This is Movie Day of TR because of a problem I discovered this morning. It is a problem that could be considered every tourists nightmare: Our digital camera broke. Wait, let me rephrase that: Our BRAND NEW digital camera broke. This camera, new at Christmas and whose brand name is “similar” to a type of grizzly bear found in Alaska, had taken great pics so far and now provided a great deal of disappointment. Thus, there are more videos today than stills. I thought that we may be able to visit the local Office Depot and see if we maybe it was just the battery or charger cable, but that would be tomorrow since we had a couple disposables to use on our lounger day at the beach.
We awoke at 5:45 a.m. to venture out to see the sunrise and maybe lose a flip-flop or two by trying to reserve some choice loungers under a prime palapa. The two of us quickly got ready (no glamour shots this morning) and headed to the beach by 5:53 to catch the sunrise. What the heck – it’ll be kinda dark, won’t it?
The sunrise was spectacular:
Sunrise 1
Sunrise 2
Overexposed sunrise viewers ☺
All of the front row chairs to the south of the Royal Elite club area were already covered with towels. There were some available in the hinterlands, but we wanted front row (especially after rising at this hour) so we traveled to the area north of the Elite Club and we put towels on our chairs under the palapa on the front row directly out from the small beach bar.
We were shocked to witness the full effect of the power of beach erosion. It was really windy the day before when we went to Akumal, and we didn’t really spend any time at the Sandos beach. To our dismay, twenty (20) feet of beach was missing compared to the first day when we arrived, and several more huge whales lay exposed on the nearly vacant beach. These were double-decker whales (thank goodness) and to get to the water you had to climb down one story at a time.
Since there weren’t many people around we decided to walk along the beach in front of the Iberostar Tucan and Quetzal, our neighboring resorts to the immediate north. The beach at the Tucan was far more eroded than at the Sandos, and the Quetzal beach was non-existent. I almost booked at the Tucan until I ran across this website and it’s posts……
Quetzal oceanfront rooms:
Then back to the room to snooze until nearly 8, then on our feet and off to Festival for breakfast. Mrs. French Toast and Mr. Eggs sit together and enjoy the cuisine and each other’s company yet again! Quick pass through the room to get suits on, check the temperature on the in-room thermostat (in Celsius, by the way – 22-23 was most comfortable for us with ceiling fan on low) and of to the flip-flop and towel reserved chairs under our new favorite palapa.
I was dressed for workout, and did abs on the sand but decided to run on Xaman Ha towards town instead of on the beach this time. Two reasons for this: 1) it was difficult to run on this sand beach last Saturday and 2) I needed to visit the ATM at the Playacar Plaza.
There are two paths along Xaman Ha – the one on the resort side is supposed to be for pedestrian traffic only, and the one across the street for bikes only. Each pathway is internationally marked with bike and no-bike cement sections in the very sidewalk that people are walking and biking on as soon as you exit ANY resort. You can’t miss them unless you are sight-deprived, in which case you may not want to be on Xaman Ha in the first place.
It was amazing how many pedestrians were on the bike side and how many bikers were on the pedestrian side, which was about ½ as wide as the bike side. Dodging bikes became a game, and the occasional fellow jogger usually gave a knowing nod or hand wave, perhaps to secretly confirm that we were part of some special secret exercise cadre that, by simply being out here on a hot humid morning, would somehow negate the cumulative effects of the Playacar resort areas calorie laden buffets!
In any case I made it to the ATM and jogged past it to the Mayan ruins near town before heading back to the Sandos. This was great as I was able to see the neighborhood and the condos, several of which are for rent, and the architecture is both amazing and colorful.
While jogging, this was a photogenic tree - Even with me in it:
Back to the beach by 10:45 a.m., swimsuit and towel equipped. Time to stretch out on our favorite loungers in the front row under our new favorite palapa.
His:
And hers:
Today was a red flag day with large waves and the water was churned up with sand and looked quite white near the shore. We walked out to the whale and played on it for a bit. Our advice: go on the sea side and let the waves wash you up, then have a blast trying to stay up as the waves tried again to wash you off. See the videos below for the fun people were having on it.
Clouds were moving in – the weather forecast for today showed a chance of rain (channel 49 on your hotel TV) and it looked like it was coming. We went in for a dip and it began to rain on us
– not too hard, just a sprinkle. We exited the water and retreated to the palapa, and waited out the 15-minute light shower underneath it. Amazing the mass exodus from the beach at the first hint of rain. This left multiple palapas and loungers open for the picking but we chose to stay.
Soon people filtered back to the beach and the people watching began again. Noticed that the ferries were all out to sea, not moving, and the cruise ship that had sailed up was anchored as well. We eventually found out that the port was closed due to the wind and waves. Bummer for anyone who made a day trip to Cozumel or vice-versa. Later we went out on the whales one more time – great fun!
Here then is the Sandos TR Theater:
A Windy Day at the Beach. Note the sand bags where once beach used to be, and the fun people are having on the “Whale”:
As mentioned earlier, it got so windy that they closed the port, sent the ferries out to sea and anchored the large cruise ship offshore. Look for this about mid-video, as the camera is panning north:
This was the video of the Bird Fight – don’t have any idea why I videotaped it other than it was a diversion that happened to occur when I had the camera out & ready:
By about 5 we decided to head back to the room to get ready for dinner. We had reservations at Broccolino, the Italian restaurant at 6. When you make your reservations with the concierge, they give you a receipt – be sure to bring this with to the restaurant on the date and time of your reservations. It’s also noteworthy that guys should be wearing slacks and a decent shirt to these restaurants, as they are classier than the buffet and the staff and other customers deserve to have you recognize this.
The wall paintings were very neat, as was the overall atmosphere. Mama had the veggie pizza and I had the beef medallion – both were great! We shared the Teramishu (sp) for dessert – also quite tasty.
Following dinner we intended to go out somewhere after a brief siesta. Must’ve been really tired as the siesta lasted nearly 12 hours! It’s amazing how peacefully you can sleep when you know you won’t be awakened by little hands knocking on the door!
