Playa Del Carmen, week 3, in Search of Good Seafood Restaurants

We have been having quite a restaurant dilemma since we have been here, probably because we expected Mexico to be the same on the Atlantic side as on the Pacific side.  Obviously that was unrealistic, why would the food and restaurants be the same in Newfoundland and Vancouver?  We forgot how big and diverse Mexico (or any Country) can be.

Our plan to try a 7 week vacation as retired folks was based the search for sunshine in the winter, and to live on the same budget as we do at home.  Mexico seemed like a much better choice than Hawaii (for example) as the cost of food in Hawaii is much higher.

There is no shortage of restaurants in Playa Del Carmen, but at least half of them are pizza places.  We do not eat pizza at home so why would we eat it in Mexico?  (of course I might have the occasional gluten free pizza if I found a good one at home or anywhere, everything in moderation)

We love fresh seafood, so that is what we search for, should be easy in a seaside town! However we are finding that most restaurants serve Basa as their catch of the day, some call it sea bass.  If you ask for the catch of the day some places have Grouper, some say it is Grouper and bring you Basa! This is when I get really disappointed. (if you haven't had Basa it is in the frozen food section of your local grocer, it is cheap and has very little flavor or texture)   The other disappointment is when you actually get grouper and they have overcooked it.  Mexicans are usually the best fish cooks?

 I know I read many times to avoid the restaurants on 5th Ave, and mostly we have, thinking that the beach front is more where we wanted to be. So far we have found a list of disappointments  Kool Fish, La Exquisita de la 38, La Vagabunda & El Pescaore Da Ilena, none of which we will go back to.  Also 2 favorites:  La Ceuva Del Changa at 1st Ave and 38th St. (we have been there 3 times and love it!)  Carboncito's on 4th St was also great!

But we should have been looking more toward 30th Ave, as this article and many others have stated: http://www.travelyucatan.com/playa_del_carmen_restaurants.php

We are so happy to find that we really can go out for a fabulous & inexpensive seafood dinner!  The restaurants are small, but clean and friendly, no ocean view but you can't have everything. (darn)

We ate here a couple nights ago, shared whole redsnapper and shrimp tacos for 200 pesos and it was fabulous!

Next is La Bamba Jarocha, it has great reviews and is always full of Mexicans, so we are looking forward to trying this one, along with many others down the street.

10 Things I love about Playa Del Carmen

1.  The beach:  multi colored blue green water, so warm you do not even need to pause going into, (unless there is a wave), white sand, soft and cool on your feet.

2.  The Weather: there can be a few stray clouds which are nice to cool you down, sometimes the wind is quite strong but it is never cold, 25-30C during the day, 18C is the coldest night we have had and......

 .... this is what a rainy day looks like

  

3.   No Beach Vendors

4.   Avocados: Huge ripe avocados, puts the little things we have at home to shame (I eat them everyday cause it's a good fat right?)

5.   5th Ave:  Pedestrian walk, love that the street is closed to cars from 34th Calle (St.) to 1st Calle.  It is a great walk in the morning when the stores are not all open and people are not out yet, at night it is crowded with people, looking for a dinner destination, a bar or shopping.  This is where all those beach vendors disappeared to, now trying to entice you into their shops or restaurants.

6.   Restaurants:  La Cueva de Chango http://www.lacuevadelchango.com/ : favorite restaurant, not only is it just down the street but the prices are really good, and the food is always delicious!  Try the Amaranth crusted Chicken stuffed with cottage cheese or the Tuna  Yummm!  2nd favorite is the small local restaurants on 30th Ave, away from Tourist area, welcome to everyone, great food, cheap prices, very clean and worth the walk.  The servers don't speak as much English in this area, but there is always one or two of them who know enough to help us order something good.  (Yes we should learn more Spanish)

7.   Safe to walk everywhere:  to the grocery store (many to choose from, Sorianna's & Aki Gran Mayoreo are closest to us and have a great selection and good prices, 2nd choice and a bit farther walk is Mega and then Walmart).  No car rental necessary (google why you should not rent a car in Mexico)

8.    Our Condo, Arena Blanca, 10th Ave and 38 Calle (St.) walking distance to everything, The best part is the roof top deck.............

