04-25-2005
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#23 (permalink) |
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SCR Shawn's T/R **Continued** DAY #3
Continued DAY 3#...
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p> After I clean up, I head down to the Pirate beach club. When I get there I’m immediately greeted with smiles and the “official Mexican handshake”, a quick sideways slap of the hand and light fist to fist by Armado - my waiter from yesterday. He scores me a lounge chair, umbrella and a table next to the other two couples. Gotta luv this guy. I order up a couple of cervezas and settle in for the day. I met some other folks while there that day including a girl from <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City><st1:place>Toronto</st1:place></st1:City> who’s name is Anastasia. Gotta like the name right? Well she tells me her nickname is Tolu, Toolow or Tofu, something like that. For some reason I kept screwing up her nickname so I ended up calling her Tulum for rest of the week. She was pretty cool. I ended up hanging out with her a couple of times during my stay. I should make a point mentioning a gentleman that I met that day as well. His name is Joe. Very interesting man. You know the type. Wise, successful, personable and polite. When he laughed the ground shook. A genuine guy. I had a few conversations with him and he offered me some sound advice. Thanks Joe! <o:p></o:p> For lunch I ordered a clubhouse with fries. I know I know…what am I doing?? I seen it on the menu and I got a hankering for one. Get over it. I’m sorry. Mexican Gods please forgive me. I’ll make up for it at diner ok? Anyways the rest of my day consisted of talking with people, cold beer and swimming in the beautiful <st1:place>Caribbean</st1:place>. Man, is that water ever clear. And I never stepped on one rock, seashell or prickly poisonous puffer fish. I wrapped up the day when the waiters started to collect the lounge chairs. I paid my tab, which was less than 20 bucks with lunch, tipped my waiter and headed off to clean up for the evening. <o:p></o:p> I headed out to 5<SUP>th</SUP> and decided to check out the TB as this looked like a great spot to people watch. I hung out here for a while, met a few people and just relaxed and absorbed the atmosphere. When I started to get hungry I found myself going over a mental checklist of some of the spots I had read on here. And for some reason Dr.Taco stuck in my head. So I decided to go for a walk and check it out. When I got there I told the guy at the counter that I had heard of this place on this website. I asked if “Dr. Taco” was around. Sure enough he was standing right there. I introduced myself to Carlos and we had a chat about his story which I found interesting (everyone has a story). I ordered up two shrimp tacos but Carlos suggested that since I have never been there before that I try one of each (three). Hmm…was this a business decision on his part? Because if it was, he’s good! It turns out it was a great idea. I enjoyed the shrimp tacos so much, I ordered two more! Stopped in for two and ate five. Well done amigo! <o:p></o:p> From there I made my way over to the BB. I ended up meeting and talking with Lucia. Brazilian/Italian. Need I say more? Great girl! Incredible story (everyone has a story) Beautiful, warm, smart, witty…I could go on but this is taking long enough. Alright off to the TB. Have a couple there and bump into a couple of Canadians who live an hour from me. So we end up talking and laughing for a while. Now it’s off to the dreaded Siesta Fiesta. I grab a beer at the bar and see A’ndrea and Phyllis. So I join them. I have to say that the live music was pretty good; however this was the dreaded “you owe me for the drinks you didn’t order” night. (Please see “no more SIESTA FIESTA” post) Needless to say, but they won’t be seeing my sorry butt in there again. From here we went to the TB I think (not sure) but I know that we ended up at Santana’s. This place was different. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. I thought at any moment I’m going to see some skinny girl come out of a back room with coke all over her nose and try to sell me a cheap watch. I had a <st1:City><st1:place>Corona</st1:place></st1:City> I think. Not quite sure because I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face! Next time I go there, I’m bringing a flashlight! <o:p></o:p> We were all pretty tired at this point as none of us got any sleep the night before. Not too mention we all had early plans that morning. So it had been a long day. But this was the end of another great evening. <o:p></o:p> -Shawn <o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> |
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04-25-2005
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#29 (permalink) |
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OK, "uncle". I'm laughing (lmao), my dog goes nuts--what, he's never seen me laugh before??!! He jumps up on the back of my chair, crash, we're on the floor, and pffitt, there goes my Corona. Oh, well, he likes Corona and doesn't mind lapping it up. No major damage, so go ahead with the next installment while I grab an ice pack and an Advil.
