Finally got into my room at the Occidental Grand. It was my first time this far south by land, didn't realize it was the very last hotel on the taxi route. They quickly got a tram to shuttle me and two other checking-in guests to the Royal Club front desk. Room wasn't ready yet, so they walked me to the air-conditioned RC restaurant and gave me a wifi passcode. Unfortunately there are no cell towers this far south so my cell phone doesn't work, but the wifi is free and speedy enough.
Lunch was a chicken caesar (very good) and a steak sandwich supposedly of filet mignon, but the meat was chopped like carne asada and not so good. Margarita on the rocks, muy bueno, also a decent white wine with the caesar (Domecq Blanc de Blanc), but the red wine was just OK. Baileys and coffee for dessert, just as Margarita escorted some more people to the restaurant and informed me my room was ready. Yay! Made my restaurant reservations for the rest of the week, earliest dinner I could score tonight was 8:30 at the La Sonora steakhouse, but I asked for 6:00 or 7:00 times for the rest of the week and she said she'll submit my requests and get back to me. (I had heard great things about Nelly at the Royal Club, but today of all days was her day off.)
Ended up with a ground floor room, but that's fine since I don't have to climb stairs with my freakishly heavy camera system. Had heard that ground floor rooms weren't favored since they supposedly smelled musty, but the only mustiness I got a whiff of was from the closet. After spending lots of time on liveaboard boats, I guess mustiness doesn't bother me as much as most people or else there's just not a mustiness problem in my room. There's a little patio outside with a table and chairs in a very garden-like setting, looks like a backyard. A/C works fine (though it isn't too hot here at all, certainly not compared with my experience last June) and there's a minibar with 8 bottles of water, plus sodas and beer. The only thing lacking in the Royal Club so far as I can tell is an actual bar, but the restaurant waiter didn't balk when I asked for couple more margies to take to my room and brought them out really quickly.
Now it's just unpacking time. It's amazing how wrinkled my T-shirts get when I pack them instead of J. Scuba gear seems to have made it intact. My D9 was giving me trouble earlier as the bottom right button was sticking, but I soaked it for a while and massaged the button and it looks like it's going to be OK tomorrow. Jeremy is meeting me at the dock tomorrow at 8:15, so much better than the 7:30 time that we had to meet him at the Palace, so at the very least I'll be able to sleep in a bit, a definite plus for staying so far south. Can't blame him for not wanting to drive all the way here to pick up my gear, so I'm just going to meet him at the dock in the morning instead and go from there (he still has my paperwork and C-card info from diving with him in June.) Next step is assembling the camera, but that's such a PITA that I'm going to take a margie break first.
Barely got any sleep last night in Houston. Tried going to bed at 10:30 after taking some melatonin to acclimate to the time change, slept for a few hours, but woke up around 1:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. Finally dozed off at 2:30, then my phone rang at 3:00. I ignored it the first time, but a few minutes later it started again. Answered with a "hello?", got a "hello?" in response, which I followed up with a "What the F____!" and slammed the phone down. No more ringing after that, but I just couldn't get back to sleep. Eventually crawled out of bed at 4:45 feeling miserable, but it was a good thing as the security line at the airport was huge (with the "priority" line actually being longer than the regular line!?!). Flight left on time, got in early, I was first off, first through immigration, and second through customs. For the first time in the last four trips, I got a green light! Before pushing the button, a uniformed guy questioned me about my camera case, asking me how many camera I had. I told him that the case was only for my housing, which he repeated as "accessories" and I agreed with him, "si, accessories". I forgot to mention the point-and-shoot in my backpack, but those aren't real cameras, are they? Didn't get bugged at all by the time share folks as I was so early I don't think they were ready for me. Got my taxi ticket, headed outside, and scored shotgun, where I sat with the a/c blowing on my while the driver rounded up enough other passengers to stuff them in like sardines.
Weather is beautiful and I'm promised it will be even nicer tomorrow. Mother Nature, I thank you for listening to my prayers, now I owe you one! Pics tomorrow, unless my camera broke enroute.
(And now I have to figure out why my laptop is plugged in, but still running on batteries. And that aforementioned margie break, so later y'alls!)
