Barcelo Maya Riviera: Day 8
Good morning! Today is my last full day at the resort.
I wonder if it rained last night. That walkway is pretty wet.
I’m taking the outdoor route to the buffet.
I got cheese empanadas and chicken flautas/taquitos. I knew those flautas/taquitos were going to be good. They were frying them up fresh behind the counter. I would eat those everyday if they had them.
I just realized I haven’t heard from Lomas about scheduling my return trip to the airport. Last time (at Planet Hollywood) they were texting me night one. I think they gave me a slip of paper for my return trip. I’ll have to find it and see what I need to do.
I just got regular coffee today. I’m going to try using the machine to make mochas to go.
I found the paper in my safe. I had to call a guy who texted me a lady’s cell phone number. She scheduled it for me. Or maybe it was already scheduled and she just informed me of the time.
My transportation is scheduled for 9:45 tomorrow morning. That probably puts me at the airport around 11am. My flight leaves at 2pm. Getting to the airport 3 hours prior to your flight seems to be standard here.
Oh man!
I definitely have neighbors on one side now. They’re out on their balcony talking to someone on speaker phone. That’s the first peep I’ve heard on the balcony all week. I’m guessing they moved in yesterday.
It didn’t rain too long. It cleared up nicely.
There are several cenotes across the street from the hotel. I want to check at least one of them out before I leave. I’m taking a shuttle closer to the exit and I’m going to walk over to a cenote.
I got dropped off by the mall and just have to exit there
I just noticed that plane up there at the adventure park–That’s cool.
This guy in the green shirt was trying to sell me on his cenote. It’s a 1.5 km walk to get there. I told him no thanks.
This is the one I decided on. It’s close.
200 pesos. I only have 150 left. They charged me 13 dollars. It should be $10 but they up the price in dollars every chance they get.
The water is so cold.
There’s a cave with really blue water.
When I arrived there were only about five people there. When I left it was probably 30. When I was walking back to the the resort I passed about 50 people that looked like they were heading for cenotes. If you want to go and not be crowded, definitely get there early.
Here are some clips from the cenote.
I was dressed for it so I decided to try the beach. I went down by palace where I was the other day.
There was just too much seaweed today.
I stopped by Coco for a pina colada or two. For some reason they served them in disposable coffee cups.
After heading back to Riviera, I showered and changed into some dry clothes. Then I headed down to the buffet for lunch.
I’m checking out the meat station again today.
I went with a NY Strip.
They have a sushi bar so I thought i should try some of that.
And a Bloody Mary.
Then I thought I should sample some of their desserts.
I believe this is brownie, three milk cake, flan, carrot cake and strawberry cake.
I picked the three milk cake to eat.
I’m going to hit the pool.
This is off of their cocktail menu. It’s called the Caribbean Dream.
Another from their menu is the Banana Republic.
I saw someone get a mudslide and it sounds good.
That made me think of a White Russian.
The White Russian is good.
Dos Modelos.
Dos Modelos again but this is the last time.
It’s crazy the people that come here and just want to talk about work. There are a couple guys next to me and one of them is going on and on and on about work.
This is the kind of thing you should be doing on vacation. Stupid pool games. Not talking about work.
Alright two more but I’m going to have to hustle to make it to dinner.
I’m back in the room with Corona.
I gotta head to dinner!
How lucky was I? The shuttle was sitting there. I flat out ran to make sure the driver saw me. I’ll still be late but I’ll be less late.
I don’t think we’ll ever know what made me late…the Modelo twins or my photo session with Corona.
I can have 100 pictures of this and I’ll make it 101.
I am in the seafood restaurant at the Palace tonight.
Cream cheese bread. TALK TO ME!
It’s my last night and the waiter recommended their margarita so what the heck.
The cream cheese bread works on its own. That onion bread I just crashed into all of the butters simultaneously.
Scallops
Looking in my bag for a 7 iron.
This artichoke soup is a total waiter suggestion.
Lobster
It was all good. I don’t know if I’ve ever had an artichoke before but the soup was pretty good.
