Episode 16 - Savoring Playa del Carmen and Cozumel

As Rita and I waved goodbye to our Knoxville abode, little did we know that the salty breeze of Playa del Carmen would become our new lullaby. Our latest episode is a tapestry of tales from our sun-kissed days at Sunset Fisherman's Spa and Resort, to the cultural weave of Cozumel where we rendezvoused with Bel Woodhouse, International Living's Mexico correspondent. Bel's perspective enriched our understanding of the island's vibrant tourism and community spirit. We spill the beans on the mouth-watering food scene that now caters to vegans and international palates alike and share our insights into the local markets' culinary treasures that would make any food aficionado's heart sing.

Our exploration doesn't stop at gastronomy; we immerse ourselves in the heart of Maya culture, discussing the significance of Cozumel's San Miguel and the mystic ruins. Then, we discuss Tulum, offering you a front-row seat to the bustling growth and enriching history of this archaeological gem. Before we sign off, we tease our next stop, the enchanting San Miguel de Allende, promising more stories woven with the threads of adventure and cultural discovery. Join us, share in our journey, and let us inspire you to embark on your own adventures, because as we've learned, life's essence is best embraced through the joy of exploration.

Transcript

Jim Santos: 0:18

Welcome to Travels with Jim and Rita. Jim and Rita, I'm your host, jim Santos, and in this podcast series, you can follow along as my wife, rita and I work out our crazy plan to outfox the real estate market in the US and actually increase our retirement nest egg by spending the next three years or so living abroad and exploring the world. Are we bold, forward-thinking pioneers or just plain nuts? Let's find out together, shall we? Hello and welcome everybody. I'm Jim Santos and you're listening to Travels with Jim and Rita. Before we get started, I need to apologize on behalf of Buzzsprout, the service that hosts this podcast. At some point last week, they made a setting change in my account that makes tracking numbers and ratings easier. Unfortunately, a mistake was made that instead prevented all 15 of our episodes from playing on any podcast platforms. Not ideal. The episode appeared correctly, but when you hit play, nothing happened. I would have noticed sooner, but we were finishing up our packing and traveling when it happened, plus logged into my account. Everything worked just fine, only realized something was up when I checked our numbers and found that downloads had dropped to almost nothing all of a sudden. I reported the issue. They fixed the problem, but for at least three days. Thousands of frustrated listeners were affected. They assure me all is well now and it was a freak occurrence that should never happen again. So fingers crossed. But again I apologize for the inconvenience.

Jim Santos: 1:54

Now for a better update. We're coming to you this week from the sunny Mexico beach resort of Playa del Carmen, located on the Yucatan Peninsula in the Fund-to-say province of Quintana Roo. As reported in our last episode, we've taken the major and frightening step of selling our home in Knoxville, tennessee, and we've hit the road to make the world our home for the next few years. I'm not sure it's sunk in yet, as it's only been a few weeks and we've been on the move, but every once in a while I remember oh yeah, we don't have a home to go back to, and that still feels a little weird. However, the proceeds from the sale of our home are already earning interest for us, so that part of the plan is proceeding nicely. We're not quite into our slow travel mode yet.

Jim Santos: 2:41

After spending almost five weeks frantically packing, moving, storing our household goods and finalizing the home sale, we decided we deserved a little vacay. So here we are, literally right on the beach enjoying a slow and peaceful week in a fine resort. We have a balcony with a perfect beach view, a nice comfortable room with a mini fridge, two burner stove, a microwave and a toaster. We've been a bit pampered here at the Sunset Fisherman's Spa and Resort. There was a plate full of fresh fruit on the table when we arrived. For instance, the maid service has been leaving us chocolate in the evenings, last night sitting on the head of a towel bunny at the foot of our bed, and to apologize for work being done in our building during the day, they deliver to our door a plate of chocolate-covered strawberries. It really is a beautiful area too, and there will be pictures posted soon on my blog site, which you can find at jimsantosbookscom. That's jimsantosbooks. All one word dot com and a nice shady mile walk or so puts us in the tourist zone with plenty of restaurants and shops. Naturally they're higher priced than just about anywhere else in Mexico.

