October 29 to November 19 2019
I planned three weeks for this trip. This was the longest I have been away from my wife since we were married. Every November I go on a solo dive trip because my wife fills our house with female relatives and friends.
This started ten years ago and back then I was only gone five days. Since then my November dive trip usually spanned a week but several time I managed to extend it to ten days. I am retired now so three weeks seemed really doable.
I always thought if there was warm weather, beaches, beer and scuba diving I would be able to keep myself entertained for a long period of time on a solo trip. I think I was wrong though, by the end of this trip I was very happy that my wife decided to meet me in Playa at the last minute.
Normally it would make sense to go directly to Tulum, spent time there and then come back to Playa for the remainder of the trip. Because I wanted to spend Halloween in Playa I started my trip trip there.
I was in Playa from October 29th to November 2nd. I went to Tulum from November 2nd to the 6th. I returned to Playa on the 6th for the rest of my trip.
Getting There
I had a 5:30 am flight and TSA precheck doesn’t open until 4 am. I am about half an hour from the airport so I prebooked an Uber to arrive a 3:30 am.
I discovered about a mile into the trip that the driver was altered…meaning drugs or drinking. I don’t think he was drinking because I could not smell anything.
He was having a hard time staying in the lines on the freeway and driving slow. He wasn’t wandering over the lines but he was driving about fifty miles an hour and wondering within the lines.
I weighed my options. I could have him drop me at the next exit but then I would have to hope I could get a cab or another Uber so I paid close attention to his driving to make sure he wasn’t going to hit someone.
I am Silver Medallion on Delta which is the lowest of the low. I get more perks with my Delta American Express than being Silver.
Occasionally being Silver does pay off. I was upgraded to Comfort Plus on my flight to Atlanta and my flight to Cancun which was really nice.
I had an hour connection in ATL so I had just enough time to get a latte at Caribou but no food, before boarding the plane.
I made it through customs and immigration in Cancun without much wait. I had never taken the ADO to Playa before but I decided to try it on this trip.
I purchased my ADO ticket on the way out of the airport. It was a little confusing because it appeared that I could have bought a ticket where I board the bus.
I paid about 200 pesos (a little over $10 US). I had to wait about fifteen minutes for the bus to arrive. They stowed my bags under the bus. It stopped at two more terminals before it was on hwy 307 heading for Playa. The bus had wifi which was handy.
If I had it to do over again I probably would have booked a shared shuttle. The last time I took one it was $25 and it was quicker.
The bus dropped me at the touristica terminal on 5th Avenue in the heart of the tourist zone. I had to take a cab from there to my hotel. The cost for the cab was 150 pesos, which seemed a little steep.
La Mar Hotel
I found this hotel on Booking.com and it was a steal, or so I thought. I looked it up on Google Maps and the indicator for the hotel was on the other side of 5th Avenue from where the hotel actually was. I knew that building had just opened the last time I stayed in Playa so the hotel appeared to be brand new and the photos of the room seemed to be nice.
After the cab dropped me off, I dragged my luggage up and down the block several times before the guys at the taxi stand asked me what hotel I was looking for. I told them and they pointed to a small sign above a steel door on the other side of the street from where I was looking.
The entrance to the hotel was a locked steel door next to a tequila store. To get in I had to press the doorbell next to the door. I was disappointed that the hotel wasn’t nearly as nice as the pictures on Booking.com. I realized that I should have known the deal could not be as good as I imagined.
It was a nice hotel for the money. The people at the front desk were friendly. The room was big. It also had the usual issues like most small hotels in Mexico- low water pressure in the shower and it took a long time to get hot water. There was a roof pool but I never saw anyone use it.
I originally tried to book my stay at La Mar on my return from Tulum but they were booked and I am glad they were, I ended up booking a much nicer hotel for my return to Playa.
Halloween
I love Halloween in Playa. I started the day by diving with Blue Life. I dove with my dive master previously at Mexico Blue Dream. He is a very good divemaster, he is very relaxed underwater and above water.
From Previous years, I learned that things start late in Playa on Halloween, so I didn’t leave my room until 9 pm. I stopped at my favorite beer bar, Club de la Cerveza, and had a Belgian beer. From there I went south on 5th Avenue and stopped at McCarthy’s for a beer. My next stop was a bar on calle Corozon. I got a seat on the end of the bar so I had a view of 5th Avenue. It was great being able to watch all of the costumed people walk by on 5th Avenue.
After 10:30 pm I walked down to the clubs on calle 12 but they were empty, almost no one any any of the clubs. I didn’t want to hang around and wait for the clubs to fill up so I left. I was a little confused, there are usually some people in the clubs by this time. Did the problems with violence in Playa in the last year scared people away?
McCarthy’s Irish Pub is my go too when everything else is quiet. They usually have a good rock band.
They had a costume contest for Halloween. It was very interesting to watch. The woman that won the contest won a bottle of Tequila. She immediately opened it and chugged it for a good ten seconds. Later in the evening she was making out like a drunken sophomore with someone much shorter than her.
I hadn’t eaten a lot today so I stopped at Pizza Italia on CTM and 5th Avenue for a slice of pepperoni before calling it a night and going back to my room.
The day after Halloween after was a lowkey day. I worked at Evolution gym. It is located on Calle 24 and 5th Avenue.
Club de la Cerveza is my favorite beer bar in Playa but I found a new beer bar on 5th Ave and Calle 40th called CMC. I stopped there for really good sopes and a Duvel. For dinner I had a slice of pizza at Pizza Renzo.
Tulum
I had breakfast in my room, packed and took a taxi to the bus station. The taxi was 120 pesos. I knew they over charged me for the taxi to the hotel.
I took the noon ADO to Tulum and arrived there about 1pm. Unfortunately, this bus did not have wifi. It would have made the trip more enjoyable.
I took a taxi from the bus station to Posada del Sol which is located on the beach. It cost 120 pesos, so about $6 US. The hotel had rooms on both sides of the beach road. It was not clearly marked where the front desk was so I dragged my bags across the busy road several times before I found the front desk.
I checked in and they showed me my room. It was up a spiral staircase, so I dragged both my bags up to my room. Not an easy feat.
The doors to my room were wide open. A lot of times in Mexico the maid will leave the doors open when cleaning but I am not sure why they were left open now and for how long, days maybe?
So, every since I went to Bolivia and the people there told me about the kissing bug and chagas I have been freaked out by bug borne diseases. Chagas can be a terrible disease so between that, zika and malaria I try to be smart about minimizing my exposure to insects.
I closed the doors and unpacked. Later, I noticed what appeared to be two large mosquitos on the ceiling. I took out my Corona beach towel I bought in Playa and used it to down one of the bugs. It turned out to be a fly. The one I downed was the smaller of the flies. It was black and yellow. I tried to get the bigger one but is was too fast.
Before I spent more time trying to kill the fly, I thought I would see if it might be prone to biting people so I got out my computer and searched “black and yellow biting flies Tulum”. I assumed worst case that they must be bite.
The search results told me that the females are larger and they bite. The bite may become a welt and weep for a week. The larger female was still on my ceiling. I haven’t mentioned it yet but the ceilings in the room were fifteen feet high so it was not small feat to toss a towel with enough force and accuracy to take down a biting fly.
I didn’t see the fly after six or seven tosses of the beach towel but I did find the dead corpse in the bathroom the next day. I must have wounded it and it somehow made it to the bathroom before it died.
Posada del Sol and Tulum
It was reasonably priced for being on the beach so I didn’t expect much.
Breakfast was included with my room and served at the restaurant. Breakfast was good. There was a lot to choose from including eggs and omelets made while you wait.
The hotel has umbrellas and lounge chairs on the beach but not many. If it was high season, I would imagine that I might never have gotten one of the lounge chairs.
There is a restaurant next to the hotel that has many more beach chairs than the hotel does and some of them are set up in front of the hotel which is odd.
My first day on the beach I tried to sit on one of the loungers that was in front of the hotel but belonged to the restaurant. One of the waiters came over and asked me if I wanted to order anything I said no and he told me that I could not sit there. So I moved to another lounge chair that was closer to the hotel. He came over and said I couldn’t sit there either.
