Well I slept like shit of course. First day of vacation is always a crapshoot. And honestly i wasn’t actually drunk enough to simply knock myself out – despite the fact that we tried to drain the bar dry last night. Resort drinks are always too watered down for that.
We work up around 7 am – and found Donny wandering around taking pictures below our balcony. He didn’t actually know that it was our area and was surprised when Yulia called down to him. He waved back and went for some coffee and breakfast. We joined him after getting dressed and put together. We didn’t have a full breakfast with him, but got a little coffee and some snacks to wake up. Things were quiet in the resort in the morning. But everything was as amazing as we thought it looked at night. It wasn’t a huge resort but the whole place was nicely laid out. The main pool wrapped around the beachside of the main building with a swim up bar. Paths wound between the buildings with very nicely landscaped desert plants. A feral cat came out to greet us and meowed for food – before running off to chase a desert bird that fluttered by.
We headed towards the cliffside bar that had beach access. It was empty in the morning, but this was an oiled wood deck on the top of the cliffside down to the beach. it wasn’t a long way down to the sand, but the main stairs were closed. The surf itself had a black flag flying – meaning dangerous conditions and no swimming. It looked like the stairs themselves didn’t continue all the way down the bluff – but there was a secondary access that we used to get down. The beach ran the distance of the resort. We walked up one way and say that a neighboring resort had major damage to some structure on the bluff. There was new rockery all the way along the beach up by the cliffside, so there must have been a fairly major storm that hit requiring the repair. Reminds me a lot of our last trip to Maui and the repairs there.
We walked back the other direction along the sand. Yulia cried out that she saw something in the waves offshore. We all looked and she was right. There were whales right off the beach spouting, then dolphins jumping as well. We ran along the shore following them, then saw fish jumping also – so we were probably watching them feed. A little further up we ran into a group of fisherman shore fishing. We talked to them and there was a fishing derby happening that morning. So the whales and dolphins driving the fish in was making their catch amazing. We got a text then from Kevin that he was up, so we went back to meet him for breakfast.
Breakfast was amazing. We were really loving the food at this resort. It was a huge improvement from where we stayed in Puerto Vallarta. We ate up then noticed that there was a lot of activity at the pool. We realized that we needed to run over and put towels out in a good area right away if we wanted to have a good spot for swimming by the swim up bar. We left the buffet, and scouted around until we found a section of lounge chairs that we liked. We dropped towels and water bottles to reserve them, and shifted the umbrellas around to our liking. We were set for the day. Our plan was to swim until about 4pm, then head into town to shop a bit and have some dinner. This was pretty complex of a plan, but still within our abilities we thought.
Going to a hot climate in winter is perfect. We always travel in July, and get cooked by the weather. Now, the temperature was perfect. I started with a nap in the morning. Even getting an extra 30 minutes of rest helped, and everyone in our group was in the pool by then. We were here this week for Donny’s birthday – so he got a headstart at the bar. I waited until the sun was over the yardarm (in a neighboring time zone) – and tried to pace myself.
The swimming was excellent. not cold, not hot. Donny was several sheets in and introducing himself to everyone he saw. This was out of my comfort zone – but Donny doesn’t actually have a comfort zone – you basically just buckle up and hang the fuck on. He was twerking on the poolside and trying to steal an iguana later. Pretty much the normal. We stayed at this until we were too hungry, and went to grab lunch around 1. There was a poolside restaurant, so we went up and grabbed a table. Sara and Simone didn’t join us, and Donny disappeared. We were getting ready to order some food when Donny showed up with two African American women who told us that they found him and he asked them to bring him back to his friends. They were great sports, and once we told them it was his birthday they understood his general state of Hot Mess.
Lunch itself was fantastic. We ordered a mess of Tacos, Ceviche, seafood, and a few drinks. We poured as much water into Donny as we could before he started talking to a nice Nebraska couple next to us. They humored Donny, we apologized, then distracted him with some really nice scallops. He ate then ran back off into the pool. We finished lunch and I headed to the room to rest and cleanup while everyone else swam more. After a rest and cleaning up, we all met at 4 in the lobby, and caught a ride to San Jose.
It was a short drive in, and we were dropped in the historical part of town to have some fun. San Jose was great. It was a lot like Salulitas in PV that we saw this summer. It was definitely a town that had a lot of investment – the buildings were old but all freshly painted wit modern restaurants and shops. The prices were pretty modern too. Nothing was cheap – but as I’ve mentioned before, I’m cool with that because that means that the locals are getting real jobs and it’s good for everyone. We wandered among the shops, and headed to the town square and Cathedral. Yulia was here earlier this year, and was excited for me to see it. When we got there, I looked around the square and had a strange feeling.
It took some time, but I realized we had been here before. We had been here 10 Years before. (Read This) The town wasn’t nearly as developed, but it was nice. Now everything was developed and painted – and busy. We stopped into a few shops. Yulia knew one that had a rooftop bar, but it was closed for a private event. We shopped around and finally settled on and restaurant for dinner on the far side of the plaza.
This place was a small door on the plaza, but it opened to a shop, bar, then restaurant below. It had live music playing from some locals who were excellent. We grabbed a big table and ordered up a big dinner to match. They did a Mezcal-Tamarind martini that was amazing, and some of the best Ceviche that we have had. It was another huge meal, and we ate until dark. Fortunately we held Donny down to just two songs and one episode of twerking – so it was classy as fuck.
After dinner we walked across the plaza where a live group was doing on once side, and there were group Salsa lessons on the other. Yulia and Donny jumped into the salsa lessons. Since they are both gymnasts and dancers they did well. Yulia more so since she is more talented and had a Blood Alcohol Level below 3 digits. I also gave it a try – mostly just to prove to Yulia why i don’t dance.
It was a ton of fun, and we caught a ride back to the Resort. We al decompressed with a drink in the lobby bar – and called it a day.
Tomorrow – Another day at the Office. Yeah, that office.
Cognitive Dissonance 