Jim Santos: 3:48

But hey, we're on vacation this week, although we've been really enjoying just mostly relaxing on the balcony or sipping drinks on the beach, generally doing nothing at all, we did take a day trip to the island of Cozumel, which is visible from our beach on most days, did take a day trip to the island of Cozumel, which is visible from our beach on most days. Our main reason for visiting was to meet up with a friend of ours, belle Woodhouse, who among other things, is an author, photographer, videographer and International Living's Mexico correspondent. So the other day we took the 35-minute ferry right across the surprisingly choppy Caribbean to have lunch and see what has made Belle a seven-plus year resident of Cozumel. So here's a recording of part of our talk and sorry about the difference in audio, as we were sitting outside in a beautiful garden full of water fountains and sometimes loud birds. Hi, this is Jim. Rita and I are here in beautiful Cozumel, sitting in a lovely garden, talking to the lovely Bel Woodhouse.

Rita Santos: 4:46

Hi guys, hi Bel.

Jim Santos: 4:49

So, belle, you've shown us around Cozumel a little bit. You've been here now seven years, right.

Bel Woodhouse: 4:54

Yes.

Jim Santos: 4:55

What is it that has kept you here so long? What have you liked about Cozumel?

Bel Woodhouse: 4:58

Oh, so many things. Where do I start Originally? Originally I wanted to move to spain and I was just going to call in for about a year as you know, that's about seven years ago. Because once I saw that gorgeous caribbean water and the beautiful tropical weather and all of the nature and the christian beauty, I was in love. And then I met the people and wow, they are just the warmest, most caring people in the world and I just totally fell in love with my island and I'm still here. Of course, I would still like to go to spain, but it just the time flies and I still am too in love with the caribbean now we noticed uh, coming in here of course on the on ferry boat.

Jim Santos: 5:42

There's quite a few tourists in town, some large cruise ships. Is that much of a problem? Do you run into much difficulty with the heavy tourism in the area?

Bel Woodhouse: 5:51

Not really. It's always been that way. Cozumel is the largest cruise port in Mexico and also the Caribbean, so we get up to eight cruise ships a day, which each of them can hold a few thousand tourists, so most of the locals and people that live here. We just know that this is a daily occurrence and you know that if you walk into town in the middle of the day, there's going to be throngs of tourists and they're all generally sunburnt and standing around gawking at things and they smell like coconut.

Bel Woodhouse: 6:20

So, they're very easy to spot and most of us work anyway. So we just go to work like we would anywhere else in the world and most of the cruise ships, they're all back on the ship by four o'clock and the island settles down again for the nightly activities. So it's not really that much of a hassle at all it looks like they never come back.

Rita Santos: 6:39

Several streets they stay on the main drag yes, they do.

Bel Woodhouse: 6:43

They mainly say in the first two streets. So along melgar, our main street, for all of the tourist shops and restaurants, and then back on five or as we call it, kinder. There is also a lot of restaurants and everything, and that's mainly where the tourists go, whereas there is a lot more further back on the island. It's a lot more reasonably priced and you find some absolute gems and amazing food. So most of us just step out of the tourist zone because if you live here all day, every day, you don't want to pay the tourist prices anyway right.

Jim Santos: 7:14

How far from the tourist zone are you living?

Bel Woodhouse: 7:17

um, I actually live at the end of the tourist zone, so it's still technically called central area, like central. But I live at the end of the tourist zone, so it's still technically called central area, like central. But I live towards the southern hotel zone and it's beautiful and quiet. Um, I'm about two blocks from a major supermarket, so each morning I just go for a nice little five minute walk to get a few little bits and pieces and come home and it's all very nice and quiet and lovely. I've got great neighbours. I love my neighbours and it's very international, like I've got Polish neighbours, mexican neighbours, italian neighbours, ones from Romania, american, canadian. We're a very big mixed bag.

Jim Santos: 7:56

What's a typical day like for you here?

Bel Woodhouse: 7:58

Okay, so I'm a writer, a photographer and videographer, so I like to start my day leisurely.

