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Riviera Maya Touchstone - Yucatan Peninsula village Playa del Carmen

Cruise Travel, March-April, 2003 by Jim Kerr

On a Saturday afternoon, an eclectic throng of tourists strolls the pedestrian-only thoroughfare known as Avenida Quinta, or Fifth Avenue, in the once-bucolic fishing village of Playa del Carmen, on the Caribbean coast of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

Gifts in bikini tops and sarongs, women in straw hats and hip-hugger capris, cruise-ship passengers with braided locks, men in sleeveless shirts and jeans, stylishly dressed moms pushing baby strollers, and sunburned children eating ice cream all mingle and pass along the congested street. A remarkable number of both men and women sport body-piercing jewelry and tattoos, much of it acquired right here from local Mexican artists. Relief from the hot, midday sun of the Riviera Maya is found under the palapa roofs and sidewalk awnings of cafes and restaurants, inside dozens of craft tiendas, or in the cool interiors of air-conditioned boutiques.

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For about half-a-mile, Avenida Quinta continues north from the town square, lined on both sides with an unbroken chain of commercial establishments: restaurants, high-fashion resort boutiques, silver shops, tequila stores, nightclubs, small hotels, T-shirt stores, and craft stalls selling blankets, papier-mache fruit, ceramics, and assorted other arts & crafts brought here from every corner of Mexico. Sidewalk lunch and dinner menus announce daily specials at outdoor cafes like El Almendro, with red snapper dinners for 90 pesos (about $10), or Paradisio Pizzestre with lasagna or canoli for 50 pesos ($5.50). All are served a la carte, and a simple cup of coffee, soda, or bottle of mineral water runs $2.

Now known simply as "Playa" the tourist portion of the town, which is only nine blocks wide, stretches north along the Caribbean beach in what has become Mexico's latest international tourist mecca, where visitors and residents are just as likely to speak German or French as English and Spanish. The transformation here from two decades ago is nothing less than astounding. As late as the 1980s, Mexicans and foreigners alike passed through this dusty, sleepy fishing village only to catch the ferry over to Cozumel, located a few miles off the Yucatan coast. But the advent of Cancun, a planned government resort complex 50 miles north, which has to some degree unsurped other traditional Mexican resorts, reshaped the entire area. "I came here four years ago from Acapulco," said one Playa store owner, "because this is where the tourists are coming."

Thousands of workers poured into the newly dubbed Riviera Maya from all over the country to work and live in Playa, and to build dozens of resorts spaced out over many miles of beachfront property along the east coast of Quintana Roo, Mexico's fastest-growing state. Playacar, a high-end planned residential and resort community that borders the south perimeter of Playa, now has a dozen mostly all-inclusive resorts, a shopping complex, and an 18-hole golf course.

Playa's once-rickety pier has been replaced with a concrete structure where high-speed catmaran passenger ferries leave hourly on the 30-minute ride to the island of Cozumel, and cruise-ship passengers alight from tenders sent from ships anchored offshore. While the majority of cruise ships coming to this area call on Cozumel (where 1.8 million passengers debarked in 2001), several ships call weekly at Playa del Carmen and the nearby port of Calica.

An old hotel at the base of the dock has been swallowed by a much larger complex where the prime tenant is an air-conditioned McDonald's. Senor Frogs, part of a Mexican bar and restaurant chain popular with tourists, occupies the other side of the street next-door to the luxurious, beachfront Continental Hotel. The only semblance left of the old town is the square, where ladies sell long slices of fruit from carts shaded by colorful umbrellas, children play during the day, and resident musicians serenade the locals on weekend evenings.

Only a few feet beyond, street hawkers, who have arrived in large numbers to cash in on tourism, are omnipresent both day and night seven days a week, selling everything from time shares to tours. From here you can go on scuba outings to Cozumel, fishing expeditions to Isla Mujeres, archeological sojourns to Chichen Itza, or daytrips to Cancun. Buses to the latter leave hourly from the new central bus station two blocks from the ferry dock and cost $3.50 one-way. The ferry itself, which makes the 30-minute crossing to Cozumel numerous times a day, costs $9 one-way, an easy daytrip for cruise passengers whether they're calling on Playa del Carmen or Cozumel.

The beaches at Playa, which means "beach" in English, are a pleasant reprieve from the gauntlet of street merchants, but to truly escape the somewhat frenetic pace of downtown Playa del Carmen, there are many outstanding daytrips that encompass both archaeological and ecological wonders. Xcaret, Xel-Ha, and Tulum are the most popular.

Located only four miles south of Playa del Carmen, Xcaret is one of the best attractions in Mexico combining nature, history, and activities. The Maya, a native people who developed a brilliant civilization in Central America that thrived during its Classic period (A.D. 300-900), developed this area as an important economic and cultural center, as well as a sacred place for ceremonies. The word Xcaret means "inlet," and the limestone rock of this large park is cata-combed with underground rivers and blue holes known as "cenotes."

Riviera Maya Touchstone - Yucatan Peninsula village Playa del Carmen

Cruise Travel, March-April, 2003 by Jim Kerr

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