New Years Eve in Playa del Carmen

How to have fun on New Year’s Eve in Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Here are my best top 5 suggestions for enjoying New Years Eve in Playa del Carmen, Mexico:

5) Only drink Coke. If you drink enough cokes you can get quite a buzz! At least I do because I don’t usually drink anything with caffeine. The trick is to avoid the Rum. Then you get the buzz without the hangover.

4) Hang out on the beach – there is nothing quite like bringing in the New Year with your feet in the sand as you gaze out upon the moonlit ocean. Enjoy the people and watching the stars. Also you can drink your cokes there.

3) Find someone who has a house on the beach and get yourself invited there for a party.

2) Walk along 5th Ave. close to midnight. The restaurants seem to have all their clocks set at slightly different times, so you can probably catch at least three different countdowns to bring in the New Year.

1) Plan to go to bed early so that you can go for a New Years Day morning swim in the ocean.

Ah, what a life!

Happy New Year from our tropical holiday hut to yours!

Enjoy the Adventure! Suzanne

Suzanne Marie Bandick
Live your Dreams Life Coach

P.S. My book: Only in Mexico You Say? The Humorous Side of Living in Mexico is available now on my site http://www.onlyinmexicoyousay.com

Would you like help to visit or live in Mexico? Visit http://www.liveyourdreamscoaching.com

After Christmas in Mexico

How do we all avoid a post Christmas let down once all the gifts have been opened, the turkey has been devoured and all that is left is the clean up? Even in Mexico, we can suffer this fate! This year let’s be prepared!

Plan a day at Xel Ha or Xcaret. If you are not in the Riviera Maya, I’m sure that you can find another adventure park or activity. Then again, you could just come here!

Go to the beach.

Plan a day on a catamaran.

Visit other towns or states in Mexico.

Plan an after party with friends and marvel at how well you managed over the holidays.

Plan a trip to somewhere cold just to be different. Book a ticket to somewhere warm again for the next day as you will probably find it too cold.

Start planning next Christmas! It is never too early to avoid the frenzy.

Enjoy the Adventure! Suzanne

Suzanne Marie Bandick
Live your Dreams Life Coach

P.S. My book: Only in Mexico You Say? The Humorous Side of Living in Mexico is available now on my site http://www.onlyinmexicoyousay.com

Would you like help to visit or live in Mexico? Visit http://www.liveyourdreamscoaching.com

Making a Gingerbread House in Mexico

One might think that this would be a relatively easy process. However in Mexico a builder has to think about the fact that humidity can crumble walls or even that ants could carry it away! I do not want any ants thinking my gingerbread house is a party palace. I want us free to eat it ourselves dust and all after Christmas!

Here is my plan:

- Bake the gingerbread well to ensure strong walls. Of course avoiding any burnt color.

- Cover the preparation area with disposable plastic to avoid leaving any sugar remnants.

- Build the house on a base that then gets set in a pan of water to deter ants. Maybe we should make the house a gingerbread castle and that is the moat!

- And vacuum the kids after assembly.

That should work! And you thought living in the tropics was the easy life!

Okay so maybe it is. See you at the beach. Feliz Navidad!

Enjoy the Adventure! Suzanne

Suzanne Marie Bandick
Live your Dreams Life Coach

P.S. My book: Only in Mexico You Say? The Humorous Side of Living in Mexico is available now on my site http://www.onlyinmexicoyousay.com/

Would you like help to visit or live in Mexico? Visit http://www.liveyourdreamscoaching.com/

Christmas in Mexico Top 10

Today I’ll share with you my top 10 things to do if you are spending Christmas in Playa del Carmen, Mexico this year.

10) Go to the beach and build Santa’s house out of sand. Paper towel rolls make a great mold for the posts. Don’t forget to add the North Pole sign post. Paper or plastic reindeer are optional, but do add a more realistic look. Skip the candy – too messy with the sand – sand on your tongue is just yucky.

9) Make some pretty red and green margaritas. The green ones are lime and the red ones are strawberry (frozen strawberries of course because we don’t grow strawberries in Mexico!). Drink them while you eat corn chips with a choice of red or green salsa.

8) Put on suntan lotion and go Christmas shopping on 5th Ave. Buy an inflatable pool floaty toy shaped like a palm tree for yourself and towels that say “Playa del Carmen” for everybody else.

7) Rent a kids Christmas movie that you know really well and watch it in Spanish and giggle because the voices are different and sound funny.

6) Take your new palm tree floaty and go for a polar bear swim in the pool – the pools are cold here at Christmas time! Have Abuelita (Spanish for Grandma) brand hot chocolate ready for when you come out. It’s the best - all pre spiced and everything!

