Today we decided to venture “into town” which around here means a trip to Playa del Carmen, about half an hour away.

We started the day at the breakfast buffet where we were glad to see everyone back at the table – Ross is feeling about 80% again and though his appetite is diminished today, he fully participated in the day’s activities.

Omnipresent iguana, on the way to the collectivo.

One of the “specials” that our Air Transat rep was able to provide us was a coupon for a free trip into town, with the small provision that we pop in for a visit at a jewelry factory along the way. So after we’d eaten, we sun-screened and made our way to the pick-up loop and waited for our ride. Our driver arrived just a few minutes late and we were off to the next hotel to pick up others who were sharing the trip. Unfortunately, they were not waiting for their ride, so our drive spent some time driving around the hotel entrances looking for them.

Eventually he gave up and in another ten minutes we arrived at Matis, which is a large 1-story building at the side of the highway with a very nicely appointed showroom. We were welcomed and assigned to different handlers and spent the next hour being shepherded around the store. The business model here was interesting – not exactly high pressure sales, but clearly the staff felt entitled to our time for having offered us the ride into town. Still, our sales rep was friendly and knowledgeable and not super pushy. After “our hour” was up we waited another 15 minutes for our follow-up ride and finally arrived in Playa del Carmen around noon.

Does that t-shirt say what I think it says?

Playa del Carmen is a medium-sized city which seems entirely devoted to tourism. The main drive is 5th Avenue, which  is several blocks long and ends at the two-story Fiesta del Playa, where you could find nearly any souvenir you’d seen anywhere Mexico.

Most of 5th is souvenir shops, but there is a huge variety among them. First, there are the many “souvenir marts” with any manner of shot glasses, t-shirts, carved items and wrestling masks. These shops anchor the blocks and if you don’t want to haggle with the locals, this is where you find the prices that everyone pays, in US dollars if you like, often with a free shot glass over a minimum purchase.

Didn’t we used to be a fishing village?

But probably the majority of stores were smaller shops with some of the merchandise above mixed in with a variety of leatherwork, traditional dresses, different kinds of bracelets and other trinkets. The merchants at these shops are quite aggressive, loudly inviting you into their shops and competing with each other for your attention. They will often decry each other’s prices for their own “almost free” sales. At one point I had the distinct feeling that I was about to be mugged. Probably my imagination, but I plunged into a crowd anyway.

Finally, there seem to be a number of small, tucked out of the way shops often on side streets that may have some higher quality specialty items, such as (real) silver and traditional linen shirts. Scott and Lynn took us into one of these stores and Sharon and I picked up exactly these items as our souvenirs – a silver necklace with a silver turtle pendant, and a linen shirt with a muted gold design. We were quite happy with our finds!

Hanging out at Playa del Carmen

We cruised the entirely length of the strip and picked up several pieces for folks back home. We were also treated to a show at the Portal Maya entrance to the beach, courtesy of the Flying Volvodaros. It’s very impressive to watch these folks perform traditional dance in elaborate costumes, and then to throw themselves off of a 50’ pole and slow spiral upside down from ropes until reaching the ground.

By late afternoon we decided that we were finished and would rather spend the balance of the day back at the resort, so we followed our Scott and Lynn through a couple of side blocks to a line of cargo-sized mini-vans that are the area collectivos – public transit vehicles that can seat up to 15 or so and which travel up and down the Riviera highway for a flat rate. We were able to climb in to one right away, and for $30 MXD (pesos, roughly worth a dime) each we were back at the resort in about half an hour.

We still had enough time in the afternoon to go for another swim, so we grabbed our snorkel gear. suited up and headed for the beach once again. Ross – feeling a bit spent from the day’s activities, opted to watch from a comfy chair in the sand. We had another good outing today, seeing lots of pretty fish and one good-sized turtle swimming along and surfacing. We didn’t stay out too long, being conscious the sun starting to go down and anticipating our dinner!