Ixtapa

Got up in Seattle at 2:30am, left at 3:08am. Easy drive to airport. Long line at checkin; only a few people assisting. Lynch's arrived late. Plane was overbooked, but we all got seats, even though ours weren't together. Lots of people were in the same boat, so after some musical chairs we all ended up together.

Plane was around 30 mins late taking off because of a safety issue: someone's tray table wouldn't stay shut. Some duct tape and we were away. Heidi slept the whole first flight.

Tight connection at Phoenix; being late meant our plane was already boarding by the time we got there. Hot-footed it through the terminal, ignoring the signs that said our flight had departed. They had held the flight for us because there were 20 people making the same connection as us.

Flight to Ixtapa: they made us close the blinds so they could show a movie. Stupid. No meal service on either flight; we were ravenous. Tasha behaving very well, hadn't slept since 2am.

Arrived at Ixtapa in crushing heat and humidity. Terminal was bigger than I expected, but we were soon treated to our first taste of Mexican efficiency when it came time to go through immigration control. Two 737s had arrived at the same time, and they had 4 inspectors processing arrivals. An hour in a very long, uncomfortable line and we were through. The baggage claim hall was deserted because the immigration check was so slow -- as people dribbled through they were able to collect their bags and leave pretty easily.

We got our bags, played the "are you going to get your bags searched" lottery (traffic lights with a button), and we were officially into Mexico! There was the expected lady with a "Club Med" sign waiting to hand us a taxi voucher. We paused for a second to withdraw some cash, buy a few essentials, and to consider waiting for the Lynch's but as we would be travelling in a car instead of a bus we decided to head off. (We found out later that this was a wise decision: soon after we left, one of the immigration computers broke down, causing another hour delay).

Club Med is a "short" distance from the airport. It was difficult to gauge the actual distance due to the requisite high-speed hair-raising taxi ride. The roads were mixed: near the airport they were potholed, but gradually improved as we neared the coast/resort. Lots of winding bends as we came down the mountains. I was watching the speedometer, and was praying that Mexico uses the metric system as we were regularly exceeding 110 in a 60 zone.

Other interesting things seen on the journey:

• A man on a donkey (on the same road as us)
  
• Lots of trucks carrying bottled water
  
• Very few new (looking) cars
  
• Lots of VW Beetles (old-style)
  
• A car with a completely demolished front-end weaving all over the road
  

This last item was the only thing that gave our driver pause; he carefully slowed down to around 80 km/h as we passed (speed limit was 40 km/h) before gunning it back up to cruising speed.

We arrived at the resort and were greeted by the Club Med "G.O." -- a French term, whose English translation is "Guest Organizer". These are the young student-types working for around six months to make some holiday money. They're young, full of energy, extroverted, and apparently all from Vancouver, B.C.



We were signed in, and Heidi and I received the most important item of the week: our wristbands, which give us access to the open bar. We also were offered a drink, which we nervously accepted after being assured that all of the water and ice at the resort was filtered.

We were shown to our room:





...where we unpacked and then went for a walk to explore the grounds. It's a huge resort with everything: horse riding, soccer, sailing, fishing, 4 pools, etc.... and, of course, an open bar, where we settled ourselves to wait for the Lynch's. It's an odd experience to order alcohol at a bar and then wandering away without paying for it... something that will require a great deal of practise to get used to.



The Lynch's arrived, and we joined them for dinner. The restaurant is a semi-open building: it's technically inside, but the walls are giant open arches. Birds are aware of this, and during meals (especially during the day) they will often swoop in and snatch an unattended morsel.

The food itself is incredible: it's an enormous four-room buffet, total area which exceeds a tennis court. They apparently offer different food each night based on a theme, but they also have the traditional spag bol, pizza, fries, and hotdogs for the gringos. Just when you think you've seen it all, you wander through an arch into another room and have to rethink your entire plan of attack.





Following dinner we were extremely tired: as well as having been up for an extremely long time, we were pretty much sapped by the heat and the humidity. Following some face-painting and some more exploring, it was time to crash out and get ready for the next week!

Sunday

With the two-hour time difference and the lack of sleep, we didn't wake up until 10am local time. Breakfast ended at 11, so it was a bit of a rush to lathered up in sunscreen, find everything, and rush Tasha off to Mini Club Med. We got to the restaurant, only to discover that daylight savings had kicked in and we had lost another hour... it was now nearly noon!

We made our way to Mini Club Med, where we bumped into Raymie and Claire. Their group was just finishing up at the beach, so we headed to the restaurant to catch up with them for lunch.

Heidi and I spent some time just sitting around: looking at activities and what excursions were on offer. There was also the boutique with clothes, etc, plus a small stand with some silver jewelery.

At 3pm we went to the kids club to pick up Tasha, who was having a great time in the kids pool. We went back to our room for another round of sunscreen, and then headed for the beach.

A word about the heat: it's damn hot here. Heidi doesn't seem to find it as hot as I do, but to me it's as bad as an Australian summer. I checked the weather station during the day: 96 deg F at 82% humidity... and only the first month of Spring! Our room is air-conditioned, and once you leave it you've got about 20 minutes before the sweat starts dripping off you. I found myself in a dilemma: the less I wore the cooler I was, but the more likely to get burnt by the sun.

The beach was very nice. We had to carry Tasha over the dry parts of the beach because the sand was too hot. We found a pair of recliners under a palm tree and set up camp. I then took Tasha down to the water for her first swim in the open ocean (lots of squealing and running away from six-inch waves). I took her out beyond the swell, and we floated around for a while. Once she was comfortable we tried a bit of body-surfing; the amount of sunscreen we were both wearing made it difficult for her to cling to my back, but we managed to catch a few waves (and get dumped at least once).


As well as all the official Club Med activities, there are a lot of entrepreneurial types along the beach: guys selling hats and hammocks, as well as offering all sorts of rides: banana boats, jetski, deep sea fishing, etc. We hadn't brought any money, so we went back to the room to collect some, intending to ride the banana boat (only $5 each!)

By the time we got back there, however, they were packing the boat up for the day. They were still offering the jetski, so I rented it for a half-hour's fun. There's an island a short distance offshore, and the shoals around the rocks create some waves much larger than those on the beach. After a bit of experimentation, I found the right angle to approach the waves so I could get airborne over the top of them.

Returning from one particularly lofty jump, I saw a guy in a longboat waving me off and blowing a whistle, which I presumed meant "hey, dude, take it easy" so I slowed down a bit. After pottering around the bay wondering what to do, I realized that the guy was still chasing me around and blowing his whistle... uh oh. What's that he's waving? Oh, a gas can! Ok, I get it now; he just wants to fill up the tank! Five minutes later, I was back out at the reef flying over the waves again.

Back to the room for a shower and a change of clothes, then on to the bar for a serious investigation of the open bar and the piña coladas, margaritas, and Corona they have on-tap.

We met up with the Lynchs for dinner, which tonight featured an Asian theme: sushi, noodles, thai chicken, etc. Also on offer was sashimi from a 220lb tuna caught earlier that day:



After dinner, we kicked back and relaxed. Heidi and Raymie went to the bar, while Peter and I took the kids for a swim in the main pool which I'm convinced had to be heated as it was warmer than the slightly cooling evening air.

Another busy day; we were dead tired and glad to hit the sack.