He was very nice every time he told me to move but he never told me where I could sit he only told me where I couldn’t sit. I eventually figured out which chairs belonged to the hotel.
The beach in front of the hotel was beautiful. The hotel was on a small bay that was blocked on either end by rock formations that did not appear to be traversable but the white sand beach was absolutely spectacular. The downside it that if you want to stroll along the ocean it is a pretty short walk.
On my short walk on the beach I did see a throwback to the bohemian ways from Tulum years ago. There was a man sleeping on his back in the middle of the beach completely naked. It startles you when you realize what you are seeing and it was impossible to turn away fast enough to avoid see the parts you really didn’t want to see.
My room was next to the beach road, highway 15. I got a fair amount of street noise in my room and unfortunately, they were working on what appeared to be sewer lines so the road was down to one lane in spots. This caused traffic jams so delivery trucks and scooters began to honk when they lost patience. This was occurring just outside my room.
My room was large with, as I mentioned, high ceilings. It was all concrete. The walls, ceiling and floors were all painted concrete.
The bathroom was huge. On one end was the shower and toilet. There was a large concrete sink and on the other end were bamboo trees growing in the bathroom. The area over the trees was open so the rain could water them. This was also an excellent place for the biting flies to enter my room so I made sure the door between the bedroom and bathroom was always closed.
The air conditioning was only available from 9 pm to 9 am. I usually don’t care for air conditioning but I was always happy when it kicked on a 9 pm.
The room did not have a TV but it did have internet that was usually fast enough to stream something on Netflix. Occasionally my movie would freeze but if I set my computer down for ten minutes I would be able to stream again.
I think I got food poisoning my second night in Tulum from the pizza place across the street from the hotel. I was sick for almost two days. I didn’t leave my room much and the walls seemed to literally close in. The room felt like a big concrete box and it lost any charm it may have had.
I remember thinking my last night in Tulum that I was so happy to be leaving and wasn’t sure I could stay another night in my hotel.
Other than the pizza place I ate at Mateo’s several times. The tacos were great there and so was the service.
I went to Zamas for happy hour one day. The odd thing is that beer wasn’t included in happy hour, regardless the view of the beach was beautiful.
Pot Heads was my favorite place to have a latte- friendly waitresses and good lattes.
My stomach was a little upset on the 6th when I took the ADO back to Playa. My fear was I would be sick on the bus but I always travel with Pepto-Bismol so that kept any issues under control.
Tulum is a huge destination for backpackers. While I was in the Tulum bus terminal waiting for my bus I noticed two women backpackers from Canada buying tickets. Their legs were covered with bites.
Since they were back packing I would assume that the hostel might have had holes in the screens and the mosquitos feasted on them…many, many times.
Playa Again at Last
My stomach survived the bus ride to Playa and I took a cab from the terminal on 5th Avenue to Miranda Condos. The taxi driver hadn’t heard of Miranda condos but I knew approximately where they were. I directed him down Calle 38 and had him drop me where I thought the hotel was.
I was standing there with my bags after the cab left but I didn’t see the condos. From the pictures of Miranda Condos I was really sure the entrance wasn’t a small metal door with a buzzer like La Mar. As I turned around, I saw the entrance was on the side street, Flamingo street.
Miranda Condos
I dragged my luggage to the front desk to check in. The owner had given me the door code earlier but I was two hours early for check in. The workers at the front desk said I could check in but as I found out later they were don’t have control of check in, that is the responsibility of the owner.
I took the elevator to the third floor and found my condo, 304. I entered the door code and walked in. It was a beautiful condo. The kitchen had granite countertops and was stocked with all of the plates and utensils that I would need if I was going to cook but I am not a cook.
The unit had a five gallon purified water dispenser which is something that is very nice to have. The dining room and living room were very large, especially for one person. The exterior wall was glass and it opened almost completely. This lead out to the large balcony with a table, chairs and loveseat.
I had breakfast on the balcony several mornings. It was the perfect place for breakfast. It was warm, the sun was rising and I could hear the chirping of birds in the palm trees. I could also hear music from the restaurant across the street. It was the perfect soundtrack for my breakfast.
The condo had a 60 inch SMART TV in the living room. There was also cable, most programs were Spanish but I could find English programs. Since it was a SMART TV I could connect my laptop wirelessly and stream Netflix.
