Day 4: Playa del Carmen - Day 2 - Grampies Yucatan De Nuevo, Winter 2023

December 16, 2023

Day 4: Playa del Carmen - Day 2

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Today was our day to check out the bikes and to pedal around Playa. We set off on one of the avenues leading to the Cozumel ferry terminal, in an area which is the de facto centre of town. At this point we were in the upscale touristy part of town, but it still has the charm that comes from the tropical foliage, and many locally owned small businesses. Just a short distance from here we would enter the even more charming larger area of the town, featuring even more and smaller businesses, pavement a little more broken, and ok! birds on the wires. But for now, it looks like this:

Tropical foliage and bikeway. Dodie forging ahead and NOT falling in any cracks.

Notice here the menorah (candelabra) in the distance. Playa has a permanent hassidic Jewish office, for some reason.

Down by the ferries is the famous "Portal Maya" statue. It was installed in 2012, the year of the change over in the Mayan calendar, and it is meant to usher in a new age, of some sort. The two main figures form an arch, which is the portal, and we also see the rings, which are the goals in the Mayan ball game. Ball courts with these rings can be seen at all the Mayan ruins.

The two figures are naked and borne aloft by swirling wind and wave. We assume they symbolize tourists on the beach. Around the base of the statue are images of what we take to be Spanish settlers, who are probably being credited with building Playa and its facilities. Fair enough. Only on one side is there an actual Mayan guy, blowing a ceremonial shell.

The main figures appear to be beach tourists.

Spanish settlers supporting the tourists.

All around the ferry area there are tour guides, and taxi drivers. Without exception they (all men) dress in immaculate white shirts, usually with insignias of their particular company or position. The taxis equally are all white. It's rather pleasant, and does make services easy to identify.

The beach area afforded some easy shooting of shore birds, such as this Laughing Gull:

There was also a chance to buy water shoes. We are still not sure we need them, so we were just looking. Notice how they have the price at 2 for 380 or 1 for 300. As if! If we were to buy one, we would surely offer no more than the 190 pesos , or less.

We headed north now, on 5th Avenue, which is a very long walking street. We pedalled, until the police threw us off. So we continued on 10th, which sort of has a bike lane.

Fifth Avenue - the sign is clear about no bikes.

I think in less developed countries individuals struggle to find a place and a living, somewhat above the level of the impoverished masses. When they do that, a uniform helps to establish their status. So here below we have a Coca Cola delivery team, in red.

As we proceeded just a little out of the tourist core, the streets became less glitzy, and obviously the drainage less efficient.

But again, here we began to see lots of birds. These were the more common ones, like mainly the Tropical Kingbird.

A Kingbird, with a good look at his wing feathers.

08 Strongly backlit, but we guess this is a Buff-bellied Hummingbird

There are a lot of frescoes on walls in northern Playa, many portraying important parts of local culture. We will try some closeups of good ones later.

Dodie's keen eye extends not only to birds, and so she also spotted a bakery (which here, is rarer than a fancy bird). A young man at one of the tables asked about our cycling, and we had fun describing something like our Cycleblaze profile. He himself was a Toronto mortgage broker, who comes here for four months yearly, still working from his laptop. He mentioned how a lot of people are hurting from the rising interest rates. He also agreed with us that prices here in Yucatan are significantly up, which the exchange rate has turned to our disadvantage. Like us, he still finds it worthwhile to come, but it is no longer a low cost destination.

We grabbed two nice looking but ultimately not French quality pastries and a large hunk of (again, not that great) cheesecake, for 89 pesos (about $CAN 7 - or 4.7 euros) and slunk off with them back to our air conditioned hotel for a break.

Looks OK but mmm, for quality this is not France!

After a quick nap, we set off on foot. On the bikes, we had cruised past a possibly interesting church, so our first thing was track it down again. It was the Parroquia de Nuestra Senora del Carmen. We found it, on 15th ave. It is not very stunning on the outside, and unfortunately it was not open. But we see from online that for instance it has a suitably overdressed virgin. Would have been nice to get inside:

On our way to the church, we passed by what actually is the main square of town. This had a large mural, depicting the early life of the village, including a god bringing light and prosperity.

As we continued, we noted some of the many other murals around town, like this one depicting a Mayan and a Spanish profile, and the abuela with the mushrooms and snail.

Other art forms - crafts and clothes were also all around, and I felt these were more developed, or at least prettier, than what we see in Europe.

Guatemalan ladies set blankets on the sidewalk and sell these colourful crafts. No telling where they are actually made, or by whom, of course.

While looking down, my favourite direction, I spotted this sort of striking bug. I thought at first it could be a spider, but no - six legs. It looks a little like like an assassin bug, but ...ideas?

Identified! By Bill Shaneyfelt: fibrenus gibbicollis. A common plant bug.

We stopped in again at the same restaurant as yesterday, and again were impressed by both the service and the quality of the food. Everything was so fresh and yummy. We noticed this time that the place was named the 100% Natural, or somesuch. Of course "natural" is an imprecise term, but my this was good. Just think of it - fresh guacamole, fresh squeezed orange juice, strawberry and ginger in sparkling water, stir fry broccoli, carrot, cabbage, green bean, chicken, onion on a bed of white and wild rice ... so good. None of the restaurants on 5th avenue are cheap, but we came out here at about $20 each, and felt it was worth it.

We continued our walk, and found that Christmas type mini markets had sprung up near and in the Square. One stand had some lurid pink cake that I was interested in, but not enough to stop. It could have been a good chaser for that organic (or whatever) broccoli and etc.?

In the main square, there were long rows of additional stalls. Most had crafts, but some had marquesitas, which are crepes with cheese and fruits. They touted Yucatan style ones, which are long rather than round, but unfortunately we did not research these any further (this time!).

One stall that did succeed in stopping us had an image that looked so much like France - that is croissants and tartelettes. Always the optimist, and despite knowing that France is no less than 8,000 km from here, I had us buy some.

Of course, neither of the items was remotely French, but guess what - both were excellent on their own terms. The "croissants" were filled with really a lot of Nutella, and were good, though of course no butter had been invested in their creation. And the tartelettes, I am still trying to get a grip on - sort of cheescake on top and jam below, with a very nice crust. We would call it all a success.

Also in the square was a playground, with a nice innovation - xylophone type instruments. Why not exercise kids' musical sense while also giving them something to climb on. The adults liked it as well!

Sitting in the square we looked across at one stand, pictured below. I realized that I had no idea what it was selling. Google Lens looked ver for us and we learned that there was ice (helado) that was either shaved (raspados) or crushed (machacados), but Google had no idea about "Chami-Gomas". The name of the operator? Jacinto and Kelly - any ideas?

Our final research bit was outside a nearby restaurant. There you could dine for 90 pesos - $7, vs, the $20 we had just paid. So what could you get?

OK, it's soup, stew (main course - plato fuerte), rice and beans, tortillas, water, and dessert. Could be good?

Tomorrow - Cozumal!

Today's ride: 18 km (11 miles)
Total: 18 km (11 miles)

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