Bel Woodhouse: 8:04

I go for a nice long walk along the shorefront or sometimes I go for a swim and then I'll come back and have a pot of tea and have a shower and have some breakfast and start my day. And whatever I'm doing that day whether I'm doing video work or I'm doing writing, and just like any other job really, you just work during the day and then at night catch up with friends. It's very popular in mexican culture that you meet friends after dinner. So quite often my neighbor walks her little dog and I'll finish up dinner and she'll send me a text and say I'm walking nala, and I'll say, okay, I'll be down in a few minutes, and she walks past my house and we go for a lovely walk around the park and catch up and it's just a nice way to live yeah, bell is also the mexican correspondent now for international living, and you just recently completed a trip that we're very interested in because it's our next stop here uh, san miguel adiende yes, gorgeous spanish colonial town it's.

Bel Woodhouse: 9:01

It's creative, it's got a beautiful mix of expats that are all artists and photographers and writers and it's got this really eclectic, beautiful vibe and visually stunning. It's all golds and reds and it's well and truly worth the trip if you're ever thinking of going there. It's like the cultural centre of Mexico.

Rita Santos: 9:21

What is the highs and lows, climate-wise, in San Miguel?

Bel Woodhouse: 9:27

Okay, so during winter it does get quite cool. I'm more of a Celsius, not a Fahrenheit, kind of person, so I don't know how it.

Jim Santos: 9:35

We can adjust.

Bel Woodhouse: 9:36

We can adjust. But when I was there over nighttime it was hitting down to 9 or 12 degrees and during the daytime it was like 26 degrees. So when you leave in the morning you have on a light jacket, but as soon as you start walking around you don't really need it and it's fine. But it is very arid outside of San Miguel so it's quite dry. It's not humid like here in the Caribbean. It's very dry there. So that was the most interesting for me. I had to use a lot of moisturizer, but it is quite steep in some areas as well. So take good walking shoes. You know I wouldn't want to be tottering around those hills in cobblestone streets and heels, ladies, um.

Jim Santos: 10:17

But it's a beautiful city to walk around we're really looking forward to it, especially the mercados.

Bel Woodhouse: 10:23

I understand you visited some of the mercados there yes, I love the macados and I think if I lived there, I would probably shop at the mercado more than the supermarkets, because there was just such a wealth of beautiful fresh fruits and vegetables. And I discovered a new thing, which was little pods and they're vibrant green and I asked what they were and they were actually chickpeas. I've never seen a a chickpea, a fresh chickpea.

Jim Santos: 10:45

Yeah, I've never seen one in its natural state.

Bel Woodhouse: 10:47

Yeah, I have never seen one in its pod, and when they boil them up in salted water they turn like this almost fluorescent green, and they are delicious. I was a little bit addicted to them, I think by the time I left.

Bel Woodhouse: 11:00

And they have all of these neat little places. You can eat in the Mercados and everything is freshly made daily and it's just gorgeous. You could get everything that you needed. But of course, there is the higher end shopping. There's organic markets and there's one place called city I think it was city market or something which was very fancy. It had its own sushi restaurant inside and a cheese area from around the world. That just looked like heaven. So you can get basically everything that you want there. But the artisan markets and the fruit and veggie markets were beautiful. I would shop there all the time.

Jim Santos: 11:34

Well, that's what we plan on doing.

Rita Santos: 11:35

Yes, how about did you do some wine touring?

Bel Woodhouse: 11:39

I did go out to San Lucas winery, which is about 10 to 15 minute drive. It's probably the closest and it was very nice wine and it's touristy prices, as you would expect, so you pay for it, but the food was beautiful and the wine was really nice. We had a second glass and picked up a couple of bottles to take home. But, yeah, I would recommend getting out and about to see them at the. We are at the end of the dry season so it's a little bit dusty. The rains haven't arrived yet, but they are coming, probably next month, so it should be nice and green by the time we get there.

Jim Santos: 12:17

Yeah, that'll be actually the start of our little slow travel adventure here. It'll be the first time we're actually staying for at least a month someplace. This past week we've been in Playa del Carmen, basically recovering from the previous five weeks of packing up our home, getting it ready to sell Now. You visited Playa del Carmen from time to time for supplies and things.

Bel Woodhouse: 12:37

Yes, I do duck over the fire regularly because there are certain things on my island that I cannot get, and so friends and I will quite often just pop on the ferry, jump over to the mainland and we'll have a bit of a shop and pick up bits and pieces that we really need or just want. I have a bookstore there that I don't need any more books, but every time I go there I end up walking out okay with more books.

Bel Woodhouse: 12:58

I'm a bookaholic so, um, just you know, a fun day of shopping and picking up some bits and pieces, and it's just nice to see somewhere different than your island.

