Wednesday morning, I had to hit the road fairly early to be able to do some work when I got in. I got a coffee and tucked into some pan dulce from a panedería by the Thai restaurant. What I thought was a plain croissant was actually stuff with chocolate!

I did try to use Waze and Google Maps to get out of Playa, but gave up in disgust. I got this hilarious pop-up when I cancelled my Google Maps route!

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It wasn’t until I was about to get onto the carretera that I remembered to check the gas gauge. I definitely needed fuel and what was conveniently ahead of me? That cost me about $600, and the topup to return the car ended up being about $500, so not too bad at all for a week of having a car! I did lose track of how much I was paying for tolls, though. I just don’t fret about that sort of thing anymore.

It was a super easy drive into Mérida. The Chevy Aveo I’d rented is the first car I’ve driven that has a six-speed transmission, so it was fun to get into that gear when I was passing folks! What a treat it was to get a manual transmission. It used to be the standard (pun kind of intended) in Mexico, but it’d been a long time since I’d found a rental place that offered one.

Traffic coming into Mérida was, of course, terrible. I got stuck next to this beast for the longest time.

I landed at about 1:15 CST. My girls were happy to see me!

Here is my little bowl from Chichén Itzá next to a larger bowl that was a gift from Contessa (no, my walls are not neon green — my iPhone camera is a menace!).

It was a bit brutal to have to go right back to work, and you know it’s been BUSY that it’s Saturday afternoon and I still haven’t fully unpacked, but I’m glad I got to spend a day with friends and discovered Playa del Carmen. I’ll likely be back in February or March next year!

I kept the car to today, a full week, to be able to run errands with it, primarily Costco and Walmart. I find renting a car stressful, but the freedom of having wheels… A car is going to happen soon-ish. I just have a lot of moving parts!

Tuesday, I didn’t head out until about 10:00 a.m. after doing a couple of small jobs on my iPad and researching breakfast options.

I started by strolling down Playa’s tourist trap, 5th Avenue. It was hilarious, just the same chains and mass market crap repeating themselves ad nauseam.

My destination was yet another restaurant in a cave, la Cueva del Chango. It sounded super touristy and was right off the beach, so the reviews that claimed it’s a local affordable gem needed to be tested.

I was seated under a tent with a tantalising view of the jungle beyond. I’m pretty sure the cave wall behind me was not natural.

The very reasonably priced menu had many salsa options for their chilaquiles, and I chose xcatic chile with tomatillo, to which I added roasted habanero. I also ordered a passionfruit juice and an American coffee, which turned out to be just that, (excellent) drip coffee, and bottomless to boot! Anyone who knows me knows that chilaquiles + good bottomless coffee=favourite breakfast spot. I was a bit nervous when I saw that the chilaquiles come with chunk chicken rather than shredded — that usually means nasty dry chicken that tastes like leftovers, but these were juicy and seemed to have been freshly cooked.

The restaurant was very crowded, so I only got a small taste of the jungle behind the tent.

It was then time to head to the beach down this pretty road.

I seriously want someone to make something like this for my yard.

I got the details for how to rent these beach-front cottages!

The blue sky was a trap!

We were getting into the heat of midday, so I headed back towards the hotel, with the plan to come out again in the late afternoon to find a cold beer. I also had a casual plan to find a juice stand on the way back to the hotel as la Cueva del Chango didn’t have the green juice I’d been craving.

It started to rain a couple blocks from the hotel, just as I saw a sign pointing down the alley to a stand offering juices, breakfasts, and lunches!

I took refuge under an umbrella, that, thankfully was all the shelter I needed.

The green juice was exactly what I was expecting, bit sweeter than I make it, and bursting with orange flavour. So good! It was just about here that I started to ponder how Mérida is a desert of bad food in the ocean of deliciousness that are Campeche, Valladolid, Cancún, and the Mayan Riviera, something I’ll have to explore in a future post. But I’m not crazy that Mérida is not like the rest of Mexico in regard to having a street food culture and an abundance of things like fruit juice stands just where you need them.

A growling stomach had me venturing back out around 3:00 p.m.

I did a giant circle around Romeo’s and ended up at the dodgy shack catty-corner from it. I never did get the name. It’s not on Google, and the September 2024 Streetview photo is of an empty palapa!