5) Decorate a palm tree with twinkle lights and red balls as your Christmas tree.

4) Plan a party and invite mariachis to play the music. This is a good time to serve more red and green margaritas, and your salsa. You can also show off your palm tree.

3) Buy some poinsettias to decorate your place and then after Christmas you can plant them outdoors and they will live!

2) Take a picture of yourself at the beach wearing a Santa hat and send it as a Christmas card to all your friends who live far away. If you want to get creative, take it in front of the Santa house you made out of sand. Very impressive!

1) Last but obviously not least; put tacos out for Santa and chili flavored chips for the reindeer. They look forward to coming to Mexico every year because we have the best snacks!

Merry Christmas to all!

Enjoy the Adventure! Suzanne

Suzanne Marie Bandick
Live your Dreams Life Coach

P.S. My book: Only in Mexico You Say? The Humorous Side of Living in Mexico is available now on my site http://www.onlyinmexicoyousay.com/

Would you like help to visit or live in Mexico? Visit http://www.liveyourdreamscoaching.com/

Does it really feel like Christmas in Mexico?

Does it ever really feel like Christmas in Mexico? Well not exactly at this moment. You see I originally come from a land of snow at Christmas. Playa del Carmen does not get any snow.

So, I have the decorations up, and the tree up, but still no special Christmas feeling ... hmm, what to do??

I am thinking the following may help ..... paper snowflakes on the windows, rolls of cotton batting laid out across the lawn, the setting up of a live nativity scene in our yard, creating an outdoor fireplace, twinkle lights everywhere, installing air conditioning so that I can turn it up really high, and playing my Christmas carols full blast every minute of everyday until Christmas.

That should help! Does anyone have any pine scent? Wait until my husband gets home!

Does anyone have any other ideas?

Enjoy the Adventure! Suzanne

Suzanne Marie Bandick
Live your Dreams Life Coach

P.S. My book: Only in Mexico You Say? The Humorous Side of Living in Mexico is available now on my site http://www.onlyinmexicoyousay.com

Would you like help to visit or live in Mexico? Visit www.LiveYourDreamsCoaching.com

Christmas shopping in Mexico

Christmas shopping in Mexico can be so easy. First, put on lots of suntan lotion .......

Then, if you are on the west coast of Mexico, head to the beach as there you can lounge or have dinner while all the vendors come to you. How much easier can it get? Before you know it, you will have purchased gifts of silver, shells, beads, wooden carvings, kites, candles, blankets, and assorted clothing.

If you are on the east coast of Mexico, vendors are not allowed to come to you on the beach, but don't worry as a stroll along 5th Avenue in Playa del Carmen will satisfy all your gift requirements.

Anywhere else in Mexico, just visit the local market and you will find many unique and inexpensive gifts. Remember however you cannot travel with chickens. Best to stick with the local handicrafts and art work.

Now, who gets this awesome sculpture of a monkey carved out of a coconut? Really nobody needs to fight over it - I bought 5!

Enjoy the Adventure! Suzanne

Suzanne Marie Bandick
Live your Dreams Life Coach

P.S. My book: Only in Mexico You Say? The Humorous Side of Living in Mexico is available now on my site http://www.onlyinmexicoyousay.com

Would you like help to visit or live in Mexico? Visit www.LiveYourDreamsCoaching.com

Holiday in Mexico at Christmas?

Christmas is coming ... it's coming ... it's coming! I love Christmas - no matter what country I am in! You probably wonder how I can feel so much like Christmas when I live with warm weather and palm trees?

It is because even here in Mexico the stores have Christmas decorations out! Yes, few countries escape commercialism. Real Christmas trees are even showing up in store parking lots. I don't recommend them though as they never see water and I can guarantee you they will be brown by Christmas. In Mexico, as near as I can figure, they are seen as a sign of great beauty when brown.

Why don't you plan to come and have a tropical Christmas? You could spend Christmas day playing in the surf and laying on the beach. Christmas dinner could be fresh fish or tacos. No cooking, no cleaning and no responsibilities. Now that just might be a change of pace you need.

You will definitely find me at the beach while my turkey is cooking. I like to mix up my traditions. Now to plan my Christmas baking ...... maybe some candy with chili?

Enjoy the Adventure! Suzanne

Suzanne Marie Bandick
Live your Dreams Life Coach

P.S. My book: Only in Mexico You Say? The Humorous Side of Living in Mexico is available now on my site http://www.onlyinmexicoyousay.com

Would you like help to visit or live in Mexico? Visit www.LiveYourDreamsCoaching.com