The king size bed was very comfortable. The bedroom was nice but a little on the small side. The bathroom was the same, very nice but it could have been bigger.
As I was walking around the condo appreciating how much better it was than my room in Tulum (and there were no yellow and black flies in sight), I started to notice that something was wrong. It started with the bed. It looked like the maid hadn’t do a very good job making it.
When I went into the bathroom, I noticed some used towels were on the floor. I went back out to the kitchen to get my phone and I saw dirty dishes in the sink. As I was calling the owner, there was a knock on the door.
It was a woman who apparently was the maid and had come to clean. She got the owner on her phone and gave the phone to me. He explained that she needed to clean, which was obvious. He said it would take an hour or so.
I was still not feeling a hundred percent and all I wanted to do was unpack and sit on the balcony enjoying the warn breeze but I left my luggage in the room and went to get guacamole at Amate 38 while the maid cleaned.
I was texting with the owner about getting into my room because it was only supposed to take an hour but after two hours she still wasn’t done. Finally at 4:30 I went back to the condo and asked the maid if I could sit on the balcony while she finished and she let me in. I finally got a text a 6 pm that I could get in.
I let the owner know that normally I would have no problems staying entertained in Playa while the room was being cleaned but I was not feeling well and he was officially two hours past the check in time. He told me he would make it up to me but I made the mistake of telling him that I would not leave a negative review. Once I said that, he got amnesia about making up the late check in to me. He never offered anything to make it up but I never pursued it.
I have been coming to Playa for years and I have stayed in many different areas of Playa. The location for Miranda is by far the best. Calle 38 is a beautiful tree lined street that leads to the ocean. There are many restaurants and bars on 38th so you are never far from a good meal or cerveza. You are less than half a block to the ocean so you can leave the condo in your swimsuit and be on the beach in less than a minute. Miranda is my new favorite place to stay in Playa.
The rooftop pool is gorgeous. It is big and there are plenty of loungers around the pool. There are also two big jacuzzi pools on the roof.
One of my only complaints about Miranda has to do with the jacuzzi pools. My wife and I were in the condo one evening getting ready for bed and we heard a loud thumping noise. I opened the condo door and I could hear it echo through the hallway. I took the elevator down one floor and I could still hear the noise echo through the building.
It occurred to me the noise sounded like a cavitating pump. Cavitating means that the water is aerating for any of several reasons.
I went to the roof to look at the jacuzzis and sure enough every time I heard the noise I could see air bubbles shooting out of the jets in one of the jacuzzis. I looked for a shut off but there wasn’t one in the public area of the roof. We used earplugs that night and the pump was fixed the following day.
The other issue was the sewer must have backed up because the main floor of the building smelled like an outhouse but that was resolved in a day. I would guess that the tourists flush toilet paper. In Mexico the sewer pipes are too small to handle toilet paper.
I tried to extend the stay at my condo so Karen could stay here when she came down but unfortunately it was booked. I went on line searching the different rental sites and I found a condo at Miranda that was available on Air B and B.
This one was up one floor so we had an ocean view from the balcony. The kitchen was better stocked than the first condo so if we wanted to cook we would have everything we could possible need but the restaurants are too good in Playa to not go out to eat.
Karen liked the condo and location as much as I did.
Normally there would be a five hour gap between checking out of my first condo and into my second but the rental agent let me in early.
Diving
Blue Life scuba was one block from Miranda so I arranged diving with them Frank is the owner and a super nice guy. They screwed up my reservation one day. I was supposed to dive in the morning but they had me down for the afternoon and the morning was full when I got to the shop.
I dived with them in the afternoon and he didn’t charge me for the dives. I offered to pay half but he refused.
I did eight dives in Playa. My favorite is the bull shark dive. The best way I can describe it is to say it is like riding a rollercoaster. You are on the ocean bottom at 95 feet waiting for the sharks to show up. There is anticipation but there isn’t much going on. This is akin to the roller coaster slowly climbing the first peak.
After you reach the peak you have the adrenalin rush of the plummeting down the first drop. This is the feeling you get when you see the first shark.
