UMTravels

Or maybe the title of the post should be “Three Buses and a Black Jesus”.

Total was a whole lot of time on buses, not something that I like in a holiday. Doesn’t help that I have to share unlike the Copper Canyon trip where I had two seats to myself. Oh well.

An early morning of up and out at 8am, which for practical purposes means up at 6, luggage ready at 7, then off to breakfast.

First stop this morning was the sleepy colonial town of Portobelo, an old gold/silver route city defended with forts, sacked by Henry Morgan (hence, Capt. Morgan rum), and originally a stop of Sir Francis Drake himself who is buried off a small island in the harbor in a lead casket.

Portobello has been around since the 1500’s and these days is known for the procession to see the Black Jesus. It seems that the Catholics were doing their conversion thing and sent them a Jesus with more appropriate coloring to the locals.

And then the bus trouble started. A loud bang… dog? Nope, inside rear tire. Slow down, keep going towards Colon where we rendesvous with another bus to take us to lunch at the Radison Colon 2000 (the port).

After another buffet meal we were treated to another, as the Senior Colonel would say, a folkloric show. I was in the restroom while the young men were changing. Talk about dawdling in the loo.

It does seem odd to see all these folkloric shows in hotel conference rooms and lobby bars.

And after a little shopping at the mall next door (did you know you can get rum in a 1 liter juice box — that would have been handy for the Grand Canyon Trip)… wait for it…. another bus. We are now up to three different buses for the day. I will say one thing, even with the problems, we are only running about 1-1.5 hours behind where we should be.

No stops in Colon proper for “safety reasons”. Apparently Colon is the much poorer relative to Panama City, but still has some of that old world (and now fairly tatty) charm.

Next up it the Gatan locks where we don’t disembark, and the drive-by of some of the construction of the new larger canal that is slated to open in 2014, and then onto the Raddison Summit Hotel and Golf Course… in the middle of a rain forest preserve. Not sure how the got to build here — maybe it’s just a Panama thing.

The hotel is brand-spanking new — to the point that not all the landscaping is finished but I only noticed that from my balcony with the view of the top of the towers supporting the Bridge of the Americas (which we see tomorrow and is featured on the license plate I bought as a souvenir). And man, what a shower — it’s small river rocks on the floor, a nice feel to the feet:

Went down to dinner at 7 with my latest book: Esperanza’s Box of Saints and found a quiet table for a bit, until more tour folks can to chat and eat. At least I have them trained to leave me alone in the morning while I read and have breakfast.

Dinner was yet another buffet… with 44 people on the tour, that’s about your only sane option. Ordered a couple of glasses of wine and on the third the waiter asked if I wanted to just buy the bottle, said yes, and because of some accounting thing he brought me a fresh bottle which I thought he’d just start pouring from, but, no, I got it, plus the three glasses for $20. I have enough left over for tomorrow’s dinner wine!

Back to the room to watch CNN on the 37″ LCD TV — you can see the room tour by clicking through on yesterday’s scoller bar.

Out by 9am tomorrow, gee, I get to sleep in to 7am!

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An easy day today – so why was I up at 6am. Oh, that’s right — the previous guest had the alarm set for 6am.

Actually, it was good, I’d gone to bed early, and I used the time to listen to a web conference video and bill some hours, catch up on email, and generally get grounded here in Panama.

Breakfast buffet. No time for an omelet, or actually, no desire, they were huge. Just give me some scrambled eggs, too much pork product, and it being Central America, some re-fried beans with casa (Mexican cheese) on top.

On the bus by 9am — first (or maybe third) comment on this group. They are prompt. So far, no stragglers. We’ll see tomorrow when it’s luggage ready at 7am and on the bus by 8am. Guessing no work in the morning for me — but at least I know the alarm is set for the right time!

Morning tour of the Panama City Museum, with surprise guests, Guns and Roses — they have a concert tonight or tomorrow. Why do I keep circling them —- my mechanic/house guy tours with them, shit, maybe he’s here and that’s why I can’t get him to do the gravel on my driveway.

Then off to the section of ruins. I did the 114 steps up to the top of the cathedral, then went shopping, then bolted across the road to check out the ruins of the monastery/nunnery.

