The plan for Day 1

The Plan for Day 1

Amazingly I woke up without a hanger. Oh sure, my mouth tasted like someone had buried a dead rat in it but no headache. Oh praise be to Bacchus. 11 glasses of wine and one bottle of beer and I survived. Chalk one up for Joe Part 2. Now, on with the day. No matter how wiird it was, I was going to be brave today.

I had set the alarm for 8 so I could get up, grab a quick bite and check out the sunquest info show at 10. However, when I rolled over, my watch said 8:50 and I jolted out of bed like I’d been stung by a bee. I looked at the alarm. The clock on it blinked 7:50. Now, which one do you think was right, my watch which I’d set to the time the pilot told us or the hotel staff setting it to the local time. 50/50, I figured, could go either way.

So I threw on some clothes, gelled my hair into a spikey mess and raced downstairs to see if I had time for breakfast. Sure enough, the time on the alarm was right. I will talk to Mark when I get back about making sure the pilots do not give out false or misleading information that forces someone to get up too early on a vacation.

Breakfast was better than I expected and I managed to avoid taking plate loads of flan. Still weird eating alone but this time it didn’t sink me into melancholy. I drank my coffee and whammo, I remembered all the things I had forgotten last night. What book the woman beside me was reading, what book I was reading, what my middle name was. Thank god for coffee.

After breakfast, did what Margot and I always did. A tour. Get an idea of the lay of the land. Find the bathrooms, the bars, the internet areas, the little shops that might sell stuff we forgot. Weather was greyish with hints of blue sky and sun. I looked at the forecast and it seems that I will have clouds, followed by rain with a bit more of clouds and some clouds. So much for my epic tan but then again, let’s face it, just to keep up with the blog will take away a couple of hours in the sun.

My personal didn’t take long. Although this is a huge resort, it is very vertical and seeing everything there was to see did not take long. No matter, I had my book and sat in the shade and read.

But Joe Part 2, why did you sit in the shade, why not grab a chair and soak up some grey?

Good question. The answer is, I had forgotten to pack something. Now this is something we always did when traveling. It became a running joke with us. What did we forget? Camera? Check. Passport? Check. Plane tickets? Check. Wallet? Got it. Maps? Of course. Then anything else we can buy. Check.

We never forgot the important stuff, though we did once break a camera the day we arrived at a Mexican resort. We did, sometimes, forget the less important stuff. A hat. Contact lens solution. Sandals. Batteries. Rechargers for various things. But this time I forgot to bring something vital. Suntan lotion.

It would not have been a mistake Margot made as she had been known to burn by thinking about the sun. (Ok, true story, in Cabo, she burned while walking around the pool to get from the hotel to one of the fancy restaurants. Burned herself silly.) So, without suntan lotion, there was no way I was going to chance the grey. (Ok, true story, we both burned ourselves silly in Hawaii on our honeymoon when we thought that we could snorkel in Hanoma Bay without suntan lotion on a grey and cloudy day. We burned ourselves so badly, we went to a clinic and, after they stopped laughing, they told us to put use gallons of aloe. For a whole week heat radiated off of us like we were mini suns and we couldn’t sit back, couldn’t lie on our backs and if we laughed too hard, our skin split.)

So, grey skies, bad. At least without suntan lotion.

But shade should be fine. And it was. The ocean thundered away not far from me. Kids giggled and splashed in the nearby pool. Workers dumped shovelfuls of sand around the beach tables and pasty white folk like me lathered on lotion and lay down on lounge creaking lounge chairs. The air was moist, warm but not hot and carried the smell of the sea and coconut oil.

I read until it was time to see the Sunquest show. They gave us a drink and a knot of us watched the poor attendants perform a painful dance routine that made me rethink the idea that I was really in hell. However, I learned more about the Carnival and other excursions so it wasn’t a complete waste of time.

Apparently I can take a taxi in to town but I have to walk a good kilometre to the parade area. The guide showed me where I had to go and told me what time the parade starts. 3pm. I think I will leave here around 1, with walking time get to the area by 2ish, find myself some suntan lotion on a Mexican holiday and watch the parade.

This sounds like something I should do, right? I mean what can go wrong? I’m sure it will be easy to get a taxi back, won’t it? I’m sure the old town is safe. Isn’t it? I sure I will fit in and have a good time. I had cool sunglasses after all.