summer holiday: playa de carmen, mexico

Playa del Carmen is 50 km south of Cancun, Mexico.  I highly recommend for people to travel there because the place is more central than Cancun.  We were able to venture to neigboring cities in affordable rates.  We trekked out to Tulum via Collectivo for only 25 pesos. (2 something dollars).  Considering it is 50 or some km from Playa del Carmen, you cannot beat that price.  The price for getting in the ruins was also very cheap.  It was affordable to go everywhere without wasting your money on lame planned excursions.  The beautiful part of going it on your own is you make your own time and the adventure to speak to the locals with bad spanish and feelin the vibe of Mexico.

  We stayed in Viva Wyndam Maya Hotel.  It was in hotel row called Playacar.  It must have been a rich area because it was a gated community with hotels and beautiful houses; secure and minutes via taxi to the city.  The decor was modern in the lounge area and spanish style in the rooms.  One of our favorite things to do was sit outside in the lounge area and people watch with our cocktails or cafe con leches.

Our first excursion was Tulum.  It was a trade center for the Mayans.  Most of the structures were intact and the place sits on a bluff over looking the ocean.  You can swim after sightseeing and we fully took advantage of it since it was hot and humid most of our stay.  There was an overcast, but still, you can feel the humidity.  It was a nice treat to dip into the water for some cooling off.

An island Cozumel sits next to Playa de Carmen.  We didn't know what to do there, but we definetly wanted to go.  Cozumel is the home of the second largest reef in the world.  It would have been nice to snorkel, but I couldn't have my back burned into a crisp.  We took a joyride in the island with a vintage bug instead.  Saw the smallest Hard Rock Cafe and more  Mayan ruins.  Also dipped in the water to cool off the summer heat.

Our third sightseeing trip was the Mayan ruins in Coba.  Coba was more difficult to venture on your own and it took much creativity.  Many of the locals we spoke to discourage us to go there because it was far from Playa del Carmen.  We manage to go back to Tulum via Collectivo and take a taxi to Coba and have the taxi driver wait for us until we were finished sightseeing around Coba.  All this creativity didn't cost much since we were in a time crunch.  If we had gotten up earlier, we could have taken the bus to Coba, and saved 300 pesos.  The taxi to Coba, which was an hour away from Tulum was 400 pesos (40 dollars) for both.  Not bad since the driver drove fast to get us in the Coba ruins in time.  It was well worth it because I climbed my first Mayan pyramid.  The view was spectacular and the area was filled with lush trees and many Mayan artifacts.

The holiday did consist of other relaxing activities such as reading books on the beach and enjoying our cocktails.  It was just nice to get away from the hustle and bustle of life and relax; so relaxed that we never kept track of time. 

emotional

Saw Dashboard Confessional last night.  I thought I was fan until my experience at the concert.  There are tons of devoted fans who know every single lyric to every single song and sang along with Chris.  The energy from the crowd was memorable and so was Dashboard.  Chris sang very well and he played off the fans enthusiasm by letting them sing with him.  I would see them again.

l.a. adventures

I have been working like crazy to make up for the days off during Glen's visit in L.A.   

Glen's visit was refreshing since I get to see all these tourisy places and take pictures.  I live in the L.A. county and I rarely explore the tourisy spots, which I should do more often.  The  highlights were Britney Spears star, cream puffs, Santa Monica, the Getty, Prada store in Beverly Hills (very chic' and modern), tapas in Pasadena, a tiny and sexy bar called Magnolia (located across Borders), Fiesta Cantina, and cute waiters.  It was nice to see a friend.

Extraordinary Machine

I luv summer concerts, especially outside venues.  So I saw Fiona Apple sing her heart out again and her seizure like dance moves.  Also enjoyed a make shift picnic since the Greek Theatre did not allow food to be brought in the venue.  They suck!  Gelson's have the best of everything, that is why they are so darn expensive. Try the chicken curry with some french bread and camembert cheese and your golden.  I heart picnics.

chalk & nachos

is a hilariious movie!  First, I luv Jack Black.  He is so darn cute; yes he is cute like a teddy bear who farts!  You can almost believe he is Mexican.  I saw the movie in Pasadena and there were still some art from the chalk festival.  I was meaning to catch it during the Sunday, but who could miss the basketball game?  Here are some bits of art from the festival...

I luv portraiture.

Bob Marley, it is an okay rendering.

Coy fish... go pisces!

moca @ night

MOCA is offering Rauschenberg to be shown at night during the summer.  Why not go since it's free...well, the thing wasn't free, but 5 bucks for students.  I still have my old CSUN id, which I carry everywhere (sidebar: you can get a discount in Panda Express near CSUN when you present your id).  Anyways, love the exhibition.  Didn't really know much about Rauschenberg.  I know his famous piece above Monogram, every art student who took modern art knew it.  His stuff is very inventive.  Mind you, this kind of work was done in the 1950's and 60's.  He predicted much of what is going on today regarding globalization and consumerism of America through his combines.  Rauschenberg used real stuffed birds and combined it with his collages and other found objects.  He also touched based with human nature.  When we followed the curator, she explained this one art piece which was a game piece.  An artist would draw (famous now and then aka. Jasper Johns) and put it on the metal clipboard and people would try to guess it.  It worked for a couple of hours into the show, but in the end, the drawings would start getting less and by the end there weren't any drawings.  Did he predict people would start taking the drawings and keeping it as souvenirs?  Of course he did, brilliant!   Many of  his work were intellectual and thought out, especially the coca cola bottles he used to symbolized globalized America.

One thing I didn't know about him, he is called Bob.  I have a thing for all Roberts who are named Bob...they are always unique and super cool.  For example, Bob Marley, Bob Newhart, Bob Hope, Bob Rauschenberg, Bob the usher from church.  Well, my Drawing 1 instructor told the class that, which I have tried to disprove, but always find Bob's to be cool kats, and yah his name is Bob.

Good times... try to catch it one of these hot summer nights, don't get the martinis, taste like juice (stingy on the liquor), a house wine will do.

weekender

Saturday

My sister has been wanting us to see this great view of L.A. from a tower near the Encino Area that used to be owned by the military.  During Word War II, they used the tower for a look out station.  There were still some remnants of military signage and resting areas. The hike was not strenuous at all.  My sister said it was easy, so I believed her since she is not the atheletic type.  My sisters, cousin Emma, and new friend caught the sun setting on the hottest day of the season...

Military stuff

L.A.'s water reserve...conserve your water folks!

Why is it blurry? L.A. smog, invest in the "it" car, veggie oil powered vintage benzs!

Sunset please...it's good to live in L.A.

Sunday

It's good to have a sister who seems to recieve great emails from fashionistas all over L.A. to alert her of a great deal.   There was a sample sale in the No Ho distribution center for Stila Cosmetics.  We figured.. okay.. there going to sell some color lip gloss that nobody wants and just a little table... but no ladies... it was make up galore!  There were rows and rows of lip glosses, eye shadows, gift boxes, name any foundation, shimmer lotion they got it!  Wholesale prices! Usually those lip glazes are at least 16 bucks, but at the distribution sale... 4 dollars! O my goodness!  We went crazy.  I would have indulge in foundation and bronzing products, but I never got my numbers at the Stila counter.  It would be useless to buy that stuff when it doesn't match your skin tone, and anyways, I know myself enough that I am a lip gloss, low maintenance type of gal.  I also scored a great eyebrow masacara (3 bucks)!

I had a great weekend!  I rarely have it off, so it was refreshing to go out catch another beautiful L.A. sunset, and to my surprise scored on bargain beauty products.