Playa Del Carmen
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2007
1
60
220
Trip End
Jun 17, 2009
Cancun, Mexico,
Mexico
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
We´ll try and get more up to date before the New Year - if I can drag Norah out of the sea.
CANCUN
This time an early start and off to the airport at 0830 to be in plenty of time for a 1200 flight. Through check-in and a very disinterested clerk, left our bags with security screening - 'Happy' now travels with us as hand luggage, through security screening, where we were given the full treatment again - shoes, pockets, bags unpacked and wiped with pads that were then screened, body scanner. It's sometimes a pain but we are more than happy with this as it's for our own benefit. We manage to find a seat in the waiting lounge and again, 'Happy' will not talk to anyone. Is he sulking because he's leaving home and going out into the big wide world?
Eventually flight time and a full plane, mostly Christmas tourists, (so we were lucky to get 'rebooked'). I look at the baggage handlers and wonder if you need special training to inflict that kind of abuse on people's personal belongings. It's nice to think that there is still some job satisfaction in the world! Do they have psychometric profiling in the aircraft baggage handling departments? They are 'loading' luggage all up to and past the departure time and I figure that this is caused by all the connecting American flights
Descending into Cancun
. At last someone closes the baggage hold and we taxi out. The Captain does a 'roller', in which he opens up the throttles as we come round the last bend onto the runway. So he was fed up with waiting as well! Bye, Bye Miami - and Bye, Bye America!Reflections - I was wary of travelling to America, as although they have some fabulous sights and scenery, I have 'met' Americans in previous travels and found them loud, pushy, self important (I thought that was supposed to be us?) and inconsiderate - that should do wonders for any future visa application!! After spending some three months, in several parts of the USA, I feel that most of the above still applies. I have been aggressively denounced as 'white trash' by someone who took serious offence at a general conversation I was having with another American on a train. He did come back sometime later and mumble an apology. I have been harangued by a grandmother in a café queue because, although she was behind me, she was upset by my being served an order before her. What I have now realized is that you don't get to be one of the greatest nations on earth by pussyfooting around and accepting second best and they do everything, rightly or wrongly with commitment. I have been impressed by the constant sense of identity and patriotism of the USA and it makes me wonder what happened to ours and what we are now proud of. They are pushy and loud because they have a desire to achieve things and get somewhere and this was perhaps the greatest attack on my gentile English upbringing! An American will bump into you in the street, because he's focused on getting somewhere but then is immediately apologetic to think that he's caused any offence
Chichen Itza
. We used to be told as kids in the UK "If you don't ask, you don't get". Maybe in this fast paced, competitive modern world this has developed into "If you don't push, you don't get" and this is the American ethos. I like the American programme 'The Apprentice', with Donald Trump and the word is "It's not personal, it's just business". Maybe this is what I need to update myself to.
I have found the majority of Americans to be polite and friendly. This is a country of so many contrasts - in its scenery, its people, its culture, that I have found it a very personal 'expanding' experience and I am hoping they don't revoke my visa after the above remarks!
