Valledolid Weekend

You can bet in Mexico every month there is some kind of vacation...March 21st is one, I think they celebrate the beginning of Spring...well after a long cold winter it is normal (!) . Anyway they move the holiday to a Monday so that the well off population of Mexico can take a long weekend.

So here we are en route to Valledolid that we visited 10 years ago when the kids were still in the "planet of the non-born kids". Very charming colonial town about 2 1/2 hours away from Playa. We get, I think, the best room of the hotel with full view on the square just accross the street from the main church. The hotel "Meson del marques" is an old colonial building with a great internal courtyard.

Next day we went to visit the ruins of Ek-Balam...great archeological site with the pyramids almost attached to each other and in the middle of the jungle. We also climb up the main Pyramid with the kids, they stopped 3/4 of the way and we go up to the top (not both at the same time!) the view from up is spectacular...this Maya knew what they were doing.

We proceed to Tizimin, really just because the guide said there is a great pizza place (to make sure the kids would eat), but forgot to mention that the pizza is prepared only at night. So out of desespoir, we buy incredible fresh bread and other cakes and we go to the local park and do what the Tiziminian do: take a stroll, let the kids run at the playground and look a the sorry looking animals in very little cages. The best part been the cement slide and for Oscar borrowing the skateboard of a kid and almost breaking his neck.

Next day, we were not planning it, but we decided to revisit Chichen-Itza and then you realize how much your memory fades over the years. I remembered the main pyramid but I had not really recollection of all the other structures around to the point hat I think there were not open to the public. (To be checked)

Even if hyper-touristic it is totally worthed. The trick is too get there early so to avoid the crowd. We don't really get tired to see ruins, it is not like back in NY we will get the chance to see archeological site! Plus it is great exercise for the legs, next day you really feel it.

For the kids the highlight of the trip was renting the battery powered cars in Velledolid square and go around like crazy trying to avoid any human being that had the bad idea to come their way.

We can not go without going to see the two cenotes recommended, not impressive but still nice to take a look.

We are back in Playa with our new buildings everywhere..it was good to breath a little history.

Playa Society

Alain likes to say that in Playa there are : the high society wannabes and the help, and I should mention the tourists which is the reason why the two previous mentioned groups are here. So when you go to an event you see the same people to the previous event, and everybody is so conforted by the fact they have been invited.

It is not about meeting new people it is about seeing the same people!

On the top of it your picture get printed on the paper and there you are a playa celebrity or better someone in the "inner" circle.

After 8 months in Playa I realize I could not go somewhere without meeting someone that I know and that knows of me...how could people manage to have extra-marital affair???

Well I guess they go to Colosio (the poor neighbourhood), at least the men, and before they know they have impregnated a 20 years old that hopes to get married to the well-off guy and move to the nice neighbourhood!

It is strange to see how this fishing village where people would move to for a different type of life it is becoming this little bourgeois enclave.

The kids have to follow the trend, going to the right school, right after-school activities and right friends. Well all you want is that are not showing up with a Colosio partner....let me tell you very little chance that it is going to happen!

The "help" comes mainly from Chiapas, they need to leave their ID at the gate of Playacar when they come and clean houses and attend kids. They speak and incomprensible Spanish to me, they are mainly nice and sometimes have no idea how to clean and sometimes they don't show up but there is nothing to argue or to say, they work for little money and they retain the freedom of having little and needing little! I don't think they have mortgages to pay...

The rule of thumb is the whiter you are the richer you are...only 8% of the population is white in Mexico and they are all in government, in business, and in parties!

In Playa they are the foreigners which make it a little confusing but basically they are a bunch of people as my grandfather used to say : they want to fart higher than their behind (loosly translated from French).

Having said that we are glad to have come here, to have a winter with no cold and a time to think about where we went to be, and above all show the kids that we are in our 40s but still adventurous and fun (expecially me!).

