Day 7: First Saturday Night In Playa Del Carmen

I had moved my office to the courtyard today. I found that the wi-fi connection was a lot more solid down there. During my break, I gave a call to Liana. I wanted to meet up with her as she was leaving back for Milan tomorrow morning. We agreed to meet up at 6:30pm. Having only eaten breakfast this morning, I was starving and really looked forward to a good dinner. Before heading out, I had to make a phone call to one of my clients to discuss an email marketing and telecasts campaign she was running in Toronto on Monday. Andrea Winn has a spiritual coaching business. I have been providing her eCommerce work and internet business consultation to keep her project growing further. She shared with me today on how my blog has inspired her to fly over to Playa Del Carmen at the end of the month to work on projects and enjoy this city. I was thrilled to hear that! She will be heading down on the 24th and we will be spending some time together working and hanging out.

After my call with Andrea, I jumped on my bike and headed to the city. I met Liana an hour early as we crossed paths unexpectedly. “I have to get some souvenirs for some friends”, she told me. We walked together from store to store browsing the souvenirs, listening to pitch after pitch from the hard selling salesmen of the souvenir stands. That’s one of the reasons why I like going downtown. I see all the sales tactics at work, full force! It’s a source of entertainment for me and an indication that the Mexican salesmen and women work very hard for their money. I always say “thank you” for a pitch thrown my way. It’s my way of recognizing the hustle of selling souvenirs to the tourists to make a living. It’s not an easy job to maintain composure and keep moving forward when you face rejection after rejection. You’ll always miss 100% of the shots you don’t take said Wayne Gretzky.

Liana was happy to grab the souvenirs she wanted for her friends. At this point, we were starving. We strolled around looking for a restaurant I visited back in 2010, the last time I was in Playa. I could have sworn I saw it earlier this week. Liana repeatedly joked away about the restaurant, claiming that it was only part my imagination and that it did not exist. Determined to find it, we walked up and down 5th avenue until I eventually surrendered. “What the heck happened to this place, let’s go to the beach restaurant”, I told her, as we walked towards the beach and along the sand banks for a good ½ mile till we ended up at the restaurant. Liana was starting to show signs that she was really going to miss Playa. We grabbed a quick meal with a couple glasses of Margaritas and headed back towards 5th Avenue.“I have to take a shower and get ready, I did not expect to see you this early and I can grab my roommate also”, she said. “Yes of course, lets meet up at around 10pm”, I replied.

We parted ways and I started walking towards Coco Bongo. Malin, my Swedish friend was leaving Playa tomorrow for Mexico City. She stays right near Coco Bongo. I headed over to pay her a visit and wish her a safe journey. I walked over to a gated complex right behind a taqueria facing Coco Bongo. A security guard sat in front and observed me as I approached the gate. I told him that I was here to see Malin. He unlocked the gate and let me in to see her. “She is on the third level, in suite number 1”, he said. I walked upstairs and knocked on the door. Malin’s roommate answered the door. “Hi, I am Sara”, she greeted me. “come on in.” Malin was in the kitchen preparing some food. She was cutting up some cucumbers when she greeted me and said ”We decided not to leave today. We changed our plans and we are heading to South America instead, in a few days.”

Sara poured me a strong Rum and Coke and I stayed over at their place for about an hour, laughing hysterically at everything together and talking about finding good deals for places to stay in Playa. They scored their beautiful two bedroom place in the heart of downtown Playa Del Carmen for less then $700usd a month.”We will be here for a while, why don’t you come back” said Malin. Malin and Sara are fun to hang out with. Everything is a joke and life is a massive adventure for them. I told Malin that I was meeting Liana and it was her last day. Malin and Sara were still here for another few days, so I agreed to catch up with them at a later date. They were expecting more guests arriving shortly and were planning to hit the town tonight. Malin, a natural party hostess prepared guacamole, fresh tzatziki dip and other treats for the arriving guests. “Everyone here goes by Playa time”, she said. “People show up or they don’t show up, nobody commits to anything and everyone just goes with the flow.” This is true as I have observed it myself. For example, being an hour late for a meeting is considered being on time.

