Month: March 2015

I promised myself this past vacation in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico at the Gran Porto Real Resort that I was going to do nothing but rest and relax poolside or on the beach the entire time. I said I wasn’t going to do any excursions that left the resort’s grounds, no matter how alluring they seemed. I didn’t keep that promise though, as I ended up taking six separate ones during my 10-day vacation. And although that led to me feeling not so relaxed by the time my vacation ended, there was quite a bit of gratitude felt within me for the ones I did do. Today’s entry is my recap of them and the spiritual experiences I had with each.

Day 2 – Rio Secreto

I absolutely love caves. I find them very serene and mysterious. This was my first excursion and definitely the best of all. It began with taking a freezing cold shower and putting on a full wet suit. If you thought I looked skinny without one, you should have seen me with one. Ha! After putting on the helmet with the headlamp, we were blessed by a local Mayan man and then descended into the depths of what is referred to throughout Mexico as a cenote. There are thousands of these in Central America, many of which are fully under water and can only be explored with scuba gear. This one though was only partially submerged and for an hour and a half, I waded through many underground rooms and was visually stimulated by the most amazing rock formations, bats, spiders, fish, and crystals. When the tour was over, I felt so high on life and was treated to an authentic Mayan meal with a cold Hibiscus tea. The buzz from this excursion lasted within me for days!

Day 4 – Snorkeling at Innah

Snorkeling is probably the number one thing I always try to do at least once when I’m on a vacation. Unfortunately there wasn’t that ability anywhere near my resort, which is why I paid a man on the beach to take me out on his boat with another adult and his kids to this protected reef a few miles down the coastline. I’ve snorkeled in some of the most amazing waters in the Caribbean, but each that I visit always seems to amaze me even more. While I got to spend two hours in the water at Innah snorkeling, I was rewarded with the sight of a 20-foot stingray swimming directly under me and a sea turtle who came right up and swam around me a bunch of times while I just smiled. I even got to hold a dead fish in my hands to feed others in the water and watched as countless brightly colored ones surrounded me and fed!

Day 5 – Parasailing

I’ve wanted to parasail ever since I was a kid. At every beach I’ve ever been to, I’ve always seen people being pulled in a parachute-looking contraption behind a boat and said I was going to do that some day. I finally did when my partner surprised me by booking this tour. And although it was slightly uncomfortable wearing the harness around my boney butt, it was quite spectacular to be hundreds of feet up in the air for around 20 minutes looking down upon the clear blue ocean floor! From that height I could still see all the coral, huge starfish, stingrays, and sea turtles.

Day 6 – Jungle ATV Adventure

I had never ridden on an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) prior to taking this excursion. I’ve seen these four-wheeled sports cycles all the time here in Toledo going up and down the street I live on, as well as riding on the frozen lake nearby. I constantly told myself I would find someone one day who would take me out on one, but thankfully I don’t have to anymore given my partner surprised me with this exciting experience in the jungles of Mexico. For a few hours I rode one of these contraptions through very narrow paths up and down small hills and over rocks. We stopped at some old Mayan ruins and had another blessing by a local Mayan man, at which point we then were able to take a swim in another cenote. This one was so deep I couldn’t see the bottom with the snorkeling mask I put on while there. The fish in this cenote were also kind of strange because they fed off of the dead skin cells on my body and I kept feeling that weird sensation while in the water! When this jungle tour ended, we were treated to homemade empanadas with an awesome spicy sauce and more chilled Hibiscus tea.

Day 7 – XCARET

This excursion was done last minute with a few friends we met at our resort and was an all-day experience. The name of this place is actually pronounced “ISH-CA-RAY” and I’d compare it to a Six Flags amusement park but without the rides. What I mean by that is how amusements parks have other things to do besides go on adrenaline-based rides. With XCARET, the first thing we did here was swim down an underground river, sometimes almost completely in the dark. Essentially it was like a lazy river ride but more exotic in nature. There was a reef we did a little snorkeling in afterwards, but I was more fascinated by the huge white Iguana there that came up to me and sat on a rock a foot or so away. The park also had an aquarium where I saw sharks, dolphins, and some fish I’d never seen before, like one that swam on it’s side where its eyes lay on top. There were even Mayan pyramids there that were extremely old and I got to climb to the top of several of them. The end of the evening was a 2-hour long show that showed the progression of the Mexican culture. I was most fascinated by the games the Mayans used to play with one looking like an ancient form of basketball, and another looking like a future hockey game that’s played with a flaming ball. I also had a good laugh when I saw this one group of dancers that were pretty light on their feet doing moves I know I couldn’t do. Each was wearing a mask of an old person and dressed in a sombrero. When their bit was over, they all took their masks off at once and the average age for each was most likely in their 70’s!

Day 8 – Snorkeling Off The Coast Of Puerto Morales

Of all the excursions I took, this one was the most disappointing, only for the fact that the seas were so churned up that day that it made for a very rough experience out there. Although there is one spiritual highlight worth mentioning, from this one-hour snorkeling tour. I got to see a huge sunfish about the length of me (6’5”) stop in front of me and stare for a few minutes! I then swam with it for a short bit until it sped away.