I guess here is where I should put int he scrolling bar of the bunches of pictures I’ve taken:

After the church/monastery/shopping (bought a Panama centennial license plate) we were off to the locks for lunch in a private dining room overlooking the locks — with it’s own viewing deck. Damn fine. Lots of time to explore, though they did run us out a little early due to an afternoon storm… reminded me of the Santa Fe storms — intense, for about 15 minutes.

Read the news and napped on the way back to the hotel. Checked and dealt with email then went back to grocery store for more supplies — I think we are going to the woods for two days, god knows what’s available but the 1 liter “Kentucky Cream” is only 91 cents more than the 750ml.

Time is short… there is a 7:30 “special event” and dinner is 6-10:30. Dinner before, not super hungry, dinner after, starved. Before. Had two glass of wine at with dinner — house (Chilean) —with tip – $10. Cheap by American standards.

The show — here is a shot of me posing with the crew after saying “A vacation without embarrassing photos is a vacation misspent”:

OK — so I proved that one. That photo got hoots from the other 44 passengers.

Here are today’s three latest amusement’s from last night:

• The Simpsons in Spanish
• Stain Stick — had to buy one, have used it on four stains already

Huge man-made things:

• Hoover Dam — still drying
• Three Ganges dam — still really big
• Gatun Lake — how many damns did it take to make it.

So — tomorrow we are off to Portobello (for mushrooms?), the Gatun locks, and the rain-forest (and resort).

Details to follow.

[clueless]

Most of day one was spent in the air getting to Panama. No real problems in the air, but a very short layover in Miami so it was basically go from one gate to the next where they were already boarding. Not the way that I like to do it.

My seat mate for some reason reminded me of Robert Vesco — a well-dressed older Hispanic man who looked like he was on the run with a suitcase full of money. Needless to say, no conversation.

The Caravan folks were their to meet me outside departure. I was the first of our group of four people off this plane. One other single (guy) traveller from Key Largo, and a couple that looked close to death. Hopefully this won’t be a sign for what the age of the total group of 44 people is like.

Weather: 95 degrees, 80 percent humidity.

Today (and tomorrow’s) hotel: Courtyard by Marriott. Nicely appointed rooms, free Internet, free bottled water (one a day — though the tap water is safe throughout the country), and buffet style dinner and breakfast.

Checked in by 3:15, and by 4 I was settled, on the internet, and on the way to explore the mall next door hoping for a grocery/liquor store somewhere inside. As it turns out with my limited Spanish — Mercado (market) luckily one of the words I know — found a full-size full-service market on the second floor in the back.

What did I buy to go with my Coca-cola Light?

Now I’m not sure how you can make a whiskey in Panama with a name like Kentucky Cream, but for $5.20 it seemed like something to take a flier on. The Senior Colonel’s (from Kentucky) question in email? How does it taste? The answer is like whiskey tainted rum. Perfectly suitable for mixing.

The “all-hands” meeting as at 6pm in one of the ballrooms (which later had a flamenco contest, though not for us, but I did see some of the costumed dancers in the hallway).  I’m definitely at the younger end of the scale for the 44 people on this tour, but not as bad as I was expecting from the airport this afternoon.

Dinner buffet style was good. Went back for two helpings of the salad — need my greens. I went for the steak (having had fish for the last couple of meals) which was a little tough in places, but I actually got her to cook it medium-rare, and it was almost an inch thick in places — a rarity for steaks in most other countries.

Headed back to the room to finish “Rough Justice” and go to bed early. Tomorrow is in the lobby at 9am (which isn’t bad for a tour).

One little dram of Kentucky Cream before bed.

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That’s what I’m looking forward to. Packed a sleeping pill just in case for the Seattle-Dallas/Ft.Worth red-eye. Two hours in Dallas in the morning, an hour or so in Miami before arriving at 2pm in Panama City, Panama.

Today — went to look at Mark and Kassie’s place (gorgeous) and took Mark for a ride in the Jag around Magnolia. No exactly a sunny warm day, but with the heat full blast it was OK with the top down.

Next stop — Tacos Guaymas for a couple of quick fish tacos. Lunch.

Next stop — Jimmy’s to drop off reading material. Who knows, he might be out of town. Mail was there from yesterday but the place was locked up (luckily I have a key).

Then back home for the final pack, phone charging, etc before heading off to have dinner with Swanda. Leaving the car there and taking LightRail to the airport at 8ish so I can hang out in the Board Room and have a couple of pre-flight cocktails.