I headed over to meet up with Liana and her roommate. I waited for them at the Starbucks. They showed up on time. Liana apparently has not accustomed to Playa time as she was never late 😉 She introduces me to her roommate. Standing beside her was a long black haired, tanned Milano woman wearing a panama type hat with a feather lodged in it. “This is my roommate, Malu”, she said. Malu comes with an interesting story. She is a photographer and spontaneous traveler. She spent the last year touring the United States by herself in an RV. During her journey across the U.S, she crossed the border to come to Mexico and she was sent back to Nevada by the Mexican border control. It seems that a woman traveling on her own with a gigantic RV from the U.S to Mexico, who is originally from Europe, raises some eyebrows… “I sold my RV for $10,000 when I paid $21,000 for it.”, Malu explained. “It didn’t really matter, I let go of materials easily”, she continued.

I told Malu about what I was doing in Playa Del Carmen. “One month is too little in Playa. What can you possibly write about in one month?”, she said. Malu and I stood there verbally sparring back and forth for 20 minutes while Liana stood there observing the rising tension. After going at with the impression that we were simply not going to get along, we stopped. I had officially earned Malu’s respect. “Lets go”, said Malu. “I have a friend who will pick us up and we will can go out for drinks”

We headed up the street to wait for Fabio. Fabio is a good friend of Malu. We waited there at the corner of the street as we talked about Malu’s travels and adventures. Malu would periodically take out her camera and snap photos of just about anything.”I ran out of money during my adventures, so now I have to work”, she joked. “What do you do for work?”, I asked. “I sell my photography down here in restaurants, galleries and wherever”, she replied. Fabio showed up with his car and we all jumped in it.

We headed to a spot that Liana really wanted to go to. Alux cave, an real cave turned into a lounge. The candle lit rock staircase heads down to the cave and Alux emerges within the depths of a naturally formed cavern. The restaurant’s interiors have metamorphosed for thousands of years to create the visual spectacle of countless stalactites and flowstones.

We headed up there to witness a gigantic line up that wrapped around the venue. BPM was here tonight and there is no way we were getting in. We decided to head back to Downtown Playa and find a spot down there. We parked the car and proceeded to walk to a hotel with glowing red lights on the outside and blaring house music in the inside. We walked in to witness mannequins, cages and lounges that looked like little bedrooms with suggestive mannequins in them. We walked up the stairs witnessing with awe, floor by floor of décor like no other in Playa, to say the least… We snapped pictures of everything. Hotel Reina Roja is an interesting place. The hotel bears the name of an ancient Mayan princess whose corpse was found to have absorbed the red color inside her tomb. Red was a sacred color to the ancient Mayans. They used it to tint their pyramids and also as body paint. The hotel has a fetishistic and sadomasochist feel. It stirs up strong feelings of awe, interest and shock all at once.

After walking around and taking some photos, we sat down in the red glowing lounge downstairs to talk and enjoy a few more Margaritas. We stayed there for a few hours and headed out. Liana had to wake up at 7am to catch a bus to Cancun airport. Fabio drove us all back a few blocks south to Malu’s house. After jumping out of Fabio’s car, I noticed a banner on his back window that said “Asistencia Y Rearacion De Computadoras” I asked him if he worked for a computer repair business. “No”, he replied, “this is my own.” He told me that he had plans to open up a computer repair shop in Playa Del Carmen but finding good partners was hard in this city he explained.”You gotta be careful of people here who just want to take your money”, he continued. I told him that we would catch up later next week and talk.

Liana was very sad to leave. She had an amazing 11 days here in Playa Del Carmen. A tear ran down her cheek as we all said good night. “Come to Milan”, she said as more friends joined the group.”I will…”, I told her as I walked away. I headed up 5th Avenue, passing the club district. It was 2am and everyone down there was livelier then ever. Nights in Playa go on till the wee hours of the morning. Hundreds of tourists from the resorts arrive by the bus loads, ready to hit the nightclubs. It is not only like this on Saturday nights, but it is like this every single night of the year. In Playa Del Carmen, every night is a Saturday night.