Wednesday, February 24, 2010
2/23/2010: Day 2
NOTE: I am not editing these entries. There will be spelling and grammar errors. I want to get the story down, then edit on another day, when I'm not on vacation!
Day 2 in Paradise. We woke up early, around 6:30am local time, 5:30am Colorado time. I didn't know where I was for a few minutes. One does not usually go from being woken up by screaming, hungry cats to waking up in a Mexican jungle. It's quite the shift.
Eric made our morning coffee in the french press and we sat on the porch, surrounded by green bliss. Eric read the first Percy Jackson book, the Lightening Thief, as I started to blog. (From the dates you can tell that I never submitted the entry yesterday....so I did it this morning (2/23/2010).) We were hoping to make it to the buns and abs class, but 8am rolled around and we decided to eat instead! Off to the restaurant we went. It took us awhile to get to the place. The grounds here are big and the paths are all connected, but unmarked. We knew the general direction and away we went. On the way we stopped by a fantastic series of pools (which I will put in another post after Eric gets up and I can find the camera). Even at 8 in the morning, everything was beautiful and clean and wonderful. The restaurant we ate at, La Laguna, was right on the canal. Eric and I both spent some time looking at the birds, fish, and turtles before sitting down to eat. Breakfast was standard...eggs, meat, toast, coffee. Nothing special, but it was good.
After breakfast we walked more. This time past a swim up Aquabar. Wow. We really have to go there while we are here. Photo of it soon. Then, on that sidewalk, we ran into an herb garden. The herbs smelled delicious. I stood around and smelled the place while Eric took photos. Then more walking.....there is A LOT of walking here. Sure, you can take the golf cart, but we try to walk as much as possible.
At 9:40am we decided we better get back to the room and get ready for Yoga. Yes, we went and did a yoga class. There were four people in the little class room. It was intimate, in a non-intimate way. :) Yoga...in Mexico...at a world class hotel. A first for me and I LOVE firsts! I seriously can't believe how OUT OF SHAPE and how much I hurt doing yoga. It's as if my body has turned into rock. Stretching? OUCH! Bending? OUCH? Holding a posutre? JOKE! My success came in just making it through the hour class. I didn't DO YOGA. I strecthed. But I did it. Day #1 of Ironman training accomplished--I stretched. One baby step at a time. Of course, all-star Cohen did a tremendous job with his unhuman-like stretchableness. I stuck my tongue out at him more than once. Good job, babe. You rocked Yoga. :)
By 10:15am, I needed a nap. Seriously. Vacationing is hard work! :) So we packed up our bags and went back to the spa, to the Serenity lounge, and hung out by the pool. Eric read his book and I napped on the comfy chairs, partially out of the sun. It was divine.
Around noon we both got hungry, so we headed off to lunch--we walked to Las Brisas by the ocean. Eric had a spinach salad and I ate a chicken ceasar. We both had a drink and shared coconut shrimp with sweet chili sauce. The best part was the time we spent looking out over a teal ocean, white sand, and....military people...WHAT? Yeap, down the beach were 24 Latin American presidents, at a conference. TWENTY FOUR! So armed guards in military attire walked the beach, and the ocean had military boats all over the place. Well, we know we're safe, right? :)
After lunch Eric "really" wanted to go IN the ocean. So, we walked up and down the coastline for a little bit, collecting shells and rocks. Afterwards, we walked back to our suite, put on our suits, and this time, caught a golf cart to the beach. Two miles plus all of the other walking was enough for me. Remember--this was only Day #1of Ironman training (hee hee hee!)! It's very important to not start out doing too much. ;)
As we walked up to the infinity pool (overlooking the ocean), we stopped by the towel hut to pick up towels. Much to my surprise, the gentleman there took back the towel I grabbed from him, and followed us to our chairs. He placed one towel (with a special top on it to fit over a lounge chair) over the chair and rolled the other one up to be a hanging pillow on the chair. Paradise, I tell you! I'm the person the people at the hotel look at and think: She's here on points. No way she paid to get here. She didn't even know enough to let us put down her towel. YIKES!
We treid the ocean, but the piece of the water we entered was REALLY rocky and hurt our little feet!So back to the pool we went. The pool by the beach allows children, so we watched some families playing in the pool. My favorite moment was a mother with a little crying boy and a dad with his happy little girl. The mom looked at the dad and said, "Here, take the crying one!" I saw my future at that moment. One day I will say the same thing to Eric. Then an older little girl, maybe 8 or 9, and her friend wanted to play screaming mermaids. Oh my gosh. I'm trying to read, ok? In the peace and quiet. Frustrated, I put down my book, because the mermaids were louder than the book in my head. The first mermaid girl was cute, though. "I'm a compeitive swimmer!" Very nice, dear. Please go swim in the ocean, then. I hear there are lots of mermaids in the oceans. Not so much in the pool!
After thebeach, and taking the golf cart back to the suite, I had to go sit in the steamy eucalyptus room at the spa. Eric took his book and went to the Serenity Lounge while I sweated my ass off in the steam room and the hot tub. Absoultely the BEST hot tub I've ever been in and the best steam room. The tiles were big enough to lay on, and they were soooo warm. So not only did I get the steam, I also got heat put into my muscles by laying on the tiles. I think I will go back today (Day 3).
After the hot tub and steam room, I took a shower in the spa area. They had their entire signature line of products...shampoo, conditioner, cleanser and sugar scrub. Delightful! The showers were little rooms, laid out with a towel, a wash cloth, a shower cap, and a razor! In a room off to the side they had a full line of hair products, lotions, and smelly things, to use after you did your hair. A full spa. Very nice. Very, very nice. I took the razor with me to use here in the room. What a nice tough. If you come to Fairmont, and you want to pay the spa fee, don't worry about bringing a razor. :) Life is simple here.
The next thing I remember is going to dinner. We went to the same restaurant as breakfast and it was great. The server hooked us with free chips and guac ($9) which was really nice. Eric had pork and I had pizza. While it was really good, I don't really recommend coming to Mexico to have pizza. It would be like going to Italy to have guacamole. Enjoy the culture where you are, not where you are from!
After dinner we walked back to the room, got ready for bed, and climbed into the warm, soft, comfy bed. I played some logic puzzles and erronously had a stupid cup of tea (see 2/23/2010) before retiring for the night.
Day 2 was fun, eventful, but relaxed.
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ReplyDeleteThis post cracked me up! I can totally see you telling the little screaming girl to go swim in the ocean with the "Mermaids" (aka sharks)
ReplyDeleteI am happy that you are getting back into training mode :)
Have fun and drink some margaritas at the swim bar for me!!!!