Let’s hope all the flights are on time — don’t mind be delayed coming home — hate being delayed getting there.

[225.1]

Here is my list of things I had planned to do today — and didn’t:

• Faerie Coffee with Stardust from San Francisco
• Wine Tasting at EVS
• Tour of Mark and Kassie’s townhouse

Things that I did get done:

• Finished packing for the Panama trip that I leave on tomorrow night
• Additional rework of a corporate website after getting positive comments on my design after complimenting someone elses ideas
• Found Curt someplace for him to use his miles for a birthday trip — Hawaii of all places after Kansas City, Austin, Boston, Miami, and everything else was not available.

Just a quiet evening at home. Having a badly unbalanced dinner of country-style pork ribs and roast potatoes. Didn’t feel like going to the store just for salad when I’m leaving tomorrow night and may have dinner in the International District before catching LightRail to the airport.

And here is where I’m headed tomorrow:

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Wow — no moss under my feet (possibly between my toes)… back for three days (or is it four) and already need to leave town even though I leave for Panama on Sunday night.

Olympia is calling — dinner with Curt, Rich, and our young’en Brandon.

But before I get to that, just an update on my travel mileage so far this year on Alaska:

Elite Tier Status Qualification

YTD Alaska/Horizon Miles

Flown: 16,07 1     3,929 Miles to MVP

YTD Alaska/Horizon/Qualifying Partner* Miles

Flown: 16,071     8,929 Miles to MVP

YTD Alaska/Horizon/Qualifying Partner* Segments

Flown: 11     19 Segments to MVP

* Air France, American, Delta, KLM, LanChile and Northwest

With the flight to Miami sheduled for late September, that will take me over MVP status — should I go for Gold again?

Left the house at 2, stopped for a little drive-through lunch and headed south in the rain to Olympia. I was hoping that because it was Good Friday the traffic would be less. NOT.

After a stop to check out the Cabella’s Sporting Goods store in Lacy (HUGE) to get s new pair of shorts for the trip ($14.95) and a couple of emergency ponchos (.99 each) it was off to Safeway for the few last minute meal items (and some bug spray for the trip), then the liquor store and then onto Curt’s place. 4:30. Yikes.

Dinner was a roasted pork loin, salad, bread that I backed before I went down, with Rich and Curt donating many bottles of tine to go with. Brandon — he brought the book I’d ordered for Curt that UPS delivered to his office.

The book? Totally self-serving:

Click on the book above and it will take you to the Amazon site. Here is the Tom Douglas review of the book:

“Oh my Yahtzee! Anything that brings friends and family together sharing delicious bites of food tickles my fancy. I’m going for an Orange Negroni and a Crostini with Wild Mushroom Tapenade. My domino train is open for dinner!”
—TOM DOUGLAS, James Beard Award­–winning chef and author of Tom Douglas’ Seattle Kitchen

[223.2]

Working out more details of the Birthday Cruise 2010 (while starting to pack for Panama).

The hotel/motel where Swanda and I stayed a couple of years ago was… inexpensive… for a reason. Yikes. One night = OK, but I’m going for two nights before and two nights after. My $276.40 round-trip (checked today and it’s $500 round-trip) means there is a little extra money in the kitty for a hotel.

Question? Close to the airport? South Beach/Miami Beach?

Looking at TripAdvisor the hotels in both of the above had seriously negative reviews for anything under about $150 a night. There goes my kitty, to the pound, to be euthanized. There is a gay-owned hotel that seems to have decent reviews (I like any hotel that baskets with condoms on the night stand weird out some reviewers). And they do have a single if I happen to be going on this trip alone. http://www.islandhousesouthbeach.com/ 

Current thinking is South Beach/Miami Beach for the two nights before and Airport area for the last two nights as I have a 7am flight back.

Back to billing hours working on a couple of small items. And happy April Fool’s Day — not feeling terribly foolish, though I did think about posting my obituary as today’s blog post.

Dinner tonight with Swanda. Steaks, bread, salad, news, whiskey, wine — the usual.

[223.0]

It’s always nice to have a Wednesday with sunshine (or any day for that matter).

In the continuing running into friends category — today it was Mark Horiuchi in the Costco parking lot. He’s a talented Seattle artist who also can now be counted as a real estate developer. At one point I was considering moving into one of the units.

