Playa del Carmen or "Food, food, glorious food"

What do I think of when I say Playa del Carmen?  It's "food, food, glorious, food."  One of the delights of any vacation is the opportunity to search out restaurants in your port of call.  Cruises tend to work against local forays since your meals on board are included in the cost and they're excellent in quality and available literally around the clock.  But when you are doing the time share gig, you normally have a kitchen and can cook if you wish to.  The question is "Do you wish to?" and the answer is often "Not really."  The Royal Haciendas also have their own fine restaurants on site, but a convenient shuttle can take you the few miles into downtown Playa del Carmen and there you can walk down a lovely pedestrian mall that is chock full of colorful shops and marvelous eateries.

Our shuttle dropped us off at this rather foreboding fountain.

But soon we were trooping down the street with with lots of other strollers and potential diners.



All the stores were open and many were the colorful souvenir variety.

Some were clearly upscale.

But we were mainly hungry so we opted for some lovely spots on the second floor where we would enjoy both the food and the streetscape passing below.

The cuilinary rewards were always quite reasonably priced, attractively presented, and delicious.

There is no finer finish than Mayan coffee and it is done with a flair all its own.

 Happiness reigns!

Our re-entry to the chill of the American Midwest was mitigated by the knowledge that we would be heading for Arizona shortly and the next entries will highlight some of the new experiences on that trip.