Visiting Playa del Carmen: Old Coral Underworld

“I firmly believe in multiple retirements throughout life. There will always be more work, but often not space between jobs.” – Old Sean

Beach Town

Hello and such, from the lovely shoreside of Playa del Carmen.  After a month living in Cancun and growing accustomed to the wide range of activity found on the bustling, hotel-laden shores, I picked my way further south towards the infinitely more navigable Playa del Carmen. 

Two decades ago, Playa was a small, fishing town tourist destination known mostly as an access point to the island of Cozumel.  Naturally, those days are vanished.  The modern Playa is a bustling tourist destination in it’s own right. 

Though the beaches aren’t as soft and picturesque as those found in Cancun, they’re still a major draw for tourists, with a younger population generally dominating the beach and the famous 5th street, which is a jam-packed tourist avenue complete with hawkers selling every kind of Mexican knick-knack plausible. 

I like Playa, quite a lot, largely due to the fact that it’s extremely walkable.  Getting around Merida took a fair chunk of my day and Cancun is immensely spread out, making each hotel like a beach-side, isolated oasis. 

Playa, on the other hand, has everything fairly nearby.  Even in Bosque Real, the neighborhood I’m based out of, is only twenty minutes away from a beautiful beach.  I’ve also purchased a janky, red bicycle to make navigation a speedier proposition.  It’s broken on me twice, but that can be expected in Mexico and a bit of twine tends to negate most problems. 

Impressions of Playa del Carmen

While most restaurants are currently open, the majority of the non-tour touristy features are still technically on lockdown, which means there’s a slightly limited amount of recreation here.  That being said, it’s pretty common to hear about jungle parties, or small raves found in jungle clearings from the night-life crowd. 

Fortunately, the tourist stuff has never appealed to me.  Instead, I find the majority of my breaks spending time on Playa Publica (the public beach on the northern portion of the city.  Complete with waves, long shorelines, fairly sparse crowds, impressive jungle backdrops and occasional patches of rocks, I try to swim there once every couple of days. 

On the opposite side of town, tucked away in an exceptionally quite residential area is the expansive green space Playacar.  The outer portion of this area has numerous foot trails winding through a scant jungle.  This area is a unique little walk because of Xaman Ha, which is a sprawl of low Mayan ruins, many of which support the arcing trunks of pioneer trees on their surfaces.

Though a rather narrow patch of jungle life, there are a fair number of interesting creatures bumbling around.  The ever-present Sereque dawdles through the underbrush in tiny platoons, accustomed enough to humans to allow me to draw close.  More skittish are the Mexican Coati.  These are ring-tailed creatures with long snouts and reddish fur that bound at mid-level through the underbrush, thwarting my every attempt to grow close. 

Street artists, in particular, appear here in Playa Del Carmen than most other places.  This is due to the large tourist crowd and the relative density of the central area.  Fire jugglers, mimes, Mayan traditional dancers, break dancers, and men on stilts make up a fair amount of curbside attractions.  Art is abundant and the tourist street (5th street) is painfully saturated with people trying to sell things.

Preferred Sights in Playa del Carmen

There are a few pretty great places worthy of checking out. 

100% Natural Playa del Carmen is a healthy outdoor restaurant, although a little expensive. Bajo Cafe is, by far, my favorite café in the city with a lot of interesting snack options. Numerous stores for Bio-Natural are scattered about, making pretty good smoothies for after workouts. And El Cafecito Pasteleria Italiana near my neighborhood is my favorite place for morning coffee.

I’ve played with the ideas of doing a few more tours while here in Playa, but they’re ridiculously expensive.  The average tour is upwards of 60 dollars, and as I’ve mentioned a-many a-times, I’m not terribly fond of tours.  I prefer to strike off on my own in most cases, but the Mexican infrastructure sometimes makes this difficult.

Gate of Xibalba

I did manage to hunt down an early-morning gem at one point.  Cenote Chaak Tun is technically still a part of the Playa del Carmen city, but requires a slightly expensive taxi ride out into the middle of a narrow road and deep jungle.  Transportation logistics non-withstanding, this has been, by far, my favorite cenote.

Now there are a lot of very cool cenotes in and around Playa del Carmen, but they generally follow the same vein.  One kind is sort of a shallow basin/sinkhole with lots of foliage polluting a narrow entrance to an underground river. 

The other kind is more tourist-catching.  They’re big, porous stone holes with crystal blue water, perfect clarity and great tumbles of twisted roots dipping deep.  

Chaak Tun is an exception of the grandest order.  Instead of a single hole in the stony earth, Chaak Tun is a veritable cave system lancing a dozen directions with a dusting of calcium drifting across the water’s surface.  The calcium is an important feature, as it soothes oils and does wonderous things for human skin.

