a try and sat nearby and soon enough, a small school of tiny fish approached my feet and legs and began to nibble on the dead skin. Some referred to them as spa fish and I have to say it felt like a natural spa experience.

We also visited Tulum and the Mayan ruins in Coba on one of the days. The entire trip with Eitan’s parents flew by in a flash. We had a lot of really great food and I would say the cenotes were a highlight for everyone. Before I knew it, Eitan and his family were on their way back to California and it was time for me to leave on my next adventure. This time to explore Belize!