What I Found At the Beach

Feb 17th 2010

In the sports bar, my coffee in front of me, a TV playing soccer not far way, I became chatty Joe. A couple sat beside me. The guy was holding a fishing rod so naturally I said, “Catch anything?”
He said no, and laughed and we had a nice talk. His wife asked where I was from and I told her Vancouver.
“Oh, leaving for the Olympics?”
“No, just coincidence,” I told them but explained how much disruption had been caused downtown.
“Because of security?”
“Yup, more army there than in Afghanistan.”
“It cost, like what, a billion dollars on security?”
“Yup and thank you for that. It didn’t come out of our pocket.”
“Glad to be of service.”
“But hey, for that we won a gold medal.”
“Two.”
“See, good value for money.”
“And it puts you guys on the map.”
“Exactly. Now everyone knows where their TV shows are shot.”
They laughed. “Not that you guys need to get put on the map. You also had expo 86.”
“And where are you from?”
“Ottawa.”
“Oh, then you have us beat, you have the government, and a canal and, I think, the coldest capital in the world.”
They laughed again and we talked for a bit more before heading off to get something to eat. It was a great chat.

I went back to my room, after having a quick lunch of a dry burger on a dry bun with tasty French fries. There was a note on my door saying my steak night would be a buffet. Hmmm? A steak buffet? I had my doubts on this one. As I went into my room to recharged the laptop, I ran into the maids cleaning my room. I hola’d them and they buonos dios’d me and then I slipped on the wet floor and did the most amazing penguin slide from one end of my room to the other, arms flapping, feet pinwheeling below me. I didn’t fall though, nor did I smash through the glass and topple off the balcony. The tow maids clapped.

I turned red.

While the laptop charged, I wrote more on yesterday. The internet is only available a small distance from the router downstairs. No internet upstairs which actually may be good since it gets me out of my room like a dog looking for a yummy treat. By the end, of the day, I had written over 24 pages. Not so bad.

Satisfied, I went downstairs to sit in the sun. It was about 4. It was still cloudy overhead but the sun had managed to find a way to peak out now and then so I brought my book, my cool sunglasses and sat on the lounger, soaking up the pitiful rays. I watched a dozen or so guys play beach soccer. Man, they were good, even for a pick up game. Put a bunch of Canadians in there and it would have been embarrassing. However, put a bunch of those fellows on an ice rink...

That leads me to a neat thing about this place. at least half the people are local. All families. Often large ones. I sat near a huge family of about 14. They had pulled their chairs into a circle and, at the center of the circle, the youngest kids played in the sand and giggled and threw small toys at the adults. The women sat on one end, mothers, grandmothers, aunts, all talking. The men stood in a knot by the only tree, also talking, half of them with their shirts off and half not. The teenagers came and went like planes refuelling at the landing strip.

Nearby me, a mom buried her child’s legs in the sand and watched him claw his way out. Both seemed to think this was a great game. I took a picture.

I have to say, one thing I like about this resort is that I am not the largest fellow here, not by a long shot and I am not the goofiest looking bastard either. The Mexicans who have come here are not European svelt, nor are many of the Americans/Canadians. They bobble around with a drink in their hands and don’t seem to give a damn how they look. They are here to have fun, not win beauty contests.

By 5, though, the sun had come out in full and it was warm and lovely and just what Mexico should be like. I got off my lounge chair, walked to the water’s edge and tracked the birds who were flowing across the waves. I took pictures as the sunset and then went inside. I spent the next 2 hours posting then headed off to supper.


Huge mistake.