Cancun - Sunday

As this says later, I'm writting this on my lap-top and uploading it, to avoid massive connect fees. So... I won't actually be checking the formatting and stuff much. If it looks hosed, I'll fix it when I get home!

OK... so I'm kind of losing track of what day it is... I guess this would be Day 4. Yesterday one of the activity directors stopped by to see if we wanted to play volleyball. We said No, but I asked him about snorkeling and he said it was free and they took you out to the reef. So we checked it out, and sure enough, $2 for a "park entrance fee" and they take you out for 30 - 40 minutes. Still not as good as just going by ourselves in Puerto Aventerous, but WAY better than here at the bench. Saw some cool fish and a star-fish.

Note to self: Get a vest like Pastor Joe's! It has a C02 canister that you use to inflate it if you get into trouble, otherwise it is very slim and not boyant. Man... trying to swim under the water with a life vest on is a pain! I have to get one like his, which would make it WAY easier.

Tina was feeling not so well last night, and stayed in the room. I went to dinner with Pastor Joe and Terri...

Cultural Differences

This trip is the first time I have run into some cultural differences. Well other than "mexican time" - which is very approxmiate. So, last night we missed our 6:00 dinner reservation at the French reasturant. The hotel is not very busy. They have a convention with about 150 people, and besides that, there doesn't seem to be a lot of other folks. So, they have 2 of their 5 reastaurants closed at any time - or so it appears. Anyway, we missed the French, so were going to go the buffet, but figured we would try the Steak and Lobster grill. (It was so good the first night!). We get there, and there are 12 tables, one cook, 3 weight staff, and a manager, and no one in the place. They escort us to a table, seat us, and then ask for our reservation slip. We say we don't have one, we missed the french, can we eat here instead. They say, "impossible, all 12 tables are reserved." I'm like, "There is no one here???". We talk to them for a bit, "Is there any way", etc. they bring the manager over, and basically get a bit miffed and tell us no, we need to leave. So we do. We then eat in the buffet area (which is right next door), and when we leave, about 90 minutes later, there are now 4 tables occupied in the grill area. I don't get it. In the US, they would have seated us, got us in and out, got the tip, and turned the table over. Here, it seems very rules orientated... no initiative, etc.

So, another example of this. Tina switched out the towels the other day, because we were back and the maid hadn't cleaned the room yet. Tina took her a bunch of stuff and only got towels back. So, we had 7 bath towels, one hand towel, and no wash clothes. Yesterday the maid comes while we are gone, and switches everything out... exactly as it was. So we get back and we have, 7 bath towels, one hand towel and no wash clothes!

And finally, last night I ask the waiter for a "Melon Colada". He says they don't have such a thing, do I mean a Melon Ball? No. A Melon Colada. I've had them here before. Nope, there is no such thing. Maybe I mean a melon ball? No... a Melon Colada. I had one at the pool. How about a Melon Ball? So I settle for a Melon Ball. I expect he had never heard of it, and was convienced I had no idea what I was talking about. Well I have never heard of one either... but I saw people drinking them here, asked that they were, and have been having them ever since.

Some of the people seem to go out of their way with customer service, others seem to follow the rules exactly. "Here is the 10 drinks we make, if it isn't one of them, we must not have them." 

On the other hand, the omelet guy is great. Some guy told him this morning exactly how to cook his eggs, how to add the ingredients, when, etc. and he did just what he asked. Very willing to do whatever to please.

Which brings to mind two funny stories, then I'll go.

First, the omelet guy doesn't use a spatula to cook. He has a putty knife and a dry wall trowel. The putty knife is for scraping the grill and mixing things. The dry wall trowel is for flipping things. Very bizzare!

Second, the first night we were having a few drinks in the lobby area and had one waiter. Terri was tipping him very well. After a bit we wandered over to one of the clubs to listen to some music, and HE FOLLOWED US OVER THERE. He came in, shoo-ed the other waiters away, and started waiting on us. I guess we tipped him pretty good!

OK... Well I'm writting this all up in the room, because it is way easier than trying to do it on the beach. Easier to read and easier than holding it on my lap! I'm doing it on the laptop, because the internet connection here charges $5 for 15 minutes. Just checking some email and looking at b-may this morning took 10 minutes! I figure I'll just blog on the laptop, and then upload it. They "think" it will work. I looked, and they have a floppy, so it should be fine, and fairly fast. Open blogger, copy this entry, paste it, and post. We'll see.

Probably checking my blog is the best way to see what is going on... as I'll write longer there. I figure, now that I have been on-line, I'll probably get on a few more times. BTW: b-may's article the last few days (I forget the date) on his hair was pretty good. You should check it out. It is one of the first links on the left-hand side of my page.

Well... that's it for now from Cancun. Hope everyone is doing well!

Cancun - day 3

7:50 AM

Went to bed @ 11:30, up @ 7:15. Hmm... must be starting to relax because I'm sleeping in longer! One of my duties is to grab prime real-estate by the pool before it is all staked out There have these "hut" things here that I haven't seen at other  resorts. Usually they have all the beach chairs surrounding the pool, and every 4 or so there is a palm frawn "umbrella". This keeps some of the sun off of most of you, but you have to usually arrange your chair, etc. Well in addition to those, they have about 5 of these "hut" things. 4 polls with a palm roof, 3 sides, and a deck that is about 18inces off the ground, with two pads laying on it. Because it is four-sides, and because the roof extends down so that there is just about a 4 ft opening, it is shady all but the very early morning. For Joe and I this is great. So, yesterday I grabbed one and it worked out perfect! Took a couple of naps in there w/o getting sunburned, but plenty of breeze etc. Grab a few beach chairs right next to it, for the girls, and we are set!

