Category: travel

Besides that we love the beaches, we chose Playa del Carmen for a long stay because of the warm, year-round ocean temperatures, familiar stores and services, good restaurants, and the Cancun airport, which is less than an hour away.

My first visit to Playa was in 1992, when Playa had sand  streets and a few one story guest houses or small hotels.   At that time, Playa’s claim to fame was its ferry service to Cozumel. Since then, the city has elevated its position into a destination in its own right. When we visited in 2021, we decided it would be a good choice for a longer term stay. At the time, though, we opted to continue our journey through Mexico.

I found the comparison photo, below, on the web.  The top photo shows Playa as it was in 1974 while the photo below it is from 2010. When we visited in 1992, it’s size was still similar to the 1974 view

We visited many places in Mexico between 2021 and 2023.

Between 2021 and 2023, we visited Merida, Mazatlan, San Miguel de Allende, Puerto Vallarta, Tlacapaque, Mexicali, Tijuana, La Paz, Progreso, Ajijic, Campeche, Tulum, Orizaba, Cordoba, Villahermosa, Coatzalcoalcos, Palenque, Chetumal, Bacalar, Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico City, and more. We stayed from a few days to several weeks in each locale, returning to Playa del Carmen this past June.

When we chose Playa del Carmen for a six month stay, we rented an apartment in an eclectic gated community called Tohoku. The location is about a half mile walk from the beach. There are supermarkets close by and a Walmart, a bit further away.

Within walking distance in every direction, there are restaurants.  The mariscos restaurants have all manner of fish and seafood dishes. We like Nativo Restaurant and the natural food store nearby, where we get freshly made blender drinks and juices to go with our meal. There is a lot more we want to explore here.  Playa del Carmen is big and spread out.

One of the reasons for the spread of Playa del Carmen is that, by law, no building can be more than five stories of living quarters with a sixth floor deck. So there are no high rises.  I think this five-story rule is a good rule for a town, although it does add to the width and length of housing developments.

Something that we have enjoyed on previous visits is Playa’s proximity to the archaeological sites in the Yucatan. We haven’t visited any yet on this leg of our journey. That will be the subject of another post.

Palenque is a beautiful archaeological site in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, which we visited last week.

It’s been over 30 years, but last week we visited Palenque, a beautiful Mayan archaeological site in the state of Chiapas, Mexico, for the second time.  The slippery steps of the pyramids and the tree and vine covered mounds which are un-excavated structures were fun to climb years ago.  The  falls I’ve taken in recent years, just walking on dry sidewalks, gave me doubt that I would be agile enough to do much more than take a photo from below. Using the zigzag method that Robert showed me, I did slowly make it to the top,  as you can see in the photo.

We hired a guide to show us the pyramids and to walk us through the forest.

Ricardo, pictured below, guided us at the site for the official two hour pyramid and selva (woods) tour.  The selva tour takes the path through the forest behind the temple complex of Pacal and the Red Queen. The path weaves among structures which appear to be tall mounds, much larger than the restored pyramids.  Lianas and gigantic trees whose roots penetrate the mounds conceal most of the walls and ceilings.

Ricardo showed us one of Palenque’s many springs.

In the selva, he guided us to a natural spring. Our guide claimed that fifty-six springs provided life-giving water to Palenque’s inhabitants.  As we stood in the forest at the spring, we could easily imagine the sacred energy that the ancient Maya perceived there.

He also showed us the canals  and explained how the Maya of Palenque made straight sided canals, lined them with a type of smooth stucco coating and roofed them with stone.  In places, the roofed part is still intact and we walked on top of it.

We were quite impressed with the size of the freshwater canal. In ancient times, it had smooth plastered sides and a stone roof covering . Can you see, in the photo below, the remains of the solid top in the distance?

After our visit to the ruins and woods, we visited the site museum.  The displays showcase the artifacts found in the pyramids. The large incense burners have faces of gods or a  shaman.  There are also the delicately modeled reliefs which were carefully removed from the pyramids’ walls.

Orizaba is a Pueblo Magico southeast of Mexico City.

Visiting Orizaba  was the highlight of our journey. Orizaba is southeast of  Mexico City and is a designated Pueblo Mágico in the state of Veracruz. The city boasts a tram, a river walk alongside a river-flanking zoo, a planetarium, a Palacio de Hierro (Iron Palace) designed by Eiffel, the architect who designed the Eiffel Tower, good food (which to me is seafood), friendly people, lovely vistas of hills in all sides, fresh air, lots of green plants everywhere, graceful arches and ancient walls that have weathered for hundreds of years, and a botanical garden with tropical plants and various species of orchids, many of which are native to the area.

The city park, with beautiful trees, flanks one of the main streets

Walking to our Airbnb from the Palacio de Hierro we passed the park above.  The variety and lushness of the foliage amazed me.   We walked into the park, then through it, we admired the plants while children played nearby and families and couples strolled past.

The zoo in Orizaba flanks the river.

The river that runs through Orizaba is flanked by a zoo that extends along the sides of the river.  The weathered arches from bygone days create animal enclosures by the clever use of chain link fencing across the face of each arch.  There are jaguars, parrots, and other animals, most indigenous to the area.

There is a Planetarium in Orizaba

We went to the Planetarium, but it wasn’t open when we were there and it wasn’t clear to us when the next planetarium viewing would be. But it was worth the attempt, anyway, as the planetarium dome and its surroundings are picturesque. In the same complex as the planetarium there is Disneyesque medieval castle which, when we were there, seemed to be the destination for young people, perhaps a school field trip.