Day 13: Friday The 13th, The Nightlife Of Playa Del Carmen & La Santanera
I made sure I slept in as long as I could today… Today was all about going out to the vibrant nightlife of the night in Playa Del Carmen and I needed to make sure that I was well rested. After having my breakfast which was more like a late lunch at Jugolandia, I headed to my usual Starbucks location to get some work done. I grabbed my cafe negro con leche (Black coffee with milk) and headed over to the patio. I sat down on the chair and was immediately approached by a woman who asked for some help to set up her wi-fi connection on the Starbucks network. She was visiting from Vancouver, Canada and she forgot her glasses at her resort. I willingly helped her connect and while I was at it, I disabled her roaming settings on her iPhone which was going to cost her a fortune when she got her bill. She was very thankful for that.
We started talking about her vacation in Playa Del Carmen. I told her about my blog and showed her the pictures and videos I took of Casa De Las Olas. She was excited to learn about the many things that most resort travelers will never know about. The resort travel industry operates like a cartel. They do their best to keep the destinations and tours that the guests know about well within their network. There is so much more I have learned about Playa Del Carmen outside of the tourist rings. I have met people who live in paradise for less then $100 a week. Most of them are way under the age of 65 and they are technically retired! If you pull in only $1000 a month through a remote business, you can live well in paradise.
I went into detail about my formulas on building businesses around lifestyle design. Her friend showed up and jumped in on the conversation. The entire Starbucks patio was now transformed into a lifestyle design 101 lecture. A young woman jumped in and took the front row seat. She asked question after question and appeared to be very fascinated on the topic of lifestyle design. Millie is originally from England but now month after month, she spends her time in Mexico as a go-go dancer for events like BPM and shows like Coco Bongo.
Sitting with her was Connie. Connie is Cancun and Playa’s hub of the socialites. Connie pulled out her iPad and began to show me behind the scene photos of Playa Del Carmen and Cancun’s hottest events including the massive spring break events that she organizes. Connie lives a million lifetimes in one human life, I thought to myself.
Connie and I agreed to meet up at a later point. Connie is the vortex for the nightlife and party scene here in Playa. I had to go pick up my laundry up from the Lavanderia and head back to my place to get ready for a night out with friends in downtown Playa. I had to be at Alexandra’s house at 12am to meet up with her and Maria along with two friends visiting from Finland who were traveling around South America seeking adventure.
I arrived at Alexandra’s place at round 12am. We all shared a few glasses of wine and headed out. The entire crew walked down 2nd ave notre towards the club district. Alexandra yelled out for a cab and we all jumped in. Within a few minutes we were dropped off in front of Coco Bongo and the night’s adventures began. We began to hop from venue to venue in the warm night. Palazzo is the latest addition to the lineup of clubs in Playa. Palazzo boasts a stylish facade of purple lights and a spiral staircase which enters into a massive room with a sunken dance floor and hundreds of party goers jumping to the “top 40” club sounds. Lounges decorated with white couches filled the parameters. The crowd was mixed and ranged from 20 somethings to early 30 somethings.
We walked over to Sky Lounge, a shisha bar that played some good music downstairs with a DJ and on the second level, people gathered around the lounge sofas enjoying cocktails and smoking the shisha. Alexandra and I enjoyed some Margaritas while Maria and Anu enjoyed some Pina Coladas. Pekka, Anu’s boyfriend was enjoying a beer while we talked about psychedelic trance. Psychedelic trance is a rare form of electronic music that is very popular at the beach raves in Goa, India. It can also be called Goa Trance. After a few drinks at the Sky Lounge we headed towards BlueParrot. Blueparrot is a massive outdoor nightclub which hosted some of the hottest Djs from around the world at the BPM Festival, just a week earlier. We walked in to check it out and then hit the streets again as the massive venue looked empty mainly due to it’s sheer size. It was now 3am and the right time to head over to Santanera!
We managed to squeak past the massive lineup thanks to Alexandra. The club was very dark, typical for an after hours spot. Anu, Maria and Pekka had to go back home for a moment to take care of a few things. Alexandra and I walked up to the rooftop patio to grab some drinks. The décor of Santanera was a cross between a tribal feel and a witchdoctor’s dwelling. A shiny porcelain statue of a Puma sat dead center posing in an aggressive stance. It sat on a stage of yellow lights glowing through a stained glass surface, surrounded by a circular lounge chair complete with throw pillows. Dangling from the ceiling were gigantic tribal masks with long straw protruding from them. The setting was perfect for the silky, smooth rhythmic sounds coming from the huge speakers.
We headed downstairs after a while where we found our way through the jumping crowd, arriving right in front of the DJ booth. A tag team duo of DJs rocked the turntables orchestrating the crowd to the deep music from highs to lows and to the occasional explosion of cheers as they passed around a 40oz bottle of Jack Daniels. Maria showed up and left early. We left at 5am and headed back home. La Santanera was everything I expected and more.
