Wednesday the 16th, my second Wednesday in Cancun, I took the colectivo to Playa Del Carman after my ride. Pretty late in my stay for this trip. I think that meant I was enjoying the riding and Cancun and not searching for a way out of Dodge. I had gone to Puerto Morelos Monday. Puerto is closer and almost as enjoyable and that was a rain day so I probably thought the closer Puerto was a better bet in the rain. Less moving around.
It is always painful to have to travel like 10 minutes north just to start the trip south but everyone agrees that there is no way to board a colectivo except in the lot next to the ADO bus station. I walk the long block through the park behind my airbnb to get to the Hotel Road access road. I am looking for a R2 bus going away from the Hotels. They usually do not pick up on the street in front of LA DOLCE VITA so I walk around the corner onto Tullum Ave. I only ride like 2 stops but since it costs 12 Peso or 60 cents, it seems worth the saved walking. When I go to Puerto, I get left off ghe colectivo at the brewery south of town so I take a piece of paper to show to the “Colectiveo Loader”, the man who puts people into the vehicles. But with Playa, I am going to the colectivo stand there so all I have to say is Playa. I get the last seat in the van. Strange that it is not the back seat. But I soon find out why. The air conditioner is dripping water on me.
It is a very slow drip. It gets even slower when the driver turns on the air conditioning. Colectivos regularly stop to let passengers on and off so I am soon able to move to he seat behind mine, no drip there. The drive takes about an hour. It is always a little nerve wracking to know where to get out. I have never taken a colectivo to Playa, always used the ADO bus in the past. Mexicans use the colectivos, tourists the bus, so I often think I have a better chance of conversation with a seat mate on the bus. After many stops and turns we finally arrive at the colectivo parking lot on 2d street. Of course I have had google maps on for the last 10 minutes, just to be sure I am not being taken onto the next town. I am now walking the 3 blocks to the main drag, 5th avenue. There are 100 people lined up? What are they waiting for? I ask a young man and he says Tulum. It is a van to the caves where people swim. Would be a fun way to do sometime instead of the bus tours that the tourists go on.
Only one of the good beer places is open for lunch and I have a little while before it opens and it is a long way away. Walking 5th Avenue is almost the highlight of Playa. You are with a Pod. You are part of a group of tourists who are going north. You stop and look at something, they stop, but again and again you are walking with the same groups. Barkers stand in front of their stores and try to sell everything, especially massage. I try to attach myself to a group so that they have to do the reflecting, they have to say no thank you and then I am treated as being under the same no thank you and can avoid having to do the rejecting myself. If I do have to do it, I often use the manana idea. I’ll be back tomorrow.
I really like my lunch place, PUERTO COCINA URBANA. It is hard to find. No one knows about it. Last year I not only got to watch a wonderful group of children with parents but even got to talk to a young woman. No such luck this time. And, they were even out of a number of the beers on the menu.
A three beer lunch. I was even able to use tompears.com. I could bring up a picture of last year’s lunch and the waiter could tell me where those items were on the menu. This place is up at 34th street. My next target was in Playacar Center, all the way at the other end of town, and was called Barra Artesanal. I got a taxi and negotiated a rate. The target was in a gated community but the driver could get us in and dropped me off at the edge of a mall? and there was Barra Artesanal.
Barra was only a shed with bar stools and a few picnic tables to the right. A group of Germans showed up and the bar tender dealt with them. They settled at a the picnic tables, very happy that they could smoke. There were only a few beers on draft. A nice selection but the real win was the bartender.
Sorry I only get him bending over! He is from Argentina. He is only in Mexico on a tourist visa so he is not allowed to work. He will soon get off his shift and go to the beach. A very personable young man. I am sure I knew lots more about him a week ago but now it is all gone. We did talk about women and he though the Venezuelan women were even more attractive than the Argentinian ones, of which there are a lot working in Playa.
I took a cab back to Playa 5th avenue and walked up to my next target, Colectivo Mexicano Cervecero. It is up about 40th street and only opens at 4pm. In fact, maybe the sign on the door said 4:30 thought the internet says 4pm. I settled in on the stoop outside, read, and enjoyed the constant parade of tourists walking 5th Avenue. Finally I could hear activity behind the grate, the chain went up and the men started setting up tables on the porch.
I was able to order as sampler of 4 out of their 6. Even remembered to take a selfie.
This is the view out onto 5th Avenue
And one last one for the road. I again lucked out with the waiter. He normally leads diving trips and just showed up today to help a cousin. His English was beyond good. He said his parents had sent him from an early age to an English school in his home town, not that far from Mexico City. I asked if he was a strong swimmer and he had a stock line: “I just need to sink, not swim.” He also said this Colectivo establishment was run by the same people who ran my next stop, Club de la Cerveza. Club is one I enjoyed last year and is number 1 on everyone’s list. It is the only place I have seen that has a collection of beers anywhere close to my nightly home bar in Cancun, El Estradio.
Above is at Club. Note that I have started to eat as well as another great beer. I also had an enjoyable conversation. A man almost my age was drinking at another table alone and when he walked by me on the way to the bathroom, I somehow started to speak to him and asked him to join me and he did. He did not stay for a second beer but I learned a little. I probably learned a lot more than I can put down here because I did not write myself a note and have forgotten it! Mike was from Baltimore? and spent his life as a crime reporter for a local newspaper. He found Playa and now was living here.
Time to go home. I walked back to the colectivo pickup spot and was soon on my way. Luckily on the trip North, I can get off near my airbnb at Mall of America instead of having to ride all the way up to the ADO bus station and then come all the way back. This was the only night, as far as I can remember, when I did not go to dinner or El Estradio. I just had a bun of some kind, watched television, had my normal nuts, coolies, beers and turned in, ready for the 5:30 alarm.