Monday and Tuesday
Hung out at the Playacar’s beach. Can’t tell from this pic but we
were happy!
Tuesday afternoon the activity by the pool was the beer drinking contest which Kris had expressed an interest in so I signed him up. I almost signed up too but my forte is drinking thru a straw and also wasn’t sure I felt like chuggin a lot of beer. Kris professes to be a champ chugger of half litres of beer back in Poland. As well as able to chug a litre of milk. Huh? Who’d want to?
(He is waiting his turn, back left)
round 1
Anyway, sure enough he performs quite well....has one tie which they break by having to use a straw (I’d have beat him) 7 or 8 plastic cups (the small ones) of beer later, he is in the final. Final consists of doing 5 pushups first and downing at least a half a litre. Ta dah Kris triumphs. burp burp burrrp! Got a buzz yet Kris? He feels fine but full, goes for a walk, has a lie down and 2 hours later...burrrrp....what’s for dinner? Atta boy.(no more pics, I got the final as a movie)
We’re all set for dinner in buffet about 7 and stop to ask for more pillows at the desk from Carlos. We’ve heard there is another speciality restaurant, Asian style at the Yucatan but that we cannot book it. I figure I’ll ask anyway. "Carlos, the room is fine thank-you, I need three more pillows, great thanks, hey, can we book at the Asian?" "No sorry." "Ok, no problem. Is Anilu around? (Anilu is the public relations manager I e-mailed with prior to booking when I was checking out accessibility) I just want to meet her and say hi." "Let me find her." He goes and gets her and also asks about the Asian.
"Hi, hi, nice to meet you...you want to go to the Asian?" "Yes please. It’ll have to be tonight at 8:45."
"Ok great, for 7?" (We had met a nice couple from Nova Scotia)
Ruth wanted to dance with the gay one.
Hang on, Les isn’t gay, he’s a biologist! But Steve is our metrosexual.
Everyone was starving so we went into the buffet for appetizers, ya right. We chow down and practically have to run across the road to get to the restaurant on time. I was expecting Tapanyaki tables where they cook it in front of you. Nope. It was buffet style too with cook top at one end of the restaurant. They had sushi apps and everything I expected but just a different setup. Was disappointed with that but the food was good. The vino dinto was tasting good. Had fun. Boy were we full.
Wednesday/Thursday
Beach at the Playacar. See a pattern yet? I’m finding it hard to remember what was when. (the pictures are helping but Kris’ camera date is off by 12 hours so I’m getting confused.)
Dinner at buffet, it was a BBQ night with steak, ribs and chicken. No food yet but we were on our way. I think we just eat too fast to get good before pics.
We plan to go to HC Monterrey tomorrow so I have a little taste of the steak and load up on fish. Sorry, all ideas to take food pics have vanished.
So far we have yet to have a late night. Mike and Steve are early risers and usually had a noontime buzz going from the fruity drinks. Les is finally feeling better so we get into having el Jimador on the rocks with lime as our after dinner drinks. Kris is usually the responsible drinker, Mike can’t drink after eating. So Mike and Steve usually headed for bed first followed by Kris then me with Les trying to do us proud at the bar. He had his own room so didn’t have to worry about waking anyone up. We don’t just crash after dinner though, we play cards in the lobby. As I type that I’m thinkin’, woooooooo, exciting or what!?
Thursday we head to HC’s with map and directions from Claudia at the desk in hand.
Get there about 6. Perfect timing there is a table in shade with a breeze right outside the kitchen.
I’ve told the guys what is what but I’m a little stumped by nacional or imported. Have decided on nacional when the manager, forget his name, a Canadian transplant comes out and answers all our questions. 5 arrachera nacional, I opt for an onion instead of potato and try a michelada. Very different but ok. Couldn’t attempt two tho so went for Modelo especial next.
As anyone who has eaten here knows, the steak is fantastic!! Melt in your mouth, not a chewy bit anywhere. The sour cream stuff is right on and the onion and avocado just great. Careful to clear the seeds on the jalapeno, it was hotter than I expected.
The price per meal was 900 pesos and our total with about 8 beers and tip was $70US. Best meal so far and doubt any other steak would top it.
oops, all gone...
the crew.....guy on far left is manager
Wandered around fifth after but everyone was too full to stop and drink anywhere.
bellies full of beef
back in time to catch the girls before the show
Friday
Beach day. The typical beach day for me means reclining against something in the sun and reading til I start to get hot, then I move to the shade. Meet the guys for lunch. Read some more, watch afternoon pool activity, have a few drinks.
For the guys, they would walk the beach and then lay on the beach chairs. Have a few drinks. Mike got hooked on Les’ suduko book. Kris windsurfed. Les played ping pong and water volleyball. Steve had his ipod.
he played adults too
Buffet dinner. All is good.
Saturday.
First excursion to Akumal bay. Plan is to snorkel and enjoy the beach. Pickup at 10 return at 7, van and driver booked on here. Thanks Heather.
Van is a Ford so a little higher lift in and out but the boys are rested.
Tried snorkelling last year at Xel-Ha and didn’t like the feeling of having my head lower than my very buoyant body (I swear its mostly air). Had a life jacket on so planned to try it without this time. Figured out before going that we needed an air mattress to put me on to float me out to deeper water so I wasn’t getting dragged on the bottom (us quads have to protect our butt skin)
So we stop at Walmart, our driver very pleasant and helpful. Not the best at English but better than our Spanish. The guys go in looking for a cheapo plastic air mattress....the kind they have in town for 4bucks but that I never thought to look for on our first 4 trips to town! They come out with a $15 mattress good enough to sleep on...so yes I brought it home. Turns out it worked way better than a cheapo plastic one wold have. No pump though so the guys take turns blowing it up on the way.
To make a long story short, not that you’ll notice by now, I didn’t do much snorkelling. I figured out why it bugged me though. Having snorkelled in my previous life it wasn’t the mouth breathing, it was the inability to lift my head out of the water on my own. I float like a cork and even with a rented dive belt which helped somewhat, I was not able to control when I lifted my head out.....this freaked me out.
The good news is the water cooled me off and laying on the mattress watching the girls walk by was very relaxing. The guys loved the snorkelling. I loved the beach because I could wheel everywhere.
The offshore breeze helped keep me cool. Because of my injury I don’t sweat anymore. That has its advantages but the disadvantage is that I can’t cool off normally. So for me to cool down I need to drink a lot of water and pee (sorry if this is too much info) I’ll also soak my head and feet with cold water. Anyway.....we love it here and are talking about returning.
We had a snack and a margarita at Lo Ha restaurant(if only the hotels could make em taste as real) I had fish tacos, Mike and Steve had fries, Les and Kris just ate chips and salsa. La cuenta was $60us incl tip. Definitely tourist prices but overall not too bad.
Had our driver, forget his name too, drive us to have a look at Yal ku lagoon on the way home. Bumpy road but ok. $7us or $700 peso admittance. Its 6 o’clock so we head back. Get back at 7 on the dot. Dress up for the Mexican specialty restaurant.
Food was okay, had a choice from 5 or 6 mains, I had fish...no pics. It would have been a much more enjoyable meal if they hadn’t treated the restaurant floor the day before with what smelled like creosote...no kidding. Its an open air restaurant but the curtains were down because it was very windy. Not the best dinner by far.
One week down, one to go.
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