A 2 hour and a bit of a bumpy flight over the Gulf of Mexico and we descend to Cancun. There was an overall constant cover of trees, which was all browned over in large areas. We found out later that this was caused by the hurricane that hit them in July (?), as the storm whips up and carries salt water, which is then dumped on and burns the vegetation inland. We went through a thorough immigration control and then on to the baggage hall to collect our three cases. One - ok, Two - ok and we waited and waited.......stop me if you've heard this one before. The carousel stops, the baggage gate closes and 'Nada Mas' - 'Nothing more!!!!' NOOOOOO - Not again !!!!!!! Perhaps it's the Miami baggage handler's revenge for me thinking bad thoughts about them. We go to the baggage office and fill in forms, etc
Temple of Kukulcan
. They don't seem to be overly bothered as they tell us that there are two more flights from Miami today and the missing case could be on one of those. It's fully labelled so we'll see. In this great travelling game the latest (!!!) score is now: Amtrak 2 American Airlines 1We had chosen to stay in Playa Del Carmen, a smaller, town based tourist area than the sprawling, high rise of Cancun. A three quarters of an hour taxi ride and the small hotel is off the main pedestrian street just 200 yards from the beach. We climb two flights of narrow, stone steps to a modern, comfortable room overlooking the hotel inner courtyard pool that is fed from a cascade that runs down a tiled wall from the roof level - different. We explore the main street, which is filled with bars, restaurants and tourist shops and finish down at the ferry jetty to the island of Cozumel, a half hour away. We are forced to console ourselves at the case issue, by sitting on the sandy beach, looking at the turquoise sea and drinking Margaritas. A 'magnificent' Frigate bird and a Pelican are giving a sunset air show by wheeling and swooping over the beach. God this travel lark is hard going sometimes!! We go out for an evening meal and sample our first (proper) Mexican food. It is varied, well presented and delicious. We saunter back amongst the evening throng and when we reach the hotel - Lo, the Prodigal has returned to us. I consider this an early Christmas miracle and we retire contented.
Thursday 20th
An easy day doing internet catch-up, at an internet café as 'Happy' is still not playing, planning our stay and then booking tours and diving
Kukulcan steps
. We have a skeleton plan that many of you have seen but we fill in the details as we travel, there was just too much to itemise in detail before we left.Friday 21st
One of the main things that I wanted to see here was the Mayan 'Temple of Kukulcan' and the area at 'Chichen Itza'. An 0730 pick-up, (aw come on, I'm on holiday!!), followed by a 3 hour coach ride - most of it on a straight road with the tall forest on each side. This was only broken by passing through an army check point, complete with a machine gun mounted hummer, on the main road.
The temple is a fantastic construction, full of Mayan symbolism and they had built into the stonework a means of date keeping. Intriguing. The temple was closed to visitors 3 years ago but before that you could climb up the steps to the priest's level on top. We heard the tales of human sacrifices to appease the Mayan gods, saw the ball game court (where the captain of the winning team was sacrificed - maybe the England football team coach should try a derivative of that!!), saw the Cenote where the maidens were sacrificed and the whole splendid temple area. Even though a lot is in ruins, it is still an impressive site. Everywhere there were stalls selling tourist souvenirs and you were constantly asked to buy, which did become tiresome but the people have to make the most of their tourist opportunity.
Cenote - there are practically no rivers in Mexico, as the whole land is (on) limestone rock that is permeable to water
Virgin Cenote
. It drains through and runs underground, eroding channels and caves. Occasionally the roof of a cave falls in and the hole fills with flowing, fresh water. This is a basic Cenote and was what gave the Mayans water. The passages of fresh water can run for hundreds of miles underground and eventually flows towards the sea, where the seawater mixes with it, sometimes some distance from the sea as it is at, or below, sea level.We enjoyed a 'tourist' lunch with Mexican folk dancing, which was interesting and on the return trip we stopped at a Cenote for a swim. We changed, walked part way through a small village, down some tricky stone steps and into a great bell shaped cavern, some 70 metres in diameter and 40 metres high. In the centre a tree had sent down roots from the surface to tap into the water and had created a small, central 'island'. The water was surprisingly pleasant after the first 'oooh' and there were 20cm fish swimming in the fresh water. An amazing experience! After changing, I bought a fresh coconut from a guy who just lopped off the top and bottom of the thick, yellow, outer pulpy skin and stuck a straw in it. That's as fresh as coconut milk as I've ever tasted and it was good. The village children were round, badgering us to buy photos of 'their' cenote.
We stopped for a quick break at the town of 'Valladolid' and were again accosted by sellers of all sorts of items. A long but enjoyable, interesting day.
