Planning on living or visiting the Yucatan? After residing in the Yucatan for a total of 7 months I came up with top 10 must-haves (or have-nots) for Playa Del Carmen. No makeup. Ever. Ok, maybe some lip gloss. If you even attempted to wear makeup it would slide down your face. Natural girls reign…
Six of us were piled in a cab, drinking beers, the hot breeze blowing in our face and Mexican music blaring on the radio. We were driving through the endless jungle as the air freshener swung wildly from the rear view mirror. I was dirty. I was sweaty. I was in heaven. We were lost in…
We fumed and screamed in our Mexico nook, mad drunken Americans in the mighty land. We were on the road of Mexico and all we could do was yell, I guess–across the night.
After watching skimboarders on the beaches of Playa del Carmen, Mexico I knew I wanted to try my hand at skimming the Caribbean waters. I saw a flier advertising a skimboard and went to pick it up. With a little bit of wax, sand and grit, I took to the beach. It was harder then…
Recycling and upcycling is huge in Mexico making my time here a frugal experience. Even trendy 5th Avenita incorporates upcycling in its restaurant and boutique decor. One of my favorite hings to partake in down in the steaming, hot Yucatan is an ice cold bottle of Coca Cola (paired with a bag of pork rinds).…
Mexico is famous for using every day items for a purpose. The country is constantly coming up with creative ways to upcycle. After a visit the local plant nursery to purchase succulents for a new project, I found the containers they were in to adorably rustic and simple. They look delightful on my balcony and…
It was a pool party on the rooftop down in the Yucatán. Hotdogs, raw veggies and watermelon were the main course, but the real hit was the frozen piña colada pineapple drinks created by Chevy. We sipped the cool drinks from the pool ledge as we volleyed the ball back and forth over the net.…
The music from the Andale 10year anniversary bazaar echoed from my balcony. We walked toward a barricaded street stuffed with people. Andale is a publication in Playa del Carmen. Crowded groups push their way along piles of used and new items. Books, pallet furniture, clothes and godly amounts of shoes. Snack vendors hog the street…
Mexico Medium: Cardboard Anyone that knows me knows I love art. Without it covering my walls tend to be uninspired. Being an art lover is hard when you are also a traveler because you know you will have to finagle it back to wherever it was you came from. So I came up with this idea for disposable…
Businesses and locals in Playa del Carmen, Mexico are crafty. I mean impressively crafty. Locals reuse ordinary objects in a number of ways by recycling or upcycling by mixing fashion and frugalness. Why the process of upcycling may come easier for a more creative person, the idea is to take disposable items and create something useful…
Tourists go from driving through a lengthy strip of retail shops such as Louie Vuitton and Dolce&Gabbana to a hidden ruin site located in middle of the sleepless city where condos replace skyscrapers. Visitors can still experience small Mayan remnants of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization at El Rey (Las Ruinas del Rey) located in the…
I had been eyeing a $250 dollar bathing suit in a storefront window for a month when it happened. Lying on the beach, a woman walked right in line of my ocean view with the bathing suit. It looked horrible. Ok maybe horrible is a bit extreme, but it did not look $250 dollars worthy.…
Ek’ Balam is located in beautiful Temozón, Mexico and exhibits 45 Mayan ruin structures. The site lacks sightseers and gigantic tour busses as it is one of the less known ruin sites in the Yucatán making it an intimate experience for the visitor. The astonishing and remarkably well-preserved sculptures uncovered at Ek’ Balam date from…
My life was a vast gleaming empty page and I could do anything I wanted. I grab my faded blue Chuck Taylors and hop in a rental van with my husband and three-year-old son to pick up my two brothers in Cancun. Our intention is to explore ruins in central Yucatán. We spend the night in…
Downtown Playa del Carmen is not absent of boutique shops, but it is missing an abundance of thrift stores. In America, consignment shops seem to be on nearly every corner but here in Playa I was only able to find one: Segunda Vida (Second Life). The tiny, eclectic shop displays racks of specialty items from…
You don’t need a reason to take a whack at making a piñata. While time consuming, it is fairly easy to make on your own. People that see this round, colorful ball will be seriously impressed with your paper crafting skills. You might even impress yourself. What you’ll need: Newspaper Scissors Glue Colored tissue paper…
Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo Carnival 2013 in Pictures.
Today is Día de San Valentín (St. Valentine’s Day) and children, friends and lovers all over the world will be celebrating.Valentine’s Day began as formal worship celebration of one or more early Christian saints named Valentinus. The most popular martyrs in history is Saint Valentine as he was imprisoned for performing weddings for soldiers who were…
Throughout Playa Del Carmen and Cancun, the streets are lined with pushy vendors promising tourists an amazing swim-with-the-dolphins (SWTD) experience. A decent looking woman smiles on a sign behind a dealer, and appears as though she is making a connection with the grey-skinned creature swimming close to her. Vacationers are quick to hand over their…
So (in my opinion) you don’t need to fetch fancy gifts these days. It is totally about the thought. My son celebrated a birthday party at school involving bags of candy, cake, a piñata and of course, gifts. I’ve never actually met the birthday girl, Natalia, but Hayes knew her, which, is why the gesture needed…
Why not start out your birthday with cupcakes right? Every three-year-old deserves to eat cupcakes for breakfast on their birthday while ripping wrapping paper from his stash of gifts. Pasteleria La Migaja (Crumble Cakes) fashioned the most marvelous swashbuckler cupcakes a little boy could ask for. The pirate creations were devoured by the birthday boy,…
Heading out at dawn New Year’s Day, techno music remains pumping upon the horizon and the rumbling of the gigantic crowds roar to the beat. Playa hadn’t slept all night. Mascara smeared Mexican girls wobble by in sky-high heels as my husband and I debate if each girl that stumbles past actually kept their shoes…
Being encompassed by water still doesn’t quench my thirst for life You should only be so lucky to call that kind of paradise your domicile You’ve earned that right by your beauty Mabey beauty is power? Created in silence but deafening with your will to be free Mystifying due to your calm; bottled up with doting recollections…
Let’s talk spice. You know…zing, zest, pizzazz. Tajín is a company in Mexico that produces a tangy, spicy “fruit seasoning” powder (salsa en polvo) consisting of chile peppers, salt and dehydrated lime juice. You can find this stuff everywhere in Mexico. I mean EVERYWHERE and it is most certainly a staple down here so it only seems…
I won’t say that moving to Playa Del Carmen was much of a culture shock but I will say that everyday things I am accustomed to in the United States definitely seem different. Most people do not embrace change easily or they have a hard time adjusting in an environment unlike what they are used…
It turns out the liquor-logged worm lying at the bottom of the tequila bottle is not an ancient Mexican tradition after all.Not only is the “worm in the bottle” myth old and exhausted, there is never supposed to be a worm in Mexican bottled tequila. The worm belongs only in bottles of Mezcal. However, various American…
There has been much buildup of the Mayan calendar ending this year and what (if anything) will happen. I guess you can say curiosity led me, my husband and son to Playa del Carmen. I imagined I’d be much older visiting the Mayan ruins. We arrived in Playa a couple of days before visiting the Tulum ruins…
Slangshot 