Saturday, January 15, 2011

Mayan Land: Day 2

Another adventurous day!

Mom woke up earlier and brought us some coffee to enjoy on the balcony. We put on first of the six outfits of the day, and made it to breakfast a full hour before the restaurant closes. Migas and mimosas were some of the yummy stuff on our table. The sun cleared most of the clouds, and we changed again for the beach. It. Was. Packed. Everyone wanted to soak in some of that sun after days of rain. It was actually warm to lay in the swimsuit. But, it didn’t last too long, and by 1 the clouds took over. We got us some margaritas and went for a stroll down the beach. (I think I’d like to go back to that sentence throughout the year and remember the moment)

Then it was time for lunch, and yet another change. It was obvious the beach was not the best idea for the afternoon, so we took our time with coffee and martinis in the courtyard, people watching. There are many groups here, and I am surprised to see relatively few Americans; many seem to be from the French speaking parts of Canada, many Italians, south America of course, and quite a few eastern Europeans.

Into our fourth outfit we went, and drove to the town. It’s about 30 min walk to there, so an hour both ways, but then plus all the walk there, so I think the car drive was a better option for us. Plus, it started raining after an hour and we had some liquor bottles with us to carry. I choose to pay for monitored parking than to park on the street. That rental place guy scared me enough about being responsible for all the damages. It was 20 pesos per hour.

I got all confused about money and exchange rates. The average rate we’ve seen was 12.5 pesos for $1, and when I withdrew 500 pesos from the ATM machine it listed $20 at the bottom. That $ sign threw me off. For some reason I thought that is how much US$ was my transaction. It didn’t sound right, it meant I got 25 pesos for 1$, but I thought maybe that’s what they mean by you get the best rate when using the debit card to get the local currency. But, really, what was I thinking! Twice as much as the regular rate. My brain was on vacation too, it seems. : ) I couldn’t get my math correct after that, so I then thought the swim suit we bought was half as many US$ then it was. The rain cut our walk short, and we started looking to get some gas. Another thing I forgot to research was that gas stations are not self service. I felt so stupid-foreigner-like when I pulled in and couldn’t figure out where the latch to open the gas tank was, couldn’t figure out how many litter I need to get ½ of tank, and how many $’s I need to exchange to pay for that. I waved in a no-thank you to several service-man swarming my car, set there for a few minutes trying to start my brain again and then drove off. After exchanging more money I got back to that same station only to realize I couldn’t find last 50 pesos I thought I still had and was 9 pesos short for that gas. Urgh! He let me walk off without paying.

We made one other stop to get some alcohol, maneuvering the one-way streets, and got to our room just with just enough time left to change for dinner. We had the reservation at the Italian restaurant in the sister-hotel, so we put on our best dress, pearls, and heals, and again drove over there. The food was quite different than the buffets we’ve had so far, plates much bigger and portions much smaller. They’ve put a lot of effort in the presentation, and since there were only dozen of tables occupied the service was good, too. We had four-course dinner with wine and desert. It was a good night to eat inside, with all the drizzle outside. Glad we had the car.

Back to our place for the last dress change of the day and the Las Vegas show!

A. Good. Day.

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