Air Prayer

Day two was our first full day in Playa Del Carmen. Our plan for the day had only two items on it: lay on the beach and be idle, and go into town to buy some shoes. They would not let me got to dinner without dress shoes.

The first part of the plan was very easy. Mrs. Dutchman and I headed down to the beach lounges and dropped our stuff off. We headed immediately into the warm Carribean Sea. The water there is just the best in the world. Warm, calm, and clear. Actually it wasn’t that calm as a major storm had just blown through over the last three days. The surf was a little high but still nothing like the Atlantic or Pacific oceans.

After playing and swimming in the surf for about an hour or so we headed back up to the lounge chairs to catch some rays. The security guard on the beach brought us a large shade for the lounge chairs. So we sat in the shade and sipped drinks until about 2pm. The waiter kept bringing us drinks as soon as it looked like our glasses were about half full. He also kept snacks coming too.

At about 2pm it started to get a little cloudy and drizzle a little so we thought this would be a good time to go into town to find shoes. I went across the street from the resort and found an ATM so I could get some local cash. While there I talked to a guy who told me a good place to buy some shoes. Mrs. Dutchman and I grabbed a cab and rode across town to a very nice shopping mall. We were a little worried as to how we would get back to the hotel but found that we didn’t need to worry. There are cabs everywhere. We found a shoe store in the mall but the folks there spoke less English than I spoke Spanish. Somehow we made ourselves understood and I was able to get a nice pair of shoes. We bought some socks in the superstore across from the shoe store and then went outside to find a taxi. There was one already waiting so we jumped and said “Zona Hotelero, por favor, Royal Hideaway” At which the cabbie said “si” and took off like a shot. A cab ride anywhere in Playa Del Carmen is $50 pesos, or $5 American. That’s a pretty good deal.

After getting back from our shopping mall adventure we rested up and got ready for dinner.  Dinner was one of the more mildly disappointing parts of the trip for me.  Don’t get me wrong the food was excellent.  Mrs. Dutchman loved it.  The problem was that it was all gourmet food.  Just wonderful.  But I didn’t come to Mexico to eat gourmet Italian, Asian, or Spanish food, I came to eat Mexican food!  Well… Mrs. Dutchman loved it so I just suffered (sic) in silence.

After dinner each night we followed the same routine.  We would walk down to the beach, kick off our shoes and walk along the shore in the moonlight.  The moon was full the week we were there which made it very picturesque and very conducive to making Mrs. Dutchman very happy.  And when Mrs. Dutchman is happy, the Flying Dutchman is even happier.

We’ve been back from our vacation for a couple of weeks now. I haven’t have much time to update this site because of all the catch up I had to do. Catching up on work, catching up with friends I had been neglecting, catching up with church matters. It seems like trying to catch up when you get back from a vacation takes twice as long as the vacation.

Well Mrs Flying Dutchman and I really enjoyed our vacation. Playa Del Carmen is beautiful. I have to confess that I had some preconceptions about Mexico. The only other cities in Mexico I had ever visted was Tijuana and Juarez. Playa Del Carmen, or Xaman Ha (pronounced shaman hah) as it was called by the Mayan Indians, is nothing like those two cities. The people were very friendly and polite, the town was clean and well-kept, and the setting absolutely breath-taking.

The first day was a long travel day. We departed Sacramento at 6:30am, laid over in Houston for 3 hours and then flew on to Cancun and didn’t land there until around 6:30pm or so. Customs in Mexico is a fairly simple process. We filled out the tourist visa paperwork on the plane just prior to landing. The paperwork was provided by the airline. There is an odd lottery used in Cancun for customs inspections, just prior to exiting the customs area one member of the family presses a button on a traffic light, if the light is red then you have to let customs inspect your luggage. If the light turns green, you grab your bags and go.

We had purchased a transfer to our hotel in Playa Del Carmen and the transportation company representative was waiting outside. They identified us almost before we could identify them. They whisked us into a car by ourselves and our driver took us on our 40 minute drive to Playa Del Carmen. There are some interesting features of the highway we were on. They have topes in the middle of the highway just outside the towns. These things are speed bumps on steroids. Traffic slows to a crawl to get across these things.

We finally got to our hotel and were greeted with moist, scented, and very cold towels along with glasses of champagne. It was about 8:30pm by this time. The bell captain took us down the path to our building and room. The room was great. Cool marble floors, marble vanity in the bathroom, marble shower, it was all wonderful. There was even a small refrigerator in the room full of water, soda, and beer. All I could think was, wonderful, more alcohol. Those who know me will see the humor in that.

We just had time to clean up before we headed over to the restaurant where the front desk had made us reservations for dinner. This particular restaurant was chosen because it had a loose dress code and I didn’t have dress shoes. I was informed that I would have to get some dress shoes before I would be allowed in the other restaurants on the resort. Oh well, something to put on the list of things to do. Even the casual restaurant was very formal. Dinner was served in courses and the waiter wore a tux.

After dinner we took a quick walk on the beach and then headed back to our room to collapse into unconsciousness.