Playa Del Carmen,Week 5

It was another mixed bag of weather this past week, a couple of real rainy days where I did not even get to put on a bathing suit (yes that is bad).  When the sun was shining this week, it was very humid, so we needed to go to a beach restaurant for dinner just to have a breeze.  There are not many beach restaurants open for dinner but La Tarraya, at the foot of 2nd St is one everyone raves about.  We had been there once before and they overcharged us for the chef's special so we were not impressed.  That was a few weeks ago so we forgave them and gave it another try, very glad we did!  They make the best fish filet for 90 pesos, not a fancy place, but delicious seafood, great prices and good service, so good, we went back again last night!

We also stopped in at Wah Wah's beach bar for their 1st anniversary party, which was packed.  Good live band, and good dinner specials, but it was so busy, finding a plastic chair in the sandy bar was difficult, but not impossible, we ended up sharing a table with a nice couple from Calgary.  We will have to go back and try the ribs, and smoked pork, it did smell wonderful!

                                                                  

Wah Wah's doesn't look like much from outside, but it advertises free lounge chairs during the day, you just have to buy your food and drink from them of course.  The waiter's all wear t-shirts that say "WAH you want".

On the big scene behind the band they were showing a slide show of people and the beach over the past few years.  It showed how they rebuilt the beach in Early 2010 after storms erroded the beach away.  An amazing amount of sand was dredged up and rebuilt in front of this bar and the surrounding hotels, there is not much left now. The beach restoration project cost 71 million dollars so I wonder if they can afford to do it again?

With the full moon last Saturday came changes in the tides, there was a much lower tide in the morning giving us a nice 20 feet more flat area to walk on.  There is never the big tide changes like we have in BC though.   So our beach walks at the beginning of the week were a nice change but by the end of the week the beach looked like this......

Yes, the power of mother nature!

This is what it looks like a couple weeks ago, and pretty much what it looks like again today.  Except there is very strong winds today, so the waves are huge, the tide is in quite high, leaving very little room to walk, or suntan in some places.  The waves are also breaking much further off shore, so quite a lot of sand has been pulled out to sea.  It was too rough to go in the water today, but we wonder if it will be shallower when we go in tomorrow?

The good news this week is that the Pedestrian only section of 5th Ave has now been extended to 46th Street everyday after 4PM.  It used to run from 1st Street to 32nd St.  Our condo is at 38th St, so we had to dodge a bit of traffic for a few blocks before we got to the pedestrian only part. (no big deal really)  It is nicer now though, we have noticed a decrease in traffic noise, (although 10th Ave beside us is still very busy and noisy) and it is just nicer to walk down the middle the cobblestone road with no cars.  Restaurants around us now have tables out on the street and are hoping to get more business obviously.  The downside will be when more restaurants and bars move down here, and create another disturbing night time noise.  (they seem to stay open til the sun comes up here)