Large enough to do my morning workout (love the sworkit App), usually a nice breeze to lay out and read a book in the afternoon, if not, there is always the pool, or a short walk to the beach....choices, choices, choices.

9.    Live Band at Bad Boys Beach Club, thursdays and Saturday,  Good for some live Rock and Rock, and dancing if you like, people watching also entertaining here.

10. Getting up each morning and trying to decide which bathing suit to wear today! 

Beach walks, week 2

This week we have been on some nice long beach walks, this side of the world seems to have sandy beaches that go on forever!


This is where our walks start from, the foot of 38th Street, a couple blocks from where we are staying.

Walking for just over an hour to the North we did not need shoes at all.  There were several areas of rocky beaches that would be dangerous to swim in without shoes, but plenty of nice white powder stuff to walk on until you find a nice swimming beach.  (Cause it is hot and you need to cool down on a 2 hour walk)
We walked past a Paradisus resort, which did not have much of a swimmable beach at all, but it was
definitely away from all crowds.  http://www.paradisuslaperla.com/

 A little further along we found a wonderful sandy beach, walking into the water for a swim was perfect, no rocks, just warm water and gentle waves. Also a very large sandy area to lay out on in front of a very new condo resort called Marealazul.  It looks very nice, check it out here http://www.gcoral.com/mareazul.php?gclid=CNCX7MC74LQCFUWnPAod9TMAyQ


The next day we found an even better beach when we walked in the other direction from our condo, past the Mamitas, and Kool beach bars, we often just lay out in front of the Royal Resort, the beaches are all fine here, but very crowded.  There is an old pier next, and all the resorts to the south of that have a weird beach, man made, with sandbags under the sand, like concrete to walk on in places.  The swimming area is a sandbar out past the fish boats, doesn't look appealing at all to me.

Next, in the photo above is a big row of condos and beach bars, very little beach to lay on and a slanted area to walk, swimming is also out there on that sandbar, I wouldn't want to stay at El Taj or El Faro cause the beach is lousy.( did I mention the smell around here......rotten eggs?)  So we keep walking past the ferry dock that takes you to Cozumel and what a pleasant surprise............

Now this nice flat beach is in front of condos, Xaman Ha and PlayaCar Place.  Playacar is the upscale area of Playa Del Carmen, it is gated, and has a golf course and many gorgeous looking houses.  The beach here is not crowded, there are no beach bars or anywhere to rent a chair. (which is too bad, but I guess that is why it is not crowded)  It took us about 40 mins to walk here on the sand, probably less if we went by road. This Beach reminds me of the beautiful beaches we saw in the Bahamas and Antigua, we will definitely make the walk back as often as possible.

I did look up the condos on this beach to see what the prices were like, and of course they are over $250 a night, and the Xaman Ha is really old and run down looking, old A/C that would be very noisy, I wouldn't recommend that one.  There are many of these beach front homes too, wouldn't that be nice?  Yes, way too pricey!  The last 3 days here have been very windy as well, so going to the beach means you are always covered in the fine sand, ( it is always blowing on you).  So maybe being beach front would not be all that great, there is no sand blasting us on our nice rooftop deck! (only a short walk from the beach and less than half the cost of beach front)  Maybe we will just be happy with what we have!

The search for a great fish restaurant continues.....................................

Playa Del Carmen Week 1

Yes, 2013 starts the year of real retirement living, so of course it must start on a beach.  We arrived in Playa Del Carmen 9 days ago, we are still surprised at the crowds of young people, the heat, and the difficulty finding a good seafood restaurant.

Last February I went online and found a great condo to rent here in Playa and we love it, great location, clean, small complex, quiet neighbors, nice pool, short walk to the beach or busy 5th Ave with it's many restaurants.  Very happy with the choice we made to rent this place at Arena Blanca.  It is at the quiet end of town, but we still find the road noise and some boom boom music from an unknown surrounding restaurant can keep us awake at night, windows just are not that soundproof in this building(that's my only complaint so far).

