There’s a good chance Roy and I were the whitest people at the Mexican resort when we arrived January 31. As we departed one week later, not much had really changed. At least not colour-wise.
We had slathered on the SPF 60 sunscreen and sought out umbrellas and other shade structures. I realize this sounds kind of boring and hokey, but honestly, malignant melanoma has such an ugly ring to it.
There were those people at the resort lounging around the pool or on the beach for hours on end day after day. There were those people who had done this very thing many, many times for many years. They were the ones with the dark, wrinkled, leathery skin that looked like it belonged to a very old turtle. There were others who had no protection whatsoever and were lobster-red. So we played it safe and came home white.
The resort was a people-watcher’s delight. I have one small question though. Most of us are aware of the seven wonders of the world; I’d like to suggest an eighth. Can we possibly add all those women who are older than 18 or 30 or maybe even 40 who don’t have cellulite? It’s a miracle. I saw it with my own eyes. More than once. A bloody miracle, I tell you.
The Royal Solaris at San Jose Del Cabo is a lovely all-inclusive resort and we had a wonderful week of kicking back. The food was incredible but I couldn’t convince Roy to try the octopus or squid or cactus pads or a whole bunch of other different foods.
?Just try a tiny bit,? I’d say. ?If you hadn’t tried the food you love now, you’d never know you love it, right??
How nice to taste a morsel of this and a morsel (or more) of that: fresh papaya, pineapple, and watermelon; fish and seafood; build-your-own omelettes; desserts galore. And the Miami Vice drinks weren’t half bad either.
We took a glass-bottomed boat out to El Arco and Lover’s beach from Los Cabos and saw sea lions sunning themselves. For eight pesos we rode a refurbished American school bus downtown and moved from one small shop to another in search of gifts for some of our ?peeps? back home.
Over the course of a week I found a couple of leather handbags for me. Some jewellery for me. Some art cards for me. A ring with a Mexican fire opal?you guessed it?for me. Roy got two key chains worth eight dollars. I just know he will parlay that into a hundred dollars worth of poor-me stories for friends and relatives!
I also read a novel by late-night host Craig Ferguson, a historical romance by The Voice’s very own Sandra Livingston, an early novel by Joan Barfoot, and tried yet again to read Thoreau’s Walden. It was a succulent week of words. Escapism at its finest, from where I sit.