Cancun 09 Adventure #7

As I wrote the last time, the power was off and we were contemplating what to do. Apparently they have significant back up generation capacity here. The power was indeed off in the rooms, but all the computers (where they take your money) and the grocery store were still operational. Also the elevators still had power. Oh yea, and the sound system at the welcome meeting and then later party worked just fine. We attended the welcome meeting and found out all the stuff about the resort. Royal Resorts has some of the highest rated time-shares in Cancun, but they are really in love with themselves. They think they are better than the best thing since sliced bread. All I know so far is they have the meanest mosquitoes.

We later went to the Welcome Party out on the deck by the pool. Since the power was off, they added a special treat to the normal welcome party refreshments. Instead of just beer and soft drinks, they added rum and Coke to the offerings. What a busy bar that was, made us forget about the power being off. I tipped the bartender nicely early on, so he took care of Miss Vickie and I. We elected to let the younger folks handle the limbo, water balloon tossing, balloon stomping, and various other semi athletic events. With the free libations flowing and a crowd of easily 100-125, the Welcome Party really took off. They were selling food, and that was going pretty well. Jerry won a free hamburger combo plate, but since he wasn’t here Vickie and I ate it for him. Sadly it looks like Jerry and Brenda aren’t going to make it back here. We really miss them. Brenda’s sister is back at the nursing home and resting comfortably. With the help of her friend Francis, a sitter, and Brenda someone is with June around the clock.

After the welcome party, we hung out in the pool for the afternoon, and enjoyed meeting a diverse group of folks during happy hour at the pool bar. We retreated to the Villa prior to the dreaded bloodsuckers arrival. We contemplated what to do for dinner and decided a pizza from the in-house carry out would suffice and possibly a nice bottle of Shiraz from the grocery store. Vickie volunteered to cover up with insect repellent, and go for the grub. In hindsight I realized we should have let the room delivery folks handle it all. Vickie returned with bites all over her face and back and arms. She is quite allergic to the vampire saliva, and had bumps all over. We ate our meal, and watched some often entertaining Mexican television. Southpark in Spanish is a hoot, and the Mexican commercials are amazingly over the top compared to the US. Soon it was read a little and hit the sack.

Monday turned out to be a pretty day with a nice breeze going, and the bloodsuckers back to their lairs for the day. Early morning our maid arrived. She’s young, looks real good bending over cleaning our out door hot tub, and makes really cool towel flowers and animals as well as fancy toilet paper and tissue foldings. She also keeps our room organized and spotless. Oh yes, she speaks between 0 and 1% English. I have decided that I want her to come home to America, live with us, and work for us full time. Haven’t discussed this with Vickie quite yet but I’m sure she’ll agree. I now plan to be at my computer (which is beside the sliding glass door to the deck) when the hot tub cleaning takes place each day.

Mid morning I decided to get my gear and do some snorkeling in the ocean. We hauled everything down to the beach and I geared up. I even managed to get my fins on with about waist deep water. No one could tell me exactly where to go, it was all pretty much “oh yes Senior, out there”. So I just worked my way out and eventually found they do have an off shore reef here. The water was pretty rough, and if I turned my head to the left too far, the waves would break over my snorkel. Had to keep clearing that. The reef here has a lot of fish, and if I’d have had tongs and a bag we could have had Sea Urchins for dinner---there were hundreds of them. Interestingly though, this reef does not appear very healthy. Rather than having bright colors and bright colored fish, it is sort of a monotone sepia. In fact most of the fish have adapted to blend in with the brownish background. I’m hoping that the development and pollution are not poisoning the reef, but it appears so. Vickie found pool colored chips of ceramic impersonating sea shells on the beach. When you consider the proximity to so much construction, Cozumel, and the bazillion tourists the cruise ships bring there every year, they are probably factors. I’m going to try again a little further south down the beach, I’ve seen folks going in down there.

