For breakfast today, Mr. Sassy had the poblano omelet and I had a custom omelet with tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and cheese. Unfortunately, we did not have Rogelio as our waiter today because we decided to sit outside and then we realized he was working inside the restaurant. Drats. All the waiters and staff at Mahekal are sooo nice, but I have to say...none of them are as nice or as good (service-wise) as Rogelio. He is the best. Mr. Sassy was shusshing me because I commented to him that "we'll need to make sure we eat inside tomorrow so we can have Rogelio" within earshot of the other waiters. D'oh!
I took a video at breakfast this morning. It shows the patio where there are tables set up, and the beautiful view. Unfortunately, it seemed that everywhere we went, the same couple would be nearby with their fussy baby.
After breakfast we decided to take a walk to the Mega so I could tap the ATM and also purchase more bottled water. It was a bit drizzly in the morning, but luckily the drizzle was short-lived. The Mega ATM was not dispensing money, but I was able to tap an ATM at the HSBC bank next door.
We headed back to the hotel via 5th Avenue. On the way, we saw a very disturbing sight which really upset us. There was a man who had a business allowing people to take photos with a tiger cub and we saw the poor tiger cub...a really tiny little thing, who was clearly in distress. He had a chain leash on him and he was screaming. It sounded like a baby screaming and we realized he was probably screaming for his mother. I walked right up the guy and told him it was wrong what he was doing and he just smiled at me. If I was in the US I would have done much more, but obviously one has to be cautious in a foreign country about creating any disturbances. The last thing I needed was to be hauled off to a Mexican jail!! I had seen a thread about this on a Playa del Carmen discussion board and I had avoided opening the thread because I knew it would upset me. The bad news is, enforcement of laws prohibiting animal exploitation (and animal mistreatment in general) is not as strict in Mexico as the US. They simply do not regard animals in the same way we do. I think in general, they do not regard animals as pets, or if they do (like dogs and cats), they let them fend for themselves. I don't think there's a flourishing pet food business in Mexico. But there are laws in place to protect animals in exploitation like this, and from what I have read since returning from our trip, people have filed complaints with animal protection agencies and some of the exploitation has been stopped, although there are still sheisters trying to make a buck off these beautiful, innocent creatures. What makes me the MOST angry is seeing hordes of stupid-ass Americans flocking around the sheisters and gawking at the innocent animals (and paying to have their photos snapped). These criminals would not be in business without ignoramuses like this patronizing them.
So that scene pretty much upset me and spoiled my morning (I can never get these types of things out of my head).
Once we got back to the hotel, we went to the beach. It was a windy day and the ocean was rough, so we didn't go in the ocean much. We napped off and on at the beach and then when we wanted to swim, we went to the pool by the restaurant.
The highlight of today was another wildlife sighting. A family of ducks showed up in the decorative pool outside our hotel room! There was a mother, father and a whole slew of babies. We counted 11 altogether. I took lots of pictures and videos. They were BEYOND adorable and they hung around the pool for the rest of our stay!!! Get this - later in the day, I happened to see a coatimundi climbing onto the wall by the pool to get to the ducks, so I ran down there to chase him away. From then on, I worried all week about the ducks and was obsessively counting the ducklings. By the time we left at the end of our trip, there were 9 ducks left. I wonder how many will actually survive to adulthood. I also saw one of the Mahekal staff members trying to catch one of the ducklings. He had a net and was trying to scoop it up. I have a feeling he wanted to help this duckling because we had noticed that one of the ducklings seemed a little "off" - he looked a little sickly and was often separated from the others. So I think the worker may have been getting him seen by a vet or something. I didn't get the feeling he wanted to hurt or exploit the duck and I noticed the next day that the count was back up to 11.
The only thing that upset me was that once he caught the duckling, he let this little girl (a guest) pet it. But only for a moment.
