05-05-2009
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#1 (permalink) |
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añejo
 Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: South Shore of Baahhstun, Massachusetts
Posts: 23,227
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Nerak & Gasman Get Laid Back in Akumal and Party in Playa
Ha.... I betchya read that title a coupla times, didn't ya??
Here goes nothing. Been putting this off for a while, and since I promised some peeps I'd do one, here it is. Well, at least a couple of days anyway. I'll try to keep at it til it's done..... After spending 10 days straight in Playa last year, David and I both agreed that it was a bit “too much Playa” for one trip and that we’d try something different this year. And being the great guy that he is, David is very happy to agree to anything I suggest (which also ends up meaning that I get to research everything and plan everything, all the while requesting and accepting “That sounds GREAT, honey!!”’s from David during the process. He is a helluva laid back dude, and that makes this whole “let’s try something new in Mexico” thing a lot easier for me – and him!! After due consideration, we decided on Mon-Sat (4/6-4/11) at Vista del Mar in Akumal and then Sat-Fri (4/11-4/17) at Hotel Fusion in Playa. Chill out in the “country” of Akumal, and then party in up in the “city” of Playa. Best of both worlds. Because I started our planning with our flights (got awesome airfare on direct {holy SH*T – we got DIRECT? We haven’t had direct flights for at least 3 years!}), I was first faced with a Monday morning 8:45 AM flight out of Logan Airport in Boston. Hmmmmm……. traffic on a Monday morning from my house (about 25 miles south) to Logan, to get us there by 6:45 at the latest. Riiiiiiiight. No stress on THAT, huh. I quickly rationalized us into doing a Stay/Park/Fly at a hotel on the outskirts (Dorchester) of Boston. For about $180, we could stay Sunday night, leave my car there for 11 days, and have a shuttle take us to Logan and pick us up when we returned. Easy to rationalize, as a taxis from my house to/from Logan could easily add up to $150. So with another “that sounds great, honey” from David, that’s what we did. Day 1 – Monday, April 6th Of course the alarm clock in our room Sunday night was broken and we had to request another one. That, combined with my travel alarm clock and a requested wake-up call at 5 AM, made it certain that once I awoke at 2:30 AM, there was no effin way I was getting back to sleep. Watch the clock watch the clock watch the clock……. until 4:30 AM when both alarms and the wake-up call came through just fine. (sigh) Caught the 6 AM shuttle to Logan, check in was a breeze at Jet Blue. Had 3 bags to check and had to pay $20 for the 3rd bag (was pretty much full of cat stuff for Laura’s Coco’s Rescue) which was a surprise, as I thought the 3rd bag fee didn’t start until June 1st. “Yes”, the nice check-in lady said. “June 1st of 2008!” Oh, well…. still it was smarter than trying to cram extra in the other bags. Overweight bags cost $50 apiece, so you’re better off just checking a third. Got on plane at 8:15. This was a big plane (6 seats across). There were a grand total of 18 passengers and 9 crew in the plane!!! Flight was fine (awwww…… love the direct!!) And we watched “Yes Men” with Jim Carrey on those cool TV’s in the seats. Couldn’t resist taking a photo of the snow removal equipment at Logan. Not gonna be needing that stuff for a while!  I look like crap, and David looks cute but tired. In other words, what we usually look like when we leave Boston.  How’s THIS for an empty plane??   Vacation toes…   Arrived at 12:30 at Cancun and there were NO lines at immigration, and we got our luggage in about 1.5 minutes. David patiently waited while I went to the restroom. That is… straight into the MEN’s room. I was sure glad there was no one using the urinals when I came upon them. Cleared customs with green lights, walked out of the terminal and hoofed it down to the ADO bus which was leaving in 5 minutes (90 p. each). Great timing!! Arrived at Playa bus station at 2:10 and while our plan was to get a taxi to Akumal, I figured I’d check to see if there were any busses to Akumal and what time(s) they left. There was one leaving in 15 minutes!! For 18 p. each!! It was actually a Merida bus, but we were ticketed for Akumal, and he dropped us on 307. Maybe 15 minutes later we were in a taxi who took us to Vista del Mar for $6 US (I’d run out of pesos by that time and hadn’t had an opportunity to change money yet). So a Playa to Akumal trip that would’ve cost us $30 US plus tip ended up costing us about $10 US total! Tossed our luggage into Room 102 (?) and then let priorities take over …. time for a cold drink and cerveza!!! We walked over to La Buena Vida (pretty much next door to VDM) and immediately met up with “Stonecold” – Mike, his great wife Barb, their daughter Amber and her boyfriend Chris. Dammit I wish I’d taken a photo of them – they were all a bit beat from their day at Coba, but wow…. so gooooood to see friends again and meet Amber and Chris too! David and I had guac/chips and shared a chicken quesidilla. Good food!! The view from LBV…  The Vista del Mar is on the left. That’s how close we stayed to La Buena Vida. Made the wedding planning so much easier.      Since we were suffering from TDE (travel day exhaustion), we were pretty much room-bound after returning to our room. Watched some funky movie with Nicole Kidman in it but have NO idea what the name of it was. TV only had Movie Channel type channels, so saw no news or regular shows all week. Both of us slept like rocks.
