taco's & toucan's travels ~ 2019

aussiefitzy.com

DAY 27

Week 4

VALLADOLID (Yucatán, MEX) to PLAYA DEL CARMEN (Quintana Roo, MEX)

Wednesday April 10^th, 2019

TODAYS MILEAGE – 115 miles / 185 kilometres

TRIP MILEAGE – 15,768 miles / 25,376 kilometres

After nearly two weeks on the road in Mexico, today was the first “sleep-in” day for the trip, in that we had a 10AM departure. With my gastric issues of the past few days, my body decided this was also the opportune time to let me sleep in until just after 7 o’clock – so I must be pretty crook for that to occur.

The plan for the day was to take a couple of hours and cruise into Playa del Carmen and then have the afternoon to ourselves before heading out in the evening for an included tour dinner.

Without a doubt, highlight of the trip so far would have to be visiting my very first beer cave, located in a servo of all places, in Tulum, which occured during our 3½ hour drive into our accommodations at the Portea Hotel, about three blocks from the Caribbean Sea.

I spent the afternoon exploring the so-called "highlights" of 5th Avenune including the beach and if you turned down the volume, you’d swear you’re in any over-commercialised, 'touristy' area in the world – not my go at all.

To give you an indication of just 'touristy' it was, I simply turned onto 5^th avenue and had barely covered 100 metres (300 feet) before I was offered drugs, women, “special shows”, food, drink, tours and a facial – a facial FFS??? What tha??? I suppose it makes a change from the God Botherers who were looking to convert me earlier in the trip.

The tour company - G Adventures, has an in-house Planeterra Foundation social project which encourages and supports locals in both improving themselves and their community, so generally sometime during the trip, a visit is scheduled that is usually in the form of an information session/demonstration and a meal.

Tonight’s Planeterra Foundation visit took place in a local suburb at the El Hongo site - bringing the arts to the local youths, which hopefully inspires them to take part in programs to develop their skills and give them confidence for a brighter future.