This day is windy and cloudy, thus a perfect day not to spend on the beach. So as planned I go next door and rent a scooter – a lot more expensive than I expected, 450 pesos for 24 hours – the double amount I read about. Perhaps it’s just this place that is expensive. The scooter I get is not new and it sounds – well, not well – but the most important part works, such as the engine and the brakes.
I head south to explore and I can’t really say much about the exploring. The local population are pretty poor which can be seen on most of the houses inland (with that said, the information I’ve gotten is that a lot of the native population have either had to move to tin-town on the mid-east of the island or actually had to move over to Cancun due to the pricing). I drive past a few restaurants/tacorias/loncherias that I either missed last time (which is a high probability) or are new (which is also sort of a high probability). In my mind I’ve already decided on where I’ll have my lunch – Madera Food and Art, that Diana (co-hostess at Olivia’s) told me about. Since they don’t open until 11 am I’ve got some time to explore and when passing Límon for the second time, I stop and ask how the reservations are for the night. Unfortunately I’m not getting a positive response on that question and even though I get the owner’s phone number, I’ve already decided for another place for the evening. I do stop at one of the public parks for a while, where I see a climbing wall that would fit me very well – sort of one meter high – before I drive over to Madera for lunch. There I choose the mixed rice bowl with chicken and prawns. The flavours are there, but I’m not feeling that the chicken or the prawns are cooked well enough (the chicken’s over cooked and the prawn’s not cooked enough). I do get a chat with the chef & owner of the place (husband of Diana) since I’m sitting at the bar and at first I’m the only customer there, real nice.
Further south and I ended up at Punta Sur and the Mayan ruins. But the weather was not good enough for me to pay the ridiculous hefty admission of 30 pesos – since the last time I was here the weather was awesome and nature and rocks and water, only change that much on 1½ years of absence.
Going north on the west side and I pass Garraton Natural Reef Park as well as the extremely touristy bar and restaurant “The Joint”. I do end up, going down a steep “road” to Playa Indios Beach Club. While there a boat unloads a bunch of people – this is one of the tourist guided boats – and to be sure, it’s interesting to both see and listen to the folks getting of that boat.
After a quick pit stop at the hotel I run the island down again and somehow find Mar y Monte – which I’ll check out when it opens, but it’s probably a reservation kind of place, and if so I’ll go for the Basto’s grill instead.
Before doing anything more I drive over to Chedraui (a Wallmark owned store). I have very special things in mind when I enter the store – hot sauces! I do find them, the Yucatan produced hot sauces for approx. 15 pesos per bottle. AWESOME! Let’s hope that I can wrap them and pack them good enough for the trip first to US and then back to the old countries.
After a drop off at the hotel and a quick chat with the Canadians, I hit the road once more. I’ll have to stop by La Tarima before dinner, which I’ve passed a couple of times during the day. It’s a fairly recently opened bar and restaurant (by Argentinians perhaps – at least my waitress is from there) that specialises in organic produce. They serve breakfast, burgers & baguettes and Italian styled pizzas. I could definitely see that it might become a nice place for tourists. They also have a bunch of smoothies and juices – which I tried and the one I did was really nice.
Mar y Monte does not open until 5 pm and I get there a bit later than that. It’s of course empty when I arrive, even though I stand outside the restaurant for 15 minutes reading the menu which looks nice – I’ve already chosen a course (if I can get a table) when I enter the restaurant. When I do enter I see that there are “Reservation” signs on all tables, but waitress Maria let me have a seat at one anyways (probably for strays like me – or for a later reservation, I’m there at approx. 6 pm which is very early). The chef comes out and a short chat later I’ve ordered the tuna (that I’d already decide on before entering) and a glass of red wine (an Argentinian Malbec). Some of the entrees look really lovely as well but I don’t feel that hungry this early since I had lunch.
Not many minutes later a family of two adults and four kids enters and a bit later another adult with an older teenager actually joins them.
I receive some focaccia and celery cream. The focaccia is what it is and the cream is light and fresh. The tuna comes in, and well, I did not have to worry about getting full. I receive two big pieces of tuna on a corn mesh, sweet potato curls, cooked spring onions and tomatoes. There are also a spoon of tapenade and three different “sauses” smeared on the plate. At this point I’m convinced I did the right thing not ordering a starter – instead I order a café solo (why don’t Mexicans know what that is?) to finish my meal.
During my stay at the restaurant I do get to converse with the other customers in the restaurant – at least two of the three adults (the male person in the company does not seem too interested in conversing with me). And here’s where I do the same mistake as usual – I understand the single lady’s signals too late. What do I care if she’s got a couple of teenage daughters? Instead I leave the restaurant without any action at all – and to be honest, she was a beautiful lady.