Playa playa

At Playa, we said goodbye to David and thanked him for the ride. With new crazy ideas every day, and the website awaiting professional photos before completion, we would no doubt be seeing him again before leaving Mexico for good.

Our hotel was just a short walk away, so we checked in and embraced a little luxury (mainly the aircon) before starting the hunt for a house. We'd already come up for the day last week to try and secure a place ahead of the big move, but being absolute idiots, we'd forgotten to charge our phone and couldn't call anyone to arrange a viewing.

We viewed one place near the beach, in a complex with a pool, but it was pretty shoddy. The pool definitely hadn't been cleaned in a while and it was the very top of our budget. The next place we saw was a decent-sized two bed, even more expensive and even more grannified with its big floral cushions and bedspreads. The block was nice, but it was on the ground floor and looked pretty accessible from the road. The American estate agent's excuse that the bramble bushes would deter any burglars wasn't so convincing either.

The day ended with us both feeling a little deflated as we walked up Avenue 5, into the old end of town where holiday makers were as tired as the bars. Getting a good place here on a budget would be tough...and by now we weren't sure if it was the right place for us either.

We woke up early to try and desperately find somewhere before checkout at midday. In the lobby, we checked emails and had a stroke of luck. Trev had messaged one of his friends from Playa and she runs a letting business. The phone call to her was full of promise. She told us she had three places available and that our budget was very good. We arranged to meet her straight away.

Tucked up on 26th and 20, just a 5-minute walk from the beach in the cool part of town, was her office. Sol was a lovely, friendly lady. She grabbed some keys and showed us the places. There was a studio, a two-bed Palapa, and then the one-bed flat next door to her office. Basic but fully functional, with a little patio out back, we were sold. It was only 6500 pesos, and as we would be here for a month, we didn't need to cough up a deposit. It was ideal.

They had a little painting and cleaning to do, so it wouldn't be ready until the following day. We rushed back to our hotel before checkout and booked it for another night. Now we were free to relax and check out a few of Sol's top tips for restaurants. We strolled along the beautiful beach and had some sunset ceviche. Perfect.

Excited and thankfully lacking a hangover, we headed out for breakfast. We found a gem. A Venezuelan feast of chicken sandwiched between two giant bits of plantain, a weird bun stuffed with pulled beef, a sugarcane lemonade, and coffees to set us up with all the moving energy we could ever need.

We arrived at our new place at 12:30, and it was all ready for us. We needed to buy a few things like bedding, pots and pans, and crockery, so took a trip to MEGA, which was conveniently just two blocks away.

Mosquito screens were being added to the patio window, and our sofa would be delivered in a few days. We were absolutely over the moon. It would be the perfect base for our Playa adventures.