Day 3 – Toni Tapped Out – Huatulco to Zipolite

Day 3 – Monday, Toni Tapped Out

We did enjoy watching the morning come alive on Playa Zipolite.  Certain faces on the beach were becoming familiar.  We would see the tall blonde lady, about mid 30’s, stretching, doing some form of yoga.  An older couple, probably over the age of 65, just briskly walking east at first, then west on the beach.  A muscular, local gentleman, maybe in his 20’s, tossing his Frisbee for his dog to chase.  We enjoyed seeing Alexa, probably age, mid to late 30’s, from Finland, who had an upstairs room, coming down to the lounge next to our room to use the WiFi.  So many activities, too many to share.

The breeze off the ocean was refreshing, brisk and watching the sun rise over the eastern ridge is a sight to see.  That’s the sensation, we were taking in.  Playa Zipolite is definitely a good place to chill and relax.

However, Toni reminded me of our current situation …

Cockroaches, mold, ants, no mirror, no toilet seat, minimum sleep and no ventilation – Toni has had it.  She’s tapped out and said to me “I’m out of here.  We’ve got to find another hotel.  I will not spend another night here, even if it means us sleeping in our rental car.”  I am leaving out the “colorful expletives”. Guess what – after 41 years with her (40 years married), I knew she meant it.  Her patience had worn thin and it’s time for us to move on.  So we agreed to go over to Lolas and have breakfast and then walk down the beach to find another hotel for the next five days.

So, after breakfast – and it was a delicious breakfast, with the best coffee we’ve ever tasted in a restaurant, we went walking down to a hotel that looked appealing. We went up to the lobby of Hotel Estrella de Mar and asked if they have any rooms available for “today leaving Saturday.”  The receptionist, Daniel in broken, but ok english, said that “they don’t have any rooms for tonight, but will have rooms for tomorrow through Friday.”  Toni’s eyes welled up with tears, she walked outside towards the beach, sat down and started crying.  I said to her, “Why are you crying?”  Toni responded, “because I just can’t stay another night in that hotel.  I’ve had enough.”  I then said to Daniel, I’ll take the room for Tuesday to Friday and told Toni that we’ll figure out what to do tonight and Friday night.  I immediately gave Daniel a deposit of 700 pesos  (roughly $37) to hold the rooms for those three nights.  

Let me explain further – the room that we were getting was also on the beach, first floor, at least 100 times better, had no ants, they changed the linen every day it had furnishing, a modern shower facility with toilet seats and mirrors, we were only paying roughly $2 more per night.  This hotel was so insect free that it didn’t have a mosquito net around the bed.  Wow!!! Of course we took it, even if though we had to find somewhere else to “stay tonight.”

We walked back to Hotel Salmastro (or as Toni called it – Casa Fungus) and I packed the largest suitcase, put it in the car, and went driving off.  I assured Toni that we were going to find somewhere else and by packing one of the suitcases, the largest, hers, showed her that I was very serious (as Toni says – ‘if Mama ain’t happy, nobody’s happy’ and that meant me too).  She was also serious and started to Google hotels close to us.  She called around and finally found one that said they had a room just for the night, on the second floor, and that’s it.  They were booked for the rest of the week.  

The hotel Toni found was Hotel Nude, which was on the other side of the beach.  As the name suggested, it was a hotel where you can be nude all day, including at their pool.  Yup, even though they were on Playa Zipolite (btw: playa in Spanish means beach), they had a pool also.  I reminded Toni about her bad hip and the room was on the second floor, she said she didn’t mind, as long as she wasn’t at Casa Ants and Cockroaches (another name she had for the other hotel).  

So we drove directly to Hotel Nude, Toni sat in the car, I went up to the check in desk and asked if they still had the one room available.  The receptionist said yes, and that it was 1200 pesos (roughly $65) for one night.  I gladly paid it.  I just couldn’t take my wife of 40 years being miserable anymore.  She truly was unhappy with ‘Casa Mold’ (another name she had for it) and I knew I had to cheer her up.

I danced to the car in the parking lot and let her know we had a room for the night.  We took the one suitcase that we had packed up to the room (Room 19), looked around and then drove back to Hotel Salmastro and finished packing.   At around noon, we returned back to Hotel Nude, got our beach attire on, went down to the beach and stayed there until dusk.  We were in heaven; we were no longer in a ant/roach infested hotel.  This hotel also had mosquito netting around the bed so bugs were to be expected.  But the ambiance and bedding were far superior and cleaner than our previous stay. To make it even better, Toni did not freak out when we pulled the covers back!

We met a couple on the beach that encouraged us to go to El Alquimista for dinner.  They said it was the best place to eat in Zipolite.  So we cleaned up and headed out to dinner around 8 pm at El Alquimista.

El Alquimista didn’t disappoint us!  The ambiance was absolutely spectacular; you could hear the ocean, feel the breeze and see flickering tiki lights on the rocks and around the restaurant.  It set the evening up to be a very romantic night.  Toni was starting to feel like we were on vacation; her warmth was coming back; she was no longer using vulgar words and I had my charming wife back.  She was glowing with excitement for the evening to come.

We had a fantastic dinner.  Toni had chicken with cream of mushroom and vegetables and I had beef filet with black pepper, vegetables and mash potatoes.  Gaiety, fun and libation flowed for the next couple of hours; we were having a good time.  Really, when you visit Zipolite, you’ve must go to El Alquimista for dinner.  You can also stay there because it’s also a resort.  The couple that told us about this restaurant was also there for dinner and came over to say hello.

On the way home, driving back to Hotel Nude we heard a person, who we now know as Mina, yelling at us.  “You’ve gotta stop here; stop here and have a drink.”  So we pulled over, and stopped in at  Ron’s Place in downtown Zipolite.  After seeing him, I told him, that I heard about him – that someone had mistaken me walking on the beach as him, except they said he was bigger.  Ron chuckled and we stayed for about an hour and had a couple of drinks.

So after a fantastic, romantic evening, we went back to Hotel Nude to get settled in for night.  “What that on the wall?”  I said in a calm voice to Toni.  She looked and didn’t reply.  I said, “Toni it’s a scorpion.”  That’s right, we came back to the room with a scorpion on our wall.  Well, at least it was only one, and not a zillion ants and roaches. Toni was amazingly calm, maybe because it was on the wall and not in the bed.  Though she did check the bed for critters.   I killed it, then went under our mosquito net and had a fairly nice sleep.  

We did see a couple ants on the wall in our room in the morning, but nothing like we had seen before.  You can’t go to a beach hotel and expect to not see a few bugs.  Overall, a very nice place.  Because we were there only one night, we awoke, (that’s right, Toni slept),  packed up, and drove to another city not too far away.  We couldn’t check into Hotel Estrella de Mar until around 3pm.

It’s getting better.  Day 4 will be posted tomorrow.

 

3 comments

  1. I have enjoyed reading Day 1- 3. I spent the first 2 weeks of January in Puerto Escondido which I first visited in 1974 and again in 1982. Drive up the coast to check it out if you have time. Best beaches in PE are Playa Carrizalillo sp? and Manzanillo. If knees are a problem, know that Carrizalillo has about 100 stone step staircase.

  2. Nice to hear from you. We totally enjoy being in that part of Mexico. We did make it to Puerto Escondido and will have an update soon. Where did you start your drive?

  3. I live in San Miguel de Allende and while i do have a car here in Mexico, I flew into PE each time I went.

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