Mexico

It's hard to characterize a trip to summer in the middle of winter without falling back on worn-out phrases and descriptions: 'It was hot', 'It was nice', 'It was summer'.

I've been thinking about what to write about this trip - probably the only one like it we will ever take  - and been having a having a hard time with how to present it. It was fun, extravagant, relaxing, sometimes ridiculous, entertaining, quiet, an adventure-but-a-tame-one.

I think, though, all of the food and booze and nice accoutrements aside, the biggest thing about a warm vacation in the middle of winter is the feeling of air and water on skin. It feels so luxurious to walk out of your room into the warmth, miles of skin exposed to the air a mere 6 hours after you left -30 degrees where ALL your skin was cloaked in multiple layers of natural and synthetic fabrics to prevent it from freezing. Never has it been clearer to me that what is hard about winter isn't necessarily the cold and the dark - it just might be that your skin feels like it's suffocating due to being smothered in long johns, jeans, and/or fleece-lined pants. Add to this swimming in warm, clean waters in your bikini and you have a bevy of sensation all the more heightened with the knowledge that at home it is WINTER, and everyone you know is wearing A LOT of clothes.

And now, on to the pictures. That is really what we all want to see, right? Also, that is the only way to get an accurate picture of where we were, and what we did (mostly, what we didn't do).

First, to get a sense of perspective - I was struck when uploading pictures that the pictures in the 'recently added' went from this:

Skiing at Bird's Hill Park in -20 degrees Celsius

To this: 

Sitting on the beach, in plus 30 degrees. 

(This is on a hanging bed under a palapa - more about that later)

 The juxtaposition is extra appropriate given that when we left Winnipeg at 6am on Christmas morning, it was truly -30 degrees Celsius. The seal between the gangplank-thingy (what ARE those called?) and the plane was not good, and cold air was whipping through there like a wind tunnel as we waited to board. 5.5 hours later, we walked off the plane into an honest +30 degrees Celsius, on a hot black tarmac in the open air. Talk about a shock to the system. The airport in Huatulco had thatched roofs, and much of it was open-air - the walls didn't meet the ceilings and there were openings that would always be exposed to the elements. MIND BLOWING for a Canadian arriving from the dead of winter.

This open-air-building concept continued to baffle and boggle. My brain just does not compute not being able to close up a building to protect it from the weather. Except, if you live in a place where it rains about 30 days a year, mostly in October-November, the coldest it gets is +25 and there are few-to-no biting bugs, why WOULDN'T you play with indoor/outdoor distinctions in your architecture? 

This is the lobby of the resort, and that big space there is ALWAYS OPEN. Likewise, the back of it is also ALWAYS OPEN, facing the ocean. 

Of course, my brain was always screaming for evidence of being able to close it off in order to make sense of it. I'm sure the staff thought I was nuts as I tried to be subtle about inspecting the corners - maybe a curtain-type thing folded out of them? Maybe there was a hidden panel that could drop down from the ceiling? But nope. That is just the way it is. OPEN. To the AIR. All the time.

Basically our days consisted of: 

Reading,

Eating,

and Swimming.

It was pretty great. The food was incredible - fresh, delicious, didn't get sick, plentiful without seeming wasteful. Plenty of choices, although we quickly established favourites.

Breakfast: You know what is a good replacement for syrop? Fresh pineapple. Add a little nutella and there you have the best pancake ever made. Plus some mole (pretend there is an accent on that 'e') on handmade corn torilla's with cilantro and cheese and YUM! 

For suppers we had choices - French, Mexican, Italian, Asian, Seafood, and general. Sometimes there was a themed buffet of some kind. Looking at the food was almost as good as eating it. Highlights, though, include this HUGE BALL of parmesean cheese in the Italian restaurant. Just scoop yourself some curlie-cues with that spoon, there! No big deal! 

For lunch we mostly went to a restaurant up on the hill on the one side of the resort. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

  

Not a bad place to eat lunch, eh? Plus the food was good. Best shrimp cocktail either of us have ever had. 

Most days we'd get up early (or one of us would) and scope out a spot. This part is kind of like folk-fest - if you leave your stuff on a chair, it is considered yours, even if you're not there. Sometimes people abuse this unwritten rule - reserving spots without using them. And sometimes you have to get up REALLY early to get what you want. They had a few palapa's that had hanging beds underneath them. The second day we were there we were up early and nabbed the last one. It was AMAZING.

Jaker, reading on a swinging bed by the ocean.

