Playa del Carmen

After about five days exclusively at the resort we decided to hop the shuttle bus to see what Playa del Carmen was all about. The intent was just to do a little shopping there and then wander down to the beach to take a look at another sandy shoreline and later catch the bus back to the resort.










I must interject here by saying Lola HATES shopping. Yes, my little soon-to-be- eleven-year-old girl HATES shopping. The only two places she likes to go with me are Wal-Mart for groceries and to the Dollar Store because it has "cool stuff". I do realize I should be thankful because she does not want everything she sees, but on the other hand it is a huge struggle to shop for any necessary clothes (she has grown an inch and has gained some poundage since coming to America, and in some cases it was necessary to get her a couple new pairs of jeans and a few new scooter skirts) and she really despises trying on anything to see if it fits properly...

Luckily, in this case we were not shopping for clothes, but Kimmi wanted to get a couple things to commemorate her trip to Mexico. Lola and I patiently waited (well, I did, anyway) but there were some fun things to look at outside the shops as well. We went to Senor Frog's and that was fun because there are frog figures outside and inside the shop, and I'm sure we followed the tourist handbook to a tee by taking photos of each other with these silly frogs! Lola tolerated the rest of the shopping for as long as she could - - which was about ten minutes - - so I told Kimmi to meet us down at the beach. I figured Lola would enjoy wading around down there for awhile and would give Kim a chance to look at what she wanted.








Once we got to the beach, I realized I should have kicked myself for not bringing our swimsuits along. The sand was smooooooooooth and the waves were awesome!! I told Lola she and I could wade and play for however long she wanted because it was wonderful!








Kimmi met us at the beach empty-handed - she didn't find anything she wanted to buy that didn't seem hugely overpriced, so she came in to wade with us as well. Once we were ready to meet the bus, Lola was pretty soaked but at least she had fun! We decided the beach was so awesome that we wanted to go back again the next day to spend the afternoon swimming. Kim is still dealing with her allergic rash, but she was game to swim in a rock-less beach!