After drunkfest 2008 and snorkle/zombie fest, Danger Girl decides that we need to go to Playa today. We get up (she shoe horns me outta bed), I gets my bacon on (which, by the way, was cut woefully short since the Mayans think you can’t eat bacon and breakfast after 10:30), and we wait for the bus.
After a short ride, we arrive at 5th Avenue, which is “the same as New York” says all the people that work here. Lies! First off, it’s like a bazaar. People are screaming “hey dude! Amigo! You come in my store, cheaper than Walmart”. I’ve never been offered so many pipes (for tobacco I’m sure). One dude told me he was a farmer and I needed to see his crops. Corn I’m sure. I declined since I didn’t want to get stolen and sold on the black market for stud purposes.
Danger Girl dragged me from store to store. Same junk, same dude telling us how awesome his junk was. The highlight of the day was drinking at a bar that had swings instead of bar stools. That was pretty sweet, and made the day go a little better.
So let’s talk about negotiating: our first experience in a store, Danger Girl found some ear rings she liked. Dude started in with 700 pesos. I’m like, “I think that’s like 65bux. Let’s leave.” Dude is like “no no, we make a deal. 650 pesos.” I say, “forget that sheeshnaw, we’re outta here.” He says “offer,” I say “400 pesos.” He gets pissed, but wraps it up. Secretly, I still think Danger Girl got hosed, but at least not $65 hosed.
Round 2 was for some wooden carved items that were pretty cool. Dude was like “650.” I say, “No way 650. 150.” He laughs and says “hand made, look at the quality. 600.” I say, “best I can do is 250,” and show him some money. He talks to his guys a bit and comes back with 300. Game on.
After a while, it becames apparent that we could talk down any price, but that got tiring after a while … Plus I hate shopping. So I’m all ready to go, but there’s no way we’re paying for a cab … And the bus doesn’t come back for an hour. So we stop at an “authentic” Mexican restaurant (lie) for beer and tacos. First of all, the beer was awesome (cold and full of alcohol). Second, the tacos were 65 pesos (5ish bucks) and were as big as a silver dollar. Not bad tasting, but mega tiny.
The bus comes, it’s standing room only since it’s the last one of the night. We roll back to the Sandos for drinking and whatnot.
Final word on Playa: it was cool if you like that sort of thing. It felt like a tropical version of Pidgeon Forge with less go-carts. In my mind, you go to a place like Playa for the culture and latitude. Just like you go to Gatlinburg for the Smokey Mountains.
But … I guess there is a buck to be had. As such, it is a tourist trap of mega proportions and swiftly turning into more of a resort town than it already is. The mega resorts are outside of town proper, but as we deviated from the recommends path (into the “ghetto and bario” as our driver put it) every other building was under construction and becoming a hotel of some sort. I guess it won’t be long before the whole area is a scripted experience. It felt a lot like being at Disney or Vegas, where the real world existed somewhere under the thick vaneer of bright pastel paint and behind the stacks cheap sombreros.
All in all, an interesting experience, but I won’t be first in line tomorrow morning for the bus. 
. For now, it’s tequila time! Pix below.
Swinging at the bar
The "New York City" of Mexico, Playa del Carmen. Lies!!
Chips and salsa before we got the "authentic" tacos . . . all of this was a filthy lie.
Shopping. O' god,the horror!