Not only are you so comfortable you can't believe it, but you're right by the ocean AND Ricardo will come and bring you drinks. His English isn't 100% there, and neither is our Spanish, obviously, but he quickly learned that a gin and tonic goes in the blue contigo and a 'ruma-di-coka' in the silver one. We got a bed twice during our stay, but the second time it got to +38 and the only disadvantage to these beach spots becomes quickly apparent: the sand is NUCLEAR. We'd sprint down to the water, walk across, perhaps go for a swim and then dash back up to the access point to the pool/bar/general resort. Despite trying to move quickly we both actually burned the bottoms of our feet - the skin between the toes is especially thin and wimpy, turns out. Also, after swaying for most of the day, it feels like EVERYTHING is swaying, even if you're stone-cold-sober.

On the days when we didn't want to subject our tender tootsies to the sand, we hung out by the pool. 

That was pretty good, too.

Throughout our stay, a major theme was '5 Star!' - usually whisper-shouted at each other as we did something incredibly unclassy - like me munching on pastries as I checked out the breakfast buffet. They were so good! And small! And I was hungry!

Since we sort of splurged for this, we wanted to take full advantage of whatever we could get. We noticed our neighbours had a 'honeymoon' banner on their door, and not to be outdone, we also got one.

Classy, eh? This banner also came with a bed of rose-petals,

And a bottle of terrible champagne and 3 apples. 

 In a further effort to get us 'in the mood', I think, the housekeeping staff also left the TV on the most bizarre channel I have ever seen. I sort of wish I had taken a picture of it. I think it was supposed to be sexy, but it was just strange. There was intense music paired with images of elephants and people in water. The elephants were lifting the people (sometimes just a woman, sometimes a man and a woman) up and draping them all over the place. 'Sensual' is the word that perhaps describes what they were going for, but when you add a voice over talking about 'blood and bones' OVER AND OVER, it becomes more like a bad joke than anything else.

So we treated it as such :)

In all seriousness, though, the rooms were great. The best parts were the tiny beers in the mini fridge (200mls!),

And the view from the balcony.

Early morning!

(I don't know what happened to this picture, but I look WAY skinnier than I really am in it, esp after a week with unlimited food - bonus for me!)

The back of room was a 3 panel patio door that you could open 2/3rds of the way, which made it feel like you were basically on the beach. 

Speaking of beaches, there was a hidden, undeveloped beach right next door to the main beach. We went there twice (braving the hot sand!), and it was definitely the best part of the trip. Walking down a short path through some palm trees and underbrush brought us to a cove with absolutely nothing on it but bald Mexican wilderness. If it wasn't so hot, it'd be tempting to spend the days there. As it was, we went and swam in the warm Pacific ocean. Ok, truth be told, we swam naked. The first time this was not an issue as no one was around, but the second time we got a little trapped when a pair of people come down to where we were swimming (FAR AWAY from the path!) and laid down their towels to make out. So we had to walk out naked by them. That was pretty funny.

The only effort we made to see Real Mexico and/or do something other than eat, sleep, read, or swim was when we took a taxi to the nearest town and wandered in and out of densely packed shops with all manner of woven things (made right there!), vanilla, mole sauce mixes (bought one!) and various other souvenirs. It was fun, but before long the pool and amenities of the resort called us home. I felt sort of lame about that, but our other mantra for the holiday was 'there is no 'should''. We were there to relax. Consequently, no excursions, no kayaking, no snorkling. Just moving to our own rhythm.

At the beginning of the week it felt like 7 days there was TONS of time, but of course it flew by and then it was New Years eve. This is a much bigger deal in Latin countries than Christmas (or so it seemed to us) and the resort went all out. They set up tables around the pool for the whole resort and had high-end buffet's around so you could choose your steak, or lobster or whatever else you wanted.

They also made these cookies for everyone (sucks to be the person sticking the grapes on), and we ignorant Canadians started munching down on the grapes until a Mexican woman at our table told us that the tradition is to eat the 12 grapes in the last 12 seconds of the year, making wishes as you go. OOPS!

We didn't last long at the party, and watched the fireworks from our balcony. I was asleep by 12:04.

Wow, this is a doozy of a post. Congrats if you made it to the end of this one. 

To conclude: We did relax, we did read (Jake read 3 books, I read 4.5), it was wonderful. Turns out resorts aren't the devil I thought they were and although of course there are issues with waste, extravagance and gross inequity between the guests and the workers, there are good things too. So although I never planned to be a person who goes to resorts, turns out there is a time and a place for that kind of vacation. 

Now we are home and Jake is working on trim as I type. And life goes on :)