I closed out 2025 very quietly, working steadily and indulging in some domesticity. I got a new couch, which got my girls’ immediate approval.
One noteworthy thing that happened in December is I got started on a medicolegal report editing course, to add a new line of business in 2026.
I think the most important thing that happened in December is what I didn’t do — set up new systems for the upcoming year. It took decades, but it finally felt like I had my life together and lasting routines.
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.