Yesterday afternoon was pretty much a repeat of the day before—chatting at the pool bar, swimming, sunning. However, I decided I would make a run to the in-house store and find something to make for dinner. We headed there prior to bloodsucker arrival and picked up some fixings for what has now become Mosquito Siege Casserole, along with another nice bottle of wine. Vickie was quite impressed as I presented hors d'oeuvres of spicy refritos, and then made a casserole out of canned chicken, frozen Mexican mixed vegetables, double crema queso blanco, cooked bow tie pasta, milk, salt and pepper, and topped it with 2 pieces of crumbled dry toast. After baking for 30 minutes or so, it turned out to be sort of a light fresh chicken pot pie with no crust. Necessity was certainly the mother of invention.

Tuesday we had our “Taco Party” so they could try and sell us something. Unlike the Taco party at the Club International, the food here was somewhat lackluster, and did not agree with me too well. We sat after the food and talked to our Concierge, Lucas, at some length. We pretty much told him they had blown any chance of selling us anything: 1. because everything Royal sells is finite in duration (you can’t leave it to the family) and 2. because the guys who did the presentation to us last week were idiots. After the party, we did the usual hang around the pool happy hour stuff and retreated to the room for leftovers and “Dancing With the Stars”.

Wednesday overnight it rained, and the morning was clear and cooler. We decided to brave the restaurant for breakfast. Good news, the mosquitoes pretty much left us alone and the food was great. After breakfast I got a notion that I wanted to see Playa del Carmen, so we caught the shuttle bus from the hotel. While we were there it poured rain, and we spent some time standing under an awning just watching the rain. After the rain with water lying in the streets, the humidity went to 400% and it was first cousin to sitting in a steam room. We walked around for a while enjoying the hawkers at the various shops. One of my favorite ones was “come in and see what we have just for the hell of it” to which I replied---Halibut, oh I love fish especially Halibut. That really got me the crazy gringo stare. After looking at some of the stores, it was pretty obvious they only sold clothes for young skinny folks, jewelry, or really stupid T-shirts, nothing much in between. Finally when I couldn’t hike any more, we camped at a corner bistro, and had some nice cold Dos Equis XX, and watched the sights. Low season here in tourist land brings out more of the locals and Europeans. A much more interesting crowd, except for the obviously American woman in black jeans and long sleeves when it was like a sauna on the streets. With the sweat running off us like a fountain, even under a ceiling fan, we decided even the street entertainment was not that good, and caught a cab back to The Haciendas. The cab driver commented on the way home, “I have a 2 year old and one on the way in November. My baby company is now closed”

Probably a little snorkeling on tap for this afternoon if the water isn’t too rough.
more later,
wes

Cancun 09 Adventure #6

Well here it is Sunday morning, and we are well landed at the Royal Haciendas in Playa del Carmen. You can see Cozumel off the coast, and see the cruise ships lit up at night. We had a pretty uneventful check out at the Club International yesterday, and our transportation arrived courteously on time. We had a nice visit with Edgar from USA Transfers as he carried us the 45 minutes or so to our new resort. He was very forthcoming about how things were here with the US occupancy down quite a bit. He said that he had only worked 3 days last week, and was working even less in the week ahead. He said this time of the year is always low season, but this year with the confluence of the US economy, the swine flu and hurricane season, things were really slow. We asked him about his view on the swine flu issue, and he said here on the coast---no problem. He did say, however, he has a brother in the medical profession in Mexico City, and it is “very bad—scary”.

We arrived at Royal Haciendas and proceeded through the check in process. Since we were well ahead of the majority of folks (who arrive on the planes from the US from noon on) we breezed right through. We hiked to our assigned room, and it was beautiful. Had a nice view of the ocean, and the empty pool, with a board wall around it. (closed for major repairs) We looked at the map and located the other pool, which was a significant hike away. We decided, given my locomotion issues, we might try and see if they had a room on the other side of the world where the operational pool was located. Turned out between the mgmt. and our Concierge they were able to relocate us to a great unit very near the pool and beach. We stowed our luggage, and headed for the pool.

The remaining pool is quite large, and has a swim up pool bar. It is also of the “infinity” design so the water appears to flow over the edge into the ocean. The view from the pool bar is fine enough to warrant sitting there all day, which is what we did for the rest of the afternoon. The guys working behind the pool bar really love their jobs, and bonded with Vickie from Virginia soon after we landed. They had great music going, and happy hour started at 3:00 with the ringing of a big bell many times. As more and more guests checked in and got to the pool, a great time was had by all. Around 5:30 we decided we’d look up some dinner since we had only snacked since breakfast. Little did we know how lucky that decision turned out to be.

