This is our fourth trip to Playa and our first trip report. Usually we start out in Playa and move around and then come back to Playa for the last few days. This year though we decided to spend most of our two weeks on Isla Mujures. We had popped over for a day trip one year with our kids and liked its feel. This year about half way through our stay, we had made plans to go to the Peanut Pet Shelter for bath day, which we were really looking forward to.
Isla Ferry Dock
We woke early on Isla as the sun was starting to come up - walked about six blocks to the ferry (35 pesos each way) and found ourselves in Cancun by 7:30 am. We took a taxi for 50 pesos to the bus station and caught a bus to Playa and by 9:30 we were there! It felt so great to be back again! We are always so eager to walk around to see the changes from the year before but we were famished and immediately stopped for a quick bite. We always make a stop here as it's not too far from the bus station but cannot remember the name of it. Sorry no pictures either - far too hungry to remember to take one. We needed to be at the Peanut Pet Shelter by 12:30 so we needed to find a place to stay and drop off our backpacks as quickly as possible. We noticed a place just off 5th called Maria Sabina Hotel. We don't need a lot when it comes to a room. It must be clean and have A/C. as we spend very little time inside. They had a vacancy and for 500 pesos we had a balcony too which was really great as we could see the 5th Avenue pedway for people watching and a slice of the Caribbean sea.
We dropped out our things and headed down to take a quick look at the beach and put our feet in the beautiful water. We noticed a lot more umbrellas and chairs on the beach this year. We walked around a bit and made our way up to Wal-Mart to buy beer, ice and a bucket, not knowing what to expect for bath day and then grabbed a taxi to the shelter. Rick was already there when we arrived and Andy let us in. We gave him the supplies that we had brought down from Canada for the shelter and went inside to greet the dogs. There were so many dogs to fall in love with and the puppies so adorable! Poor Jen was under the weather and feeling really miserable that day. Before long Clare, John and Libby, Marissa and Maureen came. Sorry but those are all the names that I remember - I know there were a few more and a bunch of kids. Bath day went off without a hitch and was a wonderful experience. Both Gary and I thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon. Andy and Jen are just awesome and we have so much admiration for them for what they are doing. We plan on making it an annual stop in Playa from now on.
We left the shelter and walked to our hotel which only took twenty minutes - we were surprised because it seemed a lot further. We needed to clean up and head to Pinche Gringos - John and a bunch were supposed to be down there watching a game however we didn't spot him so left after a quick beer. We walked up and down 5th stopping for a beer here and there along the way. We headed to El Sarape on Juarez for taco pastor and then back to our hotel as it had been a long day. We made another beer stop and sat on our balcony enjoying a cold one while we reflected on our day and all the wonderful people we met.
Right then and there we decided we needed to spend an extra day and night in Playa. We really love it here and we needed to do a lot more exploring not to mention hit the beach.