Mexico Trip Report-Day 3

Woke up at a reasonable time this day. Headed down to Jax for breakfast…we only had chips and guacamole, so I guess some of you can’t say that’s breakfast, but trust me, it IS! (And it’s wonderful)

Family of 3!

We decided to walk around town and Playa Norte today. We first headed cemetery that is on the island. I have this weird fetish about cemeteries. I just think that they are a great place to snap some amazing photos. This cemetery was BEAUTIFUL! People are buried above ground, so the gravesites are spectacular. They are all painted different colors and some of them have the most beautiful tile on top. They had the most amazing little cabinets on top of them. These little cabinets are used for putting flowers and other personals that are left for the deceased. Here comes the semi creepy part…I loved looking into these little glass cabinets. There were things left there from pictures and flowers, to beer bottles and coffee cups. I wish there were cemeteries like this in the states. It just makes the few cemeteries that I’ve seen a little boring. It’s almost as if there are no rules at cemeteries in Isla. You can design or decorate your loved ones gravesite however you wish. Very personal! Love it!

I can’t remember what Aurelio forgot, but he missed the cemetery viewing. He ran back to the condo while we admired the deceased. We then saw a man that was sitting on a wooden platform selling jewelry. This is day three, and this guy has greeted us every day! Candace said, “I don’t care if I never use that jewelry…I AM BUYING something from him.” He was just so nice, and always had a smile on his face. As we got closer to him and his jewelry, we realized he only had one leg. He only spoke Spanish, but it was not hard to understand what he was saying. He saw that we had a Texas bag, and so that brought on the conversation about our great state. He was saying that there is a guy that now lives on the island that came from Texas and was in the oil business. He repeated this phrase about 5 times “Tejas es muy rico”…. Then he was just saying that we were rich because we were from Texas! Ha ha ha, great, now we really have to buy something from him because he thinks we’re rich! Oh yeah, his name was Sergio! Wonderful man to talk to. He is pretty old, but full of life! Gracias Sergio!

They were everywhere!

A little house next to the cemetery.

C&M were great at being our Isla Guru’s, so we left the exploring up to them! They wanted to show us the place that they stayed last time they were on the island. Media Luna. It was gorgeous!

From there we went to the farthest part of Playa Norte…The Avalon. This is another all-inclusive hotel. It is on its own separate island connected by a long wooden bridge. I say long, but please don’t picture the Brooklyn Bridge or anything…It was only about 50 yards long…but when you are walking over crystal clear waters that you can see all sorts of tropical fish swimming in and you keep stopping to take it all in, THEN it seems like a longer bridge.

Walking across the bridge.

I really like this photo, as plain as it is.

There are usually guards at the entrance of the Avalon, but not today! Score! In the very back of the Avalon area, there is a natural pool area called Piscina Del Rey “Kings Bath” that has lots of tropical fish and is great for snorkeling. I could have stayed at this little hole-in-the-ocean place all day and would have completely content. The waves were crashing into the Kings Bath wall every 5 seconds or so making that unforgettable sound that people actually buy on a machine at Walmart. Well, no batteries needed here folks, it’s the real deal.

Some people that were at the King's Bath had banana's and said that's what tropical fish love to eat. (I was a little skeptical, but it turns out that the fish were going crazy over these pieces of bananas)

Beautiful swimming hole huh....?

We decided to walk back to our condo area, but we didn’t walk through town, we walked along the rocks of the island.

My friend again.

My own yoga pose.

Playa Norte Yoga

We stopped to do our famous yoga poses, thanks to the weirdo back at the Austin airport, and then headed to our condo bar called Como No “Why not?” for some ribs.

Candace and I really liked this sleeping dog on the front porch.

There is a guy on the island named Tino that is ONLY open on Sundays. Better take advantage huh?! C&M offered to walk to pick it up while Aurelio and I were in the condo packing a cooler for the beach. When C&M came back, they were empty handed. ??? They said that Tino didn’t have any ribs ready and offered to give them chicken instead. Uhhhhh no thanks! You are Tino the Rib guy, why on earth would we want your chicken? So C&M came back, waited 30 min, and then went back a SECOND time for ribs. When they returned again, they had several bags. Huh? Bags? No really…the meat was in a bag, the salsa was in a bag, the sauce was in a bag, the Mexican Slaw was in a bag…Everything! We didn’t even care…I think all the bags actually made it what it was. FANTASTIC.