Otherwise, the day was pretty uneventful with the exception that we did a LOT of walking. As I mentioned, we walked to the Mega, which was a 20 minute walk. Then during the day we walked all the way down the beach to around 6th Street (we're on 38th) and back. After that we rested in the nice air conditioned room until dinner time.
Here are some pics and videos from the our day.
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| Lunch today was fried fish platter and Mexican platter |
Our original plan for dinner was to go to one of the restaurants on our list and then go to Fusion (a beach bar/restaurant) afterwards for drinks and entertainment (they have live music) but in thinking about it, we decided to just have dinner at Fusion. I had read that their food is pretty good, so that's what we did. Fusion has these low wooden tables where customers can sit with their feet in the sand. There was live entertainment tonight. When we first got there, around 8:00 p.m. - there was a Mexican cover band playing American rock music. Mr. Sassy (being the rock critic that he is) wasn't too enthralled with their "wussified" rendition of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit". I had to agree, but it was still fun. I loved hearing the singer sing the lyrics with a Mexican accent.
Then, a bellydancer did a short routine. She was really good but it was funny - the SECOND she was finished her dance, she wasn't even off the stage and she pulled her IPhone out and started texting someone. The second texting addict performer we saw this week!
After the belly dancer, the headlining band came on. They were another rock band. We were told the band was going to be "reggae rock" but it wasn't reggae at all. It was more Spanish and American rock and they weren't that great. At Mr. Sassy's prompting(i.e. eye rolling, poking me in the arm, sighing, etc) we left shortly after the headlining band came on stage.
The food and drinks were pretty good. We decided to just get appetizers instead of entrees. For drinks, Mr. Sassy got a cocktail called a Margarita Cadillac which was like a margarita but had Grand Marnier in it. I had a non-alcoholic drink called a Limonmenta (or something like that). It was essentially a frozen, virgin Mojito. Very limey and very minty! We ordered 2 orders of empenadas (3 in each order) - spinach and mushroom. They came with a somewhat oily dipping sauce that tasted a bit like pesto. The empanadas were pretty good - not the best we had ever eaten, but decent. We also ordered fish tempura which came with a soy-based dipping sauce. Again, it was good but not outstanding. The tempura batter was not the super light, crispy batter that is traditionally used in Japanese cooking. It was a heavier breading so it reminded us more of fish sticks. But it was okay. For dessert, I had my favorite - another brownie with ice cream, which was good.
We walked back to the hotel via 5th Avenue (the main drag) and at one point, we sat down on a bench to rest. I had it in my mind that I wanted to hear a mariachi band and as fate would have it, as soon as we sat on the bench a marichi band approached us (3 men) and asked if we would like to hear a song - perhaps "La Cucaracha". Of course I said yes (although admittedly La Cucharacha is not my favorite Mexican song...but I couldn't think of the names of any other songs I liked better at that moment), and they performed for us. I love this video. First of all, the man on the left is about the cutest thing ever with that smile. And the guy in the middle looks like he's probably played this song 2 million times and is beyond sick of it. Dig the gum chewing.
After they performed and we gave them a nice tip, Mr. Sass indicated to them that he plays drums, so they invited him to play the bongos. So here is Mr. Sass in his debut mariachi performance.
After that, we continued to walk down 5th Avenue. Our goal was to stop at the Cuban bar/restaurant La Bodequita del Medio (which is located close to our hotel) to see if there was a good Cuban band playing. When we finally got to the bar, it turned out that there was a really good band playing, but I was just so beat and wrung out that I wasn't in the mood to hang out there. My feet felt like they were going to fall off. We were back at our hotel room by about 10:30 and went right to bed. We were both wiped out after another great day. I am going to end today's post with a video of Mr. Sass imitating me, which he always does far too well :)
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What We Spent Today (in USD)
Tip Maid: $3
OXXO Store - Bottled Water: $2
Mega (Tums): $2
Tip Lunch: $2
Dinner & Drinks @ Fusion: $51
Tip - Fusion Belly Dancer: $2
Tip - Mariachi Guys: $5
TOTAL: $67
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