Day 31: Playa del Carmen

January 30, 2023

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Today's blog, as is often the case, starts with breakfast. This one was slightly more "bloggable" than others. Breakfast is included at this hotel, but it is offered at sort of a next door restaurant. The restaurant is connected to the hotel by two internal openings, but these are roped off. So one needs to go out in the street and re-enter by the restaurant front door, a few doors down. I already fell afoul of that last time, getting bawled out for jumping a plastic chain across the inside passage. But that was then. This time was about the included breakfast, which is described on three cards at the hotel front desk. The cards describe the three choices offered by the hotel, of the many on the restaurant's actual menu. Choice one is scrambled eggs, toast, juice, and coffee. Choice two provides for having two of several ingredients added to the eggs - like bacon, or spinach. And choice three is pancakes, juice, and coffee.

We showed up at the restaurant, gave our hotel room number, and told the lady that our choice was one option 2 and one option 3. In fast Spanish the lady gave us to understand that that would cost 100 pesos extra. We objected to the unadvertised surcharge, and Dodie flounced back three doors to the hotel desk to straighten it out. The lady took away our empty coffee cups and such, and flounced back to her station.

Dodie was gone about 20 minutes, maybe more. She returned to announce that the hotel desk had agreed that this 100 peso scam was wrong, but that nothing could be done until the hotel manager arrived in the afternoon. So, we coughed up the 100 pesos. One crazy thing is that on the restaurant menu, the pancakes are 70 pesos and the scrambled egg basic thing is 120. So I could have actually done my stunt of ordering both pancakes and eggs as well. The eggs thing was included in the hotel rate for sure, and the pancakes, for which I was asked to pay 50 pesos are normally 70 pesos. So for just 20 pesos more I could have had two breakfasts.

During the deliberations, a nice man from the next table stepped up, and translated to the waitress what we wanted and what our issue was. When she had gone off to (by the way) slow walk our order, the man expressed the opinion that local business was trying to scrape every peso, to make up for the previous Covid losses. This prompted Dodie to launch into a description of how Covid had gone for us, tying the man to stand beside our table. But he was not put out by this, launching his own description of (some darn thing). When finally we suggested that both his (standard) scrambled eggs, and wife, we waiting and cooling at the next table, he shrugged this off, pointing out that the wife, anyway, could wait because he was the one with the money.

The man and Dodie talk about ... something.

Anyway, we asked for "la cuenta", the bill, in writing, which itself created a flurry and delay. The hotel manager will get this bill, should she ever show up. Meanwhile, the hotel desk has removed the cards describing options 2 and 3. As long as they stay removed, customers will at least not be mislead. But if they want spinach in their eggs, they are on their own.

We will have to come back next year to see if the scam options are really dead. Breakfast this way took 1 1/2 hours. Tomorrow we will be out of here at 5 a.m., long before we could claim our second day's paid for breakfast. We will be hungry, but at least we will be on the move, and not aggravated!

(Update: the hotel handed the scammed 100 pesos back, and apologized).

Now was our time to head off and, oh no, look for the post office. Google Maps had an idea, some many blocks away, but Osmand put up a competing and somewhat closer idea. We headed for that one. When we got to where Osmand said, we had to ask around. But eventually a man opened a door, and he was wearing a Correos de Mexico tee shirt! He looked at our letters, which had been sort of stamped in Valladolid, and accepted them!

The unmarked door that Osmand knew about.

We were now in good position to walk to the beach, which is easily accessible from anywhere in the town. Of course we began by spotting a bird, which we are confidently calling a Eurasian Collared Dove.

The Playa main beach, near the ferries to Cozumel, has a sculpture called the Portal Maya. "This elegant bronze sculpture of a man and woman clasping hands as their bodies form a 52.5 foot high arch is named Portal Maya. The public artwork by Arturo Taravez is located at Parque Los Fundadores (Founding Fathers Park) facing the sea. It is a tribute to the Mayan communities that dotted the Yucatán Peninsula before the Spaniards arrived in the 16th century. The rings represent traditional ones found on ballcourts at Mayan archeological sites. Etched on the statue is the date December 21st, 2012. This marked the end of the 5,126 year Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar developed by the Mayans."

The partially clad figures on the sculpture are wearing a lot more than many of the people on the beach!