We went up to our room, cleaned up, and headed to La Palapa del Sol, which is the main and currently only restaurant here. It is a semi outdoor restaurant with a giant thatched roof. The special of the evening was a Caribbean Buffet including everything for about $24 US. We were both very hungry so decided to go for it. The layout of food was incredible. They had several different kinds of hot mussel preparations, cold seafood with shrimp, scallops, orange chicken, spicy fish, beef kabobs, and more mussels with pasta. Also there was a taco/fajita station with pick your own meat combo that a guy grills for you. On the salad side, they had marvelous stuffed avocados, all manner of salad fixings, pickled spicy radish and hicima, crispy pea pods, apple and chicken salad, etc etc. On the other end of the buffet they had hand cut French fries, quesadillas, fried bananas, fried cheese sticks, and a giant pot of the best seafood soup I have tasted in a long time. We began a slow and relaxed serious attack on some of the best food we have had in Mexico. The service was attentive, a pretty good band started up, and it was a pleasant evening. We had just about gotten to dessert when Vickie slapped a mosquito on her cheek, which seemed odd since we never had a bug problem up in Cancun except possibly late the last night. I told her it was her imagination until she continued to swat, and I began having things flying around my face. Vickie excused herself and went up to the room for some OFF we brought along. I continued to eat and brush things from in front of my face. She got back and even with insect repellent on was getting bothered by the bugs. Finally she swatted one off my face, and we examined it. It was a coal black mosquito. I looked around the restaurant and upon closer observation, everyone in the place was batting, scratching, and swatting. The band was trying to play, swat, and sing. We grabbed some delectable desert, ate it quickly and settled our check. On the way out, I looked at the line waiting to be seated, and wondered what the outcome of their dinner would be.

After we got back to the room, and escaped the hungry swarm, there was a phone message blinking in our room. It took a couple tries to decipher the high tech electronic phone system, but we finally got the message. “Oh Senior, we’d just like to tell you the electricity will be off all day tomorrow starting at 7 am, thank-you-very-much”. (you can’t make this stuff up) So Vickie and I commiserated a little, and then planned our survival attack. We walked rapidly to the grocery store, (with the hungry horde hard on our heels) and got a big bag of ice, insect repellent, mixer, something for breakfast, lunch, and liquor. A quick walk back to the villa (something like a walking blood drive) and we were all set. I turned all the thermostats in the villa (3 of them) down to “hang meat” to store up some coolness for tomorrow, and programmed my mental alarm clock to wake up prior to 7 am so I could make coffee. We settled in for the night as I made faces out the window at the “black vampire devils”.

I woke up early, made the coffee, and transferred it into our thermos when the power went off promptly at 7:22 am. (that’s 7 am Mexican time). I kept the heavy drapes tightly closed to keep out the heat and we relaxed until 9 am and our “Welcome Meeting”. We went to the meeting to get the free coffee and pastry they offered. The Mexican pastry is freshly hand made and to die for. On the way I didn’t see any more of the little black creeps from last night. I’m sure they are back over in the swamp just waiting for dusk and another bunch of unsuspecting diners. We have a “Welcome Party” which involves free food, soda, and beer, at the beach at noon. I have all my snorkel gear in the mesh bag ready to take to the water this afternoon. The room is staying relatively cool with my attention to energy storage/conservation, and the back up generator runs the elevators so we are in pretty good shape.
more later,
wes

Cancun 09 Adventure #5

Well now it’s Friday and we are preparing to move to the other Villa tomorrow. They stuck a bill in our door this morning; to be sure we wouldn’t wait around and pay them tomorrow. These places, it’s all about the money. They are sort of like cruise ships on dry land. They have to have the staff here to keep the place open, so they make sure they try and squeeze every dollar out of you they can. The Internet connection is still broken this morning everywhere except the lobby. Vickie is sleeping; I’ve been reading a book and enjoying the tropical weather. Got some delicious fresh baked pastries from the little store downstairs to go with some good Mexican coffee.

