Playa del Carmen

Sun 15 Oct: Still feeling very unwell, with sore ears, no energy, and a full on head cold, but I suppose if you just have to chill out somewhere to recover this is not a bad place to do it. Went and checked out the beach nearby. 2 minutes walk from apartment to the beach access, and then probably another 2 minutes walk to an amazing white sand, blue water beach and all for free here, so much better than Tulum. Had a bit of a wade and walk along the beach, just beautiful. When back at the apartment went to check out the roof top swimming pool, only trouble is the elevator broke 2 days ago, luckily our room was on the 1st floor but had to walk up 5 flights of stairs to the top - I was exhausted, so much for all that mountain climbing. The pool was quite small but big enough to get wet in and had wonderful views, a lovely spot to spend some recovery time. I spent the rest of the time chilling in our air conditioned room, Doug meanwhile went out in the hot afternoon sun to the supermarket to get some stuff for lunch. About 6 pm wandered down to the beach for sunset. Wow was it busy, lots still swimming and relaxing, playing volleyball etc. Not much of a sunset, the beach is east facing so sun sets away from it. Had a nice walk though, and came back and went up top for the night views on the roof top.

Mon 16 Oct: Doug could not, not go to Chichen-Itza and since he had to drive back that way to go and pick up my kobo he decided he would detour out to the ruins first. Meant an early start of 5 am but he got to Chichen-Itza 15 minutes before the gates opened, he didn't take into account the change in time zone and gaining an extra hour. But it did mean he had the first hour or so with very few people around the site. He really enjoyed Chichen-Itza, the ruins being in much better condition, with a lot more detail visible on them. Also he had downloaded a walking map with information about them while he waited to go in, and spent about 3.5 hrs there before continuing on to San Felipe to pick up my kobo, getting back to the apartment about 6.30 pm. So for my day to myself, I tried unsuccessfully to go back to sleep when he left, but about 6.15 am gave up and went down to the beach to catch the sunrise due at 6.45. It was such a lovely time to be on the beach, temperature was very pleasant. A couple of cruise ships were heading to Cozumel, an island 18 km off shore, under the raising sun. Spent about 1.5 hrs walking in total turning when ran out of beach, by 8 when I was getting back certainly could feel the heat of the sun already. Spent the rest of the day until 3 pm just resting, reading, catching up on our expenses worksheet etc. I then thought I would go for little wander along the street to stretch the legs and see what was nearby. Ended up walking probably for 2.5 kms and seeing a large mall thought I would go and have a look before turning around. 2 hours later 😉. The mall was part of the tourist area of town and on the other side was a pedestrian only street of shops and restaurants (fifth avenue). Didn't buy anything but a couple of bikini possibilities to check out tomorrow. At least the pedestrian street was leading me back towards the apartment and just as well because intersected with Doug just as he was about to head down the beach access track to look for me (I had the keys to the apartment so he couldn't get in). Went out to a nearby restaurant for another Mexican version of Nachos and to catch up with each other's day.Read more