Saturday 22nd
We had asked for tickets to go to 'Xcaret' but these had not appeared, so we enjoyed an easy morning looking round the shops and in the afternoon I went out, on the spur of the moment, with a nearby dive centre to part of a local reef
Ball Game stadium
. As it was afternoon they did not go far on their boat and although the dive was interesting, there were not as many fish as I had encountered at Key Largo. Maybe there I was on a good part of the 4th largest reef in the world and here on not so good a part of the 2nd largest? Anyway It was still a good dive and I enjoyed it the more as Norah came out on the boat with us. After the dive, well, we went for a swim on our beach before sampling the Mexican food (again) in the evening. Here we were 'Mariachi'd' by a local group of splendidly dressed musicians.Sunday 23rd
And Now For Something Completely Different!!
I had been recommended by the dive leader in the Keys, to go on a cenote dive here in Mexico. This involves diving through the interlinked, submerged caverns. After a drive south and then a bumpy 2 mile track, we arrived at a small grove. The cenote was named 'Taj Maha' (I think it means 'Mayan Water') but someone had renamed it 'Taj Mahal', because they thought it sounded more exotic to visiting divers. Hang on - isn't Taj Mahal a tomb?? The dive leader led us down several steep, stone steps and into a small cave, where he explained the entry, the dive profile, signals, safety, etc. Then all back to the truck, changed and kitted up. In the hot sun and a wetsuit, I was glad to get into the cave and then the cool water. There were tiny fish at the surface and two 10cm catfish on the 2 metres deep rock bottom. Torches on, final check and down into the darkness
Stadium stonework
. We were a group of 4 and I was sweeper up, as we followed the lined route into the first cave. There was no squeezing through at any stage and the torches in front of me helped light the way in the incredibly clear, fresh water. We were up and down over huge fallen rocks, with big chunks of broken stalactites in some places and over gullies and small canyons in others. The limestone was incredibly shaped into ledges, slabs, holes and overhangs, all of which had been sculptured by the water flow over thousands of years. We would enter into a cavern, some of which had a small hole in the ceiling, letting an illuminating ray of light in. We surfaced in one of these and I could pick out bats, circling in my torch beam, as they had been disturbed by the troglodyte invaders. We passed through a large cenote without surfacing and I could see the shadow of palm trees waving on the surface. At one point we went deeper and hit a mixing of freshwater and seawater, which because of the different densities of the waters, creates an imbalance, like when you pour gin into tonic water. This imbalance continued for over 50 metres and made it impossible to focus properly. All you could see to follow were the blurred lights and shapes of the divers in front of you. A very weird and at first, unnerving experience. This mixing imbalance level is called a halocline - as Michael Caine would say "not a lot of people know that"! Most of the ceilings were covered in hundreds of small stalactites and the divers bubbles reached it creating the effect of a huge, spiky mirrored ceiling - a very strange sight! After 42 minutes we were back at the start cave, enthralled and exhilarated by this unworldly experience.A quick lunch and then another bumpy ride to another cenote, 'Choc Mool' - named after the Mayan god of Clouds (which gives the rain)
Temple of Warriors
. An even trickier entrance down rough rock steps into the water. Soon we reached a great cavern, which our torch beams could hardly touch the sides of. We moved towards one end and then returned along another line. Most of the time the visibility was good enough to just follow the line, without having to hold on to it (unlike the caves in the UK)! As we turned I could just see an enormous wall and a sign, that we were told later, warned divers not to enter the smaller passageways that led from here in different directions. Through more cenotes and then we surfaced inside a cave that had tree roots growing through the limestone roof, which was a metre above the water level. We could talk easily and the dive leader told us that the ground level here was only 2 metres above us at this point. He showed us some 5 cm long silky threads that were spiders webs (here!, underwater!), hanging from the ceiling, which was covered in hundreds of small stalactites and in a bare area there were shells and mollusc fossils in the ceiling rock, from thousands of years ago when all the land was underwater. What an incredible sight. Down again and through another flooded cenote where as I looked up at the surface, I could see waving palm trees against the deep blue sky. We hit haloclines a couple of times again and surfaced, buzzing from what we had seen. This was for me, a brilliantly memorable two dives and I shall never forget them.We got back to the dive centre in town, just as Norah was returning from her quiet day, exploring the town and shops
Playa town centre Christmas tree
. I was still buzzing during my recounting at another Mexican supper.Monday 24th
We had been strongly encouraged by John and Dot to visit 'Xcaret' and indeed received a lot of helpful advice from them in planning this section. Xcaret is a theme park and I must admit to being somewhat sceptical on the idea of a tourist contrived park but we were happy to follow their guidance.
