We decided to head out camping for the weekend, despite the suck-ass weather forecasts. The way the weather's been this summer, we'd never go anywhere if we paid any attention to it. So we packed the canoes and headed out to an island not too far past Wakefield Quebec. And when I say we packed the canoes, I mean we PACKED the canoes. Thank god this tank is just about unsinkable.
We set up camp pretty much in the dark, had a quick swim to cool off and enjoyed the fresh air for the evening.
Ahhh... Camping...
Here are some daylight shots of the campsite.
My tent.
The living/dinning room.
Pat cooking bacon. Good man.
...and then the rain came. At around 11:30am on Saturday, the clouds opened up and it rained as hard as I've ever seen, non-stop, for like 4 hours. We managed to get a 20'x30' tarp set up and got nice and wet in the process. The tarp even covered the fire pit. Too bad we didn't have any dry wood. It took us a few tries but eventually, with half a roll or paper towels, a dozen paper plates, half a bag of chips and three quarters of a bottle or alcohol based hand sanitizer, we got it going, although you'd never tell from these photos.
Eventually it cleared up and Renaud had to go back home. Bye!
The rest of the evening was really nice. It was nice and cool and the humidity was gone. Red sky at night, sailor's delight.
Renaud and George went fishing in the canoes early Saturday morning before the rain without much luck and Pat fished pretty much all weekend from shore, also without much luck. They were doing so well, I never even took my rod out of its case. Oh well. Eventually Pat pulled in a little catfish. George cooked it up with some Cajun seasoning. It was a bit of a teaser, but it was tasty.
Here's George deep in thought.
Pat lost his lighter ...again.
George, go sit in the corner and think about what you've done.
Morning coffee by the water. Sweet.
On our way back to the boat launch. Nicest weather we had all weekend.
Even with the rain, it was a great relaxing weekend at a fantastic spot. Thanks for the invite guys and hopefully we'll do it again soon.
Six of us spent a week in Mexico, at the El Dorado Royale resort, May 17-24 The El Dorado Royale is located on the Mayan Riviera, part way between Cancun and Playa del Carmen.
The entire experience was fantastic and the week went by in a blur. The resort was beautiful, the food was amazing and the company was first class.
Mitch and I showed up Saturday afternoon. We signed in, then one of the bellmen brought us and our luggage to our room. On the way, he welcomed us to Mexico and asked "Are you family? Or amigos?" We told him that we were friends and with a big smile he asked "Frieeends for Eeeever???" We laughed and told him we'd see how the week goes. Of course this was the joke of the week so Mitch and I were "Frieeends for Eeeever" all week long. To top it all off, we got to our room and on each of our beds, was a towel twisted into the shape of a heart, decorated with a sprinkling of flower petals. Awesome. I wish I had taken a picture.
Anyway, Mig and Priscilla got to the resort Saturday morning, so they were already sunburned and somewhat familiar with the lay of the land by the time Mitch and I showed up in the afternoon. We explored a bit and had supper at Jo Jo's Caribbean restaurant. (I should mention that rather than buffets, this resort has 10 'a la carte' restaurants.) The food was delicious and beautifully presented. We also discovered that 'all inclusive' means that if you want to order a second dessert, you can. Right Mig?
During the day, Mig had heard of something called Zap TV taking place that evening at the Guacamayas Bar (conveniently located very close to my room). It turned out to be a trivia contest and somehow, Mitch ended up being the captain of one of the two teams. Thanks to audience participation and the right questions at the right time, Mitch won himself a bottle of tequila! Justin and Crystal showed up about halfway through the game. Cervesas y margueritas flowed.
For one reason or annother, I didn't take any photos on Saturday. Here are some photos from around the resort, taken throughout the week.
First Impression: It's hard to see how big this chandelier really is from the photo, but it's frickin' huge.
The rooms are in buildings like these all around the resort. Some suites are fancier than others but they're all very luxurious. That's a jacuzzi tub in the corner of our room.
Here's the inside of Fuentes, the gourmet Mexican restaurant.
The Flora and Fauna
They stamp a design into the sand ashtrays on top of all the trash cans around the resort. Very nice.
Ooohhh...
Sunday was officially 'Day One'. We lazed around the pool and explored the resort a bit. What's that? You're damn right the pool is surrounded by king-size canopy beds.
Mig, Mitch and I found another of the 15 bars. Mmmm, Margaritas...
Back in our room later that day, we discovered a new towel creation. No flower petals today. Maybe they've realized that we're not 'Frieeends for Eeeever'. The debate is still on, whether this is a Brontosaurus or an elephant with a trunk but no head.
