People are always asking me, “So…..what do you do to pass the time?” I guess they think because we are basically retired that we sit at home twiddling our thumbs. Nope, that’s not us, although we do enjoy some evenings at home reading, writing email to friends, listening to music or watching a movie (yes, we have a Blockbuster Video here, and we catch a good movie every once in a while on one of our cable channels). Sometimes we go out to a movie at one of two very nice cinemas that actually do show movies in English. We have taken oil painting lessons. There’s shopping in the many stores and malls. It’s very interesting to walk into the less touristy areas and find wonderful little Mexican shops. We enjoy going out to eat, and there are many varied restaurants here, most with outdoor seating, ranging from gourmet and expensive in the tourist areas to very Mexicano with excellent food at a much cheaper price (guess which one is our favorite). We have made many friends here among the local expats and have dinners or parties at our house, or we are invited to theirs. On Thursday and Saturday afternoons, you might find us at Bad Boys Beach Bar where we kick back with an ice-cold cerveza and listen to live rock and roll while enjoying time with our friends who also hang out there. It’s a 10 minute walk to the beach from our condo, so some days we go lay in the sun and enjoy the spectacular ocean view. Everyone is welcome on the beaches around Playa. Mexican law protects every beach as public property so you can sun yourself wherever you choose – even in front of resorts where you aren’t a guest. The sand here is even cool……made up mostly of coral. From time to time, we explore different beaches along this coast or the Mayan ruins and hope in time to venture out even farther. Akumal and Tulum are a short distance away as are the islands of Cozumel and Isla Mujeres.
There are things to do here that other people enjoy that we don’t particularly. Playacar has a nice golf course and country club from what I’ve been told. Many people like to go to the Muscle Beach Gym to work out or go to a spinning or aerobics class. There are Tae Kwon Do studios and Yoga classes. You can swim, snorkle or dive in the gorgeous reef or one of the cenotes (underground caves) that abound here. Of course there is deep sea fishing and I’ve been told, fly fishing.
I think only a hermit would be bored here. There’s lots to do.
On Tuesday morning I decided there had been adequate time for someone to get my phone back to me, and it was time to replace it. A friend advised me to go to the Telcel Customer Service Center at the Centro Maya mall in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Of course, there was the obligatory line to stand in, but the wait wasn’t terrible… about 20 minutes. Our customer service representative was very helpful and spoke much better English than my Spanish. He deactivated the lost phone, transferred my number to a new phone, and also transferred my remaining prepaid balance to the new phone. The prepaid balance was about 300 pesos less than when I lost the phone, but I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to transfer the balance at all. My cheap replacement phone, a Motorola C139, and the fee to transfer the phone number totaled a little less than $500 MX. So losing my cell phone was more like losing $50 instead of $100. Probably a more significant loss was my stored phone numbers.