The pick-up point at 0830 was at a nearby hotel and at 9am the rep came and apologised for the delay, as our coach had crashed on the highway. Good start! We went by taxi and after an introduction to the park, we entered and saw a colourfull display of perched parrots and macaws. The park is strongly eco friendly, requesting visitors to leave their own suntan lotions at the entrance and use eco friendly versions.
One of the highlights of the park is an 'underground cavern swim' and we decided to do this first. Going to change we found that 'someone' had forgotten to pick up my swimming trunks and after a brief logistic 'discussion' on this mishap, I purchased a new pair from the well stocked shop. At least I can split pack them and always have a pair of trunks to wear if we travel with a company that begins with 'A' again! Changed, we picked up a very effective buoyancy aid, mask, fins and snorkel and joined the throng heading towards the cave entrance. Most of the tunnels were man-made but what did surprise me was that they did link real small cenote caves. We moved slowly and used our snorkels to see as much underwater as we could
Cenote dive 1
. We were rewarded with a few fish all along the way and the sight of small limestone formations falling away into deeper caves and crevices under the water level. 99% of our fellow swimmers just splashed and drifted along the route, with sadly no idea as to the spectacle they were missing underneath. We saw increasingly more fish and even a halocline! We were told the tunnel took 30 minutes with fins or 45 minutes just swimming. Over 2 hours later we reached the end, into the daylight and watched dozens of colourfull fish in the sunlit waters. The finishing run was between stone walls, which were the home to many fish and we even saw a small, yellow moray eel hiding in a crack! I entered this run with a somewhat 'macho' attitude and emerged having thoroughly enjoyed this different chance to be in the water and especially to share it with Norah.We changed and went to look at the tapir (and baby), the deerpen, the monkey island, the aquarium (which did a good job of explaining the sea and its inhabitants to the visitors) and the turtle tanks. Here they are hatching endangered turtles from eggs, rearing them for 3 years and releasing them back into the sea. They have even kept adult turtles as breeding stock to aid this recovery. We were unsure about the big cat pens, where a puma, jaguar and panther were located and also about the manatee pound, even though the manatees seemed happy in their area. We did not go to the dolphin pen and looked at the very well laid out and equipped beach area with watersports and tours
Cenote dive 2
. We just managed to have a meal overlooking the beach before going to the 'Evening Spectacular'. This was in a large stadium and charted the history and development of Mexico from the Mayans to the present day and was excellently done, a really good show.Tuesday 25th
A slow and easy last day. We phoned to confirm our next flight and were told (again) that there was no allocation for us. Here we go again! We were given another number to phone - which did not exist and then found an alternative number with an associated company, which at first confirmed our next but one flight and then after some discussion, tomorrow's flight. Oh well, stops you from being complacent doesn't it!
A quick (last) internet session and then a swim off the beach, followed by margaritas. We found another new restaurant for an excellent evening meal (Mexican - what else?), followed by Kahlua crepes, flambeed at the table and then 'Mayan Coffee'. It was explained that this was coffee, a honey/anise liquer, brandy, coffee and ice cream. I knew the Mayans were smart but come on guys - I don't buy the ice cream!! This was again flamed at the table and was delicious. Donald - we've just blown your weight loss theory out of the window!! A pleasant stroll (roll) back to the hotel and a really good night's sleep.
Reflection - Playa Del Mar was planned as a Christmas chill out and was very enjoyable, even if we did not relax as much as we had intended. This tourist area was a good balance of sights, facilities, restaurants and not quite too much tourism. Thanks John and Dot - the best was the Mexican food !! (oh and definitely the Xcaret swim).
My thanks to diving buddies, Franco and Gabriela from Buenos Aires, for the excellent cenote photos.