Hmmm, does this meet Code?
That evening, we got dressed up and went to the Mexican restaurant, Fuentes for supper. Fuentes is one of three airconditioned, indoor restaurants with a very strict dress code for men. We found out that 'no beach sandals' means men have to wear dress shoes. Somehow my sport shoes made it through but Mig's nice black leather sandals wouldn't cut it so he put black socks on under them and no one seemed to notice when he came back in. The food was excellent once again.
After supper, the boys stayed up shooting the shit and closed Guacamayas Bar. Mas cervesas por favor.
Monday was another lazy day around the pool. We made plans for a couple of outtings for the rest of the week.
Check out what we found in our room today!
We wanted to try d'Italia, the Italian restaurant, but the Dress Code Nazi at this place checks out your footwear before he even acknowledges your presence. My sports shoes weren't good enough here and Mig's socks weren't fooling anyone. He wasn't too happy about Mitch's closed-toe sandals either. We went to La Isla. After dinner, we weaseled some lost & found shoes out of the concierge so that we could go back to d'Italia later in the week.
Everyone headed off to bed early that night but I heard Mariachis coming from Guacamayas so I stopped in for a cigar and a tequila. They were showing some traditional music and dance from some of the different States around Mexico.
I took a couple of videos too. Here's a Machete Dance...
...and a guy doing lasso tricks.
On Tuesday, Justin, Crystal, Mitch and I went to Xcaret, a park about 30km (2 hours) from the resort. Mitch and I were there in 2001 and it was such a good experience, we recommended it again.
The snorkel trip wasn't much fun this time around, the wavy boat ride made every one queezy and the waves made the snorkelling very difficult too. Also, it looks like the reef was pretty much destroyed by the hurricane a few years ago. There were some fish but it wasn't really worth the extra $30 or the queezyness.
After that, believe it or not, we went for lunch. This was my favourite meal of the trip (tied with the meal at d'Italia on Friday). It was a huge buffet of traditional Mexican food. No Old El Paso or Taco Bell here my friends. Two huge plates of food plus a big plate of dessert later, we were off to swim along an underground river for about 40 minutes. The water was cool and refreshing and the experience was very relaxing. Only one of my photos turned out in here, 'cause my underwater camera didn't have a flash. This is a view from the underground river, looking up through one of the natural skylights. I bought some photos that the park staff took of us but I still have to scan them. Check back later.
After that, we got dried and dressed and we really didn't have much time left. There was still plenty to see including a big aquarium and a bat cave, more beaches, free local snorkelling... maybe next time. We did a bit of shopping in the gift shop and found these quail in mid-hatch. Awwww...
The last and best (except for lunch, you should have seen all the kinds of cheese they had) part of the day was the evening show. Here is the way into the theater.
The show started off with a recreation of two traditional mayan games. In the first game, the players try to get a heavy rubber ball through a hoop, using only their hips. They also showed a traditional ceremony before and after the game. The winner of this game would either make himself bleed as an offering to the gods or he would be sacrificed as the offering himself.
The second game was basically ball hockey ...but the ball is on fire. It was pretty tough to take pictures of this, but here you go.
After the games was a musical show with song and dance highlighting the history of Mexico, from pre-spanish times to present times (the PC version obvioulsy) and also highlighting the different traditions from State to State in Mexico. My photos really don't do the show justice. It really was worth seeing.
You can't really see what's going on here (dancers with torches) but it still looks kinda cool.
Then a nice cold beer on the bus ride home and a well deserved rest after about an 18 hour day... Here's what welcomed us home.
Wednesday was another pool day. Mitch and Justin were both a little under the weather.
And of course, our daily towel monster.
Later in the afternoon/evening Mig, Priscilla, Crystal and I took a taxi to Playa del Carmen to do some shopping. We spent most of our time on 5th Avenue, the tourist trap street but we also took a walk down to the beach.
I took a few photos of some cars that we don't see here in Canada. I think Pat might get a kick out of these.
Fiat VW Lupo This one is just called a Chevy Ford Ka Hyundai Atos (by Dodge) Uh-oh! Five-O!
As cheesy as it is, 5th Avenue was fun and we bought lots of stuff. ...and I thought the Beer Store was a cool idea. This is one of many stores that sells tequila. That's right, just tequila (and Mezcal) As I mentioned before, Mitch and Justin weren't feeling well that day so they didn't come to town with us. This is what we found when we got back to the hotel.