All in all, I’m very grateful that I did each of these excursions because I was able to see and do things and have spiritual experiences I never had before. What’s funny is that I’m sure I’m going to promise myself again next year that I won’t do anything but rest and relax by a pool or the ocean, except I know that’s probably not going to happen when I see another excursion beckoning me to venture out to have another spiritual experience in life… 🙂

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson

Sometimes a thing that sounds that good isn’t always that good of a thing. I say this because I’ve had the tendency in life to pursue something that totally seems like a good thing, only to find out in the long run it wasn’t. And one of those just so happened to take place during the first few days of my vacation in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico.

It started actually in our first evening at the Gran Porto Real Resort, when my partner and I approached a service desk to make some reservations for the next couple of night’s dinners. After making them, the gentleman there, who for the purposes of anonymity will be named “E”, asked us if we’d be interested in getting a free massage from the resort’s spa area given it was our first stay on the property. Oblivious to the pitch E was beginning to spin, I took the bait and said “Absolutely!” thinking it was just another perk of being a brand new guest there. He then gave us a nice beach bag saying it was complimentary and asked us to come back later when we had a little more time to talk, which is exactly what my partner and I did later that evening.

A few hours passed and sure enough we returned to E’s desk and said we’d be interested in getting that free massage, especially if it would be for two people and not just one. Heck, who wouldn’t turn down a free massage right? E proceeded to say he should be able to get us two free massages and then immediately changed the subject asking us how we booked the vacation and how much we paid for it as well. I told him it was through AAA and gave him the hefty price tag, which he responded with a very positive exclamation that we could have saved a bunch more money by booking directly with the hotel. He then asked if we were interested in something like that for next year’s trip, at which point I looked over at my partner and agreed with him that we’d like that very much so. E said if we could just set aside 90 minutes to take a tour of the property tomorrow morning and have breakfast with him, we could get those free massages. Immediately a light bulb came on and I said, “Is this a timeshare thing? I’m not interested in a timeshare, so I just want to make sure this isn’t that.” His response was quite clear when he said, “No, no, no, this isn’t a time share at all.” And then he reminded us he would do his best to get us those two free massages.

When the next morning came, I was struggling with those acceptance issues I wrote about in yesterday’s entry, so I wasn’t in the very best of mood. As I waited impatiently in the lobby where E asked us to be at 10:00am, the clock ticked and ticked until he showed up almost 30 minutes late telling us it was due to traffic. Little did we know it wasn’t due to traffic at all, it was due to another “tour” he had been giving.

Our “tour” began across the street at The Royal shortly thereafter, which is Gran Porto’s sister property, but much more upscale. Our first stop was to a desk where we sat down and met some guy wearing what I would refer to as a ship’s captain’s clothing. He greeted us warmly with a huge smile and E promptly told him we weren’t interested in a timeshare, but wanted to save money on our vacation next year. The “captain” then said he believed we would be very happy with what they could do for us and said to enjoy the rest of the tour.

Our “tour” proceeded from there to breakfast where E asked us about our vacation plans and where we like to travel and such. At this point, I think I was still completely oblivious to what was actually happening, to the pitch he was forming, and to what was about to come. I think my partner on the other hand was catching on much faster.

After our breakfast ended, which actually was pretty good for a buffet, he showed us the grounds of the Royal for a minute or two, pointed out the Spa area as we passed by it, and led us in front of a television to watch a quick presentation on screen about Real Resorts. It was then, when my partner conveniently went to a bathroom nearby, that I began to feel like we were being bamboozled.

When the video ended and my partner re-emerged, E then led us through a very large smoked-out glass door nearby. Upon it opening, we entered a very large and noisy room with a bunch of desks and massive numbers of couples sitting at them talking to various persons. For as many times as I’ve done timeshare presentations in the past and as many times as I’ve said I’d never do them again, this one definitely hoodwinked me.

For the next two hours, we sat at a desk talking to one person after another where each tried to whittle us down with one deal after another, each looking more and more enticing. I wanted to kick myself for believing E’s words when he said it wasn’t a timeshare as pieces of paper flew in front of me and numbers were crunched on a calculator showing us just how great it would be to invest in Real Resorts.

If you can picture for a moment this image that’s still stuck in my brain, it’s of the agent I saw in the desk beyond the one I was at. He wore a slick Italian suit, his eyes constantly shifted left and right, he was drinking one of those large energy drinks and kept fast-talking people over the phone the entire time I was there. This was pretty much what my partner and I were dealing with in front of us as well. When all was said and done, a total of five agents had been willing to supposedly offer us several weeks of free vacation for the next few years, an almost total refund of this year’s trip, and a few other benefits as well, all for a price that went as low as $172/month for the next seven years of my life.

You can all be assured that in the end, my partner and I didn’t take any of their options. We did however receive 1000 pesos in certificates as a thank you for taking their “tour” and were told they could be used anywhere on the property. But ironically, the 1000 pesos couldn’t even get us a single full Spa treatment and I ended up having to pay about $20 more to have one done.

So in the end, while we did get a beach bag, a nice breakfast, and 1000 free pesos, the two and a half hours we spent on “The Tour” was far from worth it. I’m thankful we didn’t buckle and come home with a new mortgage payment of sorts, but I’m even more grateful that I was retaught a very valuable spiritual lesson in life that sometimes a thing that sounds really good isn’t always that good of a thing…

Peace, love, light, and joy,

Andrew Arthur Dawson