Got another one this morning, although the location was a little less prime. But yesterday I was down here by 6:30 or so, and this morning it was already staked out by the time I got down here at 7:30! But there were still left, so I grabbed one of them. This one has plants growing all around it, so it is a little more secluded, and closer to the food! :-)

Yesterday was pretty "busy", at least for Cancun! Up at 6:15, even though I went to sleep at 1:00! Went for a walk on the beach after staking out the hut. Not many people up! Went back to the room for goggles. Came back down, went swimming in the ocean (very nice at 7:00 AM! Water wasn't too cold) then swimming in the pool. Hung out for a bit. Then had breakfast. Went back to the room around 9:30, Tina was up - brought her some breakfast. Then Joe and Terri called, so went back down for second-breakfast. My Hobbit eating habit is kicking in! :-)

Thursday night (first night here) ate at the reef grill. Had steak and lobster. The lobster was great! (so was the steak). Had a fillet and 1/2 a lobster. Terri wanted more lobster, so the waiter asked if anyone else did, and Joe and I said sure. So they brought another whole one for everyone! Yum. We were eating outside, about 15 feet from the ocean, beach just below us, waves crashing against the shore. It was awesome!

After dinner we went walking through this little vendor area. Lots of pictures, candles, blankets, local stuff. There was a tattoo shop, and Terri and Tina always get tattoos every year. They are henna and last about 2 weeks, so mostly just while we are here. Tina started bargaining with the guy about give us a great day, and I said I might get one. So she got us a really good deal for 4, and we all got one. Then Tina started talking to other people walking by. "Hey, you'd look great with one of these." "Oh, I love your butterfly", "They have lots, you'd look great with this
one", etc. The guy running the booth was like, "Wow... I should hire her, she is great for business." It was a fun time. :-)

Went to the "activity" for the night, which was Karaoke. Terri wanted to go and sing, because the winner got a free 4 night, 3 day stay here, for two! How cool. There weren't many people, so I figured, what the heck, might stand a chance. Looked through the songs and they had "Smooth", which I thought would be very cool. So I signed up. By then Terri decided not to, so I was the only one from our group! They did have smooth, but it was in Spanish. Hmm... maybe I could pull that off, but better to go with English. I looked through the list, and it was starting with 60s stuff.
Not great. Finally found some 90s... and settled on Welcome to the Jungle, by Guns 'n Roses. Didn't do that great... but I figured it was better than me trying to pull off U2! It was fun.

So when Tina tells everyone at church they say, "So, was he drunk?" NO, it was just fun. I think it is way different signing in front of a bunch of people in Cancun, who you don't know and will never see again, than in front of people you do know!

So back to yesterday. Up early, did some swimming. Then hung out. Did some snorkeling in the afternoon. Not very good. Fun just to swim, but not many fish. No reef and visibility is about 2 feet and very sandy and lots of sea-weed. But we are going to Couzemal on Monday, so that should be good. Also they do some snorkeling here, but it is at 10:00, and usually we aren't up and around much by then. But I might check it out. If they go out in a boat it would be good. If they just give people the gear and show them how to do it right here... it wouldn't be worth it.
This newer battery that Terry gave me from work is pretty good, (mine wouldn't hold a charge at all), but it doesn't report very well. I was using it on the plane and it just died! So... as always, remember to SAVE OFTEN.

Well...

I think that is it from Cancun... other than I think I will go to the "business center" today and see how much they charge for access. Hopefully I can copy this to disk, upload it, and get it on the blog fairly fast (cheap). And then check some e-mail.

Oh... and had French for dinner last night (which was very good, pretty realistically French. A very good white wine, nice subtle creams and spices on the food). Had lobster bisques (french style, very good). A salmon and grouper salad. I think it was raw (or lightly steamed) with a white cream/citrus sauce. Very good - but pretty rich - could have been a smaller portion or shared. But it had a great flavor. Then Roast duck with Honey and 6 spice glaze. Came with a little rice and grilled fruit - peach, apples, grapes. Very good. We were hoping for cream brulle for desert... but they weren't serving it. So I had flan, which was good, but it isn't cream brulle!

The food here is very good so far. Which is important to me. After getting sick at the Adventurous one year, I really am leery of the food. But so far it has been very good, and to me tastes authentic. So, staying prayed up, relaxing, and just going with it. :-)

Tonight it is Japanese. 3rd day (Saturday) in Cancun. Plans - hang out, eat, relax.

Relaxation has been great by the way. Great to see Terri and Tina just cracking up. And it is always so good for the Tina and I to be down here together and just relax and be with each other. It is always a "couple renewal" time for us. To just be with each other and hang out.

OK... signing off for now.

Cancun - day 1

6:37 AM - Working on my web page and listening to WinAmp. Not using head-phones. Is the music bothering anyone? Well with all the noise from the plane and the guys snoring a few rows back, I doubt anyone can hear it!

6:15 AM - flying south out of Denver, past Colorado Springs. Tina is asleep next to me. Looked over and saw Garden of the Gods and WorldCom. Kris should be getting to work soon!

Terri is chatting with the guy sitting next to her and I'm typing on the computer... Different strokes for different folks!

5:00 AM - Well actually I'm not there yet. 5:00 AM, sitting at DIA, waiting for the plane to board. Plane doesn't take off till 6:00, but we had to be here 2 hours early for security. Actually we made it through pretty fast.

DIA has WiFi access... but I don't have the software on my computer to access it, as far as I know. I'll have to download it so next time I'm here I can check it out.
Since I'm just sitting here, I figured I'd write this up, and then just dump it to the blog later. Also listening to Smooth, since we are doing it for our Easter service. That should be cool. Some fun percussion stuff.