Yesterday Vickie and I decided to treat ourselves to the breakfast at the beach. The Mexicans really know how to do breakfast right. I had forgotten how well eggs, tortillas and beans go together. And then there is the fruit. We had 4 or 5 different kinds of melon cut up and it was all to die for. After breakfast, we changed and lay under a palapa on the beach watching the world go by. It is amazing watching the same boats go in and out of the harbor every day. You have to wonder how the boat crews do it. Same trip every day---different tourists. Vickie found out about some interesting silvery fish that seem to be in the water all around us, and we spent some time watching them. Then later I had a marvelous fresh fish sandwich at the pool bar for lunch, and then we continued our lazy day by the pool.

As the day drew to a close, we noticed that tonight’s theme at the restaurant was a cook out. They had set up grills and serving tables in one corner of the beach. We thought that might be interesting, so headed up to the room to clean up and prepare. We got treated to a beautiful sunset. It had turned cloudy for the first time since we’d been here, and when the sunset over the curve of Cancun, the sky was full of brilliant colors.

We went down to dinner and were pleasantly surprised. They had moved many of the restaurant tables right down on the beach beside the lapping water. We got a table right on the water overlooking the bay. The entertainment this evening was karaoke but done by one of the members of the band from the previous evening. He didn’t have a lot to say, but sort of did this Mexican mumbling monologue between the songs. He did sing pretty well however, and many of the patrons got up to sing a few. Most were mercifully talented. It was a very nice evening.

Had and interesting visit this morning from some long term Cancun visitors. The lady said they had been owners here for 20 some years. They are owners at the Royal Mayan. They are planning on moving into our unit tomorrow and were wondering about the view. One of the ladies said they had been here during hurricane Wilma. They were at the Royal Mayan on the 10th floor in a lock off (for time share owners). For others, a lock off is a small portion of a time-share villa you can lock off and rent out separately. Very much like a motel room. She said the hotel had been evacuated, but they failed to let the folks know in the lock offs. They were huddled on the floor behind the inner bed when the storm hit. The room flooded from water that was driven under the sliding glass door. All around them they could hear glass breaking, but their window continued to hold. When the storm abated they had no electricity, no water and no food. Finally she decided to venture out and ran into a security guard. He asked what she was doing there and she told him about not being evacuated. They were cleaning out the grocery store, so he gave her a bag of food, and said to wait. Soon the hotel set up to feed them, but that was all the service they got. They had to line up to be fed, and carry water from the pool to flush their conveniences. This went on for the rest of the week until they finally opened the airport. Then they would go to the airport and had to take a number to try to get on a plane for home. They finally got out on Friday. Quite an interesting story. She also told us the beach in Cancun used to be big wide and sandy. Now in many places it is nothing but rocks and surf.

Wrap up: After the visit from the nice ladies, we spent a lazy afternoon at the pool. After the pool we cleaned up and had dinner again at the resort restaurant. Vickie had some immense coconut breaded shrimp, and I had some wonderfully broiled Grouper. The fish here has been tremendous. During dinner we had some interesting entertainment. A young boy arrived on the beach and began fishing with a seine net. The resort guards went to plaid (high) alert, but it was funny cause in Mexico all beaches are public so they couldn’t do anything to him. He continued fishing (catching fish) and taunted the guards. We never knew the whole story, but I (as usual) made up the rest of the story. I theorized that down the beach one of the restaurants was running low on the “catch of the day” so they called one of the ubiquitous prep boys and said “Juan---go fishing”, but do it up in front of the Internationale so no one sees you.

Tomorrow morning we move to the Royal Haciendas.
more later,
wes

Cancun 09 Adventure #4

I woke up this morning and felt fine, just very hungry. I ate a light breakfast, and then about 11:00, we headed down to our “taco party” as we had planned the day before. The food was quite good, the drinks were free, and other than reconfirming our appointment to go to the Royal Sands @ 1:45 nothing much happened. Well fed, we wandered back to the pool, and hung around till time for the transport.

