The seaweed is a real challenge for the beach cleaners this season. They were unable to clear it in the two weeks we were there.The busier tourist end of Playa Del Carmen; you can see the ferry to Isla Cozumel setting off for one of its many daily return trips.Whether you are at dinner on Fifth Avenue or on the beach the musicians will eventually serenade you. Olivia and her sister in the tourist zone of Fifth Avenue.Tyres being remade into chairs.One way of promoting Tequila.
Our feeble attempt to be like real tourists.The family reunion in full swing at dinner. One way of reducing the number of visits to the bar for this waiter and speeding up the service to his clients.When you’re sat down for dinner there is no escaping these musicians and dancers – we had three such groups.
Whilst the beaches are long throughout this entire section of Caribbean coast they are quite narrow.The Marines frequently patrol the beaches and tourist zones during the day.In addition to this brand the Hilton and Hyatt hotels were also represented in Carmen. We had our bikes liberated from a securely locked garage with CCTV and were directed to report this to the tourist police. On this particular day the translator was not there so this chap was insistent we complete a form, stand next to the sign as below, to prove we had visited his office whilst he redirected us to the other side of town for them to handle our reported theft – we are not making this up. If we hadn’t been so disappointed at the loss of our bikes it would have been quite comical – maybe one day we will see the funny side of this episode. The irony was not lost on us when we relocated to the main police headquarters to obtain a crime number for our insurance claim which was heavily monitored with CCTV and the visitors were not allowed to take any photos. The original plan was to spend one week in Carmen, however, we were waiting for our new bikes to be delivered and would be lucky to leave after a further week’s stay.If we were sailing around this coastline we would describe this period in the trip as one of being becalmed. Walking the beach became a daily ritual whilst we waited for our new bikes to arrive. We could have been stranded temporarily in worse places!May we introduce you to Denis – the world’s most kind, patient and expert bicycle mechanic.We spent 4 – 5 hours with him making additions and alterations to these ‘city’ bikes as we understand them to be called because we previously had purpose built touring bicycles made to measure for our specific individual requirements. Although he couldn’t do anymore for us than he did we would be less than truthful if we didn’t say we set off with all fingers and toes crossed that we would be able to complete the remaining six weeks of our trip. On top of being a really nice chap he did not charge us a single peso for his time, a refreshing change from many other places we encountered in this tourist area where every other person is waiting on your request with their hand out for payment and tips after charging you much higher than is the case for ordinary Mexican areas which we had come to know and appreciate.
Mexico and Belize 