Flotsam y Jetsam

Random notes from the tropics...

• Vacations with a two-and-a-half year old may be a lot of things, but relaxing they ain't.


• According to my decidedly unscientific observations, people were fucking like bunnies in the fall of 2003, given the massive number of people who claim to have two-and-a-half year olds around here. However, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that only half of those are for real. The other half are trying to pitch you a timeshare.


• My spanglish is improving, if the "conversation" I had with our housekeeper is any indication:
  
  Housekeeper: [knocks on door]
  
  Me: [opening door] ¡Hola!
  
  Housekeeper: [I think she was asking me if she could come and clean our room]
  
  Me: Uh... el niño... uh... siesta?
  
  Housekeeper: [I imagine she was asking me when she would be able to do it]
  
  Me: Uh... tres? [hold up three fingers]
  
  Housekeeper: [shakes head, tells me she's going home at three?]
  
  Me: Uh... mañana?
  
  Housekeeper: [I really have no idea - I'm wingin' it here folks]
  
  Me: Uh... qué?
  
  Housekeeper: [pantomines drying off with a towel]
  
  Me: Oh, towels! Sí, sí!


• The margaritas at the more spendy restaurants have way more tequila in them than you get with the two-for-one specials most bars offer.


• I ♥ lax public drinking laws!


• I think saying one is from Oregon is code for "wants to buy weed" down here. I've been asked by locals where I'm from five times (all, incidentally, by people pushing timeshares), and when I mentioned I was from Oregon, all five of them offered to hook me up with some pot. I kid you not.


• Hard-partying spring-breakers from USC make the worst neighbors possible. They come and go loudly in the middle of the night, leave vomit in all sorts of unpredictable locations, and are snotty assholes who make bratty comments about my kid. Hard-partying gay men, on the other hand, are the ideal neighbors. While partying thrice as hard as the college kids (if the roof lounge of the Blue Chair is any indication), they don't vomit in public, have the decency to keep the noise down after 9:30 PM (which I think is kinda early!!!), are super nice, and they absolutely adore l'il wobs.


• While we're loving our time on the Playa de los Muertos, we're planning on taking a water-taxi to one of the more secluded, accessed by boat only beachs on the southside of the Bahía de Banderas in the next couple of days. I'm planning on taking a little jaunt through the jungle, and I think we're looking forward to being out of the city for a spell.

I can hear the surf lulling me to sleep. Until later...