Viva Mexico 2

I woke up at my basic hotel with an urgent need to find a better place to stay and relax at the beach all day. It wasn't very hard to find a nice not too expensive place although I have to admit that Playa was really much more expensive than I had expected. No doubt thanks to the Gringos coming to visit here year round...

1. The beach at Playa del Carmen

I was still tired from the day before so I decided it was time for a lazy day on the beach, instead of stressing around taking photos. I hung out at Playa del Carmen, took a few pics, checked out the shopping and went to my favourite Mexican minimalist designer hotel Deseo that evening, for drinks at the rooftop lounge. As you can see from the pics they have huge pillows to lie on and they are great for kicking back with a drink, staring up into the starry night. The music is really good as well. I really liked Deseo and would love to go back there and stay for a night or two. (It was too expensive for my budget on this trip of course, but I'll go back one day.)

2. Swimming

Playa del Carmen is very touristy and not really authentic Mexican as far as I could tell. It's very developed and although it accommodates every need you have as a visitor, it leaves you feeling a bit like you could be wherever in the world where there's a great beach nearby. On the plus side, it seems that you don't have to venture too far from the main street in order to find the 'real deal'. Only a few streets from the beach, I saw loads of locals, small shops, cheap eateries and exciting photo ops which seemed more interesting than the tourist scene of the main street and the beach.

Since I was exhausted I didn't get to see much of Mexico given my limited time there, but I really liked what I saw and I want to go back and explore more soon...

3. Children playing

Oh by the way, 'my stomach of steel' proved to be as good as ever. No problems of any kind with the food. And this time I pushed it eating from street vendors, and buying dodgy looking stuff from vendors boarding the bus in Belize. (You don't have much choice when you spend hours on a bus and they are so efficiently connected you don't have time to eat in between.) I think I have reached yet another level with food and am very happy about that. I've never had problems eating food in any country, even when fellow travelers have become really sick after eating the same as I have. Pakistan and Egypt was very challenging for my fellow travelers, but I tried to be careful there of course. It seems that I can safely eat anything now. (Within limits of course...!)

4. The lounge at minimalist design hotel Deseo

5. Deseo

6. The pool @ Deseo

7. Rooftop lounge @ Deseo

8. Tequila!!

9. What would a trip to Mexico be w/out sombreros?