We showed up at our appointed time out front, and as is want to happen in Mexico, everyone was late. We finally rounded up Beto, our driver, and a van for the trip to the Royal Sands. When we got there we began the time-honored ritual of “The Time Share” A young lady sat us down and had us fill out pages of meaningless paperwork. Then she passed us along to a personable young man for our indoctrination and tour. On the way in I noticed that their “scoreboard” on the wall was showing mostly zeros, with one block having a 2 (probably their sales for the month). Our indoctrinator sat us down in front of a flat screen and proceeded to tell us all about the “Royal Way and History”. Then he played us a very glossy video showing all about the Royal Resorts. Any questions, no, well it was time for the tour. He hiked us all over the Royal Sands (supposedly their biggest and best resort in the Cancun hotel area), showing us this and that and finally to a villa to see the lovely ocean view. (of course only 20% of the villas have this view, and they are more expensive) Then it was back to the boiler room to meet “his manager”.

Anyone who has been through a time-share presentation knows how it goes from here, but this one had a Mexican twist. (Don’t you just love how they all learn to write upside down? I can barely write legibly right side up, so I greatly admire this talent.) First surprise was they were selling the Royal Haciendas down in Playa del Carmen, not the place we had toured. Second surprise was “they were way behind due to the poor economy” and had not sold out as soon as they had planned. He asked if we were interested, and we made noncommittal noises. He said good, and went off to get his “most current inventory”. He came back and showed us a list that ranged from about $37,000 for a week to well over $100,000 for a week, depending on the time of year. We said we weren’t interested. Then He asked us how we liked the place we were staying. We said just fine, in fact better than the Sands we had just toured. He said let me see what I can do and off he went again to “check inventory”.

He returned and said he had exactly what we wanted, a week at the very place we were staying, just 2 rooms down from our current location. But then he let something slip. In his urgency to sell us something, he used an illustration of the owners at the Royal Mayan (another of their resorts) and how they were pretty much hosed cause their ownership years were ending. Turns out Royal only sells you the condo for 35 to 45 years, and then they need to resell it to make more money. So the way I see it is they kick you out give you your original purchase price refurbish the place, and resell it. Pretty cool racket. Of course you get your original “investment” back, but say you paid $7000 for your week 30 years ago, now to rebuy, it costs $47,000. And oh yea you have been paying $800 maintenance fee every year. What a racket.

Then he really took us for fools. He offered us the condo we were staying in at the other place for $21,600 for a week every other year. For the math challenged, this was almost as much as the every year at the brand new nicer place. We told him we weren’t interested. I had reached my attention span, so I got up to leave. He told me I had to sit back down so we could conclude our business and get us our free stuff. So I did just for the entertainment value. He goes away, we all swear a vow to no more time share presentations, and here comes mister big gun. (with the real butch crew cut) He offers us a rental week at the place we are currently staying for $697 for the next year. I tell him, Interval International already beat you by $203 on that price. He gets frustrated and signs our papers so we can get our free stuff. I walk away. The girls go off to do their facial, Jerry and I find a bar, and notice that the whole place is pretty empty.

Later we hook up with the girls, and decide we just want to go back to our own villa and enjoy the evening. We round up some change, and hop one of the every 2-minute Cancun buses back to our own property. Have to insert an interesting quote here. While I was waiting out front and we were preparing to catch the bus, I picked up a brochure off the bell captain desk. It was about driving in Cancun Called the Royal Resorts Road Safety pamphlet. Here are a couple excerpts: 1. Speed Bumps “When you travel through residential areas of Cancun and villages……….look out for speed bumps or sleeping policemen at the entrance and exit to the communities and in front of schools. (you can’t make this stuff up) 2. Helping our visitors Article 152. The municipal government has implemented a courtesy driving offense ticket which will be used exclusively for tourists who break minor city traffic laws…………….There is no charge whatsoever, and the courtesy ticket may be issued twice to the same car and/or driver but will not be used in cases of serious breaches of local traffic regulations and acts of dangerous driving. (unless you are really stupid, you get 2 get out of jail free cards driving in Cancun) Bet the local money machine really hated when they introduced this policy.

