Round trip prices from:
USA Transfers is run by Entertainment Plus Cancun.
Trip Reviews, Ratings and Comments - Trip Review - Club Oasis Akumal, 2000, Part 3b
Main Page | Trip Report Main Page | Add a Trip Report | Search Report's
OUR AKUMAL ADVENTURE, PART 3b
Wednesday, 6/21/00, Day “4”
Got up at 6:30 a.m. Sun already well up, a clear day. Sat on the balcony to catch up my notes. An amusing thing occurred when I did that. Instead of writing “DAY 4,” I wrote “DIA 4” without even thinking! Maybe this language immersion is working…
Today, as on most of the days of our visit, there is a fairly constant breeze along the beach. This helps greatly in standing the heat.
We hit Tucanes for breakfast right when they open at 7. I have some of the little quesadillas, which are really tasty. The coffee again is very good. (I drank it with all three meals, except when we ate at the bar.) Our waiter this morning was Alejandro.
Steve and I discussed the selection at the buffets, which is by no means huge. His theory was that there might be more stuff if there were more guests. I discovered that there were approximately 110 Italians and 30 other people at this time. The others included Americans, Germans, Spaniards, and Latin Americans. Anyway, while the food for the most part was nothing to write home about, if you went hungry it was your own fault. There was always something to please the palette and fill you up. I found the salad bar quite adequate, and for some reason the onions were absolutely delicious.
We checked on the towels, but they weren’t out yet, so we changed for the beach and went down to “our” palapa, where we had draped our own beach towels over the lounges. This morning, we had found two lounge cushions on the beach and immediately appropriated them. Those plastic lounges get very hard on the sitter after a couple of hours.
As we sat there, Bob came over and told us that a hermit crab stole one of his nice shells last night! Apparently he had had some shells in a bucket, and one of the “kids” (i.e., the young men who run the fishing boats) had accidentally knocked it over when they were visiting. In fact, there were many evenings we sat on the balcony and watched the hermit crabs wandering about below.
The towels finally arrive around 9:30. We get ours and go snorkeling. I head for the pier again, and Fish Group B, while Steve looks for shells by the boats. I swam in a whole school of various fish, saw two very bright French grunts, a big surgeonfish, a slippery dick or two, doctorfish, parrotfish, grunts, etc. I.e., the “usual suspects.” Steve found more little shells and I found a couple of interesting things snorkeling back from the pier. Look at watch, and, yes, it’s cerveza time! We relaxed and had some beer (Victoria this time) and rum and Pepsi.
A note on the alcohol at COA. They serve Corona and Victoria beers. I liked both (con limón, of course!). The bulk of the liquor is made in Mexico. A couple of people complained about that. Hey, you’re in Mexico, what do you expect?
Bob went out fishing about 1 p.m. with Jorge, a young man we got to know quite well. Jorge’s dog, Mishka, came over and sat in our shade. We later found out that she doesn’t often go with Jorge because she gets seasick. Fancy that, a fisherman’s dog who gets seasick! Bob and Jorge didn’t catch anything, but they had a good afternoon trying and drinking XXs. Mishka was glad to see her “daddy” back.
Meanwhile, Marcelino, our bartender again at the Turtle Bar, is telling me some more Mayan words and phrases. One that came in very handy later was “Mix tux” (pronounced meesh tush), which means “I’m not going.” I filled up two pages in my memo book with Mayan.
Oh, an interesting note. I asked Juan Jose last night, and Marcelino today, and several other of the Mayan fellows what the deal was about the tripod. They all said there’s nothing to it and nobody cares if you use a tripod with your camera. I wonder how that got started? What they do care about is if you sit on a Chac Mool or scrawl graffiti on the temples. That is just plain disrespectful.
We chatted again with Judith and Joe and Tom and Larry, getting the latter two’s e-mail so we could stay in contact. They are all leaving tomorrow, so we will not see them.
We changed some money this afternoon, a $20 traveler’s check each. We found out that they want your passport number as well as room number, so that engendered another winding trek back to the room to get the passports. The rate was 9.15, which gave us 183 pesos each. (A couple of days later, it was 9.35, which provided 4 more pesos per $20. The best rate we saw was at Tulum, which was 9.77, but of course we didn’t have our traveler’s checks with us…)
Gaby and Johnny were in Arrecifes during lunch again today. Now, by this time they know our names and never miss a chance to smile and wave. They also dedicate at least one song to us in every set, “For Dominique and Stevie.” Steve was somewhat annoyed at the “Stevie,” but I found it amusing. By the end of our visit, you had to be dead if you didn’t know our names.
At any rate, we passed a pleasant afternoon, then went up to get ready for dinner. My shower was not too bad this time, Steve’s was cold. Steve is also coming down with a cold, probably caught from one of our 2,000 closest friends at the airport.
A bunch of Italians came in today, and dinner was a zoo. They really can be kind of pushy. The waiters were doing their best to keep up with everything. Obviously, dinner was nothing memorable, since I didn’t write down what we ate. However, we did eat and then proceeded to the Akumal Bar.
Gaby and Johnny were our entertainment again. There was a better crowd that night, too. Like many performers, they do their best even when there is a small crowd, but they really feed off audience excitement and participation. Johnny played “Satin Doll” on the sax, which was just great.
As usual, we repaired to our room with a couple of beers for the balcony and slept well again. Tomorrow, Chichén Itzá!
(By the way, “ix kot” is bathroom in Mayan. You may just need that someday…)
Submitted by: D. Stevens -- dragon5@fullnet.net
Hits: 0
Want to add a Review on this report?
Please completely fill out the form below, and we'll add your review as soon as possible.