Merida and around

Believe or not after 6 months we made it outside the borders of Quintana Roo and went for an "adventure" to Yucatan State. Merida is the kind of city you want to visit in the winter with 80 degrees but with little humidity vs. in summer 90 degrees with 200% humidity.
So here we go in direction to the colonial city, we got in a hotel in the center that was recommanded but not really our taste: a once to be grand hotel that was suffering a lack of renovation. We stayed the first night and then we moved to this incredibly charming convent restored in a hotel.
We spent our first day in Merida visiting the Centenial Park, where there is a zoo and all kind of "small people" attractions. The was a large variety of animals confined in small spaces, the only good part is that M & O got to see the zebra and giraffe very close. We were not trying to be politically correct here!
Next day, we went to Celestun crossing little forgotten towns with "Big Yellow Station" (very important detail for O). Celestun is kind of forgotten too if it were not for the natural reserve close by where entire community of pink flamingo and pelicans are waiting for the visitors. I should not forget to mention that Alain got stuck litteraly in the mud in the dead forest in the reserve.
In this democratically family of ours: the first day was dedicated to the kids, second day a choice for everybody, third day was supposed to be for us. We got to see all there is to see in Merida which is basically around the Central Square. The Cathedral, the Museum, another building with paintings representing the history of Mexico and the house of Montejo that has become a bank!
Then there is the famouse Montejo Avenue with beautiful villas, it is a mini-Champs Elysees without the charm.
The saturday night is very lively for people that don't have 5 years old following asleep normally at 8. But in our way to the hotel, carrying the two animals, there were bands and people dancing in the streets.
We also voted Cafe Cabana the best capuccino in town and the waffle discovery for the kids.
Lunch and dinner were a little thougher except in Celestun were the fish was delicious.
It is Monday already so on our way back Home we stopped at Izamal, the yellow city, where the oldest convent in Mexico is situated and the city is all painted in yellow. Very picturesque!

Happy 2007

Little update

It has been a very long while, but we had a lot of coming and going of friends and family and there was no time for the blog! Plus, now I am working on raisingthem so my free time is GONE. I am still retaining my hour of mental sanity at yoga.

Car Wash
Let’s start with the most important task of the day: we wash the car after 6 months of sand, thunderstorm and various encounters with puddles of different shape and depth. I realize that in itself is not incredible news but if your neighbors have two always spotless SUV you feel you have to make an effort. It is kind of funny that they have someone cleaning their car frequently and in between the man of the house does some extra cleaning himself!

Well we have our beat up WV Pointer, the least we can do was sponge her up a little.

The top favorite beaches of the moment

We spent today at the beach in Paamul where we had not been for a while (sorry to have to remind you that we are in February and we are in the 80s. Matthias keeps on saying that we are in the spring, then summer but winter never comes to his mind.)

Over the months we have discovered the beaches of Tulum, Los Arrecifes with an unpretentious restaurant, small cabanas and bungalow is a top favorite. The place was adviced to me by Camilla (Italian neighbor long time resident of Tulum). It is a great place to be, relax and take super long walk (the beach is 10 km. long). The atmosphere in Tulum is a lot more ecological and cool than Playa and all you see is palm trees and sea…how awful!

Now they also add a trampoline…there is a tree house and swings…say no more…is M & O favorite as well.

First guests O and M size

Last week with Chiara, Jo, Nicolas and Alex we made it to Coba. Incredible archeological site at 50 km. from Tulum. We have a lot of fun, it was a gorgeous day and we walk all the way to the big pyramid. We went up the Steepy Steps (well not all of us, the under five and the one who are carrying an under five where allowed only the first 20 steps). The others were able to enjoy an incredible view above the jungle. The way the kids start been tired and we promess we were going to hire “the man with the bike”

December 2, 2006

Steve spent an American vacation with us that means a long weekend…the time was short and we try to make the most out of it and make sure he left with the taste of American prohibitionism (smoking a cuban?) and a little overview of Playa.

November 12, 2006

It has been a while but we have been running around

First we had a week busy with a failed adoption of a baby cat. A little kitten than we discovered 3 weeks old that become for 5 days 9and nights) part of our household. She was cute, determined and very vocal. I took her to the vet, we bought milk, bottle and all the paraphernalia and then the mother come and claim her! I was not home but Alain open the front door and the mother heard her baby calling she come pick her up and took her. This “overprotective mother”! Ah!
We were sad to see her go, our Benny and especially Isa could not believe that finally they had possession of the house again, she did not like the arrival of the intruder….


We went through our first Halloween in Mexico full of American flavor. We went trick and threat in the residential neighborhood in Playacar, Matthias as a Knight and Oscar has a Pirate, even if he kept on saying that he was Oscar and not a pirate!

In Xcaret the eco-park close by home they were organizing a free cultural event about the day of the dead tradition. They were people dressed up as dead people, crafts, food and shows. Well we were pretty exhausted.

The first week of November was a pretty rainy week and the “nonni” arrived. The indoor activities are limited at the movie and indoor playground activities.

On Saturday finally we made it to Tulum, the archeological site is in a beautiful spot overlooking the cost but we had such a different memory of that visit. The place was a lot more organized, but we got there with the tourists and most of that archeological construction could not be climbed. We did not even swim at the beach down the there, way too many tourists! So we went to Playa Paraiso that really deserve its name! Splendid beach with coconut tree and a fancy beach club.

It has been a while!

Finally we got to try the beach of Playacar Phase I, close to home, unknown to the general public and deserted even on Sunday. They have a little beach club where they let you take your own food as long as you also order drink from there. Too bad on Sunday the cook did not show up and we did not have that much food! We find a Mexican way out of starvation, the waiter called the restaurant of the time share houses (Fisherman’s: our first encounter with Time Share sharks) near by that provided the required calories for our little group. On the beach there are mango tree (I think it is mango) where the kids had a lot of fun and we felt less guilty to let them under the sun in the middle of the day.