For desert I ordered the fondant cake. Initially I ruled it out thinking fondant is just the stuff people decorate cakes with. But he said it’s a really good lava cake so I’m going with it.
It may not be running all over the place but this tastes just like the chocolate melting cake from Carnival ships.
I stopped by the bathroom afterwards. While washing my hands I noticed the other guy at the urinal walked out without washing his hands. I watched him in the mirror. He actually walked across the hall, opened the women’s bathroom door, and said something to I’m assuming his girlfriend, wife, or daughter. It’s just crazy to me that someone like him thinks he can open the women’s bathroom door and shout commands. Different countries. Different cultures I guess.
Timing timing timing. This bus has been better anticipating my needs tonight than any woman could’ve been.
I guess I’ll see if anything is happening at the casino.
There were a bunch of people around one table. I walk up. It’s only two players. Out of etiquette I wait until the shuffle. But it also gives me a chance to size up the players. One player left quick. I could jump in at that point and the game wouldn’t miss a beat but something told me the other guy didn’t know what he as doing. In retrospect I would’ve jumped In because he had three friends telling him what to do. He got on a bad streak and quit so now nobody is playing.
A couple sat down. I pounced. I lost $50. We went to a shuffle. The couple walks off. The shuffle completes and it’s just me at the table. I ask the dealer if he thinks they’re gone. He says yes. I say I don’t play alone so I color up to cash out. I head to the bathroom.
All the times I’ve been here I haven’t used the bathroom yet. I knew it was around a particular corner. But I didn’t realize it was downstairs. I almost busted it.
This is like their sobriety test. If you can’t make it up the stairs, you’re stuck in the bathroom until you sober up.
When I came back up the couple was back and the guy was playing alone. She was watching. I didn’t know if it was just a coincidence or if they purposely waited until I left to start playing again. So I just sat back and watched him lose everything. Then I left.
This is so stupid. I’m sitting at the mall bar now. The bartender is helping the more aggressive walk-ups ahead of me. Finally I get to order. I place my order. The bartender tells me to put a mask on. Then he proceeds to process orders of people who just walked up.
I have been sitting here for about 10 minutes now. Finally the bartender comes back to me. I repeat my order and ask him if I have to put my mask on between sips or if he expects me to take the drink and leave. If I’m supposed to take the drink and leave they should remove the barstools.
The bartender says if you’re drinking here you don’t have to wear a mask. I guess he just assumed I was getting it to go when he told me to put a mask on and skipped my order. It’s ridiculous. I had this same problem in the bowling alley on day 1. I haven’t been back there since.
After this I’ll check out the casino one more time then head to one of the lobby bars.
It’s hot as heck out here. And it was hot in the casino. Usually casinos keep it colder to keep the oxygen flowing. I can’t imagine being one of those dealers.
I had a couple of opportunities tonight to come out ahead for the trip but I had a hard time leaving the table. At one point I got all the way down to $6. Then I built that back up to over $200. Then I lost a lot. Then got some back. In the end I’m going to come out down $90 on the trip which isn’t bad for all of the entertainment I got and there are some dealer tips in there that would knock that number down.
It’s the most ridiculous casino though. First there’s the tax thing. Then tonight randomly about an hour ago the floor supervisor got on this thing where you have to wear a mask at the table. I haven’t had to do that all week.
They do random table fills that make no sense. At one point tonight they did a $5 table fill. One red chip. I’ve never seen a $5 table fill before.
The flash went off when I took This picture. The driver looked back at me. I was like “What? What happened?” He was already in a bad mood it seemed. When I got on the bus I asked if he was going to the Riviera and he just ignored me. I knew it was because the last bus wasn’t but it’s just become a habit to ask ever since the time I got stuck on one that wasn’t going there.
I’m back at the hotel and man are they doing some serious cleaning here. I think he’s cleaning between the tiles.
There’s not much going on in the lobby on a Sunday. They have music but not many people. I skipped the show tonight because it’s karaoke on Sundays. I hate karaoke.
I left my wet ones out to dry on the table and almost made it rain on the swimout below me.
I’m going to get some packing in before bed. Tomorrow I’m heading home.
