We arrived on Monday to temperatures in the mid 80s and settled into our hotel on the beach. To our great surprise it was filled with Canadians! In the bar or in the restaurants all you could hear was “eh” or the French equivalent. The hotel was chosen to be strategically near the scuba dive operation and we headed out loaded with our gear early on Tuesday morning for two ocean dives. It was just the two of us with the dive leader and thus was a relaxing and pleasant way to get our feet wet, so to speak.
The second day we drove 30 min. south and dove in a “senote” which is an underground river that flows through caves and caverns in the limestone. Fresh water was cooler and thus we had heavier wet suits on, carried flashlights and had to scramble over rough rocky entrances with full gear on in order to get to the entrance. Getting in was hard enough, but getting out again was worse. That first step was a giant one. It was different and fun. No fish to speak of, but a lot to see in the caverns and interesting to see the thermocline where water of different temperatures meet causing a distinct visual line.
Day three was once again two ocean dives, this time accompanied by three other men. Mexico is not one of the premiere diving destinations, but we enjoyed our diving, the visibility was good, we saw a lot of spotted and moray eels as well as turtles, lobsters and other stuff. It is a very relaxing sport.
When not diving we enjoyed the hotel and the town. As we were on an all inclusive package, the drinks were free but we had to eat in the hotel. The food was only OK and were would have preferred to try one of the many restaurants in town but we did not starve! Playa has a very active tourist center and when we were not on the beach, we prowled the tourist haunts.
After our dive on Thursday, Donna and I rushed back to check out of the hotel and headed 15 minutes up the road to the Rosewood Mayakoba resort where we stayed through Sunday. This place was simply the most elegant place that we have ever stayed at. We had our own cabana with its own plunge pool overlooking the lagoon. Everything was luxurious; indoor and outdoor showers, a tub that could host its own superbowl party, sundeck above the cabana, our own butler and total privacy! The hotel itself is sumptuous but guests stay in private cabanas, there are three central pools as well as a great beach, three top class restaurants and three bars. On arrival guests are taken to their rooms by boat across the lagoon inhabited by birds and turtles. The following photos only convey a little of the flavor of the place.
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| Playa del Carmen |
As you can see in the photos we also played golf at El Camaleon Mayakoba golf course on the property. It was also gorgeous and is being groomed to host the first PGA sanctioned event in Mexico at the end of this month. Donna and I could get quite accustomed to being pampered at this place and were sad to leave.
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