They only had three beer options, with thankfully Modelo Negra being one of them. I was feeling snack-ish, pondered the quesadillas, and finally decided to ask for them with shrimp, even if shrimp quesadillas are generally not great out here compared to on the Pacific. At one point, I heard the abuelita cooking ordering the sous-chef to add rice and beans to my plate because I was “nearly a Mexican and would expect them”! So my snack ended up being a giant platter of the best quesadillas I’ve had since I last had some in Mazatlán. :O WHERE did she find such sweet shrimp?! I was just missing pico, but there were plenty of delicious salsas to dress them up. I didn’t care that I paid $350 (including a very generous tip) for these, they were worth it and tasted like Home.

I thought of going to Romeo’s for dinner, but I’d spotted Bangkok Thai Restaurant in my wanderings, so its call was irresistible. I ordered a limonada and a tofu pad thai (no egg). It was excellent, better than any you’d find in Mérida.

I haven’t had good mango sticky rice in Mérida — the coconut milk here is always sour, so restaurants must be sourcing their cans from the same supermarkets I was until I gave up and starting making my own from powder. So when I saw the dessert on the menu, I was confident I’d finally get a chance to see what the dessert is supposed to taste like. Slight hiccup, they didn’t have mango! But as a substitute, they offered lychee. I’m pretty sure I’ve never had lychee before, so I said that would do. YUM. I loved everything about this, from the texture of the rice to the nutty sesame seeds to the (almost too sweet) coconut sauce to the delicately flavoured lychee that were not slimy.

It was well past 9:00 when I rolled out of there, so I headed straight to bed as I didn’t want to head home too late the next day.

This lovely day in Playa del Carmen really makes me eager to return for a longer stretch next spring!

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Monday in Playa del Carmen was a lazy start. My friends K&T, whom I visited last summer in Ontario, were expecting me around 10:00am, but I was up around 8:00. Since I was doing a short stay, I hadn’t planned to make my own coffee, so finding some was the first task of the day.

As it turned out, Shalala Cafe, a few doors down from Romeo, had an excellent Americano. This coffee might look too milky for my taste, but it was so strong it was perfect!

I had a pleasant day catching up with my friends and enjoying the rooftop pool of their rental condo. They are not in the tourist part of Playa, so it was great to see a typical neighbourhood.

For dinner, K wanted to take us to Alux, an upscale restaurant IN A CAVE. He’d been there years prior and it had really made an impression.

The venue is absolutely breathtaking, and one of a kind, and an absolute must if visiting Playa del Carmen. But it’s not just a gimmick. The food was sensational!

I started off with the pineapple, passionfruit, shrimp, and hamachi aguachile. So fresh and bright.

Picking my main was a really tough decision, and I changed my mind several times.  I ended up going with the poblano risotto that had all of the ingredients in traditional rajas poblanas, including corn, and then adding Parmesan for richness, but topped with a sweet, charred, tender langoustine tail topped with chimichurri. This meal was an excellent idea of how even humble everyday ingredients can be elevated.

For dessert, I had the mint chip and passionfruit topped vegan brownie with coconut cream and almond crumble. The white layer was very strange with little flavour, but everything else on this dessert was incredible. The brownie was almost like fudge and the coconut cream felt as decadent as dairy whipped cream.

After dinner, we took a tour of the massive cave complex. It’s just grotto after grotto, offering intimate dining experiences.

This area was clearly a cenote once upon a time.

Altar to the alux, mischievous Mayan nature spirits akin to Leprechauns.

The menu at Alux should have something for anyone’s palate and is reasonably priced for the quality and experience. Just don’t take the offered ride at the exit and get your own taxi (or walk, as I did) — 200 pesos was highway robbery!

I left Chichén Itzá at about 1:30 Central time, with my ETA in Playa del Carmen being about 4:30 Eastern.

It was a very easy and quick drive on good roads. Since it was Sunday, there was no construction.