BTW, for all my fellow SBers staying at the OG, I am in room 2013, please feel free to call me so I can buy you those drinks. I'll be here for another hour or two at least, then it's time to explore the grounds and get more margies.
Lunch was a chicken caesar (very good) and a steak sandwich supposedly of filet mignon, but the meat was chopped like carne asada and not so good. Margarita on the rocks, muy bueno, also a decent white wine with the caesar (Domecq Blanc de Blanc), but the red wine was just OK. Baileys and coffee for dessert, just as Margarita escorted some more people to the restaurant and informed me my room was ready. Yay! Made my restaurant reservations for the rest of the week, earliest dinner I could score tonight was 8:30 at the La Sonora steakhouse, but I asked for 6:00 or 7:00 times for the rest of the week and she said she'll submit my requests and get back to me. (I had heard great things about Nelly at the Royal Club, but today of all days was her day off.)
Ended up with a ground floor room, but that's fine since I don't have to climb stairs with my freakishly heavy camera system. Had heard that ground floor rooms weren't favored since they supposedly smelled musty, but the only mustiness I got a whiff of was from the closet. After spending lots of time on liveaboard boats, I guess mustiness doesn't bother me as much as most people or else there's just not a mustiness problem in my room. There's a little patio outside with a table and chairs in a very garden-like setting, looks like a backyard. A/C works fine (though it isn't too hot here at all, certainly not compared with my experience last June) and there's a minibar with 8 bottles of water, plus sodas and beer. The only thing lacking in the Royal Club so far as I can tell is an actual bar, but the restaurant waiter didn't balk when I asked for couple more margies to take to my room and brought them out really quickly.
Now it's just unpacking time. It's amazing how wrinkled my T-shirts get when I pack them instead of J. Scuba gear seems to have made it intact. My D9 was giving me trouble earlier as the bottom right button was sticking, but I soaked it for a while and massaged the button and it looks like it's going to be OK tomorrow. Jeremy is meeting me at the dock tomorrow at 8:15, so much better than the 7:30 time that we had to meet him at the Palace, so at the very least I'll be able to sleep in a bit, a definite plus for staying so far south. Can't blame him for not wanting to drive all the way here to pick up my gear, so I'm just going to meet him at the dock in the morning instead and go from there (he still has my paperwork and C-card info from diving with him in June.) Next step is assembling the camera, but that's such a PITA that I'm going to take a margie break first.
Barely got any sleep last night in Houston. Tried going to bed at 10:30 after taking some melatonin to acclimate to the time change, slept for a few hours, but woke up around 1:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. Finally dozed off at 2:30, then my phone rang at 3:00. I ignored it the first time, but a few minutes later it started again. Answered with a "hello?", got a "hello?" in response, which I followed up with a "What the F____!" and slammed the phone down. No more ringing after that, but I just couldn't get back to sleep. Eventually crawled out of bed at 4:45 feeling miserable, but it was a good thing as the security line at the airport was huge (with the "priority" line actually being longer than the regular line!?!). Flight left on time, got in early, I was first off, first through immigration, and second through customs. For the first time in the last four trips, I got a green light! Before pushing the button, a uniformed guy questioned me about my camera case, asking me how many camera I had. I told him that the case was only for my housing, which he repeated as "accessories" and I agreed with him, "si, accessories". I forgot to mention the point-and-shoot in my backpack, but those aren't real cameras, are they? Didn't get bugged at all by the time share folks as I was so early I don't think they were ready for me. Got my taxi ticket, headed outside, and scored shotgun, where I sat with the a/c blowing on my while the driver rounded up enough other passengers to stuff them in like sardines.
Weather is beautiful and I'm promised it will be even nicer tomorrow. Mother Nature, I thank you for listening to my prayers, now I owe you one! Pics tomorrow, unless my camera broke enroute.
(And now I have to figure out why my laptop is plugged in, but still running on batteries. And that aforementioned margie break, so later y'alls!)
BTW, for all my fellow SBers staying at the OG, I am in room 2013, please feel free to call me so I can buy you those drinks. I'll be here for another hour or two at least, then it's time to explore the grounds and get more margies.
Look forward to more!!!!!!!!!!