A little information about the bull sharks- female bull sharks come to Playa November through April to give birth and they congregate off the pier by Mamita’s Beach Club.
Hugo the divemaster estimated that well over two thousand divers have done the shark dive and there has never been an attack. Statistically speaking it is safe but when a bull shark is swimming at you, you tend to forget statistics.
There were several groups of divers from different dive shops on the boat. The group I was with was myself, Esteban and Hugo was the dive master.
There is a specific area where the bull sharks congregate. There is a rope anchored to the bottom of the ocean so you can hang onto it incase of current. We stopped there for about five minutes but didn’t see any sharks.
Hugo let the current take us closer to shore and we stopped at a depth of fifty five feet. There was a fair amount of current so I dug the ends of my fins into the sand to anchor me. I was scanning the ocean bottom when Hugo pointed behind me. There was a bull shark swimming towards my back- I felt the rollercoaster plummet down the first drop.
I turned around and the shark started to swim away. We had other sharks swim over to check us out. At the end of the dive two sharks swam close to us. You can see them in the video above. Hugo said he counted six separate sharks. He does the dive enough that he can recognize the sharks by the markings and divots in their fins and bodies.
Mama Vina wreck is my second favorite dive in Playa. It is a yacht that was intentionally sunk to create an artificial reef. There was a lot of current the day we did the dive so we had to kick hard to get down to the boat. We went into the hold of the ship which is something I have never done before. It was just Steve the divemaster and myself that went into the hold. The other diver opted to stay outside and I am glad he did it would have been a little tight with three in the hold.
During one of our dives we ran into a large school of Atlantic spadefish. They are super friendly. They were intent on rubbing off the parasites from their scales and they use anything. They were using the sand on the ocean floor when we first saw them,
They swarmed me at one point. It is hard to tell from the video but they were rubbing themselves on my GoPro handle and my head. One bit my head. They were rubbing on the divemasters fins. It is really a fun experience to have a school of spade fish swim up to you and use you as an underwater scratching post.
All the years I have been going to Playa I have never done a night dive. I found out that they have been banned until this year. I went out with Blue Life on one night dive.
When you do a night dive you want to stay shallow so you don’t have to worry about decompressing. We initially did a thirty foot dive at a dive site called Shangri-La but we saw almost no sea life so after ten minutes Pablo the dive master called the dive. I have never had this happen before so when he signaled to surface, I was confused and so were the other two divers. They were a couple from England.
The next dive site was Jardines. It was a little deeper and the conditions were perfect. We had almost no current and great visibility. We saw a lot of little crabs holding up their claws menacingly. We also saw an octopus but by far the coolest thing we saw was a huge loggerhead turtle. Its shell had to be six feet from front end to back. It was sleeping in a cave. All of us initially thought it was a large rock but eventually, we were able to pick out the head and fins. It was amazing to see a turtle that big.
I did eight dives total during my time in Playa. I like diving here because of the good diving and it is also easy; I walk form my hotel to the dive shop, in this case one block, then to the ocean. It is normally about a fifteen minute boat ride to the dive site. There are many places where you have to drive to the dive shop and it is a 45 minute boat ride to the dive site. I enjoy the simplicity of Playa.
The only odd think I had happen was after my two dives on Halloween. I showered when I got back to my room and about an hour later my hands and feet started itching. I didn’t pay that much attention initially but then the irritation increased to the point that I could not ignore it. I had a lot of little bumps on the back of my hands. The rest of my body was fine and it was midday so there weren’t a lot of mosquitoes out.
It occurred to me to look up sea lice on the internet. Sea lice are actually not lice, they are tiny jellyfish. You can’t see them when you are swimming but if you encounter them, they will attach to your skin and stay there.
When you shower after swimming the warm water irritates the little jellyfish and they inject their venom and cause itching at that point. The itched a lot for the next two days.
The Beach
The beach in Playa continues to erode. One of the most startling examples of beach erosion, and there are a lot to choose from, is the new Grand Hyatt. It was only built a couple of years ago but the beach is already eroded to the point that the waves are lapping against Carolina Beach Club at the Hyatt.
