top of page
Playa del Carmen
First acquaintance with the Western Hemisphere
Also watch our
films on Youtube
We will be pleased if you like this article.
It costs you nothing, but a good deed is done :-)
Long-awaited Mexico, how to get to You?
To fly to Mexico on a relatively budgetary basis, tickets must be purchased 5-6 months before departure. There are several transatlantic airlines that occasionally offer promotional tickets. We were given an offer by "Airfrance". We thought three days out of four, and the day before the end of the action we decided and booked. Our economical flight consisted of three fragments: Kiev-Paris, Paris-Mexico City, Mexico City-Cancun. When paying for the ticket, we specially chose a 10-hour transit in Paris (read the report on the walk around Paris here. ) And began to go to Mexico. The first question arose about a visa, but it turned out that this was the easiest preparation point: a visa to Mexico for Ukrainians is electronic. You just need to go to a special site and fill out a short form. You will receive an answer in a minute. The network writes that 99% of visa requests receive a positive response. When filling out the questionnaire, we noticed that the Mexicans somehow especially relate to the ministers of culture, since this position is placed in a separate item :-) This is how it looks:
Flying is not always difficult.
In the meantime, there is no need to know about it. ”
Of the three flight fragments, Airfrance entrusted the first to our Mau. It was a negative experience: "Mau", having an agreement with the French and receiving orders for passengers from them, could not check in luggage for the entire route, and we had to collect our luggage at each airport, and then immediately check it in for the next flight. Since baggage claim takes time, this waiting for baggage took away some of our time in Paris, significantly shortening our planned route through the capital of France. And yet, in "Mau" on such a flight they do not feed. Therefore, if you buy a ticket from several fragments and are offered options between "Mau" and "Airfrance", then the choice is obvious. For comparison, on the way back we flew from Paris to Kiev as French, so they fed and watered us very tasty (beer and French wine without restrictions). These are the differences between our airline and the international one ... And now a minute of gratitude: from Paris to Mexico City and back we flew with the Aeromexico airline - a superliner and super-care of stewards for you. The passenger is provided with everything: a personal kit with a sleep mask and a toothbrush with paste. Personal blanket, newspapers, individual tablet with music, films and a flight map. The chairs are comfortable, USB charging allows you to charge phones, and the flight attendants are very responsive. This is what dinner looks like on the plane of this airline: here you can see red fish and the most famous Mexican beer "Corona" and you can see the wires from the headphones and "charging". And how wonderful the concerts of Genesis and RHCP from the airplane catalog were, I can't tell ;-)
The transfer in Mexico City was very fast (not counting the re-registration of baggage ;-) and now, we are already flying on a small plane next to the active Popocatepetl volcano towards the Yucatan Peninsula. The first impression of the jungle that we saw in the window is endless rains! We flew among the rainy clouds and when we landed at the Cancun airport, we were surrounded by thick clouds, and sat right in the puddles. But leaving the plane we felt the enveloping Caribbean warmth.
Our Mexican trip consisted of several locations. We planned to visit several cities, two islands and delve into the jungle selva. For travel visualization, we usually use the Tripline website, it allows you to visually draw up a route. This is how our plans looked like:
From Cancun Airport, getting to Playa del Carmen is very easy. Leaving the airport, you will see a parking lot for buses, and next to it there is a salesman at a counter similar to the table of promoters in supermarkets - above the counter there is an inscription "ADO". Buy a ticket and board your flight. Knowing about the "death cult" in Mexico, we did not hesitate to joke that now we will have to ride "ADO" buses (AD - It means hell in Russian). To be fair, it must be said that these are the best buses in Mexico. Later, we were "lucky" to run into lower-class buses, but more on that in another report.
Playa del Carmen.
