Day 26: Playa Akumal

January 29, 2018

I had another look at our accommodation on the outside and yup, it does look like a pile of rubble. But inside it's fine and we booked an extra night. While we could have found breakfast of sorts right here in our pueblo, I had spotted a restaurant advertising breakfast, with coffee!, down by the beach, so that is where we had to go.

Dodie unwisely put forward options like cycle here first or look at that first, but when breakfast with coffee is on the line there really is no question.

The restaurant was called La Buena Vida and was positioned directly on the beach. That is so much so on the beach that the tables are all on sand, under palapas. The surroundings are very lush looking and this seems a great place to relax. One part of the decor was these three, sitting on a bench. I would say they are customers who waited too long to be seated, but I know there is a more accurate explanation!

The breakfast prices at La Buena Vida were on the high side, though not outrageous. The environment was so nice that we thought about coming back for dinner. Looking at the dinner menu, we again noticed the approximately 50% price boost and I chipped in that I had not thought the quality was quite up to that level, based on breakfast.

Now I had ordered the "huevos americanos" - eggs any style, toast, potatoes, coffee, and had detected weaknesses in each of the components. Dodie said that was because I had ordered something the staff could not reasonably be expected to make perfectly. She of course ordered only Mexican stuff. I said that as a tourist I felt justified in my order. And she said I was less a tourist and more of an idiot. Yikes, I didn't know there was a rank lower than "tourist"!

I must say, though, that with those eggs, toast, coffee, etc., no matter how prepared, I felt great all morning!

La Buena Vida is located just beside "Del Sol Beachfront", which is the very colourful condo we had noticed yesterday. Just below is another view of part of it. You can walk from this in your bare feet along the beach to the restaurant. We picked up a pamphlet for it, and yes it claims to be "worlds away from the crowded all-inclusive resorts", and that it is "budget friendly". We checked, and a typical cost for one night is 140 US dollars. Some other places range from 240, to 800 (for all inclusive). So maybe 140 is cheap. On the other hand I just handed the man here two 20's for tonight, so it's all relative.

Back in the more central portion of the Akumal beach area, there are a few souvenir shops, in addition to some groceries and restaurants. We found one shop where the man made a good case for being a real Mayan, who had personally done the carvings and whose family did the textiles. We happily bought some stuff from him, though we are always conscious of limited space on the bikes, and later, on the plane.

This souvenir shop seemed very good. The owner lives near Chichen Itza and comes out for a week at a time to staff the shop. A different family member will then come to spell him off.

I liked this pattern but can not remember what type of article he had it on.

The grocery had an ATM, and it was time to rebuild our depleted stock of pesos. But on my (maximum for the machine) withdrawal of 3000 pesos, the service charge demanded as 116. That's almost 4%! I turned it down. Later, thinking we really did need at least some pesos, I tried 1000 pesos with the machine. I figured the predicted 40 peso charge would be easier to swallow. But no, it wanted 116. Now that's almost 12%. Eventually we found a different machine and took out 5000 pesos for 36 in service charge - that's .7% - now we're talking. It looks like buyer beware in the ATM world.

We don't really have a concept on tour of just sitting around. Our plan had been centred on going in to the lagoon. But when it sunk in that the cost would be about 40 US dollars to go in, and rent one snorkel and mask, we bailed. Instead we took off back south on 307 and dropped in on the little village of Chemuyil. It was nice, but just a normal village.

Another 10 km would have taken us down to the major resort of Xel-ha. That could have been amusing, but with a strong wind blowing out on the highway we did not really have the motivation for it.

So we ended with not too much to show for the day. We found a half decent breakfast - already an achievement , and we could soert of see how tourist could pass some pleasant time here. But we need more definite cycling goals. So now we will go back to Cozumel and see if we can complete the circumnavigation of the south end of that island. It's 60 km with no shade and no services. Hmm, maybe not. Of course, there is that good restaurant just by the ferry dock!

We continued to learn a bit about this region as the time came to go out and find some food this evening. The first news was about how fast streets can flood in the torrential rains that we learned about the other day. The answer is - really fast. It's something you may not think about so much - but streets here do not feature storm drains!

The street in front of our place this evening.

The second thing learned is about tacos. At home supermarkets sell "taco shells", which are brittle, baked U shaped tortillas. They always struck us as useless, because they crack and leak once bitten. But I went through the water and rain and got the tacos pictured below from a man cooking by the street. See - soft shells - much more bite-able. There is a US chain called Taco Bell - I wonder what style they do, we have never been in one.

p.s. These cost 12 pesos each and came with the two mystery sauces and lots of lime. The meat is pork.

Today's ride: 29 km (18 miles)
Total: 1,190 km (739 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	5
Comment on this entry	Comment	0