Back to our villa….We swim a while, then plan to get cleaned up and go to the Mexican Fiesta they are having at the restaurant tonight. Unfortunately while we were hanging at the pool Brenda finds out she has to urgently call home. Turns out Brenda’s sister June, who has cancer, has taken a turn for the worse. Bren and Jerry need to go home. Jerry makes the arrangements, and we decide to head for the fiesta in June’s honor. We eat great food, drink a bunch of toasts to June, dance, sing and in general have a real fiesta.

Later Brenda and I had a great conversation sitting on the balcony overlooking the resort. Since I had just lost my dad last July to cancer, we shared feelings about what it’s like and the pain and suffering. I believe it was cathartic for both of us. They went home the next morning, and currently June is comfortable, but very weak. We will be looking for more news this morning.
more later,
wes

Cancun 09 Adventure #3

Well yesterday was sort of a lazy day. After we got moving around, the maid came and made everything beautiful again. The girls were planning to go shopping, and I was planning on playing water volleyball at 11:00 am. I got all my stuff together, suntanned up, and headed down to the pool. Well when I got there, I asked a official looking Royal guy about the volleyball, and he said “no volleyball at 11, taco party at 11. First we eat and drink beer then we play volleyball” Except it wasn’t “my day” for the taco party, we are supposed to come at 11 on Tuesday. In case you have not figured it out, the “Taco Parties” are the prelude to the spiel for the time-share tour. Tomorrow, we are going to our “Taco Party” and listen to the little 45 minute spiel for free transportation over to the Royal Sands, a lunch, and refund of the money we paid for our transportation back to the airport later in the trip. None of us has any use for any more time-shares, so we will politely listen so Beto our concierge can get his checkmark in his box. He has been very helpful and we want to help him out. (what a bunch of suckers we are) And, oh yea, never did get to play volleyball.

The girls headed off to take the bus into Cancan for shopping. The bus costs 7.5 pesos which is about 57 cents. Jerry and I moseyed to the pool and staked out a good shady spot for some lazy reading and chick watching. Unbeknownst to us, but knownst to others, Monday must have been the time share tour day at Club Internationale, all we got to watch was a parade of geriatric obese folks in ridiculous clothes wander up and down the pool walkways. We were often amused by some folk’s choice of all black, including black pants, for hiking around in the 90 plus weather and blazing sun.

While we were hanging at the pool, I happened to look up and once again saw Mexican OHSA at work. On the 6 story building beside us, I saw two guys walk up to the edge, throw ropes over the side, and then with buckets tied to their belts, begin rappelling down the outside of the building washing windows. Needless to say it was quite entertaining.

As we passed the lazy afternoon, reading, girl watching, swimming, and drinking way too much adult beverages we slipped quietly into the Mexican mind set where time passage seems to slow and clocks become unnecessary. It was a marvelous afternoon.

After the girls returned from shopping, they joined us at the pool for a late afternoon soak, they regaled us with stories from shopping. The shopping had taken place at 28 Market in Cancun where the locals had sent them. Based on their stories, the bartering was good and sharp due to the low number of shoppers. In one place they were plied with tequila shots as they were looking for t-shirts. But the best story was when Brenda was trying to buy salt and pepper shakers. (she and Jerry collect salt and pepper shakers from their adventures) Brenda was looking at a set of s & p and the lady would not budge from her price. (which Brenda thought was too high) Brenda continued to offer less and the woman tried in broken English to explain that these were quality pieces and would hold up to wear. Brenda persisted that she didn’t care about ware she just displayed them, and finally the exasperated storekeeper said well then I guess you want to see the s_itty ones. Brenda said YES show me the s_itty ones. She did and Brenda found exactly what she wanted. She still had to barter the price down, but got what she wanted. They will forever be her s_itty salt and peppershakers.