When I was doing my research last year I checked the weather history on weatherunderground.com, it showed January to be about 23C on average, so we brought a couple of sweaters thinking it might not be that warm at night......well I guess the weather is just different this year, it is currently 26C, with a few nice clouds, and a breeze(thankfully)...yesterday was 28C but felt like 37C and really there has not been a day that has cooled down to prevent me from breaking out in a sweat eating dinner at an outdoor restaurant after dark!  (Yeah, yeah... we know I am menopausal women but really no one is gonna need a sweater, never mind sleeves!)

No where in my research did I find a mention of "BPM", apparently it stands for Beats Per Minute and is a huge thing with the 20 something crowd, DJ's from all over the world are in Playa Del Carmen for the next week or so (well it started before we got here, but officially Jan 4th to 13th) to play their BOOM BOOM beat at many locations throughout town.  I understand that this technobeat stuff can be quite good but I can't tell where one song ends and the next begins and all we can hear on the beach is BOOM BOOM BOOM....it is too annoying!  

Here is the link to learn more ifhttp://www.thebpmfestival.com/ you so desire http://www.thebpmfestival.com/

The beach in Playa is really quite lovely, (and it goes on for miles so you can avoid the BOOM BOOM crowd), the white sand is made of ground seashells so it never gets hot, it is like walking on powder all the way out into the water too!  The water is just as warm as the air,  turquoise blue and heavenly to float in.  The wind can create some big waves, but mostly this part of the coast is sheltered by the island of Cozumel, so it can be quite calm.  You can't help wanting to take a dip everyday!

What I find quite amusing is this photo below that many condo owners have posted on their ads to rent their places close to Mamitas beach......................

Quite beautiful isn't it?

But this is what it really looks like.....................I took this photo yesterday, the crowd gets bigger, much bigger when you get to Mamita's as it is a beach bar hosting the "BPM"   

Everyday this beach is crowded (even before the BPM) there are many beach bars, resorts and very little actual sand to sit on, storms have eroded a lot of the beach away, so that nice deserted beach pictured above, must be very very old!

Still I prefer the beaches here on the atlantic side to the ones on the Pacific coast of Mexico, the water is warmer, clearer and there are no dead puffer fish or sea snakes like in Puerto Vallarta.
On the other hand, we liked the restaurants and seafood better on the Pacific side.
It's early in the trip yet, and about 360 restaurants here, so much more research to be done.......to be continued.......

Is it safe to travel to Surrey?

Now how often do you see headlines like this in your hometown?

Homicide team investigating woman's death in Surrey

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/IHIT+called+Surrey+Fleetwood+neighbourhood+investigate+single/7522343/story.html

Yes, I live in Surrey, there are headlines relating to shootings and homicides all the time.  Yet, when someone dies or is beaten up in our city, there is never a warning put out by the media to avoid traveling to Surrey.

When we were in Mexico last January, we saw news of 3 people killed in our home town while we were away, so we joked that we must have been safer in Mexico!

Yes, I am kidding.....I know not to hang out with drug dealers or people who carry guns, in Surrey and in Mexico (or anywhere for that matter).  Every city has an area you should not hang out or even walk alone at night, so you avoid those at home, and you should use even more caution when you are traveling.  Common sense right?

I just get annoyed with people and the media for always asking "Is it safe to travel to Mexico?" before they have all the facts about a crime or a death.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-man-killed-in-mexico-feared-becoming-victim-of-violent-crime/article5146491/

Yes, you should investigate the places you travel to before you go, another common sense thing to do, but don't let news headlines stop you from traveling to Surrey, it really is a nice place to live or visit!

Do you have Earthquake Insurance?

Living in beautiful British Columbia we are always complaining about the rain, but we do know we are lucky because we don't have weather that can kill us. (Like tornados, hurricanes etc.)  I don't think earthquakes count as weather, but it is the one thing that might get us here on the west coast.