I’d done my research and knew that parking in Playa del Carmen is a nightmare. The closest parking to my accommodation was all valet, which wouldn’t work for me as I was not allowed an extra driver for my rental car, plus the car maneuvering to get as many in as possible would increase the risk of dings. I couldn’t find a better option on my own, so in a fit of desperation asked ChatGPT. By scraping the web and not caring about ad revenue, it found on a blog a mention of a self-park parkade a 10-minute walk from my hotel that seemed like a better option. With the name of the parkade, I was finally able to locate it on Google Maps and know from the reviews that it was still in operation. I’m not sharing it because I don’t want the word to get out. 😉

Navigating Playa del Carmen to get to said parkade was a nightmare of construction and one-ways. I had a vague idea of where I was going, but I needed help navigating, and Waze and Google Maps just made things worse, trying to one-up each other in finding the absolute most convoluted route just to make me “save” 30 seconds. It’s dangerous! If somebody is using a map app, they’re likely not somewhere that they’re familiar with. They don’t need to get 50 billion turns to maybe save a minute on the drive. They need to be directed to main avenues with minimal turns. I quickly turned them off and just used a static map to guide me, pulling over after few turns to make sure I was still on the correct route.

The parkade felt like an oasis, with plenty of space to maneuver and a convenient spot at the top of the first ramp. An attendant confirmed that I could park as long as I needed at a rate of only $200 per day or else I’d pay per hour if I was going in and out. I was happy to park until Wednesday morning, planning to walk and use cabs!

It was a pretty easy walk to my accommodation, tucked behind the Romeo restaurant. I’d been expecting a guest house, not to be led to a secret courtyard behind a business, with several independent suites off of it, like having your own mini apartment in the heart of Playa. Another booking.com GEM! The room had what I’d consider a full kitchen as there was a hot plate for cooking proper meals, tons of storage, and a clean bathroom. I’d definitely return here for a longer stay.

I’ve come to realise that I tend to eat locally for breakfast and often lunch as well, but then I prefer other cuisines for dinner unless I just want something snacky. This actually makes a ton of sense because the main Mexican meals of the day are breakfast and lunch. So staying in the heart of an Italian restaurant, a pizza craving after my long day made sense!

Romeo is one of the top-rated Italian restaurants in Playa and very busy, but I was quickly given a “reserved” table and told I would get 10% off my bill as a guest! I ordered a XX ambar and a Margherita pizza that was probably an 11 out of 10. So good!

I only had enough energy after for a quick walk around the block to a 7-Eleven to get some electrolytes and a chocolate bar, then I called it a night.

It took 8.5 years of living on the Yucatán peninsula to finally visit the UNESCO World Heritage site that is the Mayan pre-Hispanic city state of Chichén Itzá. It seemed to be the perfect time to do so, with my own transport, some familiarity with the context, and enough Spanish fluency to use a local guide to overcome some of the site’s flaws are reported to by friends and family who have gone there.

Driving a rental car I’d picked up the day before, I left Mérida early on a Sunday morning to beat the crowds and the heat, arriving to the entrance of the village of Pisté, gateway to Chichén Itzá, at about 9:30.

Cars were being stopped at the entrance. I cannot remember if it was police or regular folks with tourism badges, but they were directing anyone who was coming to Chichén Itzá, especially for the first time, to pull over and get instructions and directions, a free service. I did so and was promptly offered my own personal guide who would ride ahead of me on a moto, take me to parking, help me navigate the entrance, and then give me a personalised guided tour. This service was 900 pesos, in line with what I’d been told a private guide would cost. I was supposed to get free access to the site on a Sunday as a permanent resident, so my plan had been to see if that was the case, then get a private guide, and if not, I’d join a tour group at a lower cost. Since I liked the idea of being able to follow someone to the entrance, I decided to take a chance that my free entry as a PR would be honoured (many sites don’t follow this law) and accepted the guide, Pablo. As I was about to hand over money, I was asked if I’m a local, and, if so, to show proof so they could charge me only 700 pesos!

My instinct to accept the guide was spot on. Pisté was busy and the entrance road a bit chaotic. It was great to be able to focus on driving, not navigating. We went past several non-official parking lots, each one a bit more expensive than the last as we got closer to the entrance. At one marked 80 pesos, Pablo suggested I park instead of waiting in the queue to access the official lot at 120 pesos. I was a bit nervous about being boxed into a very rough-looking dirty and rock lot full of trees, but did like that I was being directed to park under shade. As it would turn out, these parking operators weren’t greedy and left plenty of space for folks to maneuver out safely.

