Times Square in Playa Del Carmen (with a twist and I don’t mean a twist of lime)
A customer said to me today, ‘the only New Years I have had similar to ours last night was in New York in Times Square’…but we were missing the ball last night….instead there was the beach, a lot of short dresses, many stiletto heels, the beach, friends and to our surprise, not a lot of loud music. Now the outfits were a surprise for a beach town, the shoes even more of a surprise as we could not figure out how women can walk on sand after a glass or two of champagne with 4 to 5 inch heels, but the biggest surprise was the music.
For those who have been in Playa during high season or any festival day, easter, Christmas, new years, march break, you know what happens, it is no secret. There is noise, lots of noise created by bars, with decibel levels sometimes higher than a Roller Stones concert. Last night, as the Dirty Martini Lounge began to hop at 7 pm and people started to get go to dinner, roam the streets and just hang out, there was a quiet silence…yes I do mean a quiet silence. We sat in the main hotel reception area as a Tropical Casa Blanca Team, ready to watch the evening/mayhem and our curiosity peaked as the night went on….there was no mayhem, there was a bustling quietness on the streets and the bars, the famous noise makers were respecting the over 25 crowd and let us speak. Even at midnight, and after midnight, we could speak, we could hear each other, we were not subjected to a rock concert minus the ‘rock’ or anybody famous who could be forgiven for making noise. There was very little thump, thump, thumping….I am smiling….
Slowly at 11 pm the crowd started to gather at 1st Avenue and 12th street. Our entertainment for the evening was dinner, people watching, outfit commenting and basic commerotary….The Dirty Martini was hopping but pleasantly, everyone seemed to know each other and friends met up with friends. Anyone who went out for dinner, did not get stuck eating at 2 am due to backed up kitchens…..everyone was festive and had not one complaint. At 11:55 pm it was the sound of people gearing up for 12 o’clock that got us excited. We did not miss the witching hour due to being delayed or out-noised by the techno music. We heard ourselves saying Happy New Year to each other. Every single person in the hotel slept and slept well all night.
Now I don’t want to jinx this situation, but we had a super great evening. We did not get blasted out of our beds, we did not have to sit up and read a book cursing until 7 am and if people went to bed with too much alcohol in their system, it was by choice, not as medication to get to them to sleep due to loud, bad and unpleasant music. Asome people did party until 8 am…and they seemed to have fun…within 15 minutes of the crowd leaving the streets for the beach, the city of Playa del Carmen had cleaned, washed and put everything back together as though nothing even happened. It was an amazing thing to watch. This morning we had smiles on our faces, because the night was so magical. I had a huge smile on my face because the evening was so picture perfect and quiet. A wonderful gathering with tolerable and normal noise levels. The only thing that would have made it better, if that was possible, was if Frank Sinatra or Miles Davis was still alive and played a few sets for us to the tune of under 68 decibels.
My hat goes off to the Mayor of Playa Del Carmen, the bar owners and the guests from all over the world that showed great respect for this New Year, 2009. If this evening was any indication as to the upcoming noise levels on festival days, I will be the happiest girl in the world with the happiest customers in the world, just like last night. There is something to be said about bringing in the |New Year with a big fat smile. Gracias Dios y Namaste…or as Alex thought we were saying, No mistake….
Pictures will be posted tomorrow….
