Your home in the Mexican Caribbean!! In the Mayan mythology, there’s infinity of histories, that always are focused in the goblin (alux in the Mayan language) known as a figure that in the moment to appear in the mount or the jungle, dispels bad luck, that came form the people or from bad spirits. We decide to give this name to the guest house precisely because we want to be like the Alux that whith its presence protect anyone who is near by. With its’ structure of few apartments, let us to enjoy of its’ tropical jungle and to play with the dimensions, styles and unique designs, each one different of the other one. All are completely furnished, with a comfortable kitchen totally equipped, TV, air conditioned, hot and cold water.The guest house El duende Del mar, its situated in the center of Playa Del Carmen, five minutes walking you will find the Mexican Caribbean Sea and the famous 5th Avenue. Really closer you can find all the services like: banks, supermarkets, post mail, taxis, typical restaurants, and many more. All the inn, this surrounded by a great tropical garden, that allows the guests to enjoy its vacations in a Caribbean typical atmosphere, and the option of being able to organize some private celebration cooking in the grill with meat or fish that can even be fished by same one
This two preserves can be visited by tours in the boat or in the funny jeep-safari, having the possibility to observe the hundred kinds of exotic animals, like: eagles, herons, tapiros, monkeys, anteaters, flamingos, pelicans and its’ different flora and fauna.We are to your deposition to offer an ample range to of tours where we personally took it to know all Caribbean from north the south. Hundreds of ruins exist that to visit and activities of all type, to make your vacations unique. Also we offer the best accessory for rent equipment of adventure or vehicles throughout all Riviera.
Attn: Denis Conforto
Dear Denis,
A word of thanks for our stay at El Duende…
On behalf of the Kay family gathering at your hotel on spring break of this year I want to thank you for the great hospitality and service you and your wonderful staff put on for us during our stay of one week. Your hotel is a delightful refuge from the sometimes chaotic scene in Playa. My daughter Tamara loved all the birds and lizards especially Dorothy the turtle!
Very interested to hear of your plans for building another hotel in the Bacalar Lagoon area down the coast. Do you ever look for business partners/investors for these ventures? I am already thinking about the next trip to Playa as I definitely have to get in a dive with the whale sharks up in Holbox. That is just too good an experience to pass up on!!! And of course will be staying at El Duende again.
Please pass along our thanks and appreciation as well to Miguel and that lovely lady (sorry I have forgotten her name!) who served us those great desayunos in the garden.
By the way I never did find out what that strange fish was that I spotted while diving on the outer coast of Cozumel…remember I described a fin with no fin on it’s tail? I followed up here with various searches but turned up nothing even close so it remains a mystery.
Anyway, thanks again for a happy and memorable stay at your hotel and for anyone who’s reading this…WE GIVE EL DUENDE DEL MAR OUR HIGHEST FIVE STAR RECOMMENDATION*****!!!
Muchas gracias!
Vaya con dios,
Fred Kay
Vancouver, BC, Canada
ciao alla prox
do you do long term rentals?
yes..
Aspettatemi… Arriverò anch’io. BACI con Rock ‘n Roll
Grazie del link…. uomo di fuoco!! Un pò di adrenalina a questo blog non fa di certo male!
Dear Denis,
what an amazing time we had @ Duende…Can’t wait to be back!
At first i wasn’t really sure about Playa del Carmen: too crowdy and developed I had heard…but it couldn’t have gone any better.
Your place is so beautyful and the people working there so kind and wellcoming. What better place than Duende del Mar to make the base of the “Riviera and Costa Maya” visit?
The position of Playa del Carmen, right in the middle of everything: Chichen Itza, Coba’, Tulum, Akumal,Cozumel, Isla Mujeres, Holbox, Bacalar, Xcalac….they all are within few hours drive.
The “Quinta Avenida” is just around the corner fron the condo-hotel, but at the same time it feels so paceful and quite, with the tropical garden surrounding all of the apartments..
And the BBQ we had in it! Oh God!
Not to mention the snorkeling experiences: never seen such a beauty before in my life!
Will I be back?
very soon! and only at Duende of course!
Don’t know how to thank you, I’ll definetly spread the word.
Take Care
Dave – Israel
dear Denis, we don’t know how to thank you enough for the amazing experience we had.
What a paradise you have there at Duende, quite, cozy and comfy..
Playa may be too small-time to raise a tour operator’s eyebrow, but it was just right for us. An endearing mix of slightly ramshackle palm-thatched cabanas, music bars and small, smart owner-run hotels along a crescent of sand, with a proper town at one end of its main pedestrian avenue, and designer boutiques, tiled lapis-lazuli blue on deep ochre walls, at the other. Stocky Mexicans in sombreros sat on the kerb playing the guitar, and occasionally suggested that you might want to visit their shop, amigo.
The sea was that translucent blue that only the Caribbean can achieve, perhaps because the sand beneath it is so white, and Cuban bands played in beachfront bars to an audience that was mainly seasoned, fashionable young Europeans.
Step back two roads and you were amongst brightly-painted cantinas serving guacamole, tacos and burgers, where we found we could feed the family – including a supply of Sol or Corona (with a slice of lime) for the parents.
Now settled, we alternated beach days with excursions by long distance bus – sweaty seats and smelling suspiciously of disinfectant, but frequent, cheap, and sociable.
One of our first trips was to Cancun, an hour north, the planted colony of shoulder-to-shoulder all-inclusives to which a brochure holiday would have committed us. This was a real Vegas on the beach, an outpost of Americana and a mecca of sun and consumption, where huge sound systems made the sand bounce. We had lunch at the Rainforest Cafe, next to a massive Hard Rock, just down from Bongo Bongo, and across from Planet Hollywood; needless to say we returned home to Playa feeling smug.
Another day we took the ferry across to the cruise-ship ringed island of Cozumel, disembarking amongst a crowd of ecstatic Americans – “pilgrims of Mary” according to their name-badges – who, judging by their girth, lived a regime of praise the Lord and pass the donuts. The pier shop sold a T-shirt printed with “10 lies you’re likely to hear on Cozumel”, which included “no, the free jeep rental has nothing to do with timeshare”, which wasn’t encouraging. We were there, though, for the undersea, Cozumel’s main claim to fame.
In Chankanab National Park, past a dive centre with a sign which read “make new friends – and then eat them”, the sea was gentle and crystalline, and rentable lifejackets helped the children turn their fear of sharing the same water as fish into delight at their colours and sociability.
But perhaps the best day out was hiring a “Herbie” (VW beetles are still made in their original form in Mexico) to seek out the cenotes, pools formed by underwater rivers. We found one cradled in a massive cave partly lit by a natural blowhole up through the rock, and dived in. The water was surprisingly warm, but whenever I stood still little fish took an alarming interest in a blister on my foot.
That was a Mayan ruin day, too. At Tulum, the palaces and temples were scattered like grey dice along a cliffy shore; but at Coba, inland, they were distributed through 75 square kilometres of jungle with the warning poster on the gate identifying Mexico’s poisonous snakes.
We’ll be back very soon, so much left to be seen.
This is the place to stay for a real mexican experience