Playa del Carmen...

Okay, I know I’ve been remiss on posting, but I have been traveling around the Yucatan so I have good excuse. My first day at Playa del Carmen I’ll have to say was a bit of a disappointment. Since I’m used to Isla (and I know it’s unfair to compare ANYTHING to Isla), I just found it much too “hip” for my Mexican taste. A lot of people like that sort of thing when they go on vacation…I prefer less commercialism.

So, after my first evening of celebrating with the crazy Canucks, I went in search of Huevos Motulenos for breakfast. This little place is called the Hacienda and it’s only a half block from the hotel.

It’s a cute little place and I had heard (from the Canadians) that they had an excellent steak, so I thought I’d give them a try.

Can’t beat the prices…

But the Huevos Motulenos were not what I expected. They look pretty on the nice Mexican plate, but they had red, green and yellow peppers, no refried beans, no plantains and NO peas!! How can you call that Huevos Motulenos, I ask you?? Oh, well…they were okay, but a bit too heavy on the peppers.

So, I walked around town. The main drag is 5th Avenue where they have all the fancy shops, restaurants and natives selling their wares. My hotel sits at the north end of 5th Avenue, so it’s away from the crowds and the noise, which is good.I find that when I go to Mexico, it takes me a day or two to get into the picture-taking mode and I have to tune myself into what kinds of photos I want to take. Playa didn’t evoke the creativity in me, so this first day, I just took your regular touristy kind of pics.

Being from Texas, I think I'll pass on the Texas Burger Company since I can have those any day I want...

Another one I'll pass on...

Playa obviously has the usual Mexican construction issues. These guys were trying to move the scaffolding with the little ladder on top and the two guys moving the scaffolding didn’t see that the ladder was about to fall, so there was a lot of yelling and scrambling to keep it steady. Ha!

So, here are my toes in the sand...

And my view from that spot...

Various beach shots...

A night shot of the glitz and glamour...

Those somber Mayan women worked at this shop. She wasn’t posing for this photo…every time I walked by she was just standing there.

This place is just around the corner from my hotel (haven’t been there and won’t be going)…

For lunch I tried La Vagabunda…

Of course, the usual chips and pico de gallo (which was great, by the way)…

And the cheese enchiladas with verde sauce. They were good, but I don’t think I’d get them again.

My more interesting picture-taking came about when I took the bus to Vallodolid and Chichen Itza. I think it will be awhile before I do a post on those because they will take more time. I’ll just end with these teaser pics from that trip.

The colors of Valladolid…

Chichen Itza was amazing and covered a LOT more ground than I thought it would. The gods were smiling on me because the incredible blue sky and white fluffy clouds offered a great backdrop for the ruins.

I wanted to see a cenote, so I had a taxi take me to the one closest to Chichen Itza, wait for me, then take me back so that I could catch a bus back to Playa.

Then there are the MANY photos I took from the window of my bus rides. The towns in between all the stops offered some pretty interesting opportunities.

Today is my first beach day. It has not been hot here at all. I worked up a sweat walking around Chichen Itza, but it has been very pleasant with lots of nice breezes.

Till next time…Feliz Navidad everyone!

Huevos Motulenos in the making...

Remember I got that cool new Mexican cookbook? Well, I put it to use this weekend. It did this all day and all night on Saturday:

So it was a good day to experiment with cooking. I decided to try my hand at Huevos Motulenos, something I always get several times for breakfast when I'm on Isla because you can't get it in the United States...well, at least nowhere I've found. Maybe Rick Bayless has it at his restaurant, but I think it would be cheaper to go to Isla than to get it in Chicago.

According to the recipe in the book, Huevos Motulenos also involves two other recipes before you can put together the breakfast. Here's the first part...Frijoles del la Olla (Pot Beans).

I got the ingredients at the little Mexican market that I posted about last weekend. You have to soak the beans for at least three hours, then cook them for about two hours.

It includes lard, which is a Mexican staple. This is the first time in my entire life that I have bought lard. I could just feel my arteries start to harden as I opened the box. But I wanted to follow the recipe to get the most authentic result, so I figured once wasn't going to kill me...maybe.

There's the three tablespoons of it melting in the beans...becoming the invisible killer. Haha!

So that's all I could do on Saturday because it pretty much consumed the whole afternoon. That's okay because I did some experimenting with rain photos and Photoshop.

INTERMISSION

Here's what it looked like from my balcony. This is by no means a great photograph, but it was the only one where you could tell a little bit that it was actually raining.

So I tried some of Photoshop's techniques on it just for fun.

This is the "plastic wrap" effect...

This is the "pinch" effect, where it looks like you pinched the middle from behind and pulled it.

This is called "polar coordinates"...

And this is "wave"...

It's pretty amazing what Photoshop can do, and I only know a fraction of it.

I kind of liked the photo of the lily on my balcony...

But it looks kind of weird "plastic wrapped"...

Okay, back to the Huevos Motulenos. Here's what the beans looked like when they were finished cooking. And they were great just like that...would have made a great side dish.

Now for the next recipe...turning the beans into Frijoles Refritos (Refried Beans). If you can't see it, the recipe says they're not really fried twice, they're simply "fried well" so all the liquid is gone.

They had to cook for quite awhile to get all the liquid out.

Now we're finally to the actual recipe. You have to saute garlic, onions, thyme, cumin, cloves and tomatoes together.

I'm including all these boring pictures to show how much work this dish is. There's a lot going on here. Frying the corn tortillas in oil. (The recipe called for two torillas per dish, but I only used one.)

And the huevos...

I decided to throw a couple slices of plaintain on because they always include those when you have this on Isla...

Then you have to warm up some peas and ham to go on top, not to mention the queso fresco.

So here's the final product after a lot of work...

Here's what it looks like at Tacostumbros at the Loncheria...

Not too shabby, huh? And it actually tasted pretty darn good...and very similar...which was fortunate considering all the work it took. But, you know, it just wasn't the same as sitting at the Loncheria with the colorful tablecloths while you're sweating buckets. And I also forgot to get a Mexican Coke which is always a part of my Mexican breakfasts on Isla because it's so darn hot!

Would I make it again? Probably not. I would much rather have the wonderful ladies on Isla make it for me while I sit back and appreciate their hard work on a new level. Besides that, I don't have to deal with the aftermath...

Well, it's not raining today, so I better go hit the walking trail since I missed it yesterday.