Jim Santos: 13:08

Yeah, cozumel is an island. It's kind of hard to remember that sitting here in this nice little lush garden, but it's not a very large island, is it?

Bel Woodhouse: 13:17

You can drive across Cozumel in about 25 minutes from one side to the other. On the other side we call it the wild side, the ocean side of the island. There's not a lot over there. There's a couple of tiny little restaurants and beach side shacks of souvenirs, one hotel and that's basically it. Everything is over on the san miguel de cozumel, the township side, because that's where it's, on the lee side of the island, away from the winds and the waves, and it's all protected, a beautiful, calm ocean, and that's where the big townships are.

Rita Santos: 13:46

It sounds like Hawaii.

Jim Santos: 13:48

In your seven-plus years here, I imagine you've seen some changes.

Bel Woodhouse: 13:53

Yes, there's quite a few things have changed, but then everything's the same, if that makes sense. There's always new restaurants popping up. There's been a lot more vegan restaurants. I'm a vegetarian. So when I first got to the island, there was one, which, of course, the only island, the only thing to blow up in a hurricane was the one vegan cafe um you know it couldn't have been one of the 50 steakhouses.

Bel Woodhouse: 14:17

Just the one vegan place had to go um, but now there's a lot more um options than there were. We had a lot of very international cuisines, but for those of us that don't want to go to a steakhouse or a seafood restaurant, there's a lot more. We've got some more Chinese now, a lot more like Asian, a lot more Indian. There's a few Indian restaurants, things like that, that have lots of veggie options, which I love, and the supermarkets are getting a way. It's probably double in the amount of gourmet section, of all the things that you can afford.

Bel Woodhouse: 14:50

I can get basically everything that I want here. I'm talking like black truffle oil or walnut oil or things like this that you don't use a lot of, but if I do, because I love to cook, if there is a recipe and I think, oh, I've never seen hazelnut oil, but I did find it last week in the supermarket because I actually looked for it. So you can get basically everything that you want here. But sometimes there are things, and for me it's specialty things. As I said, I'm a vegetarian, so I wanted a nice big packet of red miso and I couldn't find it on the island, but there is like a specialty store in Palo Alto that has it, so you know.

Jim Santos: 15:29

Well, I guess, even though it's an island, it's not like it's really isolated. It's only about a 35-minute ride on the ferry boat over to the mainland.

Bel Woodhouse: 15:38

It really is. It's quieter than the mainland, it's more relaxed than the mainland, but the mainland is right there. It's very close and, honestly, we get on the ferry and we start having a bit of a chat or sipping a cup of tea, and you're there.

Jim Santos: 15:54

You're there.

Bel Woodhouse: 15:55

It's very fast and the ferries are very good. They're called fast boat ferries and they get you there in a decent amount of time 35 minutes 35 minutes for us yeah, it wasn't bad at all. Yeah, and you came over on quite a rough day. There's a lot of wind today.

Jim Santos: 16:09

It's a little bouncy, so it was a little bouncy. So it's a little bouncy and a bit slower going.

Bel Woodhouse: 16:21

When you get it on a smooth day, you just shoot across the strait yeah, is there a part of the island that's um, like a historic section or an older part of town?

Bel Woodhouse: 16:25

yes, um, we have beautiful maya ruins in the middle of the island and that's got the maya ruins and the big temples to a shelf and is the goddess of our island and very important in Maya culture. So that's worth a visit. I've been out many times and I really love it. But as for where to live, most of the historic stuff is right in the middle of town because that's where it was settled in San Miguel. But the island is a lot larger than people think. They think. Oh, you know big pictures like Belize where you're driving around in golf carts on sand streets. Right, it's really not. There's over 350 restaurants and I'm pretty sure that's just the seafood restaurants there is over 500 taxis on the island.

Jim Santos: 17:12

Yes, I think all of them offered us rides as we got off the boat. Yeah, they do. They're very friendly like that.

Rita Santos: 17:18

Everyone wants everyone. If you're white and you're walking.

Bel Woodhouse: 17:20

They think you need a taxi, whereas I walk everywhere and they're always doot doot taxi. So, but I think you all keep walking, but Cozumel is larger than you think. It is there are two main areas.

