Postcards from Paradise- Part 6

Friday

On Friday we tried to soak up as much of the Caribbean sun as possible. I could hardly believe that our vacation was almost over. We hung out by the pool and played at the beach.

We had several blow up tubes that we rode in the waves. Several years ago my niece Karina got slammed into the sand by a freakishly big wave while in Cancun. She got a black eye and scrapes all over her face. She asked me if the waves were very big before coming in. I told her they weren't big, and that I was able to float over the top of them. Within five minutes I was doing somersaults under a wave that had just knocked me off my tube, hoping not to hit the sand. I didn't, thank goodness, but after that I stayed closer to shore.

Later that night we headed back to the flea market. I wanted to get a necklace, but when I saw the prices, I wished I had bought the one at the mall. The two I looked at were $85 and $150 after haggling and a supposed "deep discount". Mariasha bought a woven bracelet for her souvineer.

Then we went to dinner at the Taco Factory. I was looking forward to another delicious el pastor burrito. Unfortunately, the Taco Factory isn't nearly as good as Tacolote. The waiter was awful! He didn't bring us any silverware. I understand no silverware for the tacos, but Teri's burrito was way too big to pick up, so she just had to sit and stare longingly at her dinner. She was the lucky one though. I didn't get my dinner until about 20 minutes after everyone else had their food. We had to track our waiter down and tell him I hadn't gotten it. Then he acted like I had made the mistake. The food was not good. The tacos were microscopic, and they weren't that cheap. My el pastor burrito was a huge disappointment. Ah, well, I guess we'll have to make the extra effort to go to Tacolote from now on.

As we were eating, a young woman with a small child came to our table and tried to sell us handmade bracelets. She charged $1 for them. I couldn't have bought the material to make them for $1, let alone the cost of the time to make them. It was so refreshing to have someone tell us the real price, not a jacked up price, that I bought several. Later, I wished I had bought even more.

Saturday

We packed quickly on Saturday, and then headed down to the pool for our last fix of Paradise.

Our taxi was going to pick us up at 1:30 to head to the airport, so we got out at 12:30, got dressed, and headed to La Palapa for some lunch. David and I shared a Mexican burger and it was amazing! It had jalapeno peppers and guacamole on it. Yummy! I also had my last glass of limonade.

At the last second I decided that I really did want the necklace from the mall, and decided to run quickly to get it. The mall was a block away from the hotel. My sister came with me, and we sprinted over there. It took me a few minutes to find the right store. Nothing has price tags on it, so when I picked it up, the guy working told me it was $55. Wow! in just a few days the price had risen $22! I didn't realize how much haggle room there was in the mall prices. I had thought they were fixed. I said, "Uh uh, you said $32 yesterday!" I talked him down to $35, but I couldn't get him to go lower in the time I had available. I went ahead and bought it for $3 more than the original price. I think he knew I was out of time. But I'm glad I bought it. I really like it. We ran back to the hotel in record time. I think the whole trip took 15 minutes.

We got back in time to grab our stuff and hop in the taxi.

The airport was uneventful. Going through customs and immigration in the US was a snap. I never would have thought it would be easier to get into the US than it was to get into Mexico, but no one even looked at our bags, and we only waited in line for about 10 minutes.

Even though it was nice to be home, I still miss Cancun, my favorite place in the whole world.