Tim & Denise Tiner Travels: 2016 - Playa Del Carmen

Our second day was a really fun day. The night of sleeping was pretty bad. Believe it or not, we were cold all night. We only had two sheets on us...no blanket....and we were cold all night. But there is nothing that we could do. No one lives here. As a matter of fact, Denise and I are the only one's here tonight as I write this. I've stayed in a good number AIRBNB places. But the hospitality of the host is not a good one. Their place is clean and nice...but when talking to our kids...who are having a great experience with their host....it is night and day. Our breakfast...small glass of juice...a plate of fruit, Melba toast...and that is it. No filtered water to fill our bottles up with anywhere in the house once the maids leave. It is quite bad. I've sent a few emails to the host...no response. Oh well. I will not provide a good review. The kids...their host has rolled out the red carpet for them. Great breakfasts, hails their cabs, gives them great info...really there to host and accommodate. We are wishing that we were with them. And they paid much less than us. Our only advantage was that we are a bit closer to the ocean...one block. They are maybe 3 blocks away...once they were given a key to a gate to cut through the neighborhoods. One more night and then we are on a 5 star resort, which Dustin says is just wonderful.

After breakfast, we decided that we all could not fit into a cab. So the kids caught their own cab to XPLOR park. We walked down to a hotel a few blocks away and found taxi's there. So off we went to this amusement type park...which had basically 5 activities...zip lines (14 stops), Amphibious vehicles that took you all over this place and into underground caves, a raft float through caves, swimming a river that went through caves and a buffet...finally some good food for Denise and I. Each of those things took about 1.5 hours to do. We got started at about 10 AM and we left at about 5 PM. We hit the buffet at lunch and for dinner...just before closing. Pretty nice. All of the attractions were a part of the cost...other than paying the entrance fee...no other costs. Pretty nice. And....it was SOOOOO fun. Zip Lining was amazing. Lots of spiral staircases. Denise did amazing with her newly repaired knees. I never thought I would like Zip Lining...but it was fun. All of it was so fun. The day went by so fast. I'd recommend this to anyone who likes these types of adventures.

Upon leaving the XPLOR park we tried to hail a cab to take us to two locations in Playacar. A guy directing Taxi traffic hailed a van that we all could get in. He told us it would be 400 pesos. It would have been 200 for each car if we would have jumped in two taxis. So we jumped in the van. As we pulled out the driver asked how much we were told it would be. When I said 400 pesos, he hit the brakes and said he could not do it for that. We said, take us back then. So back we went to get into two distinct taxis....which we did. So illogical...but apparently their rule is a van is 400 pesos and they can only make one stop...even though the 2nd stop is fairly close to it. Oh well...we made it back to our BNB.

After a bit, the kids found a path to get to our place and we headed out to the beach in hopes to see Dustin and Kerri. We booked these BNB's thinking they were close to his resort. Turns out...we are not. It is a lot farther than we realized...a good half to three quarters of a mile down the beach. So we probably will be taking a taxi to their hotel tomorrow. We did meet up with. Dustin and Kerri down the beach as the sun went down. It was good to see them. They had a good day sorting their wedding day out. They found out that it is going to be a lot cheaper than originally planned. So they are really happy about that. All their guests are arriving with everyone being here by tomorrow night.

After visiting with them a few minutes, we slowly walked down the beach and back to our BNB. Tomorrow is the day we have been working for...at least us scuba divers. We will make our first ocean dive. We are all excited..yet nervous. I need to get some rest tonight and stay hydrated. We'll see how that goes.

Some pictures from today.....

Casa Almendra...where Denise and I are staying.

Quick little walk in the morning. The 'road' behind me is where the kids went last night and jumped a fence. It is actually not a road...but a driveway now. But Google still thinks it is a road through. Funny....