Since we arrived here in Playa del Carmen in November, we've gradually built a list of favorite restaurants. Recently we tried two different places, both of which proved worthy of adding to our "list". PapaCharly Pasta FactoryThis small, unassuming place is just a short walk from our rental. It's well-loved by visitors and Playa residents, and we could see why. Although its name sounds like something you might find in a shopping mall in the US, don't let the name fool you. The food is authentic Italian, prices are reasonable, and the rustic setting is simple and charming. PapaCharly (their Facebook page) is the real deal! To start, the house vino blanco and vino tinto were very nice. Lovely fresh-baked bread accompanied our meal. We normally prefer to avoid white bread, but this was so good that we succumbed to its charms. Mmmmmm.... The menu includes a variety of pastas that you can customize from a long list of fillings and sauces. If you order cannelloni, as I did, you can order two different fillings. I chose one with spinach and cheese and the other with mushroom filling. My sauce choice was pesto. The bubbling hot dish was absolutely HUGE, and I was able to take home half of it for another dinner, making the price I paid even more reasonable. Barry tried the ravioli with spinach & cheese filling and a spicy Arrabbiata sauce. It tasted as good as it looked! To finish off our Italian feast, we just had to stop at Amo Gelato (which I introduced in this blog post) on the way back; it's right around the corner! La Cueva del ChangoI had to put the name of this charming place into the Spanish to English language translator to find that it means "Cave Monkey". Their logo includes an adorable spider monkey. The restaurant (their web page) is hidden among the jungly (a word?) trees, providing the perfect intimate setting. I'd read such good reviews I was excited to try it, and it didn't disappoint. The homemade salsas were all incredibly good. The red and green salsas were mild but with great depth of flavor, and a tiny bit of the brilliant orange habanero salsa went a long way! Barry started with this gorgeous salad, which I think was my very favorite thing we tried; yes, he shared some! Chopped salad greens were topped with goat cheese, pecans, and a balsamic vinaigrette, and the entire salad was ringed with the sweetest little grapefruit sections I'd ever tasted. YUM! I will definitely be ordering this next time. For our entrees, I tried a shrimp/chile dish served with fried plantain chips and a small salad. It was all very good, though I would have liked a few more shrimp. That was my only slight complaint about this very good meal. Barry had the chicken breast mole with stewed beans and rice and seemed to like it very much. Prices were quite reasonable for what we got, and the setting and service were both perfect. Chiltepin MarisquillosAlthough we've been to this casual Mexican seafood place quite a few times now, we've been pretty much stuck on getting the delicious shrimp tostadas every single time. The tostadas are really, really good, but wanting a change of pace, I decided to try the seafood "cazuela" this time. It wasn't like a typical US-style casserole, but more of a seafood soup. Served in a traditional Mexican cazuela (I wondered a little about lead), the flavor was very rich, and it was packed with all kinds of seafood -- shrimp, fish, crab, and even octopus! Some was in the shell, though, which made it a bit challenging to eat. I sprinkled it liberally with the fresh cilantro and chopped onions that accompanied it. It was a nice choice for a cool night! So, our restaurant list continues to grow; Playa del Carmen is a foodie haven, and we are loving all the excellent eating!
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Yes, it's true! Way back in the spring in Prairie Village, Kansas, we hatched a plan to spend the winter somewhere warm. Warmer than Tucson, warmer than Florida, warmer than southern California. We settled on Playa del Carmen, in Quintana Roo, Mexico, often referred to as "Playa"; however, playa is actually the generic term for beach in Spanish. Although we'd never visited Playa del Carmen, we'd thoroughly enjoyed our time in this part of Mexico (Tulum and Mérida) when we visited in 2012, so we thought we'd give it a try. It would be a quicker trip from the US with Paisley (flight time to Cancun is only 2 hours, 6 minutes from Atlanta), and an air-conditioned van would drive us all down to our rental rather than having to take a second flight. It's all about Paisley, after all! Here she is riding under the seat on our flight down on November 1. She is a great little traveler. Since we are aware that lots of travelers do it, we challenged ourselves to travel light for this trip and bring only what we really needed. We'd not check baggage, and we'd buy inexpensive bikes once we got here. My personal item was my small pack (instead of a purse) with both our little travel laptops, plus our digital cameras, cords, and chargers. Barry's personal item was Paisley in her travel kennel. I did wish I'd brought a rolling suitcase rather than a large backpack, though. My shoulders were killing me by the time we'd gone through immigration and Sargapa (the entity that approves pets for entry into Mexico). The lines for immigration and customs were long as throngs of travelers arrived in Cancun -- it was a Saturday, after all. But we made it, tired but happy. I don't think Barry's bag was quite as full as mine -- or perhaps it just looks smaller because he's bigger than I am! We knew that Playa del Carmen might be a bit busy and touristy for our tastes, but we found a rental outside the tourist district, since we do enjoy "the real Mexico" and experiencing the local culture. Although we do miss the oceanfront living we enjoyed on Ambergris Caye, Belize, there is something special about the vibrancy of a city locale. There's a school across the street from us where we can hear the cheerful voices of children singing in the morning, and we can walk to multiple grocery stores, restaurants, and other businesses in a few block radius. There are people on the street at all times of day and into the evening: walking, riding bicycles, and talking. Vendors ride by on bicycles selling "agua" (drinking water) and other items. And there are children laughing and playing in the afternoons over at the school. Their voices filter through the screened windows and doors of our rental and remind us that we're not in the USA any longer! There's a lovely fruit and veggie stand, DAC, just a couple of blocks down, along with the huge "Mega" grocery store -- we've been frequenting that a lot in our first few days here as we stock the kitchen with foods and beverages we enjoy. And we discovered a close by open-air restaurant serving incredibly healthy meals on our first night in the city. Here we are having packed-with-veggie burritos and delicious freshly squeezed juices -- carrot for me and a blend of carrot, tomato, cucumber, celery, and lime for Barry. Prices in this part of town are much lower than on 5th Avenue, the main tourist "drag", so we can afford to eat out more often. We haven't done much at the beach yet and aren't the "laying out" types, but we have walked down a couple of times to take a look. We're several blocks away, but it's a nice walk and lovely, of course, though it's not as wide and luscious as the beach in Tulum or else we have always hit it at high tide. Very possible. We feel so incredibly lucky to be able to pass the winter in such an amazing place and to have a lifestyle that allows us to do so. It was cold and windy the morning we flew out of Atlanta, with temperatures in the 30s and a chilling northwest breeze, and that made landing here all the sweeter. We will try very hard not to take this place for granted, even when the inevitable difficulties and frustrations crop up.
Please stay tuned...we'll be bringing you a lot more from our new locale (for now)! |
Emily & BarryWe're a long-married, early-retired couple who are currently traveling as nomads with no fixed home base. After years of living in North Carolina (Emily's home state), we spent 18 months living oceanfront on Ambergris Caye, Belize, a year road-tripping the US in a Honda CR-V, a year in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, and are now roaming North America in our 32' motorhome, Pearl, following warm weather whenever possible. Archives
July 2019
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