A Fun Day Around Town

April 28th, our last full day in Mexico. The previous day we were thinking about what to do: drive to some other Mayan ruins, visit a different beach, or see what Sergio is up to... Overall we decided that we hadn't spent enough time in Playa del Carmen and decided to have a fun day in town.

Morning was a bit hectic. With Beth's conference canceled, she needed to cancel her hotel in Cancun and book a flight back home. A number of phone calls, phone cards, and headaches later we got her on a flight out for the following day. Save one lucky girl from the perils of swine flu (not!).

We hit town and for some reason our first stop wasn't coffee. We hit up Karma Bagels for a little snack and beverage while we better worked out the day's activities.

Now amped and ready for the day, we did a little shopping in the tourist area. Haggled a bit on some cowboy style hats, which we ended up getting at a good price. The vendor wanted to trade me for my Garage Racing baseball hat which I just couldn't give up. The majority of our shopping pesos were spent at one of the tequila stores on super smooth El Conquistador tequila, mezcal, and gift bottles for people back home, and basically more tequila than US Customs probably allows.

For the first time in our stay we actually visited the beach at Playa del Carmen. It's a really nice beach that runs a long way (for those "enjoy nice walks on the beach" moments). The beach restaurants serve an arm and a leg for a beer though, so was our experience at least at the Blue Parrot. 'nuff of that joint, we journeyed off the beach to Bar Ranito for better drinks, better atmosphere, and better prices.

Did a bit more exploring around town where I tried some pickup lines on a local outside a clothing shop. Apparently my espanol is weak, she didn't even respond. At least I didn't get slapped.

Had a good dinner at the La Cueva del Chango, or "cave of the monkey". This was probably the best dinner we'd had, really good food. Excepting the dinner we cooked ourselves, of course! Having read through our guide books we were determined to have a gastronomical highpoint for dessert at a difference restaurant. On to Yaxche for crepes. And no ordinary crepes either: "Mezcal Flambee Crepe". Prepared in front of us, the waiter proceeded to carmelize sugar, flame up some mezcal, add in Kahlua, bananas, mangos, top it off with some Baileys and cream. Crepes brought to a new high.