Danny L. Garcia

Calica is literally a parking lot. No seriously, when you get there you walk out on to a dirt & rock parking lot where busses for the individual excursions are waiting along with a car rental business and taxi's. I was told what to expect in Calica after I asked what there was to do there. I was told that you stay on the boat, you take an excursion or you pay $10 (US) for a taxi ride into Playa del Carmen. I thought docking in the middle of nowhere was strange until I found out that the cruise line makes a significant amount of money off of the excursions. They probably get a cut of the rentals and taxi business also. Just another way to make money.

Playa del Carmen was a great place to shop. We had a great time talking and dealing with the local people in the shopping area. We were a bit disappointed though when we went to take my teenage boys to the beach. We found out that "Playa del Carmen" in English means "Beach of topless women". We spot checked over a mile of beach and could not find an area where there were not topless women. This place gave new meaning to the "One piece bathing suit". My guys had really wanted to go to the beach but could not.

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