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05-05-2009
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#2 (permalink) |
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añejo
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: South Shore of Baahhstun, Massachusetts
Posts: 23,227
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Day 2 – Tuesday, April 7th
As is our “normal” on vacation, I’m always the first one up. I make a cup of coffee (with the coffeemaker that we bring us, along with the Bailey’s Irish Cream) and wake up on the balcony or patio (whatever the room has). This room was awesome!!! Thank you, kathy.web, for recommending that we get a first floor room!!! With this set up, you are literally ON the beach, separated by a low (18”) wall.      David and I were checking out some fish we could see in the water when we hear a “Good morning, neighbor!!” and there’s Mike and Barb, living two doors down from us. What better way to start a day than hanging on the beach with a coupla great peeps and I’m still wearing my PJ’s!!    Since the bay looked pretty calm (Mike and Barb had told us that today was one of the calmest they’ve seen it since they arrived almost a week ago), David and I decided to take advantage of it and get in some turtle watchin’ at Akumal Bay. We tossed in the contact lenses (the ONLY time either of us ever wear them is to snorkel!!) and trekked on down to Akumal Bay. Met a couple of cute creatures along the way…    We ate breakfast at Turtle Bay Bakery – was delish!!    And we met “Mo”, the cat who resides there. Apparently Mo was there waaaaay before the Bakery was, so he has the best seat in the place (justifiably so!)   After chilling on the sand for a while, I went up to the dive shop (the one to the left side o of Lol-Ha) to rent a locker to lock up our money/camera, but had no luck. Was told, “Yeah, we have lockers, but we have no locks”. Huh??!?? I guess the story goes that too many people are bringing their own equipment and not renting from the dive shop, so the dive shop has decided to essentially say “screw” to those people. Doesn’t make any sense to me. They would’ve made 50 p. off of us for the locker rental (like they did last year). So… while David and are are contemplating what to do with about $4000 pesos (we’d just exchanged about $400 US at the resort desk in Akumal), and David’s camera (mine would go in the water with us), Mike and Barb came by and offered to sit and watch our stuff for us. THANKS, youz guyz!!! The snorkeling was great and we saw (if I recall correctly) at least a half dozen turtles!!          Little did I know that these would be the last photos that my Olympus 720SW camera would be taking on this trip. Or maybe ever. The *$%@#ing thing has pooped the bed. Not sure if it’s the camera or maybe the battery(ies). Haven’t had the time to totally research the situation yet. But… photos of turtle in Akumal Bay…. that’s not a bad way to go, now is it??!!! After relieving Mike and Barb of their guard duties (with promises to meet up later – their last night!), David and I hit Lol-Ha for rum punches and cold Sols, a burger, and fish sandwich. Since the walk to Akumal Bay from the VDM was a bit long for the heavy stuff we were carrying (all the snorkel gear, towels, books, etc.), we treated ourselves to a taxi back. After coffee on the patio and showers, we met up with the Missouri crew at LBV. Had some drinks downstairs and then a wonderful meal upstairs (where it was a bit warmer as it was out of the wind). It was such a nice time, and we just wish our paths had crossed a bit longer this trip. Mike, Barb, Amber, and Chris all left the following morning. |
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05-05-2009
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#9 (permalink) |
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añejo
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: South Shore of Baahhstun, Massachusetts
Posts: 23,227
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Day 3 – Wednesday, April 8
Started out the day like all the others in Akumal…. with coffee on the patio. This day was actually the first that I found/made the time to write in my journal. After that, I got back into my groove of writing each morning before the memories dimmed too much.  This was the view we had right and left from the edge of our patio. Not too shabby, huh!   Today was our Yal-Ku day, so after shoving those darn contact lenses in our eyes once again, we journeyed off for the 20-minute stroll to Yal-Ku. A little ways up the road, we found a kitty and just HAD to stop at the Midway Store to buy him a can of Whiskas. Mr. Kitty didn’t look too tough, so he probably has quite a good gig going by hanging near that store and giving the tourists the ol’ meow-go-inside-and-buy-me-a-can-of-food-cuz-I’m-so-cute number! How could I refuse??   Yal-Ku (110 p. each) wasn’t too crowded, and we scouted out a bench near some stairs into the water.    We snorkeled for maybe 30 minutes, and then I got chilled and had to get out. The fish were good, but not nearly as exciting for us as the turtles at Akumal Bay. I tossed a few goldfish crackers into the water around David and shot some fun pics. (Somehow feeding “Goldfish” crackers to real fish just doesn’t seem quite right on some obscure level….  )   We didn’t stay all that long and soon strolled back to the VDM. Dropped our gear at the room and journeyed over to La Buena Vida for some lunch. We hadn’t really had any breakfast, so we were pretty hungry.    Looking back to VDM from across street from La Buena Vida.  Even sitting at the bar, it was quite windy and downright chilly. I ran back to the room to fetch our my sweatshirt and David’s jacket.  Don’t ask me why I felt it appropriate to include the “Nerak Wave” in this shot. Some peeps just never grow up…. Had guac anc beef tacos. That, combined with 2 Sols and 2 rum punches, came to $350 p. The bills at LBV were always very accurate and never included a propina or “servico”.   After filling our bellies, we returned to the room and layed out in chairs on the beach. I then took a nice two-hour nap. After showers, we walked into Akumal, strolled around some shops, and then walked back “home”. Stopped at LBV to check out the kareoke. We were both pretty tired and not up for any more cocktails, so we called it a night and returned to the room and hit the hay around 10:00. Nightlife in Akumal is hard to find, and for the most part, that was fine with us. We were doing our usual, early-to-bed/early-to-rise routine, so with the sun/fun/food/alcohol, by 10 PM, these 50-year-old’s were ready to crash. |
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05-05-2009
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#11 (permalink) |
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añejo
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: North of Boston, Mass
Posts: 7,354
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I'm thrilled to read this report, Nerak! Looking forward to more! I completely understand the whole "camera on the fritz" thing...happened to me on our last trip. Hope you get everything straightened out. And, what silvergirl said...surely you must have more!
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05-05-2009
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#12 (permalink) |
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life=playa
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: central mo
Posts: 937
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I'm glad you got started on this TR. Maybe it will give me the jump start I need to do one.
I really hated leaving when you guys just got there,  we were not ready to go home yet.... Sounds like a fun time was had and we missed it.....
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05-05-2009
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#13 (permalink) |
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añejo
Join Date: Apr 2004
Location: South Shore of Baahhstun, Massachusetts
Posts: 23,227
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Don't worry.... there are LOTS more pics to come!!
All the pics that were taken after the underwater ones of the turtles (shot with my now-dead Olympus) were taken with David's camera. We usually don't use his camera, as it's old and quite heavy to lug around, but thank God he brought it!! And... for the first time I was forced to learn how to operate it!   Stonecold: How's about you posting a pic of the four of you from that last night at La Buena Vida?? I know we shot a few of you.... Sure was great to see you folks, although it was a "tease" to only have such a short time with you!! |
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05-05-2009
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#14 (permalink) | |
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life=playa
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: central mo
Posts: 937
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