I little geo-social history of Playacar: they build Playacar Phase I attached to Playa del Carmen as an exclusive residential area with beautiful villas overlooking the beach. Well it is at least great for the villas right on the beach, the one on the back have no panorama been the terrain very flat. Later they developed Phase II, attached to Phase I, built around a golf course. There are villas, apartments, row houses (like ours), for residents and tourists. The hotels are by the beach and the residents of Phase II have free access to the beach and the facilities of the hotels.

So the beach club of Phase I was initially for the residents of the Sunset Fisherman Time Share. Not having enough business with them they open up the place to people from outside (but no one knows… and we are not about to tell!).

November 12, 2006

First we had a week busy with a failed adoption of a baby cat. A little kitten than we discovered 3 weeks old that become for 5 days 9and nights) part of our household. She was cute, determined and very vocal. I took her to the vet, we bought milk, bottle and all the paraphernalia and then the mother come and claim her! I was not home but Alain open the front door and the mother heard her baby calling she come pick her up and took her. This “overprotective mother”! Ah!
We were sad to see her go, our Benny and especially Isa could not believe that finally they had possession of the house again, she did not like the arrival of the intruder….


We went through our first Halloween in Mexico full of American flavor. We went trick and threat in the residential neighborhood in Playacar, Matthias as a Knight and Oscar has a Pirate, even if he kept on saying that he was Oscar and not a pirate!

In Xcaret the eco-park close by home they were organizing a free cultural event about the day of the dead tradition. They were people dressed up as dead people, crafts, food and shows. Well we were pretty exhausted.

The first week of November was a pretty rainy week and the “nonni” arrived. The indoor activities are limited at the movie and indoor playground activities.

On Saturday finally we made it to Tulum, the archeological site is in a beautiful spot overlooking the cost but we had such a different memory of that visit. The place was a lot more organized, but we got there with the tourists and most of that archeological construction could not be climbed. We did not even swim at the beach down the there, way too many tourists! So we went to Playa Paraiso that really deserve its name! Splendid beach with coconut tree and a fancy beach club.

Accident and finally getting mad at Mexicans

October 14, 2006


One morning very diligently, as every morning, I take M and O to school, I just pass the gate at a speed 2 km/h and I hit a man on a bicycle. Ok I had the scare of my life, I hit his leg with my bumper but he seemed ok. I offered to take him to the doctor, bring him some ice but he say he was ok and he asked me my phone number in case something was wrong. Well, off he goes with his bike… but sure enough in the afternoon he calls me saying that he is at the doctor, he needed 5000 pesos (500 dollars) as a deposit for the medical bills. Ok the “scam” antenna start going in function. I run at “Julieta to the rescue” to try to understand the unwritten law. Anyway, after some brainstorming we call the insurance, the insurance guy “deus ex-machina” arrives, solves the problem with the injured person and pays all the damage. The poor injured guy was standing up but clearly something was not quite right with his leg. He was nice and I hated to have been the bad foreigner who hit him but it was clearly a stupid accident and that’s why we have insurance (which are not compulsory in Mexico).

We need it to do a double of the car key. It required an overnight stay that was stretch out to a 72 hours stay and for the first I got mad in Spanish. I said that they were free to keep the car but I would have a rental paid by them. Julieta added another speech few hours later. The difference is that I get really frustrated she is just pretending! Anyway WV at Playa del Carmen now fear us…

Turtle go!
Saturday night after an afternoon at Paamul with the Taormina’s and the Casco’s (Lorenzo family) and at night we went to release the baby turtles to the sea. It involved some waiting and commotion and music way too loud (tecno liberacion, how my yoga instructor named it, she was also there but I did not see her). Each of us got a turtle, Matthias named his/her "Cancun", Oscar “Baby” and then we release them and hoping they would survive the wilderness. Out of 1000 only 2 survive! The kids were cheering for their turtle to get into the water. Lorenza’s one "Dynamite" was really fast. It was a great moment…

Few accidents

Friday night, I went with Julieta and Eli to another social event, the opening of Ultrafemme (a kind of Sephora), we got our usual, at this point, pictures from various local papers…it’s very funny and we finished the night at Carlos and Charlies a restaurant/dancing/pub/whatever/ favorite hangout.