There have been 2 rather large earthquakes on the west coast in the past 2 weeks, luckily these were not centered near major population centers, and no damage or injuries occurred.   On October 27th, a saturday night we were sitting on the couch watching TV, enjoying a glass of wine, when I noticed the chandeliers above us were swaying.....I am pretty sure it was only one glass of wine....but I pointed up so my spouse would confirm what I was seeing.....and sure enough the lights were swaying even more now.  We got up, could not feel the ground moving, but looked outside to the pool, turned those lights on and watched the waves form in the pool.  The motion lasted for 3 or 4 mins, with the lights swaying so much that the metal was clanging on the glass.  I wasn't scared because the ground was not moving, but it was amazing to see.

these are the chandeliers I am talking about

Too bad I didn't think to film the moving chandeliers, but I'm sure you get the idea.

Of course the next thing I did was look for some news of an earthquake, nothing on TV, and nothing on the internet for quite sometime.  I did find the earthquake Canada website, but it was almost 20 mins before they confirmed the 7.7 quake near Haida Qwaii.  I was glad to know we were not imaging things.  Also amazed at the size of the quake.  I took the time to fill in their questionnaire, titled "Did you feel it?"http://www.earthquakescanada.nrcan.gc.ca/index-eng.php

Now, last night it happened again, the lights only swayed slightly this time, and only for 30 seconds or so, but I knew what was happening right away.  Again I checked the earthquake Canada website, and the site was already updated showing the 6.3 quake just off the west side of Vancouver Island.

I am glad to see that the experts at earthquake Canada were able to improve their notification times, they had said on the news after the Oct 27th quake that there were things they could improve on, and obviously they took that seriously.

Now what about us, are we ready when those lights start to sway again?  Well, we do have a large earthquake kit, it is on a shelf in the garage, I am thinking it is over 6 years old so I should probably check the contents and replace the old water bottles, and whatever food is in there.  (maybe today even)

We did not buy earthquake insurance this year, first year in a long time....(yes, probably why we are having these quakes now, the superstitious would say).  I admit to buying earthquake insurance for many years without really reading what it covers.  So this year I did read it, and calculated the deductible to be aprox $65,000.00.   Yes, read your policy, deductibles are usually 10% of the value of your home.  

The cost of earthquake insurance for us was aprox $800 more on our premium, you can reduce this a bit if you take the personal content insurance off or lower the amount on the earthquake portion.   We chose not to buy the earthquake coverage at all, because we built this house, we know the quality of construction, and believe the risk is low that our damage would be over $65,000.00.

Now that is our personal, informed decision we made after talking to our insurance agent about what is actually covered by earthquake insurance.  I recommend you have this discussion with your insurance agent.  I have heard you can even buy another policy that will cover the deductible amount, but that is another yearly cost to you.  Get all the information and make your own informed decision about earthquake insurance.  (NOW before our lights start to sway again!)

Best Wishes to Diane Sawyer

If you know me at all, or even read my blogs you will know I read and watch the news quite a lot.

I don't often watch American News, but last night I think everyone was watching for a while at least, just to see who would be the next President.  I am very happy they chose Barack Obama, he is a great man, and if the republicans will just cut him some slack, he will accomplish great things!

I love the new TV series The Newsroom, it is a very intelligent, fast paced, real life drama.  Much like the old series, The West Wing. (I loved that one too!)
If you didn't see the first season, (there were only 10 episodes), I think they are replaying them on HBO.  http://www.hbocanada.com/thenewsroom/about.php

The sad thing I saw in the news this morning is about Diane Sawyer, the news anchor on ABC.  If you saw her live, or watched the clips online, you have to wonder if she was drunk or just really tired or what?  If the public was wondering this, why didn't the network take her off the air?

I do hope all is well with Diane Sawyer, but I have to admit that she does not look well, and at the age of 66, maybe she should be retired already!   There are many young americans that need a job!  Even without this alleged drinking incident, her age is really showing, (OK that sounds mean but how do I put it nicely?) If she had retired at 65 none of this would have happened, she would have left as a respected News Anchor, and provided a younger person with a much needed job. American's need jobs!

 I also know in this day and age we cannot discriminate against age, sex, race etc, but honestly I prefer watching younger News Anchors.  I also like it if they are intelligent, and can speak clearly, just like Diane Sawyer in her prime.