blue artichoke

My mom and I both woke up early and headed out for an early morning stroll on the beach. We staked out some beach chairs by dangling towels and beach bags over lounge chairs and headed up the beach. We returned to the chairs and slathered on some more sunscreen and plopped down for some beach reading. We were out from 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. and in that short time, I managed to acquire an intricate pattern of sunburns. The most interesting pattern is on my right hand, but the best work by far is on my topfeet and stretches to my front-ankle and several inches up my shin. I have burns in whorl patterns with definite boundaries that closely resemble my fingers. Impressive indeed. This artwork didn’t appear until much later in the day. Thinking we were easing into sun exposure, we went in before the strongest sun of the day. I rinsed the sand off me and we went to Paco’s for a taco party. Mexican tacos are so much better than the American version of Mexican tacos. For starters, they are in a soft corn tortilla, topped with refried black beans and either pulled pork or spicy chicken and red onions. We also drank a few free beers and chatted up a retired couple. After stuffing ourselves with beer and tacos in the midday sun, we headed off to another resort for a cocktail & cheese party. There I had an onion roll with a mild cheese, some white wine and a pinã colada. We watched a movie about how Cancun is rebuilding their beaches eroded by hurricane Wilma. They vacuum up sand from nearby Isla Mujeres and put it on a boat that spits it out on the shoreline. Neat. We also watched some really strong and flexible people climb on each other and balance in very beautiful and unnatural poses. We returned to our villa and were invited to watch the sunset at our cousins’ villa. There we drank more beers and ate cashews and assorted appetizers while catching up with family and watching the sun set. I was happy to see it go, spiteful sun.