Later we adjourned to the room and fed ourselves from our previously procured supplies. Wes was a whipped puppy, and soon crashed for the evening. From our balcony Vickie watched the pirate ship duo festooned in lights, which go out every night, and stage a mock battle. She gave me a blow by blow as they turned off their lights (one red one green) and snuck up on each other for a kill shot from their cannon. Later they returned to port with the music blasting and all on board partying. However I’ve yet to see much of a crowd on either ship. In fact, the occupancy here where we are staying seems to be in the 40% range.
more later,
wes

Cancun 09 Adventure #2

Note the picture. When we arrived in Cancun we noticed and admired the giant Mexican flag waving over all. Today we noticed it was at what appeared half-mast. We started asking---who died---we figured some Mexican diplomat or someone famous had died. Or perhaps they just found out Elvis was dead. Turned out when we finally found out what had happened, the answer was “The crank had broken”, only in Mexico. Hopefully they’ll have the crank fixed by Tuesday night for Mexican Independence Day. (just for the record, looked out the door and the crank is fixed today Monday)

We started this morning lazily getting up, as we desired, and having nice breakfast from our ordered supplies. I went “native” by having a some tortillas briefly cooked on the stove burner, then filled with a slice of cheese and Oscar Meyer turkey ham. “I put the whole pile back on the stove burner for a minute and then ate it with some great salsa we got from the grocery supply store.

Our personal concierge Beto called us and noted we hadn’t made it to the 8:30 am “orientation”. I chuckled and told him we didn’t usually get up that early when traveling. He asked if he could come up and give us our “presentation”. I said OK but told Jerry if he was here more than 10 minutes Vickie would pretend she was sick. Turned out he was a great guy and we had a good time talking about the cool things to do here. He hooked us up with some free stuff, and gave us lots of local directions and hints. He told us a great joke that we found out all the Concierges use: The girls had asked him how to get to the local Wally Mart. In the process of telling them he added “Do you know the difference between a Wal-Mart in Mexico and a Wal-Mart in the US? No, well in Mexico all the employees are legal residents. Boom-Sha.

At noon we went down for the welcome party on the beach, and had fun participating in some craziness. (slamming beers might have been involved) We later adjourned down the beach to a great palapa on the water. The afternoon was spent in and out of the water with the nice waiters bringing us liquid refreshment from the beach bar. My favorite was the Mucho Grande Banana Monkey. We had a really big time hanging out in the Caribbean Sea as Jerry replaced his missing hair with reddish green seaweed. Somehow in his blue granny sunglasses and red seaweed hair he looked like David Caruso on CSI Miami.

Brendito ordered us a plate of Nachos Grande to quell our mid afternoon hunger. It came as a large plate topped with Pico de Gallo, guacamole, shredded meat, cheese, and very tasty jalapeños. They seem to have two types of jalapeños here. One type is fruity and tasty with a little heat. The other type, which we had last night at dinner, is very fiery. Speaking of dinner last night, after getting pretty rowdy at the pool bar, we went back to the room for showers to get rid of the day’s worth of sand and suntan lotion. We then headed back down to the resort restaurant to enjoy Taco Night. This consisted of a very interesting buffet and small Mexican themed salad bar. The food was tasty, not too spicy,(except the fiery jalapeños) and indigestion was had by all.

During dinner we met and were entertained (not) by this white blonde frizzy haired lady who seemed to know everything there was to know about everything. I stopped talking to her when at one point she said her father was a rocket scientist. Tomorrow I’m going to get her a job talking to terminal insomniacs at the mental hospital.

For Monday, we plan to make use of the free sailboats they offer here. Also the girls are headed to downtown Cancun via the 7.5 peso bus (57 cents at the current exchange rate) to purchase exactly the right “Mexican dress” to wear to the Tuesday night Independence Day fiesta. Of course they asked this really hot, fiery little Mexican girl who works here what she was going to wear and she told them “jeans and a cowgirl hat” Go figure.
More later,
wes

Cancun 09 Adventure #1

Well here it is Sunday morning, and after some fairly easy travel yesterday, we’re in the tropics. We left home yesterday morning around 7:30 and breezed through a largely deserted security station at the Greensboro airport. We arrived at our gate and boarded an on time Delta connector for Atlanta. The flight was operated by ASA and used one of those Embraer CJ something or other “regional jets” I love (not) the silly things. I had a big time demonstrating to the flight attendant (much to Vickie’s chagrin) how I could balance my self by thrusting my head solidly against the ceiling of the plane. Then I adjourned to my cute little mini seat for the thankfully brief ride to Atlanta.