There were several steps to entering. The first is where you get a ticket. I showed my residency card and was given a free ticket without any fuss. I then had a stop where the ticket was verified and my ID checked again. Then my ticket was torn and I was given access to the site, where this immediately greeted me:

They call it El castillo — the castle — not the pyramid.

Pablo ended up being the perfect guide for my visit.

I already knew a lot about the archeology of these sites, and I wanted more context, so Pablo did a tour that had actually very little to do with the buildings themselves and a lot more to do with the history of Yucatán and the Mayan civilisation.

I learned how the Maya weren’t really an organised group the way the Aztecs and the Inca were, and that they were a lot more peaceful and weren’t really about expanding their territories through war, but rather more in search of agricultural land. We also talked a lot about the mixing of cultures and migrations and evidence of all of this in carvings around the site.

We went over the caste war for ages, as that is really significant in the history of Yucatán. He gave me some really good resources to really put everything together for me as I have these little tiny unconnected bits of the local history.

We talked about how the meteorite that killed the dinosaurs is what caused the formation of the cenotes here in the peninsula!

I’d seen several of these ball courts before, and he explained how the players were able to get the balls in these exceptionally high hoops using just a hip thrust!

But we did also talk about the buildings and their construction. He demonstrated a couple of spots with acoustic tricks. Standing here, he could yell and you could hear the sound clear across the ball court. This is not an echo but waveguide acoustics, the same principle as a “whispering gallery.”

This area would have essentially been spectator stands.

There are no eagles in Yucatán, so this carving is evidence of migration and intermingling of cultures.

This is a bit gruesome!

This is a side of the pyramid, and I believe where Pablo demonstrated the quetzal chirp, where the sound of clapping your hands works with the shape of the stairs to make a sound just like that of the quetzal bird. I don’t know what awed me more, that the Maya could build this without modern technology or that it still works today!

Pablo had a book of photos with him as well as a tablet with all kinds of videos and images. That was really impressive. He was able to show me representations of how the site was found when it was being reclaimed by the jungle and also what it might’ve looked like when it was built. He told me about how his family has been on the site for generations. We even talked about our Eurocentric history education full of lies and whitewashing, with him assuring me that what he learned getting his own BA in history here in Mexico was probably not that different than what I learned in Canada, something that somehow made me feel a little better. We also talked about the sad irony that the Mayan civilisation collapsed because they destroyed the environment, and here we are hundreds of years later, and they’re doing the same thing all over again in Mérida. This was a very well-rounded, informational, emotional, and even philosophical tour, and I was so grateful I’d been paired with Pablo.

After viewing all four sides of the castle, he lead me towards the observatory.

I thought this branch was a snake!

These holes would have been full of honey bees.

I think I found the observatory even more impressive than the castle, just for the unique round structure not that dissimilar to modern observatories! This building is also called the caracol, snail, for its equally rare spiral staircase. Pablo played a video showing how the observatory would have been used to study the night sky, including the routes of the sun and Venus.

Pablo then left so I could keep wandering on my own.

By this point, it was coming up to midday, the sun was beating down, the crowds were growing, and the touts were no joke. Soon as I didn’t have a guide, it was like they had been unleashed. There were all set up along paths, so were impossible to avoid. The problem with these vendors is their wares are all mass market junk you can get anywhere. It’s so hard to find genuine handicrafts now. There was just one older gentleman at the end of the long line of vendors who caught my eye because he wasn’t being aggressive. I bought a small bowl from him.

Right at the exit, there is a restaurant. I’d done some research and knew that it was well rated and considered good value for the location. I was famished, but despite that, I knew that if I got back in the car, I’d just want to get on to my next stop. So I was smart and got a table!

I ordered poc chuc, and my meal was, indeed, good value for the location. Not much meat, but it was tender and well seasoned. The tomatoes and onions were fresh, the creamy habanero salsa perfectly seasoned, resulting in very tasty tacos, all washed down with a tad-too-sweet-but-so-refreshing limonada.

With one more major Yucatán destination off the list, I headed back to the car, carefully maneuvered my way through Pisté where there were religious processions in the street, and finally returned to the carretera to continue on my journey back to the Mayan Riviera to finally visit the tourist mecca of Playa del Carmen to meet up with some friends.