Bel Woodhouse: 17:32

So you have, when you're coming on a cruise at the International Ferry Port of Mayan, there's all shops and everything up there and people get off the cruise and walk around and get suit and ears and that's kind of it. But if you do get a taxi and come down to the township of San Miguel that's where the ferry pulls in it's completely different. That's the actual township and it's full of everything you could want.

Jim Santos: 17:54

We're also thinking of taking a day trip to Tulum. You're saying that also has some interesting places that we should check out.

Bel Woodhouse: 18:01

Yes, I love Tulum. The first time I went to Tulum was nearly 10 years ago now and I loved it then. I still love it now. It has built up a lot. Things are getting a lot newer but condos going up and things like that, but tulung still too long still got that beautiful beach zone. It's still got a lot of natural spaces, gorgeous cenotes and the ruins the tulung ruins are very important in my culture. It's one of the big, largest sea ports that they had and the tulung ruins are beautiful to walk around and, um, yeah, I would definitely recommend going there if you get a chance because they are really, really, really pretty.

Rita Santos: 18:41

Should we get a tour guide there?

Bel Woodhouse: 18:44

I would say so. Yes, I've done it both ways. I've done it a few times by myself, but I also got a tour guide one time and I learned a lot, and I'm a bit of a culture vulture. I do like to admire culture. I've done a lot of research on it and I learned a lot from him that I had not learned reading about. So they're only about $20 and a good to our. Mine lasted about four hours.

Bel Woodhouse: 19:10

Wow that big, I do ask a lot of questions, um, so maybe you're not as thorough as I am or as interesting, but well and truly worth the money and I, I really, really enjoyed it. Yeah, so I would recommend a tour guide, and it's. It's nice to help the local economy while you're there as well. I mean, these guys just go there and they just wait for people to have a tour. So I mean, for 20 or 30 dollars, especially if have a group, it's well and truly worth it.

Jim Santos: 19:38

Yeah, it'd be interesting because the parts of South America that we've been in were more familiar with Incan culture and know almost nothing about the Mayan culture.

Bel Woodhouse: 19:48

Well, there was the Aztecs first, and then they morphed into the Maya, who are now morphed into the Maya descendants, which are very different from the Mexicans. So where I am in southern Mexico, in Riviera Maya, it has a very heavy history of Maya and there's you'll see, maya sculptures. You'll see, you know the artworks when you walk down the street. You see it in the faces of the locals and beautiful people. There's traditional pueblos.

Bel Woodhouse: 20:15

There is still a lot of places in the yucatan that only speak maya that don't speak spanish like the mexicans, um, so they are an indigenous population that are still in the area, so the mayans didn't disappear. They are still here, um, and yeah, they're really nice people, but they are quite small, they're not very tall, so be careful if you're walking around here.

Rita Santos: 20:39

Actually, when we lived in Ecuador. The indigenous speaks Shua and. Quechuan, the two national languages, the Abidin and Spanish. Yeah, so that still exists, I think in South America as well.

Bel Woodhouse: 20:56

And they're very proud of it. Here You'll get everyone, from taxi drivers through to Jorge, the guy that does the maintenance where I live, the buildings and every now and then he'll say thank you in Maya, or he's teaching me Maya words and those that are Maya ancestry. They're very proud of it and they're very willing to teach you anything if you show an interest, so don't be shy. If you ever meet them, just have a chat. They're really nice and they love sharing their culture with you.

Jim Santos: 21:22

Yeah, someone we knew in Kodakachi in Ecuador would be talking to us in English and he would slip, and every once in a while there'd be a Quechua word, then there'd be a Spanish word, and it was really fun just listening to them, just kind of move around in these different languages.

Bel Woodhouse: 21:37

Yeah, yeah we call that Spanglish, and I do that with a lot of my Mexican friends sometimes because, I'm trying to improve my Spanish, so I'll talk to them in Spanish, but when I don't know a Spanish word, it will come out in English and they're super sweet about it and they giggle and then they tell me the Spanish word. But yeah, I do that. I'm a bit of a Spanglish person.

Jim Santos: 21:56

I'm not quite fluent in Spanish, yet my problem is I learn French first, so every once in a while I'll pronounce something with a French accent instead of Spanish.

