The Big Beach

Feb 22nd Marching Day

It’s early, 8am, but there is no sign of the seadoos and it’s windy and cloudy mixed with sun. It occurs to me that the wind may be more of a function than the weather for the seadoos. Big waves make it hard to launch those things. Could be I was being teased yesterday when I was told there were no seadoos because it was Sunday. Maybe Mexican humor.

Well, knees doing better but still giving off heat. Will go for a nice long walk for sure, today. Seadoo if I can do.

My room, by the way, is about as good as I could have hoped for. Room 1836. That’s on the 18th floor. No one is above me though there is the main tower beside me which has another 4 floors. The huge advantage of not having another room above you is that I can get sun nearly all day long (except for early morning and pretty much all of the night).

I have 3 ‘spaces’ or rooms. The door opens into an entrance way nearly as big as the main room. Opposite the door is the closet with room for about 1000 pieces of clothing and a nice sized safe at the bottom to secure valuables (wallets, keys, passports, and, in my case, flashdrives.) But the safe is also big enough for my laptop which allows me to leave it in the room and not have constant worries that someone has broken in and started to use it to download porn.

To the right of the door is the mini bar, 4 bottles of hard liquor hanging upside down, waiting to be used. Gin. Vodka. Tequila. Rum. A beige plastic ice container sits atop the bar and, in the fridge are bottles of beer, pop and water. Apparently the fridge is restocked every 2 days but my experience has been about every 3 or so. Or when I ask.

To the left of the entrance is a huge tiled bathroom built to accommodate a small family. Big shower/tub combo. 2 sinks set in what is probably fake marble. Lots of heavy, thick towels the color of deep mocha. The fixtures all shine and the floor is spotless.

The mainroom, or the bedroom, isn’t that much larger than the entrance way or the bathroom. White walls, dark blue accenting trim, a bright picture on the wall, a king-sized bed that dominates the space. There are 3 pillows, a thin blue cover and crisp white sheets on the bed. Across from the bed is a low dresser with a black and thin and modern TV on it. Beyond the bed is the balcony, cramped for two, but fine for one. Plastic white chairs and table gleam in the sunlight. A blue curtain is parted to either side.

There is, of course, air conditioning. And a fan. The A/C doesn’t hum, it growls and, when turned to full, can put a layer of frost on my nipples faster than being in the arctic. Add the fan whirring away and it can be quite a shock coming from the heat and the sun. There is no smell of mould in the room, the cleaning agents they use are supposedly ‘green’ and leave no smell, and it is attended to religiously by those sneaky little maids who are out to get me.

So now you know where I live. Oh, I know I should have defined location earlier, but better late than never.

On to the walk. Put on suntan lotion. Lots of it. Secreted money in my pocket. Put on my walking runners and cushioned socks and new sunglasses and marched out onto the sand vaguely aware that I had forgotten something.


(pictures are, the hotel from where I left, the end of the beach, looking back and the Vegas-like dog)