Copa Cabana

Today brought relaxing to a whole new level. Part of our package was the use of a cabana for the day. We saw the cabanas scattered around the beach and I was pretty psyched at the idea of spending the day outside, looking out to sea -- from a bed perched on the sand...while a "personal butler" attended to our every need. And that's how we spent today. We had breakfast around 8:30, worked out for an hour, then I took a dip in the pool and met Cheryl in our cabana. Jonathan, the pool manager whom I had met yesterday (and who told me that if anyone at the resort was causing me any displeasure, he would "take care of it," "I can make it look like an accident," he said), came by and introduced us to Carlos, who was going to be our butler, and would take care of bringing us anything we needed. Here's the list of things Carlos brought us: a banana-mango smoothie, Diet Coke, Perrier, a bowl of fruit (actually, Alejandro, the pool-boy from yesterday brought that to us), ice cream, and lunch. Most times when he came up to check on us, he addressed us as "princessas" (I don't speak any Spanish but the translation is pretty easy). It was a great way to spend the afternoon, especially when we realized that there were several whales hanging out in our direct sight-line. We kept seeing the spouty-spouts (I don't know the marine biology term for when they spit water up from their blow-holes, "spitty-spouting"?) and then once when I was looking past Cheryl, I saw a mighty splash and knew I was seeing a post-breach water show - I had just missed the main event; however, about half an hour later, I was staring straight out and I saw a grey whale come almost completely out of the water and flop over - it was in the distance, but I saw it clearly. There's a lifelong dream achieved.

View from our perch.

We left our domain, once again only because we were due at the spa, so off we went, Cheryl for a massage, me for a detoxifying (and anti-cellulite I was told, twice), moisturizing, marine algae, body-wrap. I love me a body-wrap, but the marine goo from this one was especially... authentic, and even though I've showered twice since having it done, my skin still smells like sushi. There are worse problems to have (although perhaps not for whomever is sitting next to me on the plane tomorrow).