Jump to page: << 1 2 >>

The next day we were transferred from Cancún an hour south to Playa del Carmen on the Riviera Maya. Five minutes after I took the shot on the left the heavens opened up for the daily 30-minute thunderstorm and torrential downpour, during which we passed two separate car accidents. By the time we made it to our destination though it was all blue sky again. This was our next resort - Riu Palace Riviera Maya.

The Riu was much larger than the ME and had more of a Spanish motif, and randy paintings on the walls.				As with the last place, this too was all-inclusive and completely free for us, courtesy of my travel agent wife :)

Damn, life is tough huh!
		And there are the drunks, all congregated round the pool bar ;)

We've stayed in shitter places.

And the white-sand beach. The Riviera Maya in a nutshell ladies and gentlemen :)				In many hotel rooms you have a mini bar. In this one we had a mini liquor cabinet hahaha!

The weather forecast was looking dubious for the next couple days, so rather than head straight for the pool we headed into downtown Playa del Carmen, which Kristina assured me was a lot more worth it then downtown Cancún was.
And she was right.		The two amigos.
Tourist activity in Playa del Carmen centres on Fifth Avenue here, a pedestrian walkway located a couple blocks inland from the beach. Much like New York's Fifth Avenue, this one is lined with hundreds of shops, bars and restaurants.

It's also lined with plenty of drug stores, complete with "Estrogens", "Anabolics", and Viagra hehe. A lot of drugs which require a prescription in the US are sold over the counter here.		We stopped in here to rest the legs and have a drink on these swings surrounding the bar.		It was just one of many we passed along the way. This one seemed to be buried in its own miniature jungle.

Shopping aside, Fifth Avenue is also lined with many small boutique hotels. Kristina likes to check them out given it's her job to know about them, so we wandered on in, introduced ourselves as travel agents, and had a little tour.				So that's Fifth Avenue - bloody great spot! From here we walked back to the resort along the beach :)

The next day we headed out to the nearby Xplor Adventure Park for some adventure! This one involved a lot of water and so I had to leave the big guy at the resort and use my little waterproof point-and-shoot camera.		The park covers a huge area, both above and below ground, with several activities on offer. That dubious weather forecast was right and so it was a good day to swap the pools and beaches for this.

I wasn't aware of the level of water activities here in advance and I didn't have any appropriate footwear with me. Instead I had to buy these blue water shoes - very sexy.		First activity of the day: amphibious vehicles! These John Deere ATVs have their throttles limited but are still great fun to screw around one of two 4km (2.5-mile) tracks. We did three laps before the day was done, and the ATV we got for the first lap had some serious steering issues. The steering wheel had half a revolution of play in it before it actually did anything. With that being the case, if you turned too far in a given direction, it was quite an effort to correct yourself hehe. Videos here and here. While playing it up for the camera in the first video, I nearly took us off the road courtesy of the lack of steering hahaha!

The route took us over bumps and bridges, uphill, downhill, and through flooded caves.				Steering or no steering, I was having a blast!

Drifting round corners...		Screaming through rivers - damn it was fun!		Kristina took the reins for a lap too, and it was the slowest lap in history hahaha!

From there we hit the water. First up was zip lining in these hammocks. Video here.

Then we moved on to underground rafting through cenotes. Video here.

And finally some swimming along this underground river though this system of caverns formed over the course of millions of years, complete with stalactites overhead. Absolutely amazing!

After lunch we moved on to the zip lines! The park contains 14 lines traversing 3.8km (2.4 miles) above the jungle below. There's even a water slide thrown in for good measure hehe. Videos here, here, here, and here :) By the end of the day we were wet and exhausted, but it was totally worth it!

The weather for our final day was persistent showers, so we spent it wandering along the beach in between the downpours and relaxing in the resort spa's Jacuzzis.				And that was that for Playa del Carmen!

So believe it or not that was my first taste of all-inclusive resorts hehe. I could get used to them :) We are already planning some trips for later in the year around wherever Kristina has free nights available to her, likely to be somewhere in the Caribbean. As for this trip, it's all well and good to say I've been to Mexico but I'd hardly say I know the place. When Kristina and I were in the midst of our jaunt through Central America we talked about stopping in Mexico City en route back to the US, but in the end time didn't really allow for it. Those are the sort of spots we generally like to explore as well as anything else off the beaten track to really get a feel for a place. Staying in resorts doesn't give you that but of course that's not the point. They're there for R&R and letting your hair down, and while there are plenty of excursions available for those who want to venture out a bit, there are few things in this world I hate more than group tours!

Jump to page: << 1 2 >>

Page Comments