2023 MAY CARIBBEAN GETAWAY

 

2023 MAY CARIBBEAN GETAWAY:

Jane carefully arranged all of our bookings, Platinum Plus bus to Playa del Carmen- four hours, two nights in an eight star city center hotel. Then one month in a ground floor new condo complex near to our daughter Grisel.

Departing home with our bicycles fully loaded on a quiet Sunday morning there was no traffic, in thirty minutes we reached a lovely park where we had our breakfast that Jane had packed, a sustaining energy meal.

The sky darkened and the wind piped up as we took departure.

I shoved off, and just as I was about to put my foot on the pedal a forceful gust of wind sent me sprawling...Jane had to help me up .I walked with my bike two blocks to the bus.The only thing in need of repair on the bicycle was the shift cable. My battered and bruised leg muscles and tendons would need time to recover.

When we arrived at Playa del Carmen our luxury hotel where we had a reservation was boarded up.* The ADO bus station taxi drivers were helpful, kind, and accommodating when we explained our situation with the hotel. They found us a ground floor apartment where we could luxuriate in our hammocks and eat pizza with cold beer. The neighborhood abounded in great eateries.

We next moved to our AirBnB ground floor apartment in a gated condo complex. We had no air conditioning, just the natural briny breezes from the Caribbean Sea...it was lovely, and we were happy. A woman who sold fresh baked pizza was our neighbor. Bien cocido, dorado pero no quemado! We were frequent satisfied customers.

Moto-taxis frequented the new streets for pocket change taking us anywhere we wanted to go. Two new well-stocked convenience stores were less than two blocks away. Taxi service was also great to the city center and bus terminal. There was absolutely no reason for owning an automobile here.

The apartment had good internet and most importantly many places to hang hammocks. We used our commodious micro fiber hammocks and dampened micro fiber towels to keep cool, a trick we learned living in our ecological friendly home in Mérida to survive the 40ºC. Link to our Merida house.

Our daughter Grisel and her husband lived near by and were frequent visitors. We shared many feasts with them including pizza parties.

When we first visited Playa del Carmen 35 years ago it was almost total jungle and beach wilderness. Now the wilderness has been replaced by a concrete jungle of beachfront all-inclusive hotels, all night discos, and condos as far as the eye can see. It is too late to come and see it before it is gone.

* The hotel reservation: Jane did some investigating. A cartel had taken over the property where we had a reservation as well as two other hotels belonging to the same group. They were taking reservations and collecting the nonrefundable payments through online sites and delivering nothing. Crime and corruption is well ingrained here but governmental collusion that goes all the way to the top perpetuates it.

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