one of the things we often take for granted is the pure beauty of climbing on a plane in edmonton with the temp at minus 25 and six hours later getting off the plane at plus 25. . .of course going home is often the reverse and i wouldn't call that beauty. we didn`t get much sleep in the 24 hours before the flight and i was hoping to get some sleep on the plane, fortunately the movie was 'eat, pray, love' so after a minute of feeling all hippy-like and spiritual i fell into a deep sleep that lasted until the credits were rolling...it's now one of my favorite airplane movies. once i awoke i had some time to reflect on the changing face of airline travel. . . when i was younger the flight attendants were all attractive young women sashaying up and down the aisles, then in the 90`s the industry consolidated in canada and we got highly efficient ladies who were older and sometimes a little cranky, now of course the attendants are back gaily sashaying about their work . . .but they're men . . . not that there's anything wrong with that, lol.
we rented a car and headed south to tulum where we were excited to seeing the white sand beaches and turquoise waters of the mayan riviera. unfortunately, that side of the highway is wall to wall resorts and you can't see the water at all from the beautiful new 4 lane highway. i feel for the people living on the opposite side of the highway as i wonder if they need to buy a timeshare just to take their kids to the beach.
we arrived at our b&b just after 6pm and we were pleasantly surprised to hear we had been upgraded to the best room. we have a cenote style pool with waterfall and funky lights just outside our bedroom. add to that a roof top terrace and a rather neat bathroom where the toilet side of the room has an acrylic sheet roof but the shower side is open to the sky . . . very nice indeed. as we were being shown our rooms i asked about a tool in the bedroom that had a long handle and pincers at the end and i was told that if we found any big bugs crawling around we could just pick them up with the tool and put them outside . . . whenever i hear no problem and we're travelling i know there will be problems.
we went into the village for supper. one of the things i love about mexico is the mama run restaurants which usually consist of a mama and her daughters, a run down building and great cheap food. we ordered something that resembled a small pita that she heated on a hotplate and came with chicken avacado and tomatoes . . . delicious. however, i saw on the menu written on the run down building wall that she had coffee so i asked for one with milk. i got a big mug of boiling water and a spoon . . . about three minutes later her daughter appeared with an unopened 1 litre container of milk and a couple of minutes later she showed up with a new jar of instant nescafe. i sure didn't want to eat up all her profits with my one cup of coffee but then noticed at the next table in the restaurant a couple of local guys ordered cokes and the daughter went across the street to get them too, so i figured what the hell and drank my coffee.
as we were finishing up we realized we were sitting next to the village square and that there was some kind of karaoke going on so we walked over to watch the fun. they had a pretty cool band with guitars and organ and although the singing was . . . well pretty bad . . . the music was good. we sat at the back and i was enjoying the music. nellie told me she thought we were attending a mass. MASS . . . it couldn't be! and then the priest stopped singing and launched into a sermon. wowsa, i'm saying to myself, i haven`t been to mass in decades. so now that i'm feeling all holy and stuff. so i was thinking about buying a lotto ticket lol . . . then the priest really got into it and he seemed to be yelling and looking at me so i quickly forgot about buying a ticket and started hoping this guy didn't have any inside information lol.
when i was a kid i always thought that anyone wanting to be a priest had to pass an audition . . . you know singing some hymns in front of a bishop and if the guy could sing he could continue studying and if he couldn't sing he branched off into one of those weird monk groups where nobody talks for years at a time. however, i see the standards have changed over the years . . .
we rented a car and headed south to tulum where we were excited to seeing the white sand beaches and turquoise waters of the mayan riviera. unfortunately, that side of the highway is wall to wall resorts and you can't see the water at all from the beautiful new 4 lane highway. i feel for the people living on the opposite side of the highway as i wonder if they need to buy a timeshare just to take their kids to the beach.
we arrived at our b&b just after 6pm and we were pleasantly surprised to hear we had been upgraded to the best room. we have a cenote style pool with waterfall and funky lights just outside our bedroom. add to that a roof top terrace and a rather neat bathroom where the toilet side of the room has an acrylic sheet roof but the shower side is open to the sky . . . very nice indeed. as we were being shown our rooms i asked about a tool in the bedroom that had a long handle and pincers at the end and i was told that if we found any big bugs crawling around we could just pick them up with the tool and put them outside . . . whenever i hear no problem and we're travelling i know there will be problems.
we went into the village for supper. one of the things i love about mexico is the mama run restaurants which usually consist of a mama and her daughters, a run down building and great cheap food. we ordered something that resembled a small pita that she heated on a hotplate and came with chicken avacado and tomatoes . . . delicious. however, i saw on the menu written on the run down building wall that she had coffee so i asked for one with milk. i got a big mug of boiling water and a spoon . . . about three minutes later her daughter appeared with an unopened 1 litre container of milk and a couple of minutes later she showed up with a new jar of instant nescafe. i sure didn't want to eat up all her profits with my one cup of coffee but then noticed at the next table in the restaurant a couple of local guys ordered cokes and the daughter went across the street to get them too, so i figured what the hell and drank my coffee.
as we were finishing up we realized we were sitting next to the village square and that there was some kind of karaoke going on so we walked over to watch the fun. they had a pretty cool band with guitars and organ and although the singing was . . . well pretty bad . . . the music was good. we sat at the back and i was enjoying the music. nellie told me she thought we were attending a mass. MASS . . . it couldn't be! and then the priest stopped singing and launched into a sermon. wowsa, i'm saying to myself, i haven`t been to mass in decades. so now that i'm feeling all holy and stuff. so i was thinking about buying a lotto ticket lol . . . then the priest really got into it and he seemed to be yelling and looking at me so i quickly forgot about buying a ticket and started hoping this guy didn't have any inside information lol.
when i was a kid i always thought that anyone wanting to be a priest had to pass an audition . . . you know singing some hymns in front of a bishop and if the guy could sing he could continue studying and if he couldn't sing he branched off into one of those weird monk groups where nobody talks for years at a time. however, i see the standards have changed over the years . . .
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