A Visit to Playa del Carmen

On Monday we decide to visit the tourist area of Playa del Carmen. This town has been growing by leaps and bounds and is only about 16 mi away by a nice four lane divided freeway.

We really lucked out on the transportation, we had intended to catch a collectivo which runs from Tulum to Playa. But when we started walking out our half mi long campground road and young couple stopped and offered us a ride to the exact place that the bus would let us off, a few blocks from 5th avenue. Fifth Avenue is the first N/S street that runs along the beach area. They made it into a pedestrian walkway. Of course there is a Senor Frog, Carlos & Charlie's and every kind of jewelry & t-shirt store you could ask for.

As we walked along someone stopped us and said I know you, we camped together at Xpu-Ha last year. When his wife Gerry stepped out of the store with their kids we recognized them, they are staying in a condo this year. They told us about a new campground that has just been completed near their condo. We will have to check it out.

The last time we were near the beach in Playa was only 11 years ago, but there was nothing here. We took the ferry from Cozumel with Chuck Singer when we were heading to Belize for our sea kayak trip. I remember a dirty little town with a few parking lots.

One bad thing is that most of the beach area is closed due to construction of a sewer line or beach restoration. There were huge pipes lined up all the way down the beach. So that places with beach access were overly crowded.

We had lunch at a recommended Mexican restaurant owned by some Russians, Los Amigos on 30th & 26th St. After lunch we decided to do some grocery shopping on 30th which has three super markets. The Wal-Mart is only about 4 blocks back to the collectivo  stop.
Our driver must have been in a hurry as he drove the 15 passenger van about 70 mi/hr all the way back to Xpu-Ha. Again we had good luck, another young couple offered us a ride down our half mi long campground road so that we didn’t have to haul the groceries very far.
I’ve not mentioned but I’ve been getting in about an hour of kayaking every other day to prepare to beat Chuck in the Vermilion River Race in late March. The weather has been very nice with highs about 80o and lows in high 60’s. We have not had to run our A/C at all since we have been at Xpu-Ha.