I will mention our trip to Soliman Bay famous for a great restaurant on the beach (Oscar y Lalo) and for the lagoon where you can kayak. Well, the water was calm as a lake until we did not decide to start rowing to the next creek and there menacing waves out of nowhere started coming, it did not take long for us to flip over. The kids had life vests but they were a little confused about what was going on. Matthias was not happy and he did not want to row row anymore. Well we were able to get back in, by that time we were at the shore of the lagoon in between rocks and various vegetation. We manage to row a little further from the shore until we were back in the water. Well this time we put only the kids back in the kayak and we just swam. At that point, the rescue team arrives via land and via sea and we were saved!!! We compensate the kids for their courage with a brown ice-cream.

Should I mention our flat tire in the middle of the Carretera (Mexican highway ) fortunately not too far from home, the best part is that the spare tire was flat too…Julieta came to the rescue and after a pilgrimage from tire store # 1, to garage place, to store #2 back to the garage place where of course we were still missing a valve. We were able to solve that last problem with the guy at the garage that sent his helper to buy a valve down the block. After all that we were back with a new tire. At this point we decide to go to Mamita’s to eat at the beach and enjoy a calm afternoon under the sun after so much commotion.

Be aware of the word “Ahorita”, means in a little bit but my radar are always in action when I hear ahorita, it is a indefinable time between 10 second and 1 hour.

Birthday week

It is getting difficult to keep up with the blog but I really have to tell you about the lagoon we rediscovered in Akumal. We were in this Yal-ku lagoon in ’97 and we could not remember where it was. Alain bought on ebay Le Guide du Routard of '97 and at the same time in a website I found the name. So we brought the little inflated boat and we swim around the green emerald water. After the lagoon we went to join Vito’s family on Akumal beach. We went snorking and saw a turtle….huge turtle. On Sunday we discovered another beach north of Playa Sangri-La… well the blue blue water was there but on Sunday you get more “pueblo”, Sunday in every country you get the pueblo! (as Julieta says).

Matthias and Oscar went through their Mexican birthday, they had a little party in each of their classes (very unpractical for me) without mentioned that I had to buy 60 cupcakes and equal number of goody bags. It was nice to check out the classes atmosphere and see them integrated in their new school. Then on Friday we had a mini-party at home and Matthias loved to be 5, no more that business of been 4! Oscar enjoyed the multitude of little and big cars he had as presents.

Today we went to a new beach Coco Bay and after enjoy a quesadilla on a beach restaurant we went sailing for one hour. It was so relaxing that the kids were falling asleep even if the water was splashing on their faces. There is an incredible coral barrier but it was a little too wavy to real do good snorkeling. We are doing all the tours so that when the visitors show up we know the good spot.

First confirmed visitors Esther and Victor from Dec 1- to 12
My cousins more or less from middle of December to middle of January
Chiara and Family to be confirmed sometimes before December and so Stefania we hope pretty soon. Steve to be confirmed beginning of November.

Everybody else needs to confirm. The Alaimo-Jacquot is a popular destination!

Homework vs fun

This week we went through the homework drama, but finally they got done with whatever means were necessary: no homework…no swimming pool, no homework…no trip to the “big store” worked also. Saturday we were all relax and ready to go but the car indicated problems with the batteries. We went to a pilgrimage from Volkswagen dealership to a “big” garage to the pap and mom repair shop were actually the job got done the same day. Clearly the wife was in charge of money and communication, the men were just doing the job silently and obey the wife’s order to give us a lift back at home. I love this country! They are no argument and no “but” and “why me and not you”…everyone knows his role: wife talks husband executes.

So here we are on our way to Paamul to join Vito, Julieta and the kids. The beaches was beautiful, we did some snorkeling and only 15 min. away from Playa. we will definitely go back. On Saturday we were on out way to Puerto Aventuras, a new build town/resort/community I don’t even know how to defined it. It’s built around artificial lagoons and then there is a beautiful semi-deserted beach of white sands. In a way the place is totally artificial but pleasant to walk around with little stores and restaurant.
The big experience of Puerto Aventuras was to be with the dolphins. On our way there, Oscar had to do his usual drama but once we were in the water with dolphin "Valeria" everything got to be so much better. The kids were totally into it and I have to say that the animal is not intimidating at all. We got to do the real tourist stuff like buy the video and the picture of us with the dolphin.

Aktun Chen

We have been talking to the kids about going to see a "cave with no bears" all week so, here we are, Saturday 9.30 a.m. ready (finally) in the car on our way to this eco-park south of Akumal.

It is about 3 km off the main road in the middle of the jungle and we got to see 3 enormous cenotes full of stalactites and stalagmites. For details check http://www.aktunchen.com/. The kids loved it and of course the animals in the small zoo right outside the caves were the best part.

In the afternoon, we stopped at Akumal and relaxed on a beautiful beach with palm trees. It is an incredible bay: the water is super calm protected by a coral reef. It is Alain’s favorite beach so far because he has some shadow, and snorkeling is right there. Plus the kids can entertain themselves in the shallow water.

We had lunch by the beach and eating with your feet in the sand always feel like a vacation.