At our bar Como No, they have a daily special, dos para uno “two for one”. Not really aware of this, Aurelio orders a margarita on the rocks… Well they brought him two! Trust me, he drank them both! Delicious!

Full and totally ready to burn off “some” of the calories we have taken it so far; we headed down to the beach for some paddle ball fun! C&M are addicted to this game, and in the sand, it’s much harder than it is in grass. There were several leaps and falls, which got a cheer afterwards. “P B B…clap, clap”. P B B is (Paddle Ball Bonus). You could only get the cheer if you dove, leaped or fell trying to hit the ball back to your opponent. If you didn’t do the P B B’s then you didn’t get anything, and were pretty much called lazy. Lol.

Michael definitely earned the P B B chant on this one!

...getting ready for yoga pose number four of the trip...I was "hawking" my outfit up and Candace was sondering if she could balance the ball on the paddle.

Aurelio challenged me to a sand castle contest. I am wonderful at making boobies in the sand, so I gladly accepted. We began the challenge and were looking good until we got smashed by a huge wave! Damn, gatta start over. We moved up a bit and began again. He made a face with a moat/retaining wall thing, and I was building my boobie castle!

*I think I won, but we won’t list that comment on the blog.

The sun sets around 6:30 in Isla, and the best location to catch the sunset is Buho’s. We headed back to the condo, got dressed, and headed to Buho’s. Well, day three was not a sunset night…bummer.

Not ready for this shot Candace!

That's better!

So we went to Bamboo for dinner. Bamboo is a bit of a fancy place to eat on Hidalgo. They have lots of great dishes, but Aurelio and I decided to have shrimp and lobster. Amazing. End. Of. Story. I thought about taking a picture of our plate, but I waited to long…cause it was gone when that thought popped into my head. We also bought a tequila bottle with our picture on it from a guy that was at Bamboo. We had to wear enormous sombreros, but hey, when in Rome….errr Mexico.

After dinner, we went across the way to She Bar and Fayne’s for drinks. The bride and groom, Rachel and Cory, and their photographer Christina…who happens to be super hot and reminds me of my cousin Brittany, met us there. In Fayne’s there is a sign that says “GardnerParkerVille” that hangs above the bar…well GardnerParkerVille was THERE! He and his wife were so nice and bought us a round of drinks, which were dos para uno so really he bought us two rounds of drinks. Woo hoo! Candace shouts “Get over here now!” and points to the bar. Im thinking “no shots Candace, please” but she points to a ladder and says “Climb it”. LOL, ok…. The pics are a little dark, but you get the gist. It’s a special honor if you get to climb the ladder, so Thanks to Javi and Candace for letting me!

Me, Rachel (Bride), Candace, and Christina (wedding photographer)

Just the 8 of us! Having a blast!

While the bride and groom were with us, they mentioned that they had skinny dipped twice already in the ocean. WHAT??? Well, we had some catching up to do then! I believe it was around 1am when the quatro of us headed back to Ixchel Condos for some fun.

*To my wonderful Meme who is my number one reader…I’m sorry if this is inappropriate.

Off came the clothes and into the ocean we ran. Boy, those fish sure got more than they bargained for that night. For those who haven’t been skinny dipping…it truly feels so much better than when you have suits on…really it does. Not that bikinis cover much anyway….but just trust me here. I am super scared of dark deep water, so I am so surprised that “scared” didn’t even cross my mind that night. I believe it was around 3:30 when we stumbled back to the condo. Oh yeah, our condos had a HUGE flood light shinning on the ocean in front of their part of the beach. So to all of you that saw anything….you’re welcome! (Don’t think dirty people, it was just skinny dipping)

…Still in love with Isla….

Goodnight to all.
Chabela