Debit Card Denied ... No Worries

I woke a couple of times like normal. At one point my mouth was so dry I could smell my own breath. It wasn’t pleasant. At 6:30am I slid out of bed and made my way to the bathroom area where I pee’d, brushed my teeth, and put on a pot of Starbucks. While the coffee brewed, I headed off to the OXXO carryout next door to see about buying some creamer. It was still early, about 7am. After looking in every cooler case I couldn’t find any liquid creamer. Finally, though, after searching each aisle, I found a small container of Coffee-Mate. I picked up a pack of six powered sugar donuts too. At the checkout, my card was denied. I asked the attendant to try it once more having had the same thing happen the day before when I bought soda and water. No joy. I was disappointed and ended up settling up in cash. It was only $2.60. However, in the back of my mind I was worried about my card. Had someone emptied my account? Or, had my bank placed a hold on my account after seeing buying behavior they deemed out of character. I couldn’t be sure but was concerned. Back in the room I prepped our two coffees and shared my bank card story with Mindy. I tried accessing my account via Blackberry but decided not. I didn’t want to use work resources for my personal matters. I decided to let it ride for the time being. I left for my run around 7:30am taking pretty much the same trail I took the morning before. Today was a bit warmer. I ran further too. I ran well past the Hyatt Caribe’ and back. I wasn’t paying too close attention to the kilometers markers but would guess that I ran 5 or 6 miles. By the time I was back, I was out of gas. It was hot! Mindy was out on the deck overlooking the Caribbean and reading. She said she wouldn’t be showering before breakfast and beach today. I couldn’t get away with that, and didn’t want to. I headed for the shower. A shower felt terrific. I was refreshed and recharged. We headed down for breakfast around 945am. Just like the morning before, Enrique seated us, only this time at a table overlooking the Caribbean Sea. Perfect! Mindy said she couldn’t have picked a better table. Jorge was again our waiter. He started the coffee and mimosas attentively. Everything is “all my pleasure sir/mam”. And it is said with such a deep level of sincerity and appreciation that you really feel special. They’re good at what they do. We didn’t stray much from Sunday’s blueprint. We partook in the buffet and having Lolita make us our omelets, only this time she insisted that we go enjoy our food and she’d bring us our eggs when ready. Cool! We sat at the sea’s edge for quite some time eating our breakfast and sipping mimosas. This is vacation! Before heading back to our room we strolled through the lovely garden pathway that winds around the waterfall pool that stretches some 750 feet through the resort and parallels the sea. Very nice. As expected, we encountered an Iguana sunning. He kindly posed for a picture before running off to find the rest of his family. Back in the room we changed into our beach attire and lathered ourselves good in sunblock. Today I used a dash of SPF30 on my burny spots, but mostly stuck with the SPF15. My forehead got it the worst. For the last several years I’d gotten in the good habit of wearing a ballcap at the beach shielding my face from excessive sun. The only part of my face then that gets sun is the tip of my longer than usual nose. This time, however, I decided to forego the cap in order to get some facial sun, albeit with block. By 11:20am we were beachside. Javier, the attentive pool/beach bar server, had spotted us having breakfast earlier and had already laid out the perfect spot for Mindy & I on the beach complete with two recliners and two beach towels each. We were well taken care of. We brought large cups of ice water with us but soon allowed Javier to serve us. We each ordered rum drinks, me a Captain and Fresca, and Mindy a Pina’ Coloda. It was again very hot and sunny. For whatever the reason, I didn’t have nearly the buzz I had the day before with roughly the same amount of alcohol. Already adapting to a drunken lifestyle, I guess. J We both read most of the afternoon away, me reading my book on Western philosophy and Mindy reading her book on child development. We took breaks every hour or so to take a dip in the turquoise Caribbean water. Mid-afternoon we walked the beach to the properties edge westward until we could walk no further. Our hotel property ends at the RIU to the west and Dreams Cancun to the east. Dreams is located directly on the Punta of Cancun. There’s a lighthouse out on the point. We took several pictures along our walk and talked with a few tourists. We even walked out on the scuba diving pier. For the first time ever, I took my Olympus digital underwater for a photo. There were lots of trumpet fish swimming amongst the seaweed at the Dreams beach. We strolled back to our spot on the beach and relaxed further. I eventually napped under the papala while Mindy read. I had gotten plenty of sun. We called it an afternoon again around 5pm and headed back to our room. Mindy changed out of her swimsuit and into the hotel robe and took a nap on the bed. While she napped I wrote in my blog. I had some catching up to do. I hadn’t yet written Friday at the time. There’s something about having the sheer drapes blowing in from the Caribbean Sea that makes writing so enjoyable. One needn’t look any further than out the window to find inspiration. I wrote for the next hour or two. Mindy eventually got up and showered. We hadn’t yet firmed up dinner plans but knew we needed to eat soon. Once Mindy was together, I stopped writing and took a shower. We left for dinner determined to visit Paloma Bonita, the Mexican restaurant next door. Our hotel holds a few fancy restaurants, all of which were closed. We guessed due to low occupancy. But the Paloma Bonita was no different. It was closed too. Damn! We were instantly reminded of Sunday night’s fiasco and decided right then to return to our room and order room service. Back at our room we perused the menu and made individual selections. I called and did the ordering. Mindy wanted the chicken Caesar salad. I ordered a chicken quesadilla. Like the night before, the wait was quoted as 30 minutes. To kill time, we made strong rum drinks and then created some still life photo ops with various props from around the room. Marcelo arrived with our room service after about 20 minutes. He set everything up on the coffee table in the sunken living room. And just like the evening before, he brought Mindy another beautiful red rose and some fancy chocolates. The attention to detail was once again top notch. They brought us salsa, guacamole, and bread and butter. All of it was quite tasty. We ate our food, made another drink, then decided to retire early so we could be ready for yet another day in paradise tomorrow.