Best of all, aside from myself and two other Americans on vacation from Florida, the entire trip was quiet.  No other groups passed out early hike or swim, giving us the full range of each magical, quiet place. 

Our guide was extremely knowledgeable about his homeland, guiding us along jungle paths towards different entrances towards cenotes.  He pointed out trees with deep twists in their trunks and noted the black tar spots on them and warned us that they were terribly poisonous. 

In the next breath, he pointed out the cure, a tree with flaky bark and green undertones.  In Mayan stories, the trees were once brothers who loved the same women and were eventually divided in their competition.  Stooping low, we were also introduced to wild peppers that flared painfully in my mouth.  Nearby was a patch of wild Aloe Vera and further into the tree-line stood an odd clump of grass which smelled utterly fantastic when shredded. 

Under-River Realm

When we finally reached the first entrance to a cenote, out guide brought us through carefully, applying hard hats to heads in the low ceilings.  Here stood small murals towards the Mayan’s most famous sport, Pok Ta Pok.  Pok Ta Pok was a famed sport played with a rubber ball and sideways hoop with ritual connotations.  According to our guide, the winners of championship matches were sacrificed which was  a direct line into heaven. 

There were also depictions of Xibalba, the Mayan Underworld.  The cenote system we were about to enter was one of the mortal passages to Xibalba in elder legends.  Small idols stood out front, including the willowy form of a fertility god and the geometric mask of a rain lord. 

Delving into the caverns themselves, we were introduced to fine strands hanging from the ceiling, twisting and withering despite a lack of breeze.  These were translucent silkworms, collecting water on their free-hanging threads and snagging unwary mosquitoes that dared spawn here. 

Moments later, we dove into the underwater portion of the cave, employing powerful, waterproof flashlights on our life-vests to explore the perfectly clear depths.  Occasionally, a large catfish would flicker under out feet, completely unafraid of us trespassers.  Even larger were the tilapias, with striped sides that lazily drifted past us.  Stalactites speared down from the ceiling, creating a natural dripping of rain when we were silent. 

The walls themselves were ancient, porous coral structures with deep sediments mixed in, a relic from when Yucatan was entirely submerged.  Bats, of course, chittered overhead, winging their way above us with startling speed.

Collapsed Cavern

Our first cave was impressive, but it was nothing compared to the next.  After a brief pause inside a holy sweat lodge made of bricks, we strode, dripping, through the jungle. 

Our guide chittered to attract monkeys and pointed out strange birds, most notably the turquoise-browed motmot (Torogoz) locally known as a clock bird.  This handsome cave-nester is the only known bird to co-exist with bats in caverns and remains distinct for it’s blue back and tail feathers, which tick in a perfect imitation of a clock.

Naturally, after our short jungle trek, we ducked into the next cavern. 

This had a gaping hold in the ceiling, where sunlight poured in.  Stout tree rose from a shallow island to the land above, dropping enormous tangles of roods that seemed to be secondary trees all on their own.  Butterflies and Mexico’s famously tiny bees (Perdita minima) and other insects darted in the sunbeams, clear as neon in otherwise dark cave. 

Here again, we dove into the crystalline water.  Stalactites came much closer to our head, and our guide pointed out the miniscule holes that allow them to keep dripping water, continuing their downward formation. 

Cavern Stones

Our guide picked up a broken stone at the bottom of the basin and lightly tapped one of the stalactites.  It rang, much like a metal pipe in a clear, gonglike sound.  He demonstrated this twice more, each stone formation a different bell-like tone.  I hadn’t known it was possible for stone to make such a sound. 

Since Stalactites are hollow, tapping on them causes a resonance, similar to differently-sized hollowed pipes.

Deeper in the cave, we were introduced towards a small whip-spider, who scampered from us as we leaned in close.  Our guide picked up calcium silt from the bottom of the cavern and covered his flashlight, creating an unusual mineral glow found in salt-lamps.  Moments later, we were all instructed to turn off our lights, at which point, the caves darkness took us completely as we sat on a partially-submerged stone edge.

It’s an exercise of the utmost futility to describe the experience of these caverns, with their alien ecosystem, cool, still waters and ancient coral walls propping up tons of stone above our heads. 

Afterwards, the people who joined me on my tour offered me a ride back to Playa, successfully slicing the Gordian Knot question on how to return to the city.  Lucky me.  The rest of the day was spent in a Muay Thai boxing class and learning from a Latina girl on how to make a traditional Mexican dish (Queso-stuffed chili peppers).

And so ends another week.

This is my last month in Mexico.  Soon, I’ll be due back in the US, where I’ll muddle through taxes, finish up my university semester and perhaps catch up with some friends.  But until then, I have the sun, beaches and other fantastic oddities. 

So until then,

Best regards and excellent trails,

Old Sean

Written February 14th 2021

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