Playa in November means that all of the piles of sargassum has been removed from the beach but the water wasn’t completely clear when I was there. There were still some brown patches of water near the shore. The area where we get on the dive boat near Calle 40 was still smelly from the sargassum.
Not having the spectacular beach that Playa used to have is not a deal breaker from me. I just make sure that I have a pool at my hotel. I also like spending time on 5th Avenue almost as much as the beach.
My wife and I like to walk the beach where ever we go. It is hard to take a long walk on the beach in Playa and getting harder every year. I did figure out a path so we could get a decent walk in. It involves getting off the beach and onto first avenue when the beach becomes nonexistent. It is not perfect but it allows us to get our exercise.
We also walked 5th Avenue north of CTM. We walked up to 90th Calle which is a nice walk. THere are also many restaurants to stop at for breakfast or coffee.
Restaurants
There are some very good restaurants in Playa. My wife and I have our favorites and we added a couple to our list this trip.
Previously our favorite restaurant in Playa was Trattoria del Centro. You can tell from the name that it is an Italian restaurant. It is located on Calle 26th just off 5th Avenue. You can tell from the name it is Italian and most of the employees seem to be expat Italians. If you plan on going you will most likely need a reservation.
This year we discovered Luma Traverna del Mar. It is on 38th near the beach. It is a Mediterranean restaurant. We originally thought they specialized in seafood, like grilled fish, but both Karen and I had seafood pasta. This is our new favorite restaurant in Playa.
It is funny how things change. We both used to think Piola was great for pizza and pasta. I ate there once before Karen came down and my pizza was awful and the service wasn’t much better. Karen and I had dinner there one evening and our pasta was not much better than the pizza. Piola used to be one of our favorite restaurants but I doubt we will return.
Another new favorite is Amate 38. I had breakfast there before Karen came down and I liked it as much and Chez Celine. We stopped there for appetizers and drinks. We had one of our favorite dinners there. The food was great and the service was exceptional
I found a new café called La Casa Loca. It is owned by two French expats. Their ham and cheese omelet is exceptional and it is only 50 pesos ($2.50 US) and the latte is 45 pesos.
Cerveceria Chapultepec is my new cheap drinks restaurant. I went there before Karen came down and was amazed that my beer cost a little over one dollar US. When Karen and I stopped in we were looking the at the menu trying to translate it using our limited Spanish. We finally asked the waiter what it meant and he said everything was 21 pesos. That is a little over a dollar. The food is good too. A picture of my receipt is below just to prove how cheap it is.
My favorite beer restaurant is Club de la Cerveza. The owner of that restaurant opened another restaurant on 5th Avenue at Calle 40, called CMC. I walked past it several times before I finally noticed the Delerium Tremons sign. Once I saw that I knew they had good beer so I stopped in later that evening. The selection isn’t as good as Club de la Cerveza but it isn’t bad. The food is inconsistent. I had sopes there one evening and they were great but when I went back they were not as good.
Burger and beer at Club de la Cerveza 
CMC 
Duvel at CMC 
Gouden Carolus at Club de la Cerveza
The Trip Home
Our final morning of vacation we had breakfast at La Casa Loco for the final time this trip then took a walk on the beach. The shuttle picked us up and we were at the airport forty-five minutes later.
Our tickets on Delta were supposed to be linked but I was upgraded to Comfort Plus when we checked in. The agent would not change my ticket. He told us to check at the gate to see what they could do. Initially they were going to move me back to the exit row with Karen but they eventually found two seats together in Comfort Plus for the trip home.
Recap
Playa
Halloween in Playa is a lot of fun. Experience it if you get a chance.
The bull shark dive is an adrenalin rush that you need to experience.
Calle 38 has always been my favorite street in Playa but being able to stay on 38th makes it that much better. We also discovered new restaurants on 38th that are our new favorites. I am definitely staying on or near 38th when I return.
Blue Life is my new favorite dive shop. All the dive masters are fun and friendly. The location is great.
Tulum
I am finally convinced that I don’t like Tulum. I know it is the “in” place to go but it doesn’t work for me when I am traveling solo.
The beach hotels are more expensive than they should be. The beach road is too busy to easily navigate. Compared to Playa everything is harder and more expensive. Lack of good ocean diving is also an issue for me.
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