Also on the beach were birds like this, which I belittled as "just a seagull", but Dodie bets it is something different from the gulls back home.

It is possible tp walk for a very long distance along the beach, and at almost any point turn up a side street and regain 5th Avenue.

Sargasso seaweed is evidently a perennial problem. The hotels rake it up.

The sargasso can add up to quite a pile.

These guys are taking a active approach to being here.

We did take a side street back to the main drag, and had a good time looking for gifts in the many shops. They have mostly all the same stuff, but there is enough variation that it is not boring to stop in to quite a few.

Yesterday I mentioned being able to get a sack of steroids. But look, these guys have too much muscle weight to carry around on a touring bike!

You ca walk through this literally for miles.

The stores are filled with trinkets. This is one of dozens of shots I could have taken in the one shop. Note the themes of skulls and Frida Kahlo.

I took this because there was something in the souvenir shop that we thought we might comeback for. Note also the Aldo's gelato shop. They wat 95 pesos per scoop. But, the Italian restaurant near our hotel is at only 50 pesos. Standard price in a town square park is 20 or 30 pesos.

We did a turn in the small but quite deep pool that is in the hotel's central courtyard, and headed out for another turn in downtown Playa. Not only did we not yet have enough trinkets, but we wanted to look at the Frida Kahlo museum.

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Frida Kahlo was a Mexican artist who died in 1954. But as often happens, in death her legend has grown. You can see her on the 500 peso note, together with her on again off again husband the also artist Diego Rivera.

The museum traces Frida's tragic life, from her birth to a German father and Mexican mother in 1907 to her death at the early age of 47, in 1954. Frida contracted polio early,d walked with a limp. But the real blow was a streetcar accident in 1925, where she sustained multiple vary serious injuries. The museum shows how the physical infirmities affected her world view, got her started with art, and affected the unique life style and style of dress that she developed. She used these style elements to disguise her infirmity.

Today those style elements are literally a cult, together with her strange joined eyebrows. Here image, usually with flowers in the hair and very joined eyebrows is found on all manner of tourist stuff here, painted on walls, and incorporated into art works. We could see that the prevalence of her image also comes from her own persistent creation of self portraits. Aside from some interesting surrealistic stuff, the main output of Frida Kahlo seems to be images of Frida Kahlo. Now we can better understand that, because her life difficulties had her always probing the question of who she really was, and those portraits show what answers she came up with.

One painting that stood out at the museum showed Frida with a child like Diego in arms, and all embraced by Mexico and the earth itself. We bet this is her most famous thing, because you can also see it on the 500 peso note.

Frida and Diego, when they were married.

Part of the display, showing Frida's history.

The love embrace of the universe. It's in an art collection in Mexico City today.

The Kahlo identity has to do with flowered dresses, flowers in the hair, and those eyebrows,

At the end of the museum is this very Mexican death shrine.

Frida's final painting, with her bold statement - Viva la Vida

You can see Frida style on these bags of coffee.

Down to the beach, where the army also was enjoying the coloured waters. Dodie chatted up one, while I interrogated the other: "What does Ejecito mean?" "Oh, "Army", I have also seen Marines on the strip here. I guess they are part of the Armada" and "Is that an official camouflage army issue cell phone?" and suchlike blither.

Here are the amazing waters, without the Army.

A look down the beach, probably courtesy of having missed framing a flying bird.

In places the beach is being eroded, and sandbags are losing the battle.

Not sure what they will do with the nets

Are these the same as the bird on the post?

We went back to the Italian restaurant and got another wood fired pizza - Prosciutto and Funghi this time. And then the Gelato - Maricuya (Passion Fruit), and Tiramisu. These guys really knew what they were doing!

We tried to absorb as much tropical sand, water, warmth, and salt air as we could today. It made me think a bit of one of our favourite songs, by Bruce Cockburn

With the lyrics:

All the diamonds in this worldthat mean anything to meare conjured up by wind and sunlightsparkling on the sea

I ran aground in a harbour townlost the taste for being freethank God He sent some gull-chased shipto carry me to sea

We won't need that ship, because we will slip away from here tomorrow morning in the dark.

Today's ride: 10 km (6 miles)
Total: 1,419 km (881 miles)

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