In the end it didn’t fit with my wanting to downsize. That and cost, and not being on light rail. Can’t wait to see the units in person. Guess I’d better send him a note!

Light work day as it’s the end of the billing period and I’m pretty well maxed out at hours with all the web redesign work. With the sun I was able to seed the lawn and cut the existing grass. I had to reseed a couple of areas — like under where the RV was parked.

Dinner was a beef stir-fry over rice with a side salad.

Yum.

[221.8]

Awoke to the alarm clock… wanted to be bright and cheery for the marketing meeting this morning.

Well, at least I was awake for the meeting. After errands on the way home I had to take a power nap.

Late afternoon saw the arrival of Fluffernutter’s landlord to take a look at the phone booth and what it was going to take to put it back together and get it refinished and all prettified. Interesting guy — I’ve met him before, and every time it is one of those conversations that just keep going… we got sidetracked by RV (having told him I had just sold mine), and he mentioned the Vixen, which I have always lusted after. It’s a little know smaller RV that has a 4-cylinder BMW turbo diesel engine in it.

Luckily for me, they rarely come up for sale. Here is the history: http://vixenrv.com/vixen_history.php

A quiet dinner of stuff sole and salad — with a lovely Syrah from Bonny Doon that I picked up this afternoon at the apartment.

[221.8]

Ah, the joys of having a late afternoon flight… not having to worry about when you get up. Well, within reason, there is that noon check-out time.

Breakfast for both of us was leftovers from last nights dinner.

By noon we are on our way to the airport — a tad early, but better that than late. No club at the airport so we hung out in the bar for most of the time — nursing a bloody mary (Gnarlene) and a couple of Cuban rum on the rocks (me). Didn’t even find anything in duty free that sparked my interest (and Mexico duty-free isn’t that good a deal — probably better at the Mega!)

So, today’s amusing story starts when we are sitting in 1D (me) and 1F (Gnarlene) as the rest of the passengers are boarding… I look up and say “Mickie?” That would be Mike Leckie, the sculptor in Eugene that did the Bacchus (me) and Pan (Brian). Check out his site at: http://www.mikeleckie.com/. Here is is version of Bacchus, of which there are still copies available of:

I have a set on my coffee table. But I digress — so we chatted for a bit before he had to go back to his seat. Odd that we had both been there for 8 days. Odd that he was on the Seattle flight rather than the San Francisco (then Eugene, Oregon) flight. Oh well, it was good to see him again.

Uneventful flight — it was long enough to get a DigiPlayer (self contained video entertainment device), but not good enough to get anything other than the chicken marsala that we had on the way down.

I was randomly chosen for agriculture scanning — slowed me down by about 2 minutes — her first customer. Here first question? How many times have I been out of the country in the last six months. I looked puzzled and said, “Lots?” Let’s see, Canada times 3, where else. Rest were standard ag questions, going to a farm, been to a farm.

Wonderful was there to pick us up — but I couldn’t interest Gnalene into going to the Thirteen Coins for a late dinner — had to come home and quickly defrost some pre-made chicken cordon-bleu. And then to bed for tomorrow is a meeting morning.

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Last of the pork, last of the eggs for breakfast — still a ton of corn tortillas that I dont’ think will get used. Oh well, we did a pretty good job of clearing out the food. Basically there is enough for a salad this afternoon — looks like we will be eating out after that.

Noon brought the move to the new room — a studio, which means Murphy bed, no oven, no ice-maker. Damn. Not a bad place though:

Some of the artwork I like better, and it’s further from the pool so it’s quieter.

Afternoon snack and 2-1 Margarita in the restaurant, not sitting well, maybe a nap will help.

More laying about reading and drinking wine, late dinner up the hill at Sardinia — not cheap but good. I went for the Seafood Cobb – HUGE, will have half for breakfast, Gnarlene had the Captain John’s Seafood Platter — also HUGE, though he was hungrier and will only take home the leftover scalloped potatoes for tomorrow’s breakfast.

Guess I’d better get thinking about packing now that a load or two of laundry is done. Might be able to leave lots of the suitcase packed for Panama next week.

