No special anonymous wake up calls this morning. Upon returning to our room the night before, we were greeted by the Sandos Honeymoon gift package: a delicious fruit basket, bottle of Chilean Vina Mape and a pair of challis’ from which to enjoy it. We decided to bring the wine home and have it on our anniversary.
Off to a lazy breakfast with our companion birds, who made a habit of swiftly swooping in on abandoned leftovers before the overworked, polite and equally swift wait staff was able to make it to tables to clear the plates. Usually the wait staff won these races ;-)
Taxis to 5th avenue and vicinity cost about $5.00. The rides are as good as any amusement park coaster, and the drivers are swift to exploit the thinnest crease between the giant tour busses and the trees along Xaman Ha Boulevard, which is a quaint cobblestone road generously, granted a full 1 & ½ lanes in width:
A taxi to any other destination off 5th may cost you more – remember to ask the driver beforehand how much to your destination, and if you don’t like the price, either counter the offer (with a reasonable, not insulting counter offer) or walk out to Xaman Ha and flag down another taxi and ask him the price. The taxis will honk at you if they think you may want a ride, and the international symbol for hailing one is the same in PDC as anywhere else: a raised hand.
In town there are any interesting sights to see along the way. There are no “lanes” in these streets, with taxis, semis, scooters and people all jockeying for space between some brightly painted walls and shops. You may be lucky to get a taxi like this Formula 1 equipped model:
Once we arrived at our destination, we were charged $8.00 (not $5.00) for the additional 6 blocks from 5th to that Mecca of western Hemisphere shopping bliss: Wal Mart:
Parking below and an escalator up top – with shopping carts complete with funky wheels that dropped down between the escalator’s metal floor slats and held fast to keep the cart from sliding backwards. Once inside, the prices were easy to calculate (move the decimal one to the left) and flip-flops, the Chicka-hat, some souvenirs and other miscellaneous things were procured:
Aisle signs are in Spanish and English and the staff is helpful as any other Wal Mart around the world:
We decided to skip the expensive cab ride and hoofed it back along Calle 8 towards the ocean in search of Coco Maya along the beach. On the way we came across the beautiful town square with archways and monoliths commemorating the towns along the Mayan Rivera. A bit further we encountered the Sahara hotel, the Hotel Maya Turquesa and Yaxche, all places we’d read about. Another cool looking two-story restaurant appeared just before the last stretch to the beach:
Square:
Sahara:
Maya Turquesa:
