Hot Tranny Mess Up In Here

What can I say. I have been obsessed about this for over a week now. Soon I will done with it. But for now this clip is FIERCE.

Playing in Playa Del Carmen

Thursday we drove in to the big city of Playa Del Carmen. They have a steak place that we had heard about we were eager to see some other sites. This would be the small place people go when they wanted to get away from all the hustle and bustle of Cancun. After dinner we went for a stroll on Paseo Del Carmen, the main drag shopping/dining/tourist street. It felt like Times Square compared to where we'd been.
This shrine to the Virgin Mary was in the front porch of a house down the street from where we ate. All this. At the end of a tiled entryway. Visible from the street. I guess that way Mary can find it easier from her taxi.

This is our extravagant dining experience. On a side street off a the main busy street through town. Nothing else around unless you count that wild pack of dogs that was running around at the corner. Total lack of glamor.

Super Carnes HC de Monterrey, on 1st South between 20th and 25th Avenues. 984/803-0488 (open from noon to midnight). They are a hole in the wall restaurant but for $100 pesos you can have "arrachera nacional" (steak), baked potato, 1/2 avocado, hot sauce, tortillas and a soft drink.

In case you don't know what you came for, it's steak. Specifically Arrachera. This is the Mexican term for skirt steak. This place is famous for it. They use some secret marinade (and from what I gathered, it really is a secret as the locals have been trying for years to discover it and not been successful). But here is a suggestion from a cooking site - marinate for about an hour in a paste made of white onion, lime and salt and then throw on a very hot grill approx one minute per side. Flank is not the same but often substituted when skirt is not available.

At Super Carnes you order by the kilo. One Kilo of meat is about 2.2 lbs. There were 8 of us so we ordered 3 kilos. Or about a pound of steak a person.

It was bigger than my head and filled the whole plate!

This was ONE baked potato. It also covered my whole plate.

Brad & Jim are still feeling less than great.

Lyle & Ricky are feeling no pain.

This structure was in front of an expensive department store on Paseo Del Carmen. I didn't go in, but I would love to have this in my front yard for Christmas... or any time.

Ah-Akumal

This is the first photo I took in Akumal. I quite like it. Lyle is looking out across the inlet. The water is fairly calm as there is a coral reef out a ways that stops the giant waves from pounding the beach. I took this photo and then went back to bed. I had that stomach thing in full swing on the first day there.
This would be the second day. I claim I am feeling better. All I want is a hamburger. I am totally faking it for the camera right here. This is the bar/restaurant at Lol-Ha. Across the street inland is a body of water that connects the sea via an underground passage. We are probably sitting above it in this photo.

The beach at Akumal.

We went for dinner one night at the local hotspot La Buena Vida. I think it was Wednesday. That was the "big" night as Jungle Bob brings in his Karaoke machine. La Buena Vida is famous for it's Swing seat at the bar. There is a restaurant upstairs. From what I gathered, the chef has changed recently and the menu is all new. Some people were not too thrilled with the all new menu. However, I had the fresh fish fillet sauteed in butter (my stomach was still a little off) and it was good.

Brad and Monica at La Buena Vida.

Ricky is a swinger!

This photo took every once of strength I had to look like I was having the best time of my life.

The hostess with the mostest kicked off our evening's entertainment with her very own serenade of "Love Shack".

Brave, brave Ricky joined in later for a little duet. I only wished I was feeling well enough to do a little number, but alas, there was no way I was feeling well enough to fit into my Kylie Showgirl outfit.

Another day we stopped for pizza in the "town" of Akumal (opposite side of the highway from the beach village of Akumal) because we were very hungry and I couldn't face any corn tortillas. The pizza was not very good.

In fact, it was so bad that when Lyle threw his end piece of pizza crust to this dog on the sidewalk, he wouldn't even sniff it let alone eat it.

Though I don't have any photos taken there, I can recommend dining at the Turtle Bay Cafe in Akumal. In particular I can recommend the Key Lime Pie. I had two.

I also suggest a little shopping. I enjoyed Mexic Arte just across the street from Turtle Bay Cafe. I found some lovely Christmas decorations!

Corn? I don't remember having corn...

It wasn't until I was posting photos here for the blog that I think I solved a mystery.

Just after our arrival in Akumal, Brad and I each got a little upset tummy. And that is the polite way to phrase it.

It just didn't make sense. First off, of the four of us traveling, Brad and I have the iron horse constitutions. Nothing gets to us. Everything gets to Lyle and Ricky. Lyle spent three days in a hotel in Shanghai surviving on 1 piece of toast (for all three days). Ricky lost it when he smelled the garbage outside of Howard Johnson's in Manhattan on a hot summer day.

Everything we ate, we ate together. Every meal we had the table sampled each other's food. We ordered communal appetizers. We sipped each other's drinks. We slurped soup together. No one person had anything that the other three didn't also try.

It just didn't add up. But there we were, Brad and I. Down for the count. Way down.

And then I discovered THE photo. And I started to do the math.

Corn - consumed on Sunday at approximately 1 pm.

Food poisoning can some on suddenly (within 48 hours) of consuming a contaminated food or drink. Typical symptoms include nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramping, and diarrhea.
I was going to say that neither of us had any problems on Monday. But I remember just having soup Sunday night. I said I was "done with food." "Too full." "Needed something light." I said the same thing the next day when we stopped in Valladolid. "Soup please. Something light." And then it hit us and both of us were sick by 6 am Tuesday, well within the 48 hour window.

Traveler's Diarrhea (or "Montezuma’s revenge") can be defined as 3 or more unformed stools in a 24-hour period (yes, we all needed to know that). Travelers at risk: Those going from industrialized countries to developing countries. High-risk areas: Mexico

Then I saw it, the photo that solved what had happened:

Only Brad I ate the corn.

Valladolid Girl, like, fer sure

We left Merida in the morning. We were crossing back towards the water side below Cancun. After gorging myself all weekend in the big city, my stomach was a little rumbley tumbley. In fact I felt just like this lovely lady above. Fat and bloated and wishing I had a ruffled skirt to hide it all. Oh joy, instead I was headed to the beach and I only brought small squarecut swim costumes.

Halfway, we stopped in Valladolid for lunch. Yeah, I totally needed more food.

Since I was a little off, I ordered jugo de papaya, papaya juice. Papaya juice has natural enzymes to help settle your stomach. This stuff was AMAZINGLY FRESH. I've never seen juice so just scooped out and blended for me and me alone.

I ordered the soupa de limo, lime soup. I just wanted something light. Nothing heavy. I no longer wanted food but clearly if I didn't put something in I would waste away to nothingness.

We did a little tour of the main square...

Evita showed up.

There is a beautiful old church that we couldn't go into because we had on shorts.

Ricky bought some handcrafted bags from these ladies. We knew they were handcrafted as we saw them weaving them on the square. Actually they were also using their toes.

And then we headed for Akumal. Our relaxing, beach loving, sun tanning, blissful portion of our vacation was about to begin... or was it?

Get out of town

A few parting shots of our stay in Merida... First some of the tile floors we saw.

Then just a some random shots...

This is the side of a building near our hotel. SO BRIGHT!

This was a sign on the wall for a what I think was a restaurant. Roughly translated it may mean, "The one-eyed pig - cooked in a pit and beer"

My new favorite store in Mexico, Liz Minelli. I also love her singing.

In the marketplace.

My third favorite salon de beauté. You just know you'll be gorgeous when it says Pretty Woman over the door!

My favorite entertainer in the marketplace!

Folkloric Dancers of Merida, Mexico

During the middle of Sunday Festival they had traditional Folkloric dancers. The costumes were stunning the performance was stellar. The heat stifling. There was some shade for the dancers and the viewers, but Lyle and I gave up about halfway through.

My favorite dancer. So elegant and regal.

My second favorite dancer. She had such an expressive face and personality.

I know there are quite a few photos here, but it was all so beautiful I felt like I was walking through a travel brochure.

The women are wearing the traditional Mayan garment called huipil.

The huipil is a garment worn as a blouse by Mayan women since ancient times. It is a square or rectangular piece of cloth with a hole in the center. It is generally embroidered around the neck, in the shape of a cross. The garment is then folded in half and the sides stitched up. The stitching stops on the sides to allow for armholes. The huipil is worn over a skirt which is tied with a woven belt.

The neck is elaborately embroidered with designs representing the cosmos, the gods and their helpers. When a Mayan woman puts on her huipil, she becomes the axis of this symbolically represented universe.

It was VERY warm out.

As the dancers finished, the chairs and bleachers that had been focused on them to one side of the street, began to move to face the end of that street. And when we returned after dinner, there was a dance contest being held! First the over 60 crowd, then came the 18-30 group. A whole stage and disco lighting schematic were thrown up in a matter of hours and would just as quickly disappear.

I said it felt like gay pride in West Hollywood:
Somehow we'd found the corner of the main square where all the gay guys of Merida hung out -✓.
I'd been standing in the street all day - ✓.
I was slightly sun burnt - ✓.
We'd eaten food from street vendors - ✓.
There had been a disco stage show - ✓.
I was with Ricky & Brad - ✓.
We'd somehow wound up at the Latin music tent - ✓.

So we made fun of the 19th century "courting chairs" (made so one seat faces each way and there is a rail in between each person. Nothing inappropriate could possibly happen...) and called it a night.