As most of you know, Celestun is still the best place to go for a boat tour to see large groupings of pink flamingos. After the two-hour cruise, you have to eat.
About a kilometer up the road from the boat launch, is the town of Celesturn. There are a number of restaurants there, all offering seafood.
La Playita, like most of the other places is right on the beach. When you walk through from the back, you can go all the way to tables that are actually in the sand. The view is gorgeous. The place is generally crowded and there are a lot of repeat customers, like me.
Ulla and Deb
Deb U, Ulla U and I drove the hour and a half out there just to have lunch. As always, it was excellent. Ulla had a shrimp cocktail which was a giant thing that reminded me of an ice cream sundae. The sauce was the perfect blend of hot and sweet and the shrimp were very fresh (they catch them in Celestun).
I had my usual, Cangrejo Frito, fried crab. The modest title belies the complexity of the dish, pictured here. It is pure, fresh crabmeat with raisins, capers, and other middle eastern type seasonings. Fabulous.
- Cangrejo Frito
Deb had a huge fried grouper which was grease-free and tender. We all had lemonade, which was the real thing.
The long-time cook here is the son of the owner. He’s a tall trans-sexual who has worn lipstick and jewelry to work since I’ve been coming to La Playita which must be close to twenty years. He’s no longer young and as on all of us, it shows. He still has on his eye make-up and is apparently living as a woman, but he is actually greying; I can’t believe it. Anyway, the guy is a talented chef.
I would strongly recommend La Playita to anyone. It even has showers!
Before we left Merida, we had to go to a tire place because the gas station guy pointed out that there was a big nail in the tire. The guy took off the tire, pulled out the nail and patched the hole, all within fifteen minutes and for about three dollars.