Surely most readers think that having arrived and settled in Playa del Carmen, we, wearing panamas and pareos, headed to the beach. No, this is not at all true. Since we had booked a room for two in a budget hostel without food, the first questions that needed to be addressed in this beach paradise were what we should eat and drink. A supermarket of the most famous world chain "Walmart" was found on the map; it was 700 meters from our hostel to it. We went there. And they were extremely surprised by the huge queues at the checkout counters. 10-15 filled carts at each checkout. We can see this even in Ukraine only before the holidays (well, and before the weekend :-)
By the way, check out the products offered in the supermarket. There are peeled and chilled cactus and cola leaves with fanta, in portions of 10 liters :-)
_edited.jpg)
After the supermarket, we went for a walk around the city and made our way to the beach. "I am in paradise, I am in paradise" director Renata Litvinova spoke in a half-whisper with a breath in one of the films and was absolutely right ...
The photos below are clickable:
 |  |  |  |  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  |  |  |  |
If you are interested to know how the Mexicans relate to Ukraine, then the answer will be a wall painting (mural), which we met on one of the streets of Playa del Carmen. Just look at what they paint on their houses: Mexicans and Mexicans dressed in elegant embroidered shirts lead round dances with ribbons in the color of the Ukrainian flag. What other comments are needed ?! ;-)
In the main square of Playa del Carmen, the Mayan Indians repeat their ancient ritual of calling the rain several times a day. Having performed a magic dance, they climb a high post, tie themselves with a rope to their belt and throw themselves down without any belay. Indians hover around the pillar, gradually sinking to the ground. When we watched this ritual, we were immediately puzzled that the rain did not come. But, perhaps, the ritual does not work immediately, but after a few days ...
Animals and birds in Play del Carmen also surprised and delighted us. As soon as Natasha saw an unfamiliar animal, one could forget about the beach and the Mayan ruins. We ran through any thicket of the jungle to film this something moving among the trees. And sometimes, we managed to take pictures of handsome men. Here are shots of agouti, iguana, pelican and some yellow bird :-)
Among the ruins of the city of the Mayan Indians, we hunted for a long time for a wonderful beast named Agouti, and luck smiled at us. We were able to film it during lunch.
Ruins of the Mayan city.
Few people know that in Play del Carmen there are the ruins of the ancient Mayan city. We have not seen anything about this on the Internet, and we stumbled upon these ruins by accident when we went to explore the beaches located further from the city.
_edited.jpg)
The first acquaintance with Mexican cuisine surprised. We got the impression that Mexicans are indifferent to seafood and prefer chicken and meat to them. In the very first cafe where we decided to have a snack, a piece of lobster was simply added to the order "shrimp + salad" (photo 1). Second photo: "Chicken baked in palm leaves with fried bananas and black beans." In the third photo: a real Mexican "beef burrito with salad, black beans and guacamole sauce." The cuisine in Mexico is very spicy. We love spicy, but there were a couple of times when we tried some sauce and realized that Astrid Lindgren had already described this story in a book about Carlson:
- What happened? - asked Miss Bok.
- It tastes like fox poison ... However, you yourself know better what you put here, - said Carlson. - Take the big hose quickly, I have a fire in my throat! - He wiped away his tears.
- What are you crying about? - asked the Kid.
- I remembered a very sad thing, - answered Carlson.
- Which one? - the Kid asked curiously.
“This meat sauce,” said Carlson.
When we walked along Playa del Carmen, looking at the souvenir shops, we tried to capture the most interesting that caught our eye. In the video, we filmed interesting rotating sparkles, which we later did not find in other cities. And in the photo you can see a Mexican woman spinning cigars right on the street, near her shop, where tobacco leaves are dried. Well, a photo in a sombrero is a must-see program from Mexico :-)
What do you recommend for those traveling to Playa del Carmen? Perhaps not going to the city beach, especially on weekends. The number of tourists is simply huge.
Stroll the streets of this small town admiring the many murals here.
And, of course, take a dip in the Caribbean, if you do not mind, as I do paddle riders :-)
We would be glad to receive your comments on this article. If you have been to Playa del Carmen or are going to visit this city - share your impressions in the comments. Reposts and likes will be greatly appreciated.
Vitaly & Nataly
bottom of page