May 1, Day 2 – I woke up in the middle of the night. I frequently do my first night in a strange bed. I would have taken an Ambien last night to prevent this, but in view of the amount of alcohol I consumed, that did not seem like a good idea :drunkfall
We woke up pretty early. The drapes completely block out any outside light, so Zung peeked out and reported it was sunny. We got dressed and headed to Bella Vista for breakfast.
The Grand has three options for breakfast, Bella Vista, which is the buffet restaurant in the main building, just two flights down the stairs for us, Las Brisa, the building right off the beach, and room service. We were seated and the waiter came over and asked if we wanted coffee. Zung said yes and I asked for hot tea. The waiter plopped down a carafe and walked away. We had no idea it had coffee in it and when he came back and saw that Zung had not poured it himself the waiter poured it. I have to say I was surprised the waiter didn’t pour it. This was in contrast to last year when they brought you a cup of coffee and if you asked for a second cup, they brought you more coffee in a clean cup.
Zung got what he always gets, an omelet and fruit and fresh donut. Sorry guys, no pictures of food with the exception of some desserts. But lots of pictures of delicious drinks.
I had fruit (was disappointed there was no mango because last year it was sooo yum). I had a scrambled egg and fruit and a croissant.
Breakfast was done and the next task was to make dinner reservations. We went to the concierge. On our way we saw Eduardo, our butler, who asked how things were and was there anything we needed. I said no, he got me my Havana rum, so I was good. We made dinner ressies for Venecia, the Italian. I was hoping our amazing waiter, Karim, from last year would be there. Had no problem getting the time we wanted for any of our dinner reservations.
Then we greased up with sunscreen and headed out to the beach. We parked ourselves on the south side of building #70, which is the Ocean Front building that is next to the Maya. The advantage is the water is more swimmable than what is in front of building #71. It wasn’t long before a waiter was out to get our first drink order.
I sat there, looking at the ocean, listening to the ocean, smelling the ocean, feeling the ocean breeze on my body. I was in heaven. I think I probably had a big, silly grin on my face. I was so happy to be there.
We read and drank and I baked in the sun while Zung stayed in the shade of the palapa.
There are tons of palapas on the beach, While there was chair saving, it really wasn’t necessary. The pool has cabanas and those appeared to be claimed early on. We never parked ourselves by the pool. There was just too much activity that intruded on my zen vacation state.
At noon I pulled myself out of the sun. Shortly thereafter we went to Las Brisa for lunch. It is right near the main pool and the activity area. There always seemed to be something going on in the pool or activity center. I couldn’t figure out why all those people were exercising or dancing or doing all those active things. It wore me out just watching them.
At lunch I ordered my first Havana rum and coke, requesting “mas fuertes” (I’m sure the waiters got a chuckle out of my command of the Spanish language). Zung got a Corona.
I got the Kobe burger and Zung got the lobster. The lobster ended up being only a few bites, so he went to the buffet and got more food.
This man can eat like you wouldn’t believe. And his 60 year old body is better than most of the men half his age. It infuriates me. But I wasn’t worrying about calories this week. Where’s the dessert?!
Back to the beach.
More drinks
More reading and just enjoying this beautiful place.
I went back into the sun at 3pm. Around 4 we packed up and headed to the spa pool. Last year we had not checked this out at all other than to walk through. BIG mistake. This pool is amazing. There are all these giant faucets that pour and pulse water out. There are hot tubs and there is an area in the pool that is mostly enclosed. You push a button and tiny bubbles slowly come up from the bottom, then it bubbles up like a volcano. It’s a good thing my bathing suit was on securely.
When we were totally jello, we headed back to our room. We made rum and cokes and got ready for dinner. We walked to Venecia, which is by the lobby, so it involved a bit of a walk. We gave the hostess our reservation receipt and I asked if Karim still worked there. He does, but he was working at the Surf and Turf tonight. She assured me we would get just as excellent a waiter and seated us at one of Jorge’s tables. Jorge was very professional and provided us with excellent service. But, he wasn’t Karim. He was so serious. Karim was fun, and I hoped we would see him at some point during our trip.
For appies I had the salmon carpaccio and Zung had the calamari (or “squidies” as he calls them). We ordered the shrimp and lobster risotto to share, and both ordered the sea bass. This year after the appies they brought the rest all together instead of the risotto as a separate course. The risotto was probably the very best thing we ate the entire trip. It was so good. The sea bass was good, but not quite as good as last year. I had the tiramisu for dessert and Zung had the Pears in Grappa. Both were very tasty.
