The Mexicoma and Taste of Playa

It was a slow Sunday morning after yesterday’s antics. I forced myself out of bed to grab a bit of food at the breakfast buffet. After eating (or trying to), we walked down to the towel stand by the pool to exchange yesterday’s towels for fresh ones. One of our Star Friends, Yeya, was working the towel station.

--Just to recap, the ‘Star Friends’ are the entertainment staff for the Iberostar Paraiso del Mar (our resort) and Beach (resort running parallel to ours). They work all day long making sure that everyone is happy and having fun-from encouraging you to participate in pool games, to dragging you on stage after the nightly show. We loved them!--

Anyway, it seemed as if Yeya didn’t recognize us at first. After all, we weren't wearing our big hats. I think it finally registered in her head when she starting laughing and asked how we were feeling. She handed us our towels and said, “Girls, we call that a Mexicoma!” 

We laughed it off and waded around for a little in the pool. We caught quite a few jokes from other Star Friends about how we were feeling and especially about how early we went to bed. To dodge the embarrassment for a while, we walked down to the beach. On the walk, we passed a board that gave a detailed schedule of all the resort activities throughout the week. We pieced together the craziness of Saturday by determining that we watched the pool games at noon and did the bachata at 12:30. It was all downhill from there…

After soaking up the sun on the beach for a few hours, my appetite had returned. So, it was time to indulge in fries, cheesy nachos, and ice cream at the beach snack bar. Sydne and I both have a big sweet tooth, so we frequented the various ice cream bars around the resort at least twice per day. We strolled back to the pool to watch the games and dance lessons—this time the salsa. Now we saw how ridiculous we looked yesterday!

Soon it was time to shower and get ready for the much-anticipated food festival. We gathered our things and went to exchange money at the front desk of the resort. During previous international trips, I have found that it is cheapest to exchange at the hotel rather than the airport or downtown. Well, not at the Iberostar. They gave us a pretty crappy exchange rate of 11.90 pesos. Advice to others—exchange money in downtown PDC. We saw the best rates, at around 12.40 pesos, at various places along the street.

We had unfortunately missed the 50 peso resort shuttle downtown, so we called a taxi for 250 pesos (ugh!). A half hour later, we were ready to eat! It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that I love food. A lot. I’d like to think it was fate that when I was Googling “November events in Playa Del Carmen,” I stumbled upon the 5^th Annual Taste of Playa Food Festival. This event was immediately added to our schedule.

The festival is the Riviera Maya’s premier culinary festival, and a foodies heaven where restaurants from all along the Riviera Maya let people sample their foods for a small fee. You purchase “Playa chips,” which you then cash in for tapas-style samples. Each sample was around 10-20 pesos, and from the pictures you can tell that the portions were more than enough. We had a hard time deciding what to get and walked around twice before finally making our selections. Below is a slew of pictures of what we ate at the festival. The first picture was my favorite sample—a few pieces of tenderloin with mashed potatoes, topped with a wine/gravy glaze.

Beef tenderloin and potatoes

Cochinita taco

Salsa

Gouda grilled cheese and Gazpacho

Tacos al pastor

Pastor being cut from the spit

The Taste was expecting ~7k visitors this year. It was SO crowded. We eventually got a little claustrophobic and walked down to the adjacent beachside plaza where we took some pictures.

Me at the plaza

Around 6 or so, we decided to walk up ‘La Quinta,’ or 5^th Avenue, which is the main drag of PDC. Great restaurants, shops, and best of all, no cars allowed along the street. This is also a very safe area. As we walked along the streets, one man said to me, “Did I see you at Señor Frogs last night?” Last night was Saturday…hmm…oh god I hope not! Soon after, another guy stopped us and said “Hey! I’m your waiter from the Iberostar.” We later learned that people do this to either draw you into their shops or try to sell you timeshares. They can identify tourists and sometimes even their lodging locations from our resort wristbands. Phew, we did go to bed at 5 afterall! ;)

We spotted a Starbucks and stopped for our first technology binge. We both Facetimed our parents, blogged a bit, and got caught up on e-mails. It was then approaching 8pm, so we caught the last resort shuttle back to the Iberostar. Back in the room, there was a gorgeous bouquet of flowers sitting on the dresser. My first thought was "Wow-this resort is impressive!" With the flowers, however, came a note welcoming us to Mexico from my good friend Zurdo, who I met during work training in Querétaro. He had recently moved to Munich, Germany to study, and gave me lots of advice and recommendations on our trip. So sweet!

We then got ready for the nightly theater show. On our first night, we caught a glimpse of the show and were pretty disappointed. Usually resort shows aren't the best. However, this show was AWESOME! It was a combination of the hilarious Star Friends and a troupe of professional dancers putting on a Vegas-themed show. There were acts of all kinds—from the Blues Brothers, to Cher, to The Lord of the Dance, to Jerry Lewis, to Michael Jackson. The dancing, singing, and even the comedy was impressive. We will definitely be attending more shows.

We were hoping that a few of our Star Friends would take us out in downtown PDC after the show, potentially to Coco Bongo, but they were unable to make it. So, we did the next best thing and hit up the resort’s own discoteca, the Galaxy. This nightclub was Star Wars themed (LOL). I’ve only seen 1 or 2 of the movies, but I knew enough to recognize the ridiculous Storm Troopers and Yoda statues surrounding the place. Sunday night wasn’t particularly “hopping,” but we made the best of it. We ran into a fun bachelorette party (members of the Canadian crew from yesterday), taught them how to Wobble, and finally retired for the night.

May the force be with you,