My life as a drug lord

I've been back from Mexico for about two and a half weeks now, and am finally ready to write about it. I think it's because I've finally compiled some pictures from the 1000+ (and counting) that were gathered from various people on the trip. Hard to choose from them all. I organized about four hundred into a slideshow, and uploaded fifty seven to my Facebook and PicasaWeb accounts. Could probably have done more, but the Facebook plug-in for iPhoto only allows sixty uploads at a time. And since Google kept giving me an error when uploading to Picasa, I just decided to keep the photos down to fifty seven. Plus, do people really want to look at more than four hundred photos at one time?

So, as I keep telling people, Tulum was amazing and horrible at the same time. OK, not horrible, but it could have been better. Amazing group of family and friends. The setting was beautiful: fine sand, turquoise water, almost private beach. Casa Magna was beautifully yet simply decorated. Simple luxury. Yet, beyond the amenities (freshly prepared breakfast, lunch , and dinner; sea kayaks; snorkeling gear) something wasn't quite complete. Perhaps my expectations were too high. After all, my sister had booked the place and she is known for some amazing finds on her vacations. And, Casa Magna was once part of Pablo Escobar's drug empire. OK, this can't be confirmed, but it is definitely something that the Casa Magna website promotes. One of the owners, Melissa Perlman, admits herself that it is unclear who the original owner was. [Note, I got this information directly from the Casa Magna website: http://www.casamagnatulum.com/]. Anyway, I digress. All this hype about Pablo, and the descriptions on the website definitely made me think this was going to be a luxurious vacation. I also knew from the website that all food, excluding alcohol, was included; there would be limited electricity and no air-conditioning.

When we arrived, we learned we'd be staying in Casa Magna 2, the bigger and most recently renovated of the two villas. Great. Bigger place, same price. Place was beautiful, and all to ourselves. Showers weren't fresh water, no problem. My first shower, I wasn't patient enough and thought there was no hot water. So I took a cold shower, which considering how horribly hot and humid it was the first day, felt refreshing. Slowly, over the next few days, I learned that other people were not so lucky. They actually did not have hot water. And, nobody was really complaining, so it was just in random conversations that things came out. I think some people may have just assumed that the "eco", as in ecological not economical, part of the resort description meant not having hot water, I don't know. I think some people might not have even had running water (I certainly did not for the first few hours of our last day there).

Bugs. Oh boy, were there bugs. It being hurricane season, the mosquitoes were out in force. I started out just using OFF or whatever weak stuff they sell in those spray bottles, but I had to bust out the Jungle Juice from REI soon enough. A couple of mornings I awoke to find mosquitoes inside my netting. One of those mornings, I killed five! Inside my mosquito net! After that, I made sure to inspect the netting before I climbed in for bed. Believe it or not, I wasn't the worst off. Some people had holes in their net. Others were just getting bit more than I (a rare situation). One evening, I tried climbing a coconut tree and found myself covered (a very slight exaggeration) with fleas. I immediately ran to the shower to rinse them off. Speaking of fleas, almost all of us brought some home, so the misery of insect bites continued at least a week after we returned. Talk about the gift that keeps on giving. And anyone who is reading this from the trip, I swear it isn't me who gave you all the fleas by climbing that damn tree. I think the fleas were all over the sand and on the dogs.

Speaking of dogs, there were like 8 dogs running around the property. They were friendly, of course, though one new dog arrived sometime around Thursday night and growled at me on my way to the kitchen. Aside from that, they were nice. A couple were mangy and I didn't want to pet them too much. Anyway, I think they were introducing the fleas. Some of the dogs kept wanting to get into people's rooms, Rob and Emily's in particular. They would scratch at their door around/before sunrise and wake them up. Other's apparently tried to climb into bed with some folks. Another, or two, actually shit on the floor inside the room. Not something you want to happen to you while you are on vacation, without pets. A lot of us are or were pet owners, so it's not like we have anything against dogs.

I think bringing home fleas was the icing on the cake, or maybe the straw that broke the camel's back. Though I think the breaking point was reached far in advance of leaving. Two couples actually left Casa Magna for nearby digs two nights before we left.

Food. Food was great. Kitchen staff was wonderful. They catered to our various needs: special meals for the children, no onions for Cyndi. Maybe someone else didn't like onions either. Meal times according to our schedule. Alcohol price was exorbitant, but I understand that's how places make their money. And, maybe it was a deterrent to drinking. Casa Magna is, after all, a place to cleanse the body and mind. It definitely deterred me from drinking too much, after racking up a $60 bar tab the first night, maybe two (US$6 margies, US$3 bottled beer). Getting sick helped limit my alcohol consumption too (I got no sleep the first night as the air was so thick I couldn't breathe, no sleep the second night either, as I was getting mild stomach cramps; third day I was a zombie, but recovered after sleeping 12 hours that night; I think it must have been heat exhaustion). One problem with the kitchen in Casa Magna 2 is that the refrigerator didn't work. They left us a cooler (more a bin) with beer and ice the first night or two, but all the ice melted within a couple hours. They finally brought us a proper cooler, but still not as good as the one I have at home. This was just a minor inconvenience. It wasn't as if we were cooking our own meals. Though, I know some of the parents were annoyed b/c they couldn't store milk for the kids.

The staff was wonderful, especially Javier and Josh. Though we did wish they would have closed our windows for us one day. We were out on an all day excursion with Josh, when some scattered t-storms rolled through (though not on us). My room, 2nd floor, did not have an awning, so the rains just blew straight in. There must have been an inch to an inch and a half of water. Same with Pele and Pilar's room, though their's was from a leaky roof, in addition to an open window. Cyndi had a partially leaky roof and open window, but luckily was confined to her bath area. Surprisingly, the rooms downstairs were unflooded, due to awnings protecting them. I think Jim and Erin's room partially flooded as well. We ended up helping the limited staff (it was probably 8pm or 9pm, so understandably limited) sweep out the water. Javier was so helpful with that effort. I felt a little bