Mexico

 Mexico time number 5! Twice at a private condo and this is time number 3 at an all inclusive. First off 3AM is an ungodly hour. If you are up until 3 that's one thing and my old ass is tired if I do that now BUT getting up at 3 is ungodly. I am a morning person and it still hurts 5am fine 3 ouch. But I got up, took my dogs out for a pee, made a coffee and tried to poop. NO success on the last even though every other morning a single sip of coffee and I am good to go. Had a shower finished packing the last few things I needed, my wife is a packer. When we go somewhere if you need it ask her and she will have it. So this time I said throw a bit of your stuff in my bag so it isn't over the limit. When we got there she was a couple pounds under and I was less than a pound over. So they put a red sticker on my and we are good to go. That means though we had 98LBS of luggage.... Anyways my mother inlaw drove us to the airport. From here it goes down hill. First my wife gets randomly checked for god knows what. Down to taking the iPad out of the cover and getting swabbed for drugs. Honestly why?? Even if it had been sitting in a mountain of cocaine why does airport security care? Then they changed security so your items go down a belt now and are also checked instead of just being scanned and handed back to you? I guess I had too much sitting on my laptop so it had to be rescanned as well. Security which should have been 5 minutes was 20. Yes a first world problem but annoying AF at 4 in the AM with little coffee and not popping! We ate breakfast at the Belgian beer house or something. It was good and then I could get my business done. Next we went to duty free, I thought that was supposed to be a good deal. Honestly its not. I am almost out of cologne so I thought perfect I know they have it, but it is more than the store at WEM. Yes a couple things are good prices IF you buy enough to put yourself over the limit and have to declare them. Then you pay the tax anyways and it is no savings so it is a joke. Anyways while waiting I ran into the guy whose job I took over had like a 2 minute visit before we had to leave. Funny the people you run into in airports, almost every trip I have gone on I have seen someone unexpected.

The plane ride was fine. Watched The many Saints of Newark on my cell phone. It is really good, well its like a long Sopranos episode, so if you liked the show you'll like this. We landed early even though we took off late so that was cool. You wanna talk about annoying passengers, there is these 2 chicks in the airport refusing to mask properly. This annoys the hell outta me. I hate masks, I supported the truckers. However if it is the rule where you are, you might as well do it. Anyways they are right behind us and can't keep their feet off my wifes seat. Like you expect a 3 year old to do.... The stewardess repeatedly gave them shit for not masking properly and feet up. You want the truth, I would have been fine with an extra stop in New Orleans to have them taken off the plane as the pilot said people would be if they didn't mask. Ya we would be behind but fun story to tell.... Side note a mask from 4AM for 8 solid hours in airport and on a plane REALLY sucks!!! We land an Mexico security has us and way more people through in half the time Canada did. Baggage was a nightmare!!! Everyone from the plane is around the carousel waiting. It starts, it stops, 4 times. The Westjet guy keeps looking and calling someone and everyone is getting nervous, then hallelujah bags start coming. Swear to god ours were among the last and ya I was fucking nervous, losing our bags would have been an awful start to a dream trip!!! We are running behind but go out and get our "cab" to the resort. Just over an hour later we are there. Gotta say the driver was great and I didn't get any murdery vibes off him like one driver we had on our honeymoon. When we are check in the buffet is closed and you can't get into al ecarrtes. SO first night in an all inclusive I have to spend money. It actually wasn't bad 190 pesos. Whats funny is it doesn't matter what you order. Seafood pasta I had is the same price as a hotdog. So I go to order and they say no, you have no card on file. Fuck it I walk to the lobby in my pajama shorts to put a card on file. Ya when I am on the road for work I don't care. People all across northern Alberta have seen my PJs but here I felt dumb. Soon as I walk in people are all in their fancy night clothes or whatever they are up to and I have sweat shorts with monkeys on them. Pasta got there in an hour and it was good. Then honestly I passed the fuck out for 10 hours. I cannot remember the last time I slept for 10 hours or the last time I slept until 7AM