On Thursday we went to see the Mayan ruins at Coba. These ruins are much older than the ruins at Chichen Itza which I saw on my last trip to Mexico. Because of their age, they lack a lot of the detailed carving and sculpture that can be seen at Chichen Itza. Also, these ruins are still approximately 95% buried in the jungle. Still quite impressive and you can still climb the pyramid at Coba. You can't climb the one at Chichen Itza anymore.
A souvenir vendor at the entrance to the Coba Park. Awesome.
Here's what the ruins look like before they're uncovered.
Big tree.
Here's what they look like after they've been dug up.
Here's a ball court for the game we saw played at Xcaret.
Our Italian tour guide Stefano.
Here's a carving and a drawing of what used to be on it.
Ane here's the pyramid! Apparently the top of this pyramid is the highest point on the Yucatan Peninsula. As you'll see in a minute, the Yucutan is very flat.
120 death defying steps and I made it to the top. What a view!
Here are three photos of Mig, taken from the top of the pyramid. The first one is without zoom, the second with 4x optical zoom and the third with 4x optical and 4x digital (16x).
Here's Justin and Crystal in front of the temple at the top of the pyramid.
Nice purse Juice.
After the longest 2km walk of my life, we were finally back at the bus for some A/C and some ice cold orange soda. Then off to lunch at a local restaurant for some delicious homestyle cooking. I had the Puerco Pibil. It was fantastic but I chose not to kill the cook. Mmmm... Ice cold beer... aaarrrggghhh...
After lunch, we went to a small Mayan village were we met two families. The first family had a pet monkey. It's pretty amazing to watch these guys use their tails.
The families showed us around their homes.
The biggest Papaya I've ever seen. This thing was bigger than a football.
Each family in the village is given a sewing machine. Selling embroidered clothing and things is one of their sources of income.
We were told that we could bring gifts for the kids (candy, pencils...) this guy did coin tricks for them. They really got a kick out of it. What a great idea.
Here are some shots of some of the other buildings in the village. These rooftop hot water tanks seem to be pretty popular down there. Not just in the village. Good idea when it's sunny and 35°C every day.
After the visit to the village, we went swimming in a cenote. Cenotes are sink holes created a long time ago when the Yucatan Peninsula was flattened by an asteroid. The sinkholes and a huge network of underground tunnels created by the asteroid were then filled with fresh water during the last ice age. On the way to the swimming hole, they showed us how they collect sap from a type of rubber tree. This would have been the rubber used to make the balls for the Mayan game. This is one of the guys from the village we visited. He collects sap for real during the rainny season. Notice the bare feet.
The cenotes were once considered sacred. Here, another guy from the village showed us a ceremony that would have been performed before entering the cenote.
Ahhh... Cool, fresh water. I had to laugh. They just let us climb a treacherously crumbling pyramid of doom in our flip-flops, and now we have to swim with a lifejacket on.
Back at the resort... "Frieeends for Eeeever???"
We went to the fondue restaurant for supper. It was delicious but I don't think the flame sould be that hot for cheese or chocolate fondues.
I caught a glimpse of this out of the corner of my eye and it kinda looked cool.
Friday. Our last official day. I spent the entire freakin' day in the pool, except for a brief time spent in the salt water pool. There are 14 pools on the resort and almost all of them have a swim-up bar. It just doesn't get any better than that. Unfortunately, three or four coats of sunscreen wasn't enough and I got a pretty good burn on my shoulders. It started to hurt pretty good by supper time and it's still a bit itchy as I type this.
Here's the salt water pool. You can kinda see why there's not much ocean swimming at this resort. The beach was hit pretty hard by hurricane Wilma and the waves are pretty big too.
More lounging by the pool.
The final towel monster. Another Elephant/Brontosaurus.
Friday night we finally went back to d'Italia. The borrowed shoes barely fit me but it was worth it. I had a full four course Italian meal plus dessert, and as I mentioned earlier, it was tied for best meal of the week. I started with a beef tenderloin carpaccio that was so tender you didn't even need teeth. Then I had the cream of asparagus soup with foie gras. My pasta course was gnocchi with a mushroom sauce and my main course was braised beef with artichokes and polenta. For dessert, I had a cappuccino mousse in a white chocolate cup. It was definitely worth the wait and the tight shoes.
More reasons to stay in the pool.
Mig and Priscilla left bright and early Saturday morning. Justin and Crystal left a couple of hours later. Mitch and I spent the day at the resort looking for shade and A/C to sooth our sunburns. We left the resort around 6pm, flew from Cancun around 9pm and landed in Toronto around 1:30am.
A fantastic trip. I hope I don't have to wait another seven or eight years to do it again.