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Gnarlene was on a mission this morning… breakfast out. Coupon in hand (1/2 off second dish) we head to Sardina Cantina Seafood Bar and Grille, whose motto is: On The Four Lane In Front Of Carol Baja Resort. Let me tell you, yes, it is on the four lane — less than 20 feet from speeding traffic. That and they have a great logo:

Mind you those two fish look a little phallic when you reduce the logo. Not only was the Eggs Benedict stunning (fresh, with real Canadian style ham), the hash browns were stunning for Mexico. The only downside? Cash only. But it’s worth paying the ATM fee. I’m see another meal (or two) there in the future. Almost makes me wonder why I’ve been cooking in the condo.

Finished book two of three (all the magazines are gone through), and at 2 we were off on our missions. Mine: Tequila and Red Wine at the Mega, Gnarlene: further exploration of San Jose del Cabo.

My attempt at trying the McTrio dela Dio was thwarted by service soooooo slow I left. Thank you McDonalds. Came back to the condo complex and ordered a burger here… almost as long, but a litte fresher, though the oil for the fries might be from several years ago.

A nap was in order next… somehow, the last book I brought, “A Bar In Brooklyn — Novella & Stories 1970-1978” by Andrei Codrescu — who when I was in the zine business years ago we were on each others exchange list, just couldn’t make me stay awake. Mind you — I was in the zine business from 1980 or so until the mid 90’s. The collection (shameless self promotion) is the anthology edition of “Sign of the Times — A Chronicle of Decadence in the Atomic Age”. Of course this made me look for the Amazon link only to realize that I didn’t put it on their site and I still have two boxes left — I’ve taken to giving them out as birthday presents. Contact me if you want one. $10 and I’ll pay the shipping.

Dinner was pretty much a disaster — bad timing, under-cooked, then re-cooked Chicken Mole Verde, the corn was shot, had to do the beans as an afterthought, and generally the Sardina Cantina was looking good. OK — the bread and the salad were great.

Speaking of good, the Flaminco BBQ evening — the music was great, checked out the grill (after dinner) and it looked like they were pulling good things off it… oh well, next time.

Gnarlene is trying to hook up with “gordo”, a largest artist guy hawking his wares by the pool, I might just move to the over condo we have for the night, a studio for when we move tomorrow — got it a day early so we wouldn’t have to put everything (including groceries) in storage for four hours.

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Gnarlene headed to Cabo San Lucas to spend the day paddling around the bay on a kayak — my job for the day is to bring back groceries for another couple of meals. Might go out tonight for seafood if Gnarlene makes it back in time, might just have camarones (shrimp) and pasta here, or the chicken served with the green mole sauce I also picked up.

But those damn liquids — 6-pack of Diet Coke, two bottles of wine, a container of orange juice — that’s what almost killed me on the 15-20 minute walk back from the store. Or at least almost killed my fingers since they didn’t do a very good job packing them considering the tip they got.

Today’s side-note from a book that I’m about to finish “Dead Man’s Hand — Crime Fiction at the Poker Table”which is a collection of short stores by a dozen different authors, but one (John Lescroart) in his story, A Friendly Little Game, has this paragraph about why he doesn’t play poker:

Finally, and maybe most important, I really just don’t have much of a temperament for the game — in college, I’d sit in on a poker game once in a while, but I’d get literally sick with tension if I found myself in a big pot — big in those days being maybe twenty dollars. I’d barf back then, too. Here’s a free life lesson: Something makes you barf, avoid it.

Words to live by. Though I do enjoy poker, doesn’t make me barf.

I got into working on one of my projects this afternoon and totally spent the afternoon staring at a screen. Good for the wallet, bad for my tan.

Dinner tonight worked out to be the shrimp and pasta which we killed (forgot the beans!) along with the salad and bread. Time for another load of dishes!

Sorry that I don’t have a good shot for tonight. But I did have a great hot-tub tonight… having spent my day working.

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Finally got the videos uploaded of the swanky two-bedroom. The second one is guaranteed to make Swanda dizzy.

It’s in two parts because half way through taping the maid rang the doorbell with fresh robes for us.

Gnarlene’s plans for going kayaking today were scuttled because of sleeping in from too much partying last night. Sounds like tomorrow will be the answer.

Tonight dinner was the chicken/squash/corn tortilla soup that I started working on two days ago with the leftover chicken (and now stock) from Tuesday’s dinner. Can’t let anything go to waste.