My wife on the other hand didn't sleep well. She heard the partiers and me snoring and the room only cools down to 21. I often keep our house at 18. So we argued a bit first thing and I went for a walk to look around. Barcelo is a beauty. So many pools, white sand beaches and that blue blue ocean. After we each cooled down some we went to breakfast. Buffet, very good lots to try. Sadly no chicken wings. Also didn't find the omlette station until to late but will give it a try tomorrow... Then as any good travelers do we went and booked our dinners, massages and looked into the covid test. Then confirmed our return to the airport ride and looked into excursions. At this point that is still in the air. Do we risk it?? I mean yes everything is a risk but I would assume the more you go out the riskier it gets. So there is 4 options. 1 do nothing, be fine but go home bummed out you did nothing. 2 do nothing get it and be stuck here mad at doing nothing and having it. 3 Do something get it but at least you did something or the ideal 4 do something not get it and go home. Perfecto. Here is the problem with getting it. It sounds great, stay in Mexico for 10 more days! BUT you are confined to your room. So you can watch paradise but thats all. Also it aint free, sure covid insurance will cover some BUT a big chunk is coming out of your pocket. Yes I have some extra $$ BUT not enough to pay for an even longer trip here. Anyways after that we walked the whole 5 resort properties. Its very nice. A lot of pools and activities. We wanted to go to the pool after but it was full so hit the ocean. That was fun, bit rocky but nice. Cleaned up and went to the "mall" after that. Kinda sad, the same as everywhere in Mexico. nick nacks that look cool but probably dont need and liquor! Oh I got my first drink but drew a blank, went and stood at the bar and wanted something "fun" slushy instead I panicked and ordered vodka. They had a smirov bottle but poured from a rando bottle that really wasn't every good. Hit a late buffet after that. This time I wasn't super impressed. The food was okay but the service wasn't amazing. had to go get my own drinks and they didn't have the Malibu my wife wanted. Also ordered another vodka and forgot to say good vodka so got the same mystery bottle. Leaving with a drink in my hand I literally dropped it just outside the lobby and felt like a giant tool! Then tried to explain to the desk they should have someone clean it up but they kept thinking it was in my room..... Back in the room I grabbed my laptop and started this. About dinner time now but still full so not going to rush to buffet. Maybe some snack later in the room. Contemplating trying out our balcony bathtub but might wanna grab wine or something. In fact I should have grab some cigars could have smoked one while I wrote this and unlike stupid Canada I can still get cherry or vanilla down here. Not sure I want to try the tequila flavour I saw though.... Anyways was a quite night. Watched the pools empty at 6 when the suppers opened up. We did end up having a nice bubble bath on the balcony tub but yes wore bathing suits to not put on a show for those leaving. Mostly read my books. Went for a walk at 7308 ish in the dark. 

I will not do a holier than thou rant here but I am gonna say I dont get douche baggery. Lights are all down and the workers are cleaning pools. A group of young guys walks by and one washes his feet in the pool right beside the cleaner. Now I get sure if it was just sand it is going to make 0 difference the point is WHY right beside the cleaner. Thats just a fuck you move. Then I see 2 other young guys come up the trail and just toss a beer can into the path. Really dude? I cannot lie and say I haven't done dumb shit and sometimes regretted it. Doing these things right in front of the guys cleaning up so you have a nice trip though is just rude. Like thats something even drunk dumb Tavis wouldn't do. These people are barely making a living and thats what you do? I would have looked the other way security slapped them around. I don't mean anything serious but put the fear of god back in them! This could turn into a long rant about "kids" or society these days but Ill let it go. I am just saying don't be a cunt!

Anyways on that walk I saw a couple that booked a nice beachside supper. To me it was cute but part of me also thought sitting in the dark on a beach was kind of creepy. So I dunno is it worth it? If it was a big group I might be into it.... Thats how that night ended, pretty quiet.

We slept also until 7 again! To me this is a win. I am awake at 5, so laying in bed until 7 is heaven. I knew my wife didn't sleep well so I left her sleep even though I was awake at 6. I knew she wanted to run the path between resorts but I also figured she was on holidays and could use rest. The AM was pretty routine. I showered and we went for breakfast. I do it small, meaning I might have 2 or 3 plates BUT each plate has samples of everything I think I might like. What I feel about buffets is don't be a fucking pig and then leave half of it. All inclusive is amazing, why do you need to be a savage. Why take more than you would normally? I will 100% say try it all but there really isn't a need to be wasteful. So we had buffet and went for a walk again through all the properties. It was hot already! Shortly after that we went down to the pool and read for about an hour. This time I was smart enough to order a double of the good vodka however the bartender heard soda instead of cola. Funny enough it turned out good! So we went down to the beach and hopped in. The wife said something that made me kinda sad. It was brave to leave a drink unattended. Never thought of it. Women watch drinks like hawks, shit I have finished drinks I wasn't 100% were mine... But I will move on from that even though it made me think how fucked it is we have to watch drinks. We had fun in the ocean, big waves and swimming you pervs nothing else. Then it was back to room. I sat and wrote some of this. Smoked a cigar, that was supposed to be cherry and had a drink. Emailed my coworkers a pic of it cause I am a dick. I guess its minus 17 in Edmonton 30 here feels like 37.... The view is amazing. Palm trees and pools. Then I got ready for our dinner.

I shaved, I dont do that unless it is getting out of hand but I really want a nice holiday. We went to the french Al e carte. I had escargot to start and it was good. Small but good. Then some sort of steak. In Mexico steak is either great or not good. I assumed a fancy place would be great and it was! Wife had the salmon and it was great too. Now they were a bit stingy on the wine and I think they really ant you to buy the bottle BUT it is more than in Canada so I said no and we didn't get much... Either way it was a great dinner. Thats it! I am not going to be on my blog all holiday telling you about it! Barcelo is well worth checking out. Ummm I guess pre-tan. I covered my wife ass in sun screen numerous times a day and still am burnt to shit. Bring American $1. The are more useful than any other bill. Oh and tip, Jesus if everything is included leave some $$ for the workers. If you are drinking, make sure you drink water and eat. Everyone says the liquor is watered down and MAYBE it is but it can still kick your ass. I would say the only thing is you don't get as bad a hangover. Bring a hat and well get on board with either Iphone or something like WhatsApp if you wanna communicate with people. I dunno shut off the media and just enjoy being away.......