Riviera Maya Vacation - Part Eleven

Yeah..........I will miss this place.........I am missing it right now as I write this. None of the pains of Baltimore here..........no Mayor Sheila Dixon trial..........no thugs roaming around..........no pestering phone calls............no places to have to be...........no stress............hmmmm........well.........maybe a little bit (I will explain later).

This sure beats dodging old ladies and their grocery cart steering skills at the supermarket.

So I sat there............and looked around.........lots to look at..........

I looked to the north...........in the distant, there is an "abandoned" resort just past the flags.......I might just want to go have a closer look.............but I am not much for being able to walk long distances.......especially walking on sand.

It was time again for water aerobics.......they did this every day.

What they do is bring out a large speaker and hook it up to a cd player.......plug it in to an extension cord and pump some thumping exercise music out towards the water.........unfortunately, they set it up right behind our lounge chairs. It wouldn't have been so bad except that one of the staff had to keep running back and forth from the water to "fix" the bad speaker connection. I got tired of hearing it sputter and quit........so I got up and "fixed" it myself so the guy didn't have to run back and forth. I actually got cheers from people.....hehehe.

I got tired of that..........so I decided that I would try to walk past the flags and see the "abandoned" resort. Supernurse stayed in the lounge chair as I walked.

I kept thinking to myself..........I must be crazy to even attempt this.........what if I drop?........Then what? I stopped frequently and paused because of the extreme pain in my upper thigh/hip. On this day it was the hottest it had been and I felt like a steamed crab on Labor Day.

But I trudged along..........it ain't easy walking in sand..........but I made it. The beach front here is somewhat natural.........and a bit unkept. I could see the turtle nesting areas.......concave dips in the sand. I didn't get to see the turtles.......they do their thing at night.

The reason that this resort is "abandoned" is that the government of Mexico stepped in and declared it off limits in order to protect the turtles.

This was the beach bar...............I rested by sitting on the rope that separated it from the beach.

I decided that I had walked far enough already and that I just might survive the walk back to Supernurse.

Here is another turtle nesting spot.Each spot had a small sign which read "No Mover"........huh? I guess that means "Do Not Disturb".

When your leg hurts like hell and you look in front of you and see just how far down the beach you have yet to walk........well..............it just adds to the pain and stress.........ahhhhh.........I told you that I would mention the stress. There would not have been any stress at all except for the fact that I was participating in what you might call a "natural cardio stress test". If I survive this without dropping......my heart must be doing fairly well.

At this point I was beginning to sweat like it was no tomorrow..........uh oh........and I had nothing to drink with me. So, determined as I was.........I kept on walking and walking.......and it hurt even worse.....I honestly did not know if I would make it. I remember thinking that if I collapsed right here and kicked the bucket, I could not ask for a better place to drop.......it was beautiful............but I also remember thinking what a hardship it would be for Supernurse...........okay........this means I have to make it the entire way. Well.......I made it.........I got back to my lounge chair and plopped down next to Supernurse. I could hardly breathe and was sweating profusely. Supernurse and I walked over to the beach bar and got some drinks and sat down in the shade. There was about fifteen or so minutes there when I was wondering if I was gonna make it..........I felt really ill. After drinking down some cold soft drinks I started feeling better. I never had any chest pains but I did get dehydrated. I suppose that this is what it feels like when you suffer from real exhaustion. I then got up and went back to the beach.........I was 100% better.

Life is full of challenges and sometimes you.........even foolishly.........create your own challenges. That long walk up the beach was one of those personal challenges.........and yes......perhaps a foolish one at that..........but I did it and in the process, overcame the fear and apprehension of doing such a thing. I kind of did the same thing when I was in Aruba and went snorkeling for the first time..........I cannot swim and I had to jump off a boat in deep water.............yeah.......talk about overcoming fear and apprehension...........but I did it. You know the old saying "Nothing ventured, Nothing gained."...................also........"No Pain......No Gain".

Stay tuned..............I will be wrapping this up next.