Life's a Beach | Expat Life in Playa del Carmen

Calle 40, Playa del Carmen - This building is located in a prime location, just off 5th Avenue. The four condominium units include two penthouses with two bedrooms and private rooftop terraces. There is a large one bedroom apartment and a studio, all with access to the pool and the garden. Read More...

After resting up from our long but fun day in Tizimin, we jumped right back into real estate recon mode on Monday morning. Having considerably narrowed down not only our selected neighborhoods but also the physical characteristics of the properties we wanted to view, the showings were far more productive. Read More...

In addition to visiting the Merida Zoo, we had a special day trip planned for the kids, a road trip to the village of Tizimin to see the Feria de Caballos (horse fair) during the Festival de los Reyes, one of the 5 largest annual festivals in Mexico. Birdie's trainer, Paco, had mentioned the fair to me a few weeks back, thinking it might be fun for all of us to see now that we were reentering the horse world. Tizimin is located north of Valladolid but even though we were traveling back west from Merida, the trip turns out to be about equidistant (time-wise) from Playa del Carmen. Taking the road that runs parallel and to the north of the Cancun-Merida cuota was fast and easy and only took us about 1.5 hours. Once in the town of Tizimin, finding the fairgrounds was not difficult. There was a LONG line of cars all headed (at a snail's pace) in the same direction and hundreds of buses bringing visitors from across the country. It is fair to say the town was filled to capacity! Read More...

Six years ago, the first time we visited the Merida Zoo, the kids were not much more than babies. We were in the city doing some exploring and celebrating Cole's 2nd birthday so a trip to the zoo seemed like the perfect way to spend the afternoon. It turned out to be the perfect time for both little one's to spike a fever and come down with some sort of horrible virus that landed us in our hotel room for a few days. Two words: diarrhea and tights. Not a good combination especially in a public restroom at a playground. Read More...

As this trip was planned to be for work as well as pleasure, we did our best to get the work out of the way first. In all honesty, even the kids have grown accustomed to and now find the fun in poking around old ruins...even the ruins of Colonial Merida! It was interesting to see what we would find behind the grand facades and elegant entries. Considering our price point, we were looking for the most part at buildings that were quite dilapidated and would require both imagination and renovation. Some of the best building we toured were those that had been virtually untouched since they were first built. In other words, no one had gone in and screwed them up yet with awful new tile and drop ceilings. Uugh. Read More...

We have been to Merida several times in the six years that we have lived in Mexico. One of Cole's annual Tae Kwon Do tournaments is hosted here and we are looking forward Birdie's first qualifying horse show that will take place at the Hipico del Sureste at the end of March. It's a great city and I am enjoying it now more than ever. We are here on a recon mission, looking for investment properties for ourselves and for buyers looking to expand their portfolios, so it's not as much of vacation as I might like. Still, the kids are coming with us so we will be looking for opportunities for fun when we are not picking our way through old colonial ruins. Read More...