We're corralled into a taxi at the airport, as this is yet another city that bans uber from airport pickups. Taxi unions naturally want to protect their racket, and they hard sell you the moment you step through the departure gate doors. It is what it is.
The hotel I've booked is not as close to the water as I thought, and the street looks a bit run down, but that's part of the downtown charm. Grimey backalleys and hole-in-the-wall restaurants remimd me of Korea.
We take a walk for dinner and find a cool Pizza spot. Even one pizza is to much for the two of us! That's a stein below, for reference. The stein was not too much for me.
We take a walk towards the lively area nearby the restaurant. We find a cool market, with lots of things we'll probably be back for later.
Today, we head to the major market nearby, Mercado 28. Everyone is so friendly, wanting to say hello, invite us into their shops, introduce us to their family, marry their first born, and most importantly sell you something for almost free.
We grab a couple things and proceed to ignore most of their attempts to hold us for ransom. There's an outlet store nearby where I won't have to haggle or endure the sales attempts from this market. One kid tried to sell us a t-shirt for 450 ($40-ish) pesos! We laughed and walked away.
We grab a bite to eat and pop to the hotel for a quick break before catching an uber to the beach.
It looks like a storm is brewing, but the ominous columus' pass by overhead without issue. The beach looks lovely. Playa Das Pealas lies in the hotel zone, has lovely white sand, plenty of shade, and surprisingly no other tourists.
The water is the warmest ocean water I've ever experienced - less than a meter deep, and easily heated by the 33 degree sunny weather. It's a bit stoney underwater, and there's a fair bit of natural debris from the carpets of seaweed-stuff, but chilling here is exactly what we needed nonetheless. We're off to a local seafood restaurant tonight, and tomorrow we're touring Chichen Itza!
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