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04-26-2005
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#30 (permalink) |
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SCR Shawn's T/R April 14-21 2005 DAY #4
DAY FOUR
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p> I tried to sleep in this morning. Nope not going to happen. Not because of noise, I was just too excited about being here. So I just laid there for an hour thinking why do I want to sleep past <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:time Minute="0" Hour="7">7am</st1:time> anyways? I didn’t get back too late last night, so up we go. Clean up and head out for my morning turbo java. I don’t know what they put in those Mexican coffee beans, but two sips and my eyeballs were peeled back till <st1:time Minute="0" Hour="12">noon</st1:time>. I did my morning stroll. Said a couple of holas to some of the merchants that I had seen in previous morning strolls, and made my way down to “my” breakfast spot. A couple of breakfast wraps and fruit smoothie and I felt alive…and regular, if you know what I mean. It was at this point I decided to check out <st1:place>Cozumel</st1:place> for a little snorkeling adventure. Then I start to feel a little weird. Now up to this point I had not experienced any Montezuma problems but something funny was happening. Yup. Gotta run. I flew up 5<SUP>th</SUP> ave like a rocket sled on rails. Sprang up two flights of stairs, did a funny little dance in front of my door, ran in and all was good. No Problemo. <o:p></o:p> I grabbed my gear and walked down to the pier by Carlos and Charlie’s to buy a ferry ticket. Get this. I’m feeling a little shaky and uncoordinated from last night, not to mention the one-thousand proof caffeine coffee I just drank. I’m at the ticket booth and there’s this 24inch by 24 inch wooden sign that shows the prices for the ferry, hanging off the corner of the booth…relatively low. The girl I’m buying my ticket (180 pesos) from is so gorgeous I find myself making some small talk with her. It’s time to go and I say “buenos dias”. I go to leave, while giving this girl my best James Dean look, and BANG! I smack my head into the corner of the sign and it comes crashing down onto the ground with a crash! The numbers go flying everywhere! I’m SOOO embarrassed! After I regain consciousness, I put my pack down and start to pick up the numbers. The girl is leaning out the ticket window “no senior, it’s ok, it’s ok” And I’m thinking, no it’s NOT ok. I feel like the biggest goofball in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Mexico</st1:place></st1:country-region>. People are staring at me! One guy that’s sweeping up has a funny grin on his face. I’m sure he’s thinking look at the dumb gringo. Anyways I pick up the rest of the numbers and the board and hand it to her and apologize. She smiles sweetly and says, “Gracias”. I walk away wondering if they make bandages for pride. <o:p></o:p> Off we go. I ended up on the orange ferry. Apparently they’re faster than the white ones. Dunno. The ride over was pretty cool. You get a view of PDC from out in the ocean as well as <st1:place>Cozumel</st1:place> when you arrive. We pull into <st1:place>Cozumel</st1:place> and disembark. For the next 5 minutes I was offered everything from scooters to drugs. Hmm…interesting combination. I get to the main drag and hang a right. I remember reading somewhere that there was this beach to the right when you get off the ferry. I decided to just walk down this main street and check out a few things, at the same time looking for a beach to snorkel from. I stopped at this beer joint (don’t know the name but it had this really wild black and white wooden skeleton out front…and ice cold dollar cervezas. After I crossed the street, almost getting run over by about forty thousand scooters, I continue on. <o:p></o:p> Ok, I end up walking for like an eternity. I’d say like about two light years away, I find a beach with a reef. I must have over looked the part about taking a cab. Anyways I’m here and it looks great. I look over to my left and see what looks like a group of backpackers on the beach. I spot some snorkel gear near their towels, so I wonder over to them. Chit chat a little and they tell me this is a good spot. I ask them if they’d watch my stuff while I check out the reef, and I go in. As I enter the water I notice two scuba boats about sixty yards out, thirty yards apart, and three scuba divers close to shore. I go in and start snorkeling. Wow. Very nice! All kinds of fish. The reef is beautiful. I ended up watching this puffer fish make a home in a small piece of sand. Interesting. I snorkeled for about an hour every now and then looking back to shore and giving the thumbs up to my new comrades. I drift onto this huge piece of coral and stand on the sandy part off to the side. I’m in about four feet of water. I tilt my head back to clear my mask and I hear a big splash about fifty yards in front of me where the water turns dark blue. I pull my mask down to get a better look. Splash again! It’s a SHARK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The two scuba boats start blowing their whistles and pointing and yelling some Spanish stuff. Now, I realize I don’t speak Spanish, but at that very moment….I became very fluent!! I came out of the water like Moses in the Olympics!! When I get to shore I said to the others, “did you see that!!!???” The one guy goes (in my best dumb guy impression) “yeah man, it looked like a Marlin”. I go “a Marlin?? When was the last time you saw a 15ft grey/silver Marlin with a blunt nose????” Trust me this was a shark. And I’m 6ft tall and it was at least twice as long as me!! I sit down for about twenty minutes to let my heart rate settle from the instant spike of five thousand beats/min. I dry off and call it a day of snorkeling. Yup, that’s good enough for me. <o:p></o:p> I head back the same way, however this time I’m grabbing a cab. I walk for about two minutes and see a cab. I wave at him as he flys by me, but he slows down quickly a little ways past me. (I should tell you that this guys windows are heavily tinted) I run over to him and the passenger window is half way down. He asks me where I’m going, and I tell him downtown. He says 25 pesos. I’m thinking, wow that’s cheap. So I open the door and jump in. I no sooner get the door shut and I hear this deep loud voice from the back seat, “hey how’s it going there partner?” I damn near came out of my skin! I spin around and I see this big tobacco chewing guy that looks and sounds like James Best, you know…Rosco P. Coltrane from the Dukes of Hazard. I said, “Geezus, you almost gave me a heart attack! And right now that wouldn’t be very difficult, trust me”. We both laughed about it. I told him my shark story and he laughed harder. I didn’t think THAT was funny. Anyways apparently it’s not uncommon for cabbies to pick up more than one fare. You learn something new everyday. <o:p></o:p> I jumped out downtown and grabbed a bite to eat. I’d tell you where I ate, but I’m too embarrassed to say. Let’s just say that I felt like a “King” afterwards. I walked across the street to the first place that I saw cold beer offered. Knocked back two fast ones and it was time to get back on the ferry home. <o:p></o:p> * It’s getting late so I’m going to finish this tomorrow* <o:p></o:p> To be continued in this thread… <o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> <o:p></o:p> |
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Keep it comin!!
