Hola! Part Three

Days 3 to 7: Tennis, Sleep, Food - The rest of my days at Tennis El Palmar had a nice pattern. Get up early, enjoy the fresh bread that was delivered to my door each morning with some cheese. Head off to tennis - throughout my 7 days in Mexico - people came and went but there was always great people to play with. After tennis - another shower, a snack and probably a nap.




Later in the afternoon there would be a trip to the market or the corner store for supplies. In addition to my many fish tacos I had fresh fruit(strawberries, mango, pineapple), guacamole with lime and torillas everyday! In the evening once it got cool there would be dinner at a local restaurant. One night we had a bbq with everyone staying in the complex.

The one thing I didn't get to do in Mexico was surf or even swim - the waves were just a little too intense. They broke really close to the shore and at times were very big. The last night I was there they were so big they shook the building! My door rattled every time a wave came in. Most nights though the sound of the waves put me to sleep.
I read two books while I was gone and at the end of the week I marvelled at my face - no bags under my eyes and the crevice between my eyes (my work stress wrinkle) had disappeared. I think I could have stayed in Mexico indefinitely!

Hola! Part Two

Second Day: Tennis in Mexico - Bright and early Monday morning Fergie our chauffeur, tennis coach and tour guide picked us up at the hotel. When I arrived there were 5 other tennis players staying at the hotel so we had a full van. Fergie lives in Mexico part time like most Americans and Canadians who call Melaque home. We arrived at the courts in Cihuatlan in about 15 minutes and discovered they are beautiful! I don't think pictures could capture it - surrounded by fields of palm and banana trees, flowers everywhere. And the heat! At 9 am when we arrived it was tolerable but by 10:30 I was soaked. We played for 3 hours and then the six of us piled back into the van to head home. Don Paulo the owner of the courts came to meet us and gave us each a bunch of tiny bananas - dominicas. Very tasty after the hours in the sun. The potassium I'm sure helped keep the muscle cramping at bay too!
After tennis was an adventure on the bus with some new friends from Tennis El Palmar. We took the bus to Barra de Navidad a nearby town on the beach. However we decided to take the bus the opposite direction that would go through the downtown of Melaque so we could see more. We thought the bus would loop back around in Melaque and then take us on to Barra. Well...we did see a lot and the bus ride was an adventure. We slowly made our way through Melaque and at the end of the downtown we didn't turn around. We started to get concerned as the bus headed farther north and up into the hills. When we stopped we were informed to get off- that it was the end of the line. We weren't sure what to do knowing we couldn't walk back to town and we didn't know where we were. Luckily a fellow Canadian noticed us and he explained where we were and that another bus would be heading back to Melaque and on to Barra in about 5 minutes. About an hour and a half after we left the hotel we circled past the bus stop we started from! Barra was worth the trip - it was a nice beach town with lots of shops and restaurants right along the beach. I had my first of many Mexican fish tacos and some great coffee. After the adventure it was time for my daily siesta. My naps were usually 2-3 hours of sleep by the pool or under the fan in my room. Because the tennis and the sun I slept 12-13 hours a day. It was great!

Hola! Part One

So my big adventure in March was my solo trip to Mexico. It was definitely an adventure to travel to a new country on my own.

First Day:Arriving - I catch a cab without mishap from the Manzanillo airport and travel the half hour north to Melaque. (Melackee) The cabbie was very efficient and definitely had a method for dealing with the heat. He had a towel tucked into his collar and his hair slicked back so with the windows open the wind wouldn't mess his hair! The trip in the cab was a great way to absorb the landscape. Lots of palm trees, papaya, mango and banana fields. I was thinking that I could have rented a car and driven myself until we came up on the first giant speed bump in the middle of the highway. Given that the warnings for these speed bump are in Spanish I probably wouldn't have seen then until the car was airborne! The speed bumps seem to be the only way speed can be controlled on the highways and roads so they are everywhere and huge!

After navigating a small town - which again would have thrown me if I had rented a car - we came upon Melaque. After turning off the highway we started winding our way through the small mostly unpaved streets until I saw the sign Tennis El Palmar and I knew I had arrived. The cabbie dropped me off and I went to what looked like the front door. It had a pad lock on it...hmmm maybe they are gone for awhile and they'll be back. I tried what looked like a door on the side of the building - I tried pulling on it but there was no handle. The entire place was surrounded with a 10 foot wall so I couldn't see in.

The panic started to rise a little - I had the phone number for the place but I hadn't bothered to check if my cell phone worked in Mexico. I didn't have any change so I wouldn't be able to use a pay phone. I thought about yelling but that seemed a bit futile. I went back to the front door and I finally noticed a button that hopefully was a doorbell. I pushed it and my host appeared at the door! He led me back to the door on the side and explained I PUSH the door to get in! Ah! He gave me my keys and a bit of an explanation of the surrounding area. I hauled my suitcase up the stairs to my suite. A bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and sitting area. Very nice and such a relief! I ventured down to the beach and to the corner store where I bought some food. I was so tired and a little disorientated I decided to just crash after a couple of hours. I think I fell asleep at 8 pm! I wanted to be well rested for the next adventure - tennis at 8:30 the next morning.

Snow Patrol, Ok Go and Silver Sun Pickups

I should be posting something about my trip to Mexico but I decided to post my comments on the Snow Patrol show last night instead.

Despite having to wait an extra 1.5 hours to get in it was an excellent show. There was a power outage that went until 5pm so there almost wasn't a show at all!

Silver Sun Pickups played first and they are pretty decent band - the lead singer screams at bit too often for my taste but I like their sound. Their last song with the OK Go drummer and Paulo from Snow Patrol was really cool.

Ok Go was a bit of sensory overload due to the video being constantly played on the screen behind them. Some of the video was irritating but some of it was really cool and I was often watching the video more than listening. The slow-mo clip of a some girls getting doused in water was the highlight for me. The slash of water was slowed way down and the water almost seemed separated from the image of the girls, but from the expression on the girls' faces you knew the water was going to hit them!

Snow Patrol was AMAZING! Their sound was great live and really deserved to be in a bigger space. MacEwan Hall was fine but SP really make the space feel too small. They have huge, soaring music that belongs in an arena or a stadium - hopefully someday they will be playing those venues in Canada. I'm sure they have gotten to do that in the UK. It's hard to pick out a favourite song but two that come to mind are Set the Fire to the Third Bar with Nicki from Silver Sun Pickups singing Martha Wainwright's part and Open Your Eyes in the encore. I was really looking forward to hearing Chasing Cars and it was good but I was happy that some of the less popular songs were really spectacular.

My ears hurt and my legs are sore from standing for 5 hours but it was all worth it!