Manzanillo

June 2, 2008

This weekend Kristen, Tyler, Mieke, Carla (Canadian girl here taking some courses along with 25 other Canadians) and I went down to Manzanillo. Manzanillo is more or less a little resort town on the coast. We stayed at an all-inclusive resort that cost us a whopping $140 each for a huge mansion of a room for two nights and all the food and booze we could stuff into our bodies. This was the first time I had ever stayed at an all-inclusive resort. I actually quite enjoyed it. We were the only white people there so everyone got to know us pretty fast. There was this one waiter named Jaime who seemed to work wherever we went. He was so funny. The first night we watched the “show” Hairspray. Basically they bought the movie soundtrack and made up dances to all the songs… there was no dialog whatsoever. It was so hilarious… all these Mexicans acting as white and black people from the sixties. You really couldn’t tell which ones were supposed to be the black characters and who were the white ones. I have never laughed so hard. After the show we went to the disco where we first met our favourite waiter. It was a good night full of drinking and dancing. The next day we spent at the beach/pool and work on our tans. The waves were huge and the water was so warm so, we grabbed some boogie boards and spent some time on the waves intermittently getting rocked by the waves and filling our sinuses with salt water. That night we went to the fancy Italian restaurant at the resort where we had a four-course meal accompanied by wine followed by a Mexican coffee served in a goblet and then our waiter poured flaming brandy and tequila over it. It was so amazing. We stayed there until they closed and then walked down to the disco with Jaime where he would continue working. We gave him a giant tip.

That night, however, we found out how creepy drunk, Mexican guys can be. At the beginning of the night we were dancing up a storm but it got so unbearably hot in that building. So we really just wanted to sit down and relax. These guys just didn’t get it and wouldn’t take no for an answer. I think I told at least three guys in very clear Spanish that no I didn’t want to dance, no I didn’t want that drink, no I didn’t even want to talk to them and no I didn’t like them and please go away right now. At one point there were three of us girls sitting at our table and at least seven guys standing around us trying to get us to dance. Tyler was getting quite a kick out of the spectacle. We ended up leaving before midnight to get away from all these guys. It was so ridiculous.

The next day we had to check out at noon and then took the bus back to Guzmán. I saw my very first mango tree on the ride. They are the craziest plants. The fruit grows way out at the end of the branches and hangs from a little vine-like thing. It looks so funny to see this big heavy fruit hanging from and skinny little vine on an ity-bitty branch. I also saw my first real hibiscus flowers at the resort and have decided that banana trees are awesome. I also saw the plant they make tequila from that I don’t remember the name of and palm oil plantations and a whole bunch of cactus… I really feel like I’m in Mexico when I see wild cactus all over the place. They actually eat cactus here too. It’s really nice and apparently really good for you… full of anti-oxidants and what-not. We drove through a little forest fire on the way back. The heat was unbelievable! It was already like 30 degrees outside… add fire to that and wow. Today it was so hot here. It was 35 degrees in the shade! Where are you rainy season?!?!