Arriving in Atlanta, I took advantage of my ability to request a wheelchair, which turned out to be fortuitous. We landed in some remote section of the Atlanta airport where we had to descend the built in stairs of the plane. We ended up on the tarmac surrounded by what appeared to be 30 or 40 of the “cute little” regional jets. The attendant meeting me loaded me in a golf cart, then transferred me to the terminal. Once in the terminal, a very nice lady pushed me, with Vickie hiking along, all the while regaling us with stories of the celebrities she had escorted through the airport. Among them former president Jimmy Carter who she said she happened to get separated from his Secret Service guys and caused a big flap. She also told us about how they are having a big problem because they have been hiring 18-20 year olds to do the wheelchair pushing, and they don’t last too long. According to her (probably in her early 50’s) the “young folks” don’t like the work cause it’s “too hard, and gives them foot and back pain from all the walking and pushing”. And then she said they “demanded tips” and surprise surprise didn’t get them. Her approach was tips are appreciated to supplement my income. Was a very informative wheelchair ride.

We reached the gate and it was boarding time—no time for anything but a bathroom break. Demonstrating once again it’s pretty important to keep some stuff to eat in your drag along bag. We squeezed ourselves into a somewhat ancient MD 88, and pushed back on time. The flight to Cancun was a very reasonable 2 hr 10 minutes, but somewhat bumpy due to weather. The landing had a lot of those “oh I wish he’d quit doing that it feels like an amusement park ride” kinds of moments. However we safely touched down, and the Cancun airport was amazingly efficient for a Saturday. Possibly because I noticed on the plane that it wasn’t very full, in fact 1st class was empty except for a newly wed couple they had upgraded. We picked the perfect weekend to travel---recession, hurricane season, school has started, day after anniversary of 9/11----got that going for us.

We arrived at our resort after a 20 minute van ride. The company I had prearranged the transportation with, USA Transfers, was right on the spot and very courteous. The Royal guy promptly unloaded our luggage and we headed inside to check in. As usual in Mexico, they always seem to find a way to make something simple seem complex. After I figured out we really didn’t have to listen to the little guy’s “spiel” in very broken English, we got in line. Check in proceeded at it’s normal Mexican (somewhat sleepy) pace. Jerry and I noted while watching check in that OSHA has not made it to Mexico. The little lady behind the counter had to look at a computer screen 2 feet to her right, use a mouse propped on top of a shelf, and then type on a keyboard to her left about chest height.

We were very pleasantly surprised when we reached our Villa. I had spent several sessions with the purveyors of this fine establishment off and on since around April, trying to upgrade our Villa from a 2 bedroom 1 bath to a 2 bedroom 2 bath. I never had much success, until out of the blue a few weeks before we were scheduled to go, I received Email advertising exactly the accommodations I had been trying to arrange as a “get away” from Interval International. I jumped on the phone and after some spirited negotiation scored the unit we wanted. When we arrived I was very happy I had persisted---the view is one of the best in the place, and is very convenient to the elevator.

After we arrived yesterday and got settled---Have to mention how well the food service worked here---we ordered start up food for our villa on line from home, and when we arrived yesterday the refrigerator was stocked, and everything else was arranged nicely on the counter. So after we were settled, we changed and adjourned to the beach under a palapa for happy hour and the setting sun. Soon after that we relocated to the restaurant for dinner. Brenda ordered what was listed as a snack plate and it came on a huge platter brimming with all manner of Mexican treats. Jerry ordered fried shrimp that came with very large shrimp in a highly flavorful crispy batter. Vickie ordered the special of the day, which was prime rib that was quite impressive. I ordered Caribbean fish that was extremely tasty. All the main dishes came with very fresh steamed mixed vegetables and quite flavorful rice. For a resort, we expected the prices to be high, but the whole meal ended up less than $40 U.S. per couple including tip. Oh and I failed to mention, our table was about 30 feet from the waves lapping on the beach under the stars.

After dinner we slipped into the inviting pool, and spent a relaxing hour unwinding from the day of travel. Soon everyone was yawning and we retreated to our villa for an attack on the various sleeping appliances.
more later,
wes