A bike ride into town for me and a late sleep for Carol. The area where we are staying, Playacar, is newly developed, quiet, and beautifully manicured. The town of Playa del Carmen itself is still rather seedy and honky tonk. A good place to get tattooed and laid. On the way in, I passed some Mayan ruins (although they looked like they had been reconstructed along with the new hotels).
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Breakfast at Ventanas and out to the beach for the morning. At 12:30, we went out in a snorkel boat.

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We went about 5 miles down the coast, just 100 yards at most off shore. It was some of the best snorkeling we've done. The water was calm and crystal clear, and shallow--you could always find a sandy place to stand, and you could glide just inches over the top of the coral. The reef was quite alive with all kinds of coral, especially purple fan coral. Chasing schools of purple fish in and out of the antler coral, being careful to avoid the sea urchins, was thrilling. A pelican joined us just 10 feet away, eager for a handout.

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We returned to the hotel and had a bit of lunch at the beach bar. The salsa, guacomole and chips are first class here. There is something so nice about a high-class  all-inclusive resort where you can order whatever you want, whenever you want, have a taste of this and that, and, unlike Grossinger's, the food is really good.

Then we had a one-hour private Spanish lesson with Isaac, the guy who gives me my bike in the morning. Everyone on the staff here is so nice, so eager to please.Then Carol took a stretching class with Silvio, and I returned to the cabana to read some more.

Dinner was at Ventanas, a spacious continental restaurant. It was a great dinner, with wonderful service and appointments. We returned to our room to watch Dr. Strangelove, one of the great films of all time, which we had delivered by our concièrge to our room to watch on our VCR. We fell asleep during the movie.