Playa del Carmen, Mexico - Day 7 - Friday, October 28, 2011

The first thing we noticed when we woke up this morning was that it was dead still and quiet, so HURRAY - the storm was definitely gone! Everything was returning back to normal. It was still cloudy, but we could tell the sky was brightening.

Guess who came out to greet me this morning when I took a walk to check things out!? Gato girl! She survived the storm, I was pleased to see.



She followed me back to the room so being the good Italian mother that I am, I had to find something her something to eat. I tried to give her crackers and peanut butter, but she didn't want that, and then I remembered we had yogurt, so I gave her some of that and she went wild and gobbled it up. She even came into our room.









One of our goals today was to do something special for Rogelio, our favorite staff member at Mahekal. He has been so incredibly sweet to us all through our visit, remembering our names, smiling at us, remembering the things we like (like the fact that I like hot chocolate) and he really goes out of his way to be friendly and make us feel like we've been his friends for life. So we wanted to give him an extra nice tip. But I thought it would be nice to do a little more than that, so I also included a note that told him how much we appreciated him and how he made our visit extra special. I thought a note would be nice because even when the money is gone, he will always have the note to keep. But I also thought that management should know what a gem they have in Rogelio, so I went the extra mile and also wrote a note to management about how wonderful he is. I know, this is a lot - but I am telling you - that's how great Rogelio was. We looked forward to seeing him every day, he was such a sweetheart. ALL the staff at Mahekal are so nice, but Rogelio is EXTRA wonderful and goes far beyond what is expected.

So we did this - I wrote the notes and Mr. Sassy delivered them for me.

Later, when we went back to the room, there was a note in the door that asked us to please see management. We were a little nervous wondering if there was a problem, but Mr. Sass found out that they just wanted to thank us for the note and for acknowledging Rogelio. Mr. Sassy talked a bit with the manager, Emilio, he said that Rogelio is one of their best employees and they are glad that he made such a positive impression on us. We ran into Emilio again later in the day and I got to talk to him as well. He was a very nice man and he spent a few minutes talking to us and we did express again how extra special Rogelio made our visit. He was really appreciative that we wrote the note.

The thing about Rogelio was that his kindness and interest in us was genuine and we never felt he was just out for a tip. He seemed genuinely happy to see us and talk with us every day. Such a great guy.

By the way, Mr. Sassy and I think Rogelio looks a lot like my brother, especially around the eyes/brow and mouth. What do you think?

Breakfast was a little late this morning because the workers had to clean up after the storm, so there was a bit of debris and mess for them to clean up. Breakfast started at 8:00. I had pancakes today and Mr. Sassy had an egg burrito. As we ate, we looked at the sky and hoped it would clear up.

We went back to the room and got ready for the beach. At the beach, it was really cool to see the black/cloudy sky blowing out and the beautiful bright blue sky rolling in. It was such a clear delineation, I took a video of it.



Within a half hour, the entire sky was completely blue and clear. It was 100% back to perfect again...sunny, 80 degrees, mild, not windy, comfortable, mild and calm bathtub-like surf - just fabulous. We spent quite a time in the ocean today. It was superb.

I took a LOT of pictures today because the beauty of the beach - both BEFORE it got sunny and AFTER, was just astounding. Will you just LOOK at how gorgeous this place is - sun or no sun?




After awhile, I got a little antsy and took a walk down the beach. It was difficult for me because my sprained foot was still bothering me, so I couldn't walk too long, but I did walk for about 15-20 minutes or so.



For lunch today I had the fish sandwich with the curly fries and Mr. Sassy had enchiladas with mole sauce. YUMMY.

We spent the rest of the day at the beach and really enjoyed it, especially after having a string of crappy weather days in a row. It was great to have the brilliant sunshine again and we soaked it up.



We stayed at the beach until happy hour. At that time, we went to the bar and Mr. Sassy got a couple Coronos and I got the drink of the day which was called the Mamacita - kind of like a pina colada but it had grenadine or something in it. We hung out at the bar and pool. The pool was warmer than normal which was nice, so I swam for awhile and Gato girl visited us! Then an English family with noisy kids came to the pool and that was our cue to leave.

We went back to the room and cleaned up for dinner. Our plan tonight was to go to Como Como, an upscale Italian/European restaurant. I had read great things about this restaurant ahead of the trip and heard it's small and hard to get a reservation, so I made a reservation far in advance via email. As is expected in Mexico, when we arrived at the restaurant they had no record of our reservation, but they quickly put a table together for us and were very accommodating.

This was a cute, bustling little place. I think there were a total of maybe 8 tables. The food was REALLLLLY good and it was nice to have Italian food after so much Mexican...a nice change of pace. I had an eggplant appetizer that was out of this world...it was layered eggplant with buttery mozzarella. It was sooooo yummy. For my entree I had homemade ravioli stuffed with spinach and ricotta cheese and it had a soupy, clear sauce. It was fabulous. Again, it melted in my mouth. Mr. Sassy had swordfish carpaccio which he said was out of this world for his appetizer. For his entree he had a pasta dish that he raved about. Everything was fantastic. The least impressive part of dinner was the chocolate cake. It was good, but not out of this world like everything else. I have noticed that cakes and pastries are not a strong suit in Mexico.







I also got to try a new drink called a Caiparaina. It was like a mojito without the mint.



The service was friendly but it wasn't the best. There were 10 tables and 3 waiters, yet all the waiters seemed overwhelmed. They were running around like headless chickens and didn't seem to be able to keep up on the tables. Our waiter missed the mark in several areas. He was super nice, but he didn't introduce himself, didn't offer drink refills, didn't check back on us to see how we liked things. We had to flag him down whenever we wanted something.

We thought this was a little weird. In the middle of our dinner, this young woman came out and started MOPPING THE FLOOR WITH PINE SOL! Right in the middle of dinner time! The smell was so overwhelming it almost knocked us out. Why in the world did she have to mop the floor THEN? There wasn't a spill or anything. Very odd.

But overall, it was a nice dinner and we loved the food.

After that, Mr. Sassy was in the mood for a cigar and we had been wanting to check out the Cuban bar near our hotel so we walked by. The band was taking a break, so we continued to walk so Mr. Sassy could find a cigar. He found a nice little place and loved his cigar. We walked a little more but my foot was really bothering me so we headed back to the Cuban place, hoping we could go there and sit at a table. At the Cuban place, the band was back on, but the style of music wasn't the kind of Cuban music we like (i.e. it was more folky and didn't have a lot of percussion) so we decided to go back to the hotel and call it a night. We were in bed by around 11:00 p.m.