And as an odd side-note, you will now find a translate button under each of these entries should you suddenly want to read my posts in Italian, as one reader does.

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Chorizo and eggs (huevos) for breakfast, roll-ups with the left-overs from the fridge, and at 4pm time to pick up the keys to tonight’s luxury digs… Room 605, a two-bedroom penthouse suite that Gnarlene can’t understand why I got it… until he gets up there and sees it:

There are some videos on the site once Twango/Ovi are done processing them — maybe I’ll just dump them onto YouTube in the meantime. Basically it’s a two-bedroom, two-bathroom 1500 sq.ft. unit. That doesn’t include the huge deck, plus the other deck upstairs with the hot tub and comfy recliners… great for nude sunbathing.

Since this unit has a BBQ on the deck, we do the steaks tonight and save the tortilla soup for tomorrow. Add some baked potatoes, a little salad, a bottle of wine and we are golden.

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For me, today was about being lazy around the resort — I didn’t even get out into the sun much because of yesterday’s “pinkness”. Breakfast was a pork, potato (bothfrom last night’s dinner) and egg scramble with a croissant for Gnarlene. Mind you, breakfast was at about 11am after much scotch and tequila last night — I’d say there is 1/4 of a bottle left on the tequila, and I wasn’t drinking it. It’s harder to tell with the scotch since it’s in such a big bottle.

Got caught up on work before the mid-afternoon food break — pork sandwiches from last nights leftovers.

Didn’t even get a nap in while Gnarlene was off exploring Cabo San Lucas proper — I might have to actually go down there Thursday when Gnarl’s is planning on kayaking the bay. After so many visits I guess I should see what Cabo proper is like, though it being spring break that might not hold true (though Gnarl’s did see two cruise ships in port today).

So, today’s topic, cooking in condos has the following photo:

How to steam vegetables with limited equipment — take their biggest pan, drop the colander on the top, put the lid back on. Steamed rather than boiled vegetables. The mini squashes were steamed and then tossed with butter, onion flakes and a little black pepper and smoked sea salt. Yum.

To this add a baked chicken lemon, some salad nicoise, the last croissant for Gnarlene, flour tortillas for me, and you have a damn fine meal while listening to the “Mexican Fiesta” going on below us — $35US seemed a bit steep for an all-you-can-eat buffet. Seems there was also a two hour floor show and fireworks (yes, plural, not like that other time where there was “firework”, precisely one).

The leftovers? Chicken was deboned, meat in a container in the fridge and bones instantly starting on stock with the leftover squash — the eventual dish… a tortilla soup once I skim the fat off and blend it all together before frying some of the tortillas and adding them as one might add noodles. Who knows what nights meal that will be.

Tomorrow night (speaking of nights) we are in the two-bedroom penthouse. Met a woman on the elevator staying in one and she was gushing about the roof-top deck. Maybe I can get Gnarlene to pick up the extra $70 for that night and the overlapping night at the end when we have to change rooms. Either way, not a big deal. Need to check it out for Rich’s 60th next year.

Other amusing thing tonight was a call from Monica who I visit when I’m in Juneau — they (husband, and I assume the kids) are in Seattle and wanted to have dinner with me tomorrow. I offered them a room in Cabo, but they declined. Guess I’ll be going back to Juneau.

Time to check how the stock is coming.

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When I was last in Cabo, with Jill and Jameson the nearest grocery store was several miles north. Definately a cab/van ride in each direction. Today, a mere 1 kilometer north (.6 miles) is a Mega store — everything from groceries to kitchen appliances… and a McDonalds, Starbucks, Dairy Queen, Sushi Restaurant and nalf a dozen other things.

Yes, and the sign in the background is advertising the McTrio (Big Mac in the US) for 49 pesos ($3.83 at the exchange frate of 12.8 pesos to the dollar).

The RV Park with it’s decent restaurant is closed and fenced off, awaiting the next wave of money to turn it into another resort to fill the only hole left between Cabo San Lucas and the old San Jose del Cabo. What we lost in that close by restaurant is a Dominos and a Subway on the highway behind the resort along with a couple of other small restaurants that we should check out. We’ll pass on the Dominos, Subway, and the Applebees across the highway — all new since my last trip five years ago.

