2/26/2010: Day 5

Day 5 started out with Pilates at 10am. We left our room a little late so we had to run and called it our warm up. I say it's too damn humid to run in Mexico. After Pilates kicked our asses, we headed off to Playa Del Carmen, the local city not too far away. It's a short cab ride...$17 each way to be exact. I was not impressed with Playa from the beginning. I personally do not like to feel assualted with sales people the entire day. I understand they are just doing their job to earn a living, but it's annoying. Plus, everyone has the same stuff!

We were starving when we arrived, so we ate lunch at Texas Burger. I imagine if we knew anything about the culture, we would have known that Texas Burger is probably like Chili's is to us in America. I was not impressed, although we did get maragaritas for $5...which was a deal! We ate next to Senor Frog and I'm a sucker for photo opportunities, so here is a cute photo of Eric and Senor Frog. After lunch we walked up and down 5th, the main shopping strip. we eventually ran into a Starbucks, which turned out to be a good thing. Coffee in Mexico at Starbucks is GOOD. I mean it. Hard to believe since Starbuck's coffee SUCKS in the USA. I collect Starbuck mugs from different states/countries, but they were all out. Bummer, too, because I don't have one from Mexico. Then it was off for more walking, more shopping, more getting harrassed. Eventually we made our way to the beach...and I saw something I'd never seen before---swing bars. Bars that had big adult swings instead of bar stools. I was so excited! We sat on the swings and had a Corona with lime. After the Corona, off we went, down the beach, to find the ferry station for our excursion to Cozumel on Tuesday. Then we were back on 5th, shopping and walking. Which leads us to the highlight of the day...or at least the most traumatic part of the day!
The Monkey. Why do I get so excited over unusual things? We saw two guys, each with small monkeys. For $5 you could take two photos with one of them. So Eric paid and the guy took our photos. The monkey was so stinky. I regretted letting that stinky little thing crawl on us after I smelled it, but it was too late. Plus, it would be over in a minute, right? Hardly. After we held out our hands for it, it crawled ON TOP of my head. Cute, right? Yes. Funny, right? Yes. I was laughing...for a few more seconds. After our photos, the guy pointed out the tip jar. Seriously? I just paid you $5 for a one minute stand in with the freaking monkey and now you want a tip. Ok, whatever. We gave the guy a tip. My tip should have been GIVE YOUR EFFING MONKEY A BATH PLEASE! So, we walk away....and for some reason I feel the back of my neck. Wet? What? WHY IS MY NECK WET? I turn to look at my shoulder where the monkey had been and it's wet, too. WTF? OH NO! "ERIC! THAT F*#^ING MONKEY PEED ON ME AND I SMELL STINKY FROM IT!!! HELP!!" It went something like that. Seriously, that monkey had peed on me. SO GROSS! And, as it crawled all over my me, it left it's little stinky self all over me. I could smell it...for hours. I wanted to vomit. Then, with the pee, it was almost too much to handle. Poor Eric. He offered to get me another shirt...or gave me an idea to go wash my head off. All very nice, but I just wanted a shower. Luckily the pee wasn't like cat pee...it didn't smell...but traces of the monkey DID. Still I cringe.
When I went to Indonesia I had a traumatic run in with a monkey...so after this, I am done with them! :)

Despite the monkey, we ventured on. We met up with a vendor who sold hammocks and hammock chairs. He said his family made them, it was their family business. I believed him. He said the chairs were sturdy and held 600 pounds each. I did not believe him...but since I won't be putting 600 pounds in it, I didn't care. We bought two of the chairs for our front porch. We were so happy that we were supporting local family business. HA! We joked about walking down the street and finding more....which we did. In fact, every one and their mother was selling the same exact "family business" chair. Seriously? Shit. We were taken. We stopped by another vendor and she told us that the Mayan people made the chairs. Eric believed her. I told him she was also full of shit. The Mayan people did not make the damn chairs. The family of the guy we bought them from did not make the chairs. For all we know, someone in China or Indonesia or Taiwan made them. The only thing that saved the day (and made this experiience ok) is that we got a good deal on the chairs--or at least we paid what we thought was a good deal. Point of this story--don't believe a thing you hear from sales people. It's all effing lies.

After the monkey trauma, and being taken by vendors, we settled down and had dinner at John Gray's Place. This restaurant was recommended to us by one of Eric's coworkers. It was very delicious. I had truffle mac and cheese (Eric and I have a thing about gourmet mac and cheese that I will tell you about someday). We wanted to compare John Gray's to El Puerto's which we compared to Mizunos in Denver. The order comes in at Mizunos, El Puerto and then John Grays, although I thought the mac and cheese tasted like alfredo, not truffle oil--but it did have tasty grilled shrimp. We also ate muscles, pesto olive oil bread, asparagus, and steak. So good!

Eventually we left Playa, returned to Fairmont, and started our night. We read a little bit (we're both reading the Percy Jackson series)and then when it was dark, we went to the infinity pool (heated!) overlooking the ocean. At night it is incredibly windy...too windy, in fact. But we went to a heated pool so we were able to stay warm. Eric swam his first "laps" ever, which was exciting to share with him. We talked about swimming and triathlon, and how amazing our life has been. It was great to swim without anyone else there. In the distance, over the edge of the pool, we could see a few cruise ships, the moon, and a lot of clouds.

After swimming we went to Las Brisas' outside bar and ordered chips and guac. It wasn't on the menu, but the chef made us some...and by some I mean tons! Again, the service here is amazing. The chef even threw in some fresh habanero salsa, which we DID NOT try...way too hot! We finished off the night eating chips and guac.

Day 5--spectacular!