Mexico Vacation 2010: Day 7

In February my wife and I took a week-long vacation to the Riviera Maya- the Caribbean Coast of Mexico. We stayed at the Bahia Principe Akumal Resort about an hour south of Cancun. Through this past week I have been blogging about the trip and our experiences.
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The last full day in Mexico. Today it was hot. We spent most of the day at the beach area. I sat and read and then did some wading again taking pictures and video and watched people. My wife sat in the shade and read.

This was probably the windiest day. A cool front was approaching and the wind was howling.

Sat near the flowers below. They had a similar arrangement there every day. The upper right picture on this post is from the same arrangement. I was interesting to watch people as they went by, stopped, looked closely then touched the flowers to see if they were real (Yes, I did that, too, on the first day.) Yes. they were real.

How are these for desserts at the buffet where we ate lunch? No, I did not lose weight during the week.

My camera has the ability to take panorama pictures, stitching together three pictures. This week was the first chance to use the underwater capable camera, but I got the hang of it. This pan shows about half of the beach area at the three resort complex where we stayed.

So I went out by the breakwater and took pictures

above the surface of the water with the children and adults playing...

...and a couple under the surface. With the sea creature on the left I knew he was under there but could not see the LCD panel. So I just did some guessing. I guess I was lucky.

But it was the people- always the people that got my attention. This one was fun to watch.

The kid in the bright trunks was stalking the old lizard sitting calmly sunning and warming his blood on the walk. The kid took a few minutes to slowly move in on the lizard. I don't know what he was hoping to do but the lizard didn't get to his age by ignoring these human interlopers.

So he "ran" away. What else would you do?

Then it rained. In fact, it poured.

And, no, the bird was not under the umbrella,
but the picture and angle was too good to pass.

Actually it rained several times during the week. Usually at night, although it was raining on the surface the say I went scuba diving. In spite of my otherwise poor sense of humor it did not ruin the dive. It wasn't raining under the surface. (Sorry.)

We got back to the room after the storm and found our last towel sculpture, a wild white gator.




Supper this evening was the first time that a waited was surprised that we didn't drink. We had been offered alcoholic drinks all week long from the moment we arrived. We always smiled and politely said that we don't drink.This evening the waiter brought us our complimentary drink when we sat down at the table. My wife smiled and said, "No, gracias." He smiled and then put both drinks in front of me with some comment about how now I can enjoy both. I smiled back and said that I don't drink either.

¿No bebe alcohol? ¿No tequila?

Later we were discussing allergies with him since my wife cannot have certain foods. He looked at me and asked if I had any allergies. No, I said. Only alcohol. He gave a nervous laugh and dropped the subject. I can see how people early in recovery might have a difficulty with this whole situation. Early in recovery people are often so sensitive to "being different" since they believe "everyone drinks." When facing a situation like this it would only reinforce their self-perceptions and beliefs. So to "be nice" to the waiter, to be "accepted" they might very well give in.

After supper I met with some local recovering people. It was probably the personal highlight of the trip as we shared (and attempted to share) our cross-language experiences, strength and hope. Not only was it a recovering event, it gave me a safe place to share in Spanish and be accepted. It was like any similar gathering of recovering people back home. I could see and feel the gratitude and hope that they experienced. It's the same in any language!

And for me a sense of true humility. Here is this so-called professional from the USA sitting with no deep understanding as three local residents of Akumal, MX, live their sobriety with me. To sit there and ponder the amazing progress and success of recovery was deeply humbling. They were appreciative of my presence and I was awed by their acceptance. For me to be able to do some of it in their language was even more important to me than to them.

I was energized by the time I got back to our room. Life never fails to give me what I need.

Even if it's in Spanish and I have no idea what half the things were that they were talking about.