Oh, what a wonderful opportunity to make some puns!  Yucatan Aviv?  Playa del Tel Aviv?  Hof del Carmen (Hof is "beach" in Hebrew).  Also, it's important to note that while I am on the Yucatan peninsula, the Maya Riviera is all located within the Mexican State of Quintana Roo.  So, maybe some more pun opportunities there?

Playa del Carmen was the second beach city developed after the success of the Cancun experiment.  It is home to an incredibly diverse community of internationals and Mexicans working to support the thriving construction industry and tourism industry.  Tourism in Playa includes everything from restaurants and excursions to elaborate theatrical productions and even a Disney-fied Mayan Theme Park called Xcaret.  The main strip is Quinta Avenida (5th Avenue and abbreviated 5ta Av in Spanish) and it is a fucking disaster.  You know the fake downtowns they built in front of Universal Studios and Disney?  Universal CityWalk and Downtown Disney?   Yea, it's that bullshit.  The street workers come up to you speaking in fluent English.  It's awful.

Luckily 5ta Avenida is only a small part of the Playa experience.  Walking one avenue west to 10 Av is a completely different planet and it feels much more like a real place.  It is still very tourist friendly but people speak Spanish there.  After two hours of hating this place because of 5ta Avenida, 10 Av is where I had my breakthrough that I actually really like this place.  I was walking around admiring the architecture and the lack of architecture and I thought what other urban beachfront has such a mix of people and architectural styles?  Tel Aviv.

El Centro is adjacent to the beach, like Tel Aviv.  Not many beachfront cities have their urban core adjacent to the beach.  Yes, Miami has South Beach but the urban core, Downtown Miami, is not adjacent to the beach.  Los Angeles's beaches are far from Downtown but I guess Santa Monica has a bit of it's own downtown business district too.  Puerto Vallarta's El Centro is beach adjacent.  Maybe these comparisons are not totally fair, as Tel Aviv is a metropolis.

It's also important not to mix up the fact that there are so many Israeli backpackers.  So while I will eventually post about my connections with Israeli backpackers, when I say that Playa reminds me of Tel Aviv, it isn't just because I've met even more Israelis.  It's also because there is a diversity of people, restaurants, and entertainment.  The vibe is super cool off of 5ta Avenida.  I took a Bodybump class at the Evolve Gym and it reminded me of home.  (I was a Bodypump regular at New York Sports Club for many years).  Like all Mexican locales, fruit smoothies are about $1, but it feels much better drinking them after returning from a beach day.  Tel Aviv also has fruit smoothies and veggie juice shops all over the place. 

Another similarity is that Playa is the gay capital of the Yucatan.  While I found the bar scene to be underwhelming, I spotted a significant amount of same sex couples on the street and on the beach.  The atmosphere is open and liberal. 

My favorite part of the city was Punto Esmeralda.  A five minute taxi ride north on 10 Avenida (cost: 70 pesos, or less than $4 USD) will take you to the northern part of the city where the hotel zone ends.  A tidal pool has formed.  (I love tidal pools).  There's an oasis with palm trees.  On a Friday afternoon, there were some Mexican families there and a few tourist couples and that's about it.  No hotels, no buildings, no vendors.  The beach curves around the northern end where you can find yourself situated among the plants growing in the dunes.  There are also some abandoned cinderblock structures that have given way to natural growth.  It makes for a beautiful backdrop against the pristine ocean. 

There was a lovely beach shack, Coco Beach Club, that served the best seafood pasta I've ever had.  It also doesn't hurt to look out on to the beach while having a fantastic meal.  If you can find a way to structure your Playa experience to avoid 5ta Avenida at all costs and beach it up at Punta Esmeralda, you will be able to experience a really cool and open city. 

Playa is also a big party city.  My hostel was filled with Argentinians and Chileans looking to get completely schwasted and dry hump each other.  They were really good at being super loud and acting like no one else was there.  These folks very much stayed to themselves and enjoyed chanting soccer anthems repeatedly.   This is a good way to ruin your super relaxing beach day.  The chain smoking in your face does not seem to make sense.  Unfortunately, I would not say that my roommates were friendly.  Every time I came into the room, my two roommates were looking at themselves in the mirror, putting on makeup.  When I would go in to use the toilet, the bathroom floor was somehow covered in black mud stains.  I think they were making the floor wet from the shower and then going in there with their dirty shoes.  Standard inconsiderate stuff.

I visited a friend, Alex, with whom went to Bacalar, at The Yak hostel.  The Yak is off of 10 Avenida and while it was definitely a party hostel, the group was super social and friendly.  They opened up to me, even though I wasn't staying there and we all went out to the club to go dancing together.   They also served a BBQ dinner for the guests.  Meals bring people together and people that want to eat together are a certain kind of hosteler. 

I ended up having a pretty deep conversation with my hostel's manager over a few topics including safety and the rudeness of some of the guests.  She explained to be a little bit about the phenomenon of the crowd energy that completely changes week-to-week.  She said that some weeks it's a really social group, some weeks everyone is from Latin America, some weeks everyone is Israeli, etc.  It's a toss up.  I think I lucked out with my hostel situations in Tulum and Bacalar because we all seemed open and to get along quite well.  I imagine that the Argentinian folks at Hostel MX thought they were getting along quite well too but they didn't seem interested in speaking Spanish to non-native speakers.  It's a shame.

It's worth noting that there was one restaurant on 5ta Avenida that shocked me with it's quality in all areas.  100% Natural is a restaurant that is seemingly situated in the jungle.  The menu recommends fruit juice pairings with its various breakfast options.  The food was incredible.   I went there for breakfast two days in a row because I could not imagine another restaurant being able to do a better job.  The omelette with spinach, mushrooms, and cheese had me humming along while chewing.  I am really bitchy with eggs, too.  I never thought I'd be the person to recommend an egg dish to anyone except for the Sausage McMuffin with Egg.

It rained a bunch while I was there.  It was super interesting.  5ta Avenida cleared out like the apocalypse had occurred.  Undeterred by summer-like drizzle rain, I remained on the Avenida and had it all to myself.  It was much more manageable and I was able to see how the car-free zone helps you get through the city a bit faster.

It's a shame that the beach in Playa is so narrow.  There's almost no beach left at all.   The lounge chairs are hitting the water.  This made me feel uncomfortable and a bit claustro.  I just couldn't imagine how other tourists would find this desirable.  At the same time, I guess not everyone is going to love a place like Punta Esmeralda.  If you are racist and you hate Mexican families or if you are looking for people to set up a beach umbrella for you, you won't like it.  I guess I just never felt this way about my beach experience.  I want my beach to feel natural and I don't mind being on the beach with families with kids as long as they aren't loud.  Mexican culture does not really appreciate sudden loud noises or overall loudness.  Unless you are celebrating the patron saint Maria de Guadaloupe and you must have your car alarm go off as you drive around the town (as is happening in Valladolid right now while I'm writing this), Mexican culture does not ask for extraneous noise.

Would love to hear if anyone else has figured out a way to make the most of Playa del Carmen by just enjoying the urban beach life.  Any other secrets out there?