FLYING GORILLAS AND MONKEY BALLS

So here I sit in my room in Mexico.  This place is so different than the one I was in last year with Cookie.  And to be brutally honest, I am not sure what to think.  Some of it is amazing and some of it is downright creepy.

Many times while I sit in the lobby or in the dining areas or even at the pool, movies about closed religious compounds come to mind.

Everybody is scurrying around, going somewhere.  Where?  Who knows!?  They disappear going that way, they disappear going back the other way and around corners, and up stairs and through doorways.  All through the trees and grassy areas outside my window are pathways, with people scuttling along, going this way and that way.  Its creepy.

The food is pretty good...hit and miss.  The miss part is, for example, a lovely mound of potato salad, mmmm, one of my faves.  So you take lots. But it turns out to not be quite right, almost, but not quite.  The potatoes are not fully cooked and kind of hard.  The mayonnaise doesn’t taste exactly like ours.  There is chopped up strange chewy things mixed in.  Not quite right.  The seafood salad with the fake crab (I love that fake crab, its actually pollack, stuff) looks amazing.  But no.  That fake crab is a trick.  It tastes like pickled sardines.  Blech!

But when they get it right, its really right.  Their fish, calamari, smoked salmon, and tuna are to die for.  Unfortunately by the time you figure out whats good, its time to go home.!

Smoking.  You know you are amongst a ton of Europeans by the many that smoke.  Its like a step back in time, all these people walking around smoking.  The outside eating areas are kind of ruined by the smokers.  And its unfortunate when you snag awesome beach chairs, right beside smokers.

  One day, this has nothing to do with smoking, we were in our chairs and in front of us was a young couple.  She was kind of chunky and so was he.  I noticed them because they were right in front of us and she was laying on her stomach on the chair and smoking.  When she sat up she did not have a top on and bazooms stuck straight out, staring at us.  Yup...definitely European!

And the drinking....on lordy lordy!!!  Do we ever drink!  And from what I can tell they don’t water down the drinks.  The cocktail menu has thirty eight drinks on it, but you can ask for anything and they will make it for you!  After the first day of drinking a crazy amount of different drinks, like flying gorilla, congo bongo, monkey balls etc....I finally switched to diet coke with lime and was much happier!  The cervaza was a little too skunky for me!

But the best best best of all?  The seventeen other people we came here with.  What an amazing awesome bunch of people they are.  I have had some heavy duty amazing conversations with some of them and I have laughed til I got charlie horses in my rib cage.  A few of them are so damned funny!  We all do our own thing, or go to the beach together, during the day and then meet for happy hour before going for dinner.  And every night there is a show of some sort put on by the most talented crew of dancers and singers.  They are truly top notch.

Also, so exciting, I was sitting in one of the  lobbies this morning reading.  Suddenly I heard a very familiar voice calling to his youngest little one who was taking off, hell bent for election.  I looked up and sure enough it was Sheldon, a chef who has been on Top Chef twice and is from Maui!  We have been to his restaurants and Aryn has even met him in person!  I love the guy.  I smiled at him and he took the time to look back and give me one of his famous awesome smiles!

I am home now.  And we had a crazy long day yesterday and today.  We started travelling at 12 noon home time and drove into the driveway at six the next morning.  The trip involved a lot of bus beer and an emergency landing in a strange US city.  I shall tell that story tomorrow and include some pics.  TTYL

PS:  I haven't forgotten about the accountability thing.  Tomorrow is Monday...the magic 'change things' day!  So if I wake up enough I shall run to the store and get healthy food and I will pick an outfit and take the pics and post them at the end of the entry.