March 1, 2011

Crawl...

The Senor, brother-in-law and I took off for a long weekend in Playa.

Note to all, February in Playa is fabulous!

We decided this trip would be all about trying new places and with the exception of a couple of old standbys we kept to our word.

Day One...

a little beach time...

a little Carboncita's...

and...

a "bar crawl" with a bunch of "peeps" from Playa Info...

The "peeps" were from various parts of the US and Canada and a really fun group of "peeps"!

Chris, our leader, is darling. The rules were simple, Chris had a list of 11 places to visit. We would spend 15 - 20 minutes (or one drink) at each stop. When it was time to go Chris would blow her handy-dandy whistle and the group would then follow her like a flock of ducks to our next designation. Simple enough!

We started out at Luna Blue.



Luna Blue is owned by a couple of ex-pats from San Francisco who sold everything and moved to Playa to follow their dream. They run a funky little motel and bar in Playa that people rave about. The Senor and I stayed there once and, quiet frankly, weren't all that impressed. With that said, they have added the bar (with swings) since our stay and I will admit it turned out pretty cool. Tony, one of the owners, stopped by the bar and was very friendly. Perhaps the Senor and I are willing to give them another chance!



Next we went to a new place called Reina Roja Hotel and Bar or as some call it "the red bar". All I can say about this place is it is "different"!



I'm glad we went so I can say I saw it but I doubt I would go again! Someone spent a tremendous amount of money on the decor (which is the weird part!) and the place is huge. It has a very cool roof-top pool that wouldn't be a bad place to spend a few hours. We didn't see the rooms but I understand they are very different but in a cool way. The place is definitely aiming for a younger and more "progressive" group than the three of us!

After leaving the Reina Roja we headed over to Kitxen on 5th Avenue. We have walked by this place many times but never stopped in. So glad we did. The bartender was super friendly and band was great. We will definitely drop back in the next time we're in Playa.



From Kitxen we headed around the corner and down to 1st street to Martini Bar. The Senor and I have been there before and this place is TINY but very popular with the ex-pats. It adjoins a really cool hotel with an outside lobby and a bunch of us planted ourselves on their sofas (that is until they told us we had to leave!) and never even attempted to get inside Martini Bar. Before long the whistle blew and we were once again on our way.

Next stop Basico on 5th Avenue. This is a rooftop bar that overlooks the pedestrian walk-way so is a great place to watch the world go by from up above. Our group were the only ones there when we arrived and we enjoyed checking out the cool layout, people watching and taking advantage of a few photo ops.





From Basico we headed to my favorite spot in town - Fusion.





Fusion is on the beach, is very bohemian, has great music, is right next door to our home base and just all-in-all a great place to hang out. It is also where the "bar crawl" ended for the Senor, brother-in-law and I. It was midnight by then and, let's face it, we're not really what one would call "bar hoppers". We did have fun though and it was good for the three of us to "crawl" out of our comfort zone!

to be continued...

2 comments:

Lolabees said...

Talk about "crawling out of your comfort zone!" I am impressed you tried so many new places. I haven't quite been able to do that yet ;) Will have to check some of them out next time!

Grandma Yellow Hair said...

Kim it looks like from the pictures you had a great time. I have to look this up on the internet. I so would love to spend some down time on a beach.
Hope you are doing good and I enjoyed your post
Love
Maggie