Bel Woodhouse: 22:05

Yeah, I can see that. I do that with my Italian neighbor, luca. His mother comes to feed his cat every day. She's very loud, I don't understand a word she says, but she's adorable, so you know. You're walking in the street and she's like a ninja. She pops out from behind a bush or behind a car and she's like Ciao Bella and she gives me a heart attack every time.

Bel Woodhouse: 22:26

This tiny little Italian woman scares the bejesus out of me, and so I get used to saying ciao instead of hola, or I say, you know, ciao bella or mio amore, like sweetheart, my love, instead of mio amore. So you know, sometimes I throw a little bit of Italian in there as well, because, oh, gabriela, she's tiny but she gets around, you know they used to say ciao in Ecuador in Ecuador you hear ciao sometimes.

Bel Woodhouse: 22:52

Yeah they do here as well a lot of them picked up chow yeah once in a while yeah, something surprised me here.

Jim Santos: 22:59

Uh, I guess technically we are on the caribbean right, but there doesn't seem to be that caribbean. Uh feel things seem very much mexican rather than caribbean, if that makes any sense yeah, I'll see russafarian.

Rita Santos: 23:13

Yeah, we're not like jamaica. There's no guys with steel drums or dreadlocks hanging down the back of their knees or anything that's.

Bel Woodhouse: 23:19

That's a different country. It is very eclectic here on cruzamel because, yes, we are in the mexican caribbean, the mexican part of the caribbean, but, um, it's very international. As I said, there are so many international cruise ships that call in here every day and the locals come from all over Mexico to work here, because it's the crowning jewel of the tourism industry in Mexico. So we have people, even the cosmoleños, which is the local people that have grown up here. One day I'll be talking to someone from Veracruz. The next day I'm talking to someone from Hidalgo. The next one it's from Puerto Vallarta. The next one it's very eclectic very mixed here.

Bel Woodhouse: 23:58

It's not a traditional island like this is where the Mexicans live, the traditional Pozo Malenas. A lot of them have a lot of Maya, so it's not really like Caribbean vibe. It's more indigenous vibe, if that makes sense, and it's a beautiful mix. But there's a deep love of nature and connection to the ocean here and most of the people on the island are very strongly connected.

Bel Woodhouse: 24:26

Biggest diving stream on the island is scuba diving and snorkel tours and things like this water sports. Most people that are living here, the tourism, are a part of one of the ocean water sports scuba diving, you name it, we've got it and there is a real undercurrent, deep love of nature. So, yeah, please don't litter or, you know, cut down a tree. Someone will get very upset with you.

Jim Santos: 24:54

We have noticed we're talking about on the way here that you see very little litter on the streets yes, yeah, it's very serious we I get my trash picked up three times a week monday, wednesday, friday.

Bel Woodhouse: 25:07

People that live in centro it is daily yeah they literally get their trash picked up every single day. As I said, we're very proud of our island. We're real nature lovers no litter, because that goes into the ocean. You know, we love our turtles and we don't want them choking on plastic bags or anything like that. So we are very conscious of living with nature and just keeping things clean and less polluted.

Jim Santos: 25:35

We've been talking with Bel Woodhouse. She's a Mexican correspondent for International Living, author, videographer, and Bel the Batty Botanist. Go look her up on Facebook. So, Bel, thank you. We've enjoyed the tour around Cozumel.

Jim Santos: 26:01

Now, before we go, a reminder that Bell, Rita and I will all be at the 2024 Ultimate Go Overseas Boot Camp coming up in Las Vegas, Nevada, October 26th to 28th. Rita and I will be in the exhibit hall to answer questions about slow travel and the places we visited. And I will be in the exhibit hall to answer questions about slow travel and the places we visited. And I will have to conquer my fears once again and face a huge crowd to give a couple of talks. There'll be expats and experts from around the world and if you're interested in attending, just check out intliving. com/ events that's intliving. com/ events for more information or to make reservations. That's it for this week's show.

Jim Santos: 26:37

Next week, we'll come to you from the mountain, colonial town of San Miguel de Allende in Mexico. Now keep listening, keep spreading the word on social media and, if you can, please take a moment to leave a rating and review. And, of course, subscriptions are always welcome. If you have any questions or would like to tell your own story. Email me at jim@ jimsantosbooks. com . Until next time, remember we travel not to escape life, but so that life does not escape us. Thank you.