All this is good to know since a couple of weeks ago I booked a week here (and a week in Whistler) for Rich’s 60th birthday. For that I booked a two-bedroom penthouse, which we’ll try out tomorrow to see if it was worth sucking my points available for borrowing from next year down to 450 points.

Today’s big adventure after breakfast (a chile rellano stuff with eggs, bacon and cheese) was the trip to the Mega for groceries. Six bags and 850 pesos ($66.40) later we have enough food and booze for the next couple of days… a pork roast for tonights dinner, a chicken (pollo) for tomorrow, two bottles of wine, a bottle of tequila, bread, butter, vegetables, fruit, the whole shooting match. Not two bad, really.

The bad part was walking the six heavy bags back to the condo.

Afternoon around the pool (yes, I’m a little pink in parts) starting with happy hour number one (2-4pm at the pool swim-up bar).  At two for one we each had three fruity rummy drinks before calling it quits even before happy hour number two (4-6 at the sports bar on the property) or happy hour number three (6-8 at the bar right on the highway).

What I realized this afternoon is that my friend Cathy whose honeymoon week we are using because she postponed the wedding, would probably have hated this place. It isn’t the Mexico of her youth travelling with her father buying chess sets with silver dollars. This is spring break week and it is party, party, party with the 18-25 year old set (most with parents in tow drinking just as hard along with them).

The weather is great as you can see from the photos in the scroller bar:

We had dinner on the deck and stayed up way too late drinking scotch and tequila.

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I sound like a broken record — I hate getting up for early morning flight. Who would have thought 9am is an early flight, but with it being international, it’s the two-hour rule. Get there early.

As well we did as the airport was jammed with spring break travellers, parents, teenagers, college students, children, basically a zoo.

Flight to LA unexceptional other than there wasn’t a spare seat to be had, as was true on the flight to Cabo (though there might have been one or two middle seats left). Not a good time of the year to be flying in coach.

Hit the Board Room in Seattle and the one at LAX (which is slated for a new one once they switch terminals early next year). Popped into duty-free for a couple of bottles of duty-free scotch (2 for $30). Scotch (and whiskey in general) is one of the few things that aren’t cheaper in Mexico.

Amazingly enough, all the time-share touts didn’t swam us at the airport as we were warned — and our driver was there just about the same time as we cleared customs and the terminal building, and off to the WorldMark Coral Baja.

Our room (one of three that we are using during this stay):

It was just at 5pm when we got settled in… by 6 Gnarlene was napping on the couch, by 8 we were at Mama Mia (the restaurant on the grounds) for dinner.

With the exhaustion of travelling, Gnarlene was in bed reading at 9 (which meant asleep by 9:15!) and me an hour after.

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In theory, the website re-design is done. Whether the owner “pulls the switch” is up in the air. I’ve done my part. Rename one page on the server “index.htm” and the site will switch to the new one. Silence since 10am. Not my problem at the moment.

My problem. Getting every duck in the road for leaving tomorrow:

• Mick for transportation
• Gnalene for being ready

Sometimes I think travelling solo might be better.

In the mean time… it’s surf and turf on the grill tonight. Skewers of marinated shrimp to go with the steaks off the grill, mini-loaves of bread, salad, wine. Damn, life is hard.

Wish there were a photo for tonight — maybe me falling off the deck. That would be great… break your leg right before a week long trip.

Oops, tripped on the deck.

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Round one of all the pages of the website are done and uploaded — by around 2pm this afternoon. 32 pages, with a query in as to whether I should do another ten or so “travel” pages. No comments back yet which is either good or bad, probably neither, just that he is busy.

Time to start on bread for dinner — when my phone starts chirping with an appointment in fifteen minutes… ah, my appointment with my tax account. Shit. 15 minutes from South Park to Bellevue. Not going to happen.

Ring, Ring. Linda — I’ll put it in the mail. Sorry. Take a coffee break and relax between clients. Can’t apologize enough. No, nothing out of the ordinary this year, no houses bought/sold. Email me with questions, on the road starting Sunday.

Not my finest moment, forgetting an important appointment. But the bread came out great.

Graf showed up around 4:30 to hang out before a dinner of shrimp and pork tenderloin, with spinach wilted with seasoned bacon — talk about a kosher dinner!

Oh look — my headphones — better pack those, and maybe sunglasses would help too.

Getting closer.

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