Day 33: Playa del Carmen and around

January 14, 2024

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Last night we had ventured out into the wild scene on Fifth Avenue, to make our way to the natural food restaurant. It's quite a switch for us solitary cyclists/ isolated farmers, but in doses of no more than a couple of days, can be quite fun.

Here were some dancers in a Mexican style, not Mayan.

In the morning, the idea that our time in the sun might be drawing to a close was starting to sink in. But rather than disassemble the bikes and eagerly get ready to go, we jumped on the bikes and rather desperately looked for somewhere to cycle to.

We began by passing through the town, seeing some nice buildings, and also some mini ad hoc markets, featuring the kind of fruit displays we know we can not find at home.

Really nice palm type tree and yellow house.

We are still looking for a "Mourning Dove", but this is probably just a Eurasian Collared Dove - so common, and invasive here.

Oh, the mango, watermelon, and grapefruit!

We bought mango and watermelon from this lovely lady. Only thing, she was running a trick that we have fallen for once before - sticking the mango pit in the middle of the container, effectively selling us her garbage.

At one stop we spotted some Yucatan Jays. These birds are among our favourites, always seeming to strike goofy poses.

We ran ourselves out into an area that had a new hospital, and also one, and then another giant Chedraui supermarket, not to mention a technical university. Like other towns (any town) there are different neighbourhoods in Playa. There is this university section, the tourist hotspots, and the normal parts of town, where normal people live.

Not matter which part of town, there are always the annoying speed bumps. Karen Poret identified the yellow bumps as the Bott's dot, named for the guy that originated the idea. In the US, these are used to create effective lane separators, but here they are used to create a menace (to us). The States, we read, are giving up on and removing these, but here, they love them!

Here are some of the dots being used more as intended, In the photo, we also see the yellow bike lane dividers, which we saw missing in Tulum, their hold down spikes hammered sort of flat.

We passed one unique looking church (in fact churches are very rare in Playa). This one was popular, with overflow seating outside.

It was the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which we have also seen in France.

Because the coast highway, 307, is so busy, we are always looking for a way to not be on it, before striking out west. One possibility is the road out of here that eventually joins the 180. We are unsure about it, because it could be a high speed toll road. We set off along it for a bit, and though we were not thrown off, we did not find it much more fun than 307.

Back in town, we stopped in a bakery we knew about, ostensibly to pick up a "baguette" we could use to make a tuna sandwich. But I know this bakery - it has a refrigerated case, the signal in Yucatan for more yummy pastries than the usual run of dry bready stuff. In the case I spotted what looked like a wedge of cheesecake. The first questioning of this came from myself, as I doubted that first of all it would contain cheese, and secondly that it would be sweet enough. Even so I decided to give it a try, 55 pesos. But pushback came from some other directions. Dodie, first off, seemed fixated on her darn "baguette", in her mind the only reason we were in here (so foolish!). But then there was the sales lady. I repeatedly led her near the cheesecake and asked for it. But there seemed to be an invisible barrier she would not cross, and she pulled up short each time from actually fetching the thing from the case. I think the case may actually have been run by a second lady, who eventually fetched the piece. Still, we paid for the whole order all together.

The refrigerated case, on the left. All salesladies currently hiding.

When we got home, the cake turned out to be not cheesecake at all. But, it was ok, though Dodie found it too sweet.

I also got this backup piece, that I have high hopes for,

From the bakery, we passed this mid road set of statues, covering some Mayan theme. Very dramatic.

As we were stopped for the statue photo, a tour guide, as they always do, called out to us. For some reason Dodie gave him the time of day, and he pointed out that there we nice beaches just to the northeast of where we were. He said that development had been attempted on these beaches, but that the Mayans had shut it down. Unfortunately we have not enough time now to go and check it out.

The beginning of the beaches the man was talking about.

We made it back to our room, and after reluctantly verifying that our flight was still flying (on Tuesday), we set off to look for a few gifts, and also some of the cheap drugs on offer at pharmacies on every block.

I like this poster and have photo'd it before. But I think these guys are too heavy and muscular to emulate as cyclists!

We dropped down to the beach to check for birds, but mainly found people.

There is a chain of chocolate drinks shops in town called Ah Cacao. I did not think about it one way or the other, until we stopped in and ordered some "frappes", with Dodie's being the "Mayan" variety with chile. It did not take long to realize that these were some sort of top quality product, and we only opened our eyes as we left the store, to see that that they made and carried all sorts of quality chocolate products.

That "chocolatin" is awfully close to French quality!

Only some of the many quality chocolate products.

We continued to pick up some small gifts. In one case I really did not feel like getting ripped off, but found I was negotiating against not only the salesman but also Dodie, whose heart must have gotten set on the thing. On the other hand, with the lady below, and her super cute little kid, we paid exactly what she asked.

I am off now to disassemble the bikes. But stay tuned. I still have to negotiate with a taxi tomorrow to go and retrieve our bike cases from the storage outside of town, and then to have one more part fun day before flying to the frozen north.

Today's ride: 30 km (19 miles)
Total: 1,477 km (917 miles)

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Bill ShaneyfeltYup frozen!

Here in Dayton, Ohio it is currently 5F and not looking good for another 2 weeks before a tiny thaw... maybe... I say maybe because every time I check the forecast it seems worse!

Enjoy your last nice warm day!
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4 months ago

Mark BinghamWe're at -17F/-38C , with a wind chill factor of -37F/-38C. Enjoy it while you can. I've been jealous of your travels, and am now intrigued about the Yucatan. Perhaps I'll take a trip there myself!
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4 months ago

Kathleen ClassenDefinitely frozen. We had the coldest day in 50 years on Friday. It is improving now, but still isn’t warm. Then it is going to start raining. We need the rain though, so that isn’t a bad thing. We were so spoiled by the unseasonably warm weather we had.
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4 months ago

Sue PriceThere's still time to change your flight to go somewhere warm!!!! If you are really determined to come home, though, we will be waiting! Happy travels!
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4 months ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Sue PriceDodie has already scoped out Air Canada Cancun to San Jose Costa Rica. It's only a 2 1/2 hour flight!
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4 months ago