Mexico Trip Report-Day 2

Mexico trip: Day 2

Morning:

Woke up pretty early for being on vacation…8am… looked out the window to see the view that we had missed the night before (it was dark when we arrived on the island).

Aurelio was now feeling those tequila shots from the night before…

We went to C&M’s “other” favorite place to eat. JAX Bar and Grill is an American Style Sports Bar right on the beachfront of North Beach. They serve more American Style food, all of the TV’s are in English, they show anything from News to Sports, and the owners are from TEXAS!!! We had amazing breakfast tacos (3 tacos, chips and quac, with a side of bacon for about 3 dollars). Wow!

After eating, we decided to walk to the beach and chill until the wedding started. Candace was in charge of doing the brides hair, so we were slightly limited on the extra things we could do that afternoon. We dropped the boys off at the beach and decided to walk to the grocery store for coffee creamer, beer and ice. We also needed to get a flower from town to put in the brides hair. We asked several people, “Donde estas la tienda de los flores”…. No one really pointed us in the right direction…actually, people looked rather confused. About the time we asked the forth or fifth person, we stumbled upon it ourselves. The only thing they had there was roses, carnations, and HUGE sunflowers…hmmmm, none of these would work for the bride, so we took the cheaper route and picked one of the tree in the middle of town.

(Pics from around town on our walk)

This picture is one of my favorites from the entire trip ...Cow Dog

Mopeds are the main transportation on the island. We saw a family of FIVE on a moped. It was an amazing sight...in a scary sort of way. I was too stunned to take a picture, so instead I have some of families of 2 and 3. At least everyone wears a helmet.

Thought this was cute... Naughty Beach....or....Nauti Beach?

This is the house nextdoor to our condos. Gorgeous!

While walking through town, locals would say, “Como te llamas” “What is your name” I said, “Shea”. (Shea is a VERY hard name to say to Spanish speakers. The Sh sound comes out Ch…so my name then becomes Chey). After several strange looks at the foreign word coming from my mouth when asked my name, I decided to revert back to my name that I used in Spanish class…Chabela. This really means Isabella, but this was the name my teacher gave me back in 6th grade, and it has stuck ever since.

Names while in Isla:

Shea-Chabela

Candace-Dulce (Dulce means Candy in English)

Aurelio-Aurelio ha ha ha, he keeps his complicated Spanish name!

Michael-Miguel

At the grocery store, I didn’t know just how hard it would be to pick out half and half for my coffee. First of all, the milk is in the middle isles, not the cold section. This really confused me. Then, of course, everything was in Spanish, so I couldn’t tell what was fat free milk, whole milk, condensed milk, or half and half. Great….I’ll just have to choose one. I went with what seemed logical… I chose the one with a picture of a family on the front and two kids playing soccer. None of the other milk choices had pictures of kids on them, so I figured this must be the whole milk. The other pictures to choose from were a cow showing off her utters, a few cows lined up in a field, cows dancing with humans, and a skinny cow...assuming this is the fat free milk. I picked up the warm carton of mystery milk and headed to the beer section…which WAS in the cold section (go figure). We paid the lady at the check-out and headed back to the beach. Candace and I were carrying two six packs of Sol, a bag of ice, and mystery milk…Quite a heavy load for a hot walk to the beach. While walking through town some of the locals were saying “Mas fuerte” which is “very strong” in Spanish.

Returning to the beach, we see the boys face down in a beach chair…asleep! Uh oh…wonder how long they have been asleep with NO umbrella? Candace and I were gone for over an hour, so this could be bad if they were sleeping the entire time. (We find out later that they DID sleep the entire time, because at bedtime, they were both little “langostas” or “lobsters”.)

The beach

You could walk FOREVER out to sea and still only be waist deep. There are a few spots that are about 4.5feet deep, but its mostly waist deep. The water was perfect...to quote Michael, "If I could pick the perfect temp for MY ocean, this would be it!"

Our Condos

Afternoon:

We said goodbye to Candace who was off to play beauty shop with the bride (Rachel) and the three of us headed Buho's for a drink, to the pool for a dip and then up to the condo to chill and get dressed for the wedding. Aurelio and Michael were dressed and out the door headed to the bar in under 20 min. Shea Mama, aka Chabela, needed more damn time than that, so I just told them I’d meet them at the wedding.

At Buho's Swing Bar

A little house next to Buho's.

This is the view from the brides hotel room.

Walking up to the wedding in a cute spaghetti strapped dress and a Mexican flower in my hair from the garden at the condo’s we were staying in… I see the wedding ceremony set-up. I stop for a min to take it in… It looked very similar to MY wedding in Mexico. White covered chairs, fabric blowing in the wind, and no other color but the milky white sand beaches, the turquoise water and beautiful blue sky. It really is breathtaking.

C’Mon Shea, this isn’t your wedding…snap out of it and go find the boys!

My hunt for the boys was unsuccessful. They were not where they said they’d be. (shocking). I grabbed a beer from the beach bar and headed across the street to JAX bar to see if the boys were upstairs….Bingo! Time was ticking, so we rushed over to the wedding area and sat down, waiting for the bride.

Clarification...I am the one wearing the flower in my hair, not Aurelio. Ha ha ha

The wedding party begins to come out single file…Then Rachel, the Bride! The most beautiful music was playing while everyone walked down the isle sprinkled with white rose petals. I was thinking to myself, “these bridesmaids better hurry the hell up…I don’t know how long this song is” As Rachel got half way down the isle, the loudest booty shaking music started playing!!! This was probably her worst nightmare coming true! Everyone in the audience began to laugh. I couldn’t even hold my laughter in…Following suit, Rachel chuckled as well. Someone finally fixed the iPod and it turned back to the beautiful music we heard at first. The rest of the ceremony went as planned and just like that, our friends Cory and Rachel were husband and wife.

(Every wedding that Aurelio and I attend, we hold hands. He is the sweetest husband ever, because during the wedding vows, he gives my hand a little rub or squeeze to show that he is listening to the vows word for word. I guess you could say that we have re-new’d our vows several times through all of our friends weddings)

Oh yeah, Rachel’s hair was GORGEOUS….Thanks to Candace!

While having cocktail hour before the reception, a lady comes behind me and says,

..."Excuse me ma'am, but I think you should move"

"Why?"

..."Well you have an uninvited guest about an inch from your foot"

I look down and see this little guy...awwww...

The reception was held at the hotel the wedding party was staying at, The Privilege Aluxes. This is one of the two all-inclusive places on the island. Not that this is a bad place to stay at, but we decided not stay there so we could get the true “Isla feel”. I totally agreed with her.

The reception was beautiful. There were several courses of food that seemed to never stop coming. There was a palate cleanser after every course which made it seem like a ton of food.

This little guy wanted to join the reception too....

Candace and I with the Bride and Groom.

Everyone started dancing and having a great time, but I was exhausted, so I excused myself and headed back to the condo.

Aurelio came a few hours later, and says I had a full conversation with him when he got to the condo. (For those who know me…I can have a very lengthy, detailed conversation with someone while being completely asleep…Hubby still forgets this from time to time) So in the morning, I fussed at him for not letting me know he arrived safe the night before…but apparently he did…I just wasn’t fully coherent. oops