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
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