Round trip prices from:
USA Transfers is run by Entertainment Plus Cancun.
Trip Reviews, Ratings and Comments - Trip Review - Club Oasis Akumal 5
Main Page | Trip Report Main Page | Add a Trip Report | Search Report's
OUR AKUMAL ADVENTURE, PART 5
Friday, 6/23/00, Day “6”
For some reason I was up several times for the bathroom last night, like every hour. I often get up once during the night at home, but this was ridiculous. I don’t know if it was all the extra water I drank yesterday, or the cervezas, or just being near the sea. I finally gave up and got up at 6 a.m. Amazingly, my legs felt pretty good, but my sides seemed a little sore.
I went out on the balcony to update my notes and watch the sun come up. Around 6:40 it started raining, and I scurried back into the room because it was coming through the balcony roof. (Must not get precious notebook wet!) The rain stopped about 20 minutes later.
We eventually drifted off to Tucanes for breakfast. I told our waiter, Victorio, just how much I had been enjoying the coffee and asked the brand. He wasn’t quite sure, so he zipped back into the kitchen and brought out one of the bags for me. As I suspected, it’s an expresso, but a very light one with no bitter aftertaste. The coffee is Café Cobá Espresso from Altura, Chiapas.
As we ate breakfast, Steve and I mused over our trip the day before. One of the things we remarked on was the topes (speed bumps). There are some really major ones out there, so be careful if you see the speed bump sign. If you hit some of them too fast, you could well leave your tranny behind!
Well, today looked like a pretty hot one with not much of a breeze. We went back to the room to prepare for the beach. Steve got ready and went down, I tidied the room up a bit so the cleaning folks wouldn’t think we were complete slobs. I got down to the palapa about 9:15 and watched Steve snorkeling for shells for a few minutes, then went to get his water bottle filled. In hopes of my not catching his cold, we are not sharing the water bottles. (This turned out to be a vain hope…) I cashed another traveler’s check at 9.15, the same as the previous rate.
Later, as we sat under our palapa, we thought about things we should bring next time. These included flyswatter, washcloths, magnifying glass, and binoculars. Just something to think about for your packing lists.
Steve found a beautiful little shell that unfortunately had someone home. Well, Bob said the critter would eventually crawl out. We waited, no dice. I took it down to the water and almost had it out when it whipped right back in. Back to the palapa. Finally, it crawled off the table and into the sand, heading toward the ocean. With a sigh of regret, Steve put him back in the water.
I went snorkeling out from the beach about 2/3 of the way to the reef. There’s a lot of dead coral. People unthinkingly stand on it. I’d like to say to them, “Hey, how would you like it if someone stood on your head?” because that’s exactly what they’re doing. Please, please, please, DO NOT STAND ON THE CORAL!!! DON’T TOUCH THE CORAL!!! DON’T TAKE LIVE CORAL!!! Okay, off my soapbox now.
I saw some nice brain coral, a little fire coral, sea fans, and other things one is never sure whether they’re plant or animal or a bit of both. Saw a couple of bluehead wrasse and some lovely banded butterfly fish. There was one big queen parrotfish that ducked under a rock before I could take its picture. Camera shy, I guess. As I was trying to photograph the parrotfish, my eye caught sight of a big rounded sand dollar in about 8 feet of water. I did my best duck-dive and got down to it, pulling it out of the sand. There were a couple of chips off the underside, but displayed right side up it looks just fine. (I previously found a whole one in the Bahamas that still had the “birds” inside. That’s supposed to be extra special good luck.) Meanwhile, Steve puttered about in 3 feet of water finding more shells.
Around 12:40, a couple of guys came along to glue a bowl to the palapa table and fill it with sand for an ashtray. I continued to use my regular method of extinguishing my cigarettes in the sand, then gathering the butts into a cup, (And I always policed the area before we left the beach, picking up who knows how many other people’s butts. Really…no, I won’t get on my soapbox again, but I think you know what I mean to say.)
We drifted (a drifting sort of day) off to lunch at 1:45 and partook of the buffet. The beef tenderloin was very good, very tender, and the chocolate ice cream was exquisite. As we dropped by the Turtle Bar for another drink, Juan Jose passed by on his way to work at the Akumal Bar. He had copied out some Mayan phrases on a piece of paper that he handed me. I thought that was so sweet! We wandered into the gift shop later, and I bought Steve a nice T-shirt for $18.50.
Dinner tonight was Mexican night. They had excellent chorrizo and guacamole. At this point, I must mention something that I thought was absolutely hysterical. As I have said, my Spanish is 35 years old. We had a practice conversation in one lesson that involved a discussion of what was for lunch. One of the items being served was albóndigas, meatballs. For some reason, that word has always stuck with me. I swear that if I forget every other Spanish word I ever knew, I will always remember albóndigas. The other day at lunch, guess what they had? No, go on, guess… I started laughing so hard I thought I was going to drop my plate. I hope it was just seen as a loca gringa thing…
We repaired as usual to the Akumal Bar. In appreciation for his help in Mayan, I gave Juan Jose a nice shell I’d found while snorkeling. He seemed very pleased with it.
Steve didn’t feel terribly well, so he went to bed. As I sat there awaiting the entertainment, Jim and Carol Ann came by, and I asked them to join me. We then watched an excellent Mayan history dance show, put on by the same professional dancers as the other night. It started with the birth of the first Maya and segued into the Mayan worship of the gods. Next came a stylized ballgame and social turmoil. This was followed by the arrival of the Spanish and the mixing of Mayan blood with theirs. Finally, they did a modern dance. You guessed it, bottles and trays on the head again! It was very well done. Unfortunately, that was the one show we didn’t get on tape, since Steve was in bed asleep.
After the show, the Mayan lessons continued. The other night Juan Jose had taught me one through four (um pay, kah pay, ox pay, uncam pay) but couldn’t remember five. I speculated to Steve that because of the Mayan counting system, five would be very different. (Units are represented by individual dots, five is represented by a bar.) Well, I was right. Five turned out to be “non.” When I finally asked, in Spanish, for a couple of beers for the road, Juan Jose taught me the Mayan equivalent, “Kah pay sis utial tik bim.” (The pronunciation of the i’s is akin to ee in “keen.”) I was to use this phrase whenever Juan Jose was tending bar. I plodded off to our room, watched my Kukulcán palm tree for a while, and retired for the night.
Tomorrow, the awesome Fish Group C…
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.