LIVEdigitally

Mexico Vacaciones - Sunday - Adjustment

Sunday, January 28th, 2007.
My official statement, as made on the previous evening, as to the plans for today, was something akin to “no plans whatsoever, thanks very much.” We did agree on a meeting spot, but when we woke up and saw signs of overnight or recent rainfall, we figured Eric and Edna probably weren’t waiting on the beach.

As we walked to the breakfast buffet (which, incidentally, after “cellar door” are the 2nd best two words in the English language), we passed many varieties of birds. A peacock strolled with us, not more than three feet away. We saw swans (two, not a-swimming, more of a-sunning) and a, uhm, well, snickfurther, and a, er, grenk, and quite a few, hm, spotted freckmerglers. As you may have noticed, I’m not all that wise in the way of birds, but I think I have fighting odds that one of those could be an actual bird name. At the buffet, I managed to restrain myself to a single plate of food; I knew pacing myself was key to my “Four Meals a Day” vacation strategy. You have to understand that in my eyes, the term “all-inclusive” is not just a level of service, but it’s a personal challenge as well.

While there was no rain (yet), a glance at the soft gray clouds in the sky had us situate by the pool. We quickly got to business - Ari and Edna went in the pool, and I went into a perfect poolside nap. I awoke as the ladies returned from the water, and it did start to drizzle a little. Eric and Edna headed to lunch, but we went instead to nap even more. Viva el vacaciones!

Later, after the rainfall, we went to the beach where we enjoyed some freshly grilled sardines and salmon. We paired this with a plate of nachos featuring genuine Tostitos brand chips! In search of a non-nap-type of activity, we found a little stall with a “Color-Me-Mine” offering. Considering how I’d never partake in the US equivalent of “buy some badly painted ceramics for much more than they’re worth and have to throw hours of your own time at it, all in the name of a barely-more-creative-than-paint-by-numbers form of self-expression,” I am still not sure what possessed us to do it. but we did, and like the “sucker” tattoo that becomes clearly emblazoned on most vacationers’ foreheads (we are no different) implied, we didn’t even check the price first. We’re not done yet, but we’re 90 minutes into it for a mere $35. I’ll try to provide an update as we make progress. Note: we never went back to finish…

We met up with the Anzaruts again a bit later to play some cards by the pool, where we also enjoyed ice cream, nachos, a hot dog smothered in onions, and nachos (yes, in that order, and yes, I said nachos twice. I like nachos). While playing, we had two major distractions as dusk set in the slow emergence of mosquitoes (I actually got bit under my foot) and the slightly faster emergence of rowdy drunks. I’m going to sound a little fuddy-duddyish here, but what exactly is that separation between fun drunks and fun, rowdy, loud, and fairly obnoxious drunks? I guess I was just a bit annoyed that five people felt the need to be heard by a hundred.

The evening came with quite a chill, enough for a second layer even (what is this, winter?). We went to dine at Hiroshi, the (yup), Japanese-themed restaurant with a well-written, but ultimately disappointing meal. Also, due to the resort’s slightly odd reservations system, Edna passed a fiver to the hostess (quite against my wishes, and ultimately unnecessary as well) to get us in. I guess dinner was on her! I’ll summarize the meal with this statement: picture Benihana’s meets Chevy’s. Our teppanyaki chef tried his best, but Javier-san’s showmanship just wasn’t up to par.

After dinner, we pulled up a seat to watch the evening’s show, the Iberogrammy’s. if you read yesterday’s account, it was the same type of dance plus lip synch infused with a wacky Mexican sense of physical humor. The piece del resistance was their tribute to Freddie Mercury with a performance of Bohemian Rhapsody that had the whole audience laughing hard. But one can only enjoy so much lip-synch “entertainment” in any say, four year time-span, so we left during Britney Spears’ number.

We toured the grounds for a little while, but aside from window shopping at the mostly-closed mall, or wait for El Discotheque to open, there was little we were really in the mood for. We took a short walk, then called it an early night.