of sun, sand, and goats

The goats are an inside joke between me and "Celeste" (who continues to remain anonymous on this trip), but I can share far too much about the sun and sand aspects of today. Celeste and I woke up around nine a.m. and scampered out to breakfast, which was yet another delicious buffet odyssey; the food has been undeniably delicious, and a huge improvement from the first night when I ordered what I thought was steak and instead received shank. Then, we walked down the street to the pharmacy, which still charged extortionate prices for sunscreen, but the prices were slightly less exorbitant than at the hotel gift shop, and my skin looked like it had been licked by a fire-breathing dragon, so no price was too great to pay for some SPF 60. I also successfully scored a Playa del Carmen mug from Starbucks; I've sort of vaguely started collecting them from various cities, and I have the ones from Hawaii and Singapore, so it was nice to add this one to the group. I had been to the Starbucks two days ago looking for one, and when the person behind the counter asked if she could help me, I said "Usted tiene un Starbuck mug?" which was apparently enough Spanish to unleash a torrent from her, but I caught "manana" and figured it was worth checking back. Luckily, I was right, and so I have a single sad yuppified souvenir from this trip.

Celeste and I spent a couple of hours in the sun, but this very leathery-looking "beauty" who had spent the past several days rubbing baby oil on her already tanned-beyond-recognition skin served as a cautionary tale. I kept my shirt and shorts on, and while I think I burned a bit more on the backs of my shoulders, it could have been much, much worse. We then had a late lunch at the grill by the pool, then went back to the room to get cleaned up and check out the tea time going on in the lobby -- but instead of going to teatime, we just lazed in our room and read books and dozed. It was an idyllic afternoon, and a much welcome break from the sun.

We finally got gussied up for dinner at Las Ventanas, the fancy "international cuisine" restaurant. I think last night was just slightly better, but I loved the food here; Celeste and I split four appetizers (see:all-inclusive), including a foie gras dish, an ahi tuna on toast, a small plate of six gnocchi w/shrimp, and another shrimp dish with pesto), each had steak for the entree, and then had interesting and intriguing desserts. We were there for a couple of hours chatting about life over the food and two glasses of champagne each. Then we relocated to a bar, where we had at least four drinks each (margaritas for her, mojitos for me) while continuing our discussion for another couple of hours. We ordered quesadillas and chips (also all-inclusive) when we got back to the room and ate those, at which point Celeste promptly fell asleep. Now, I need to enter that blessed state as well; our car is taking us to the airport at twelve tomorrow, which is much too soon for our vacation to end, but that means we need to get up, shower, pack and eat before then. It shouldn't be too hard since we each only brought carry-ons and our only purchases were sunscreen (which can be abandoned) and my coffee mug, but we don't want to be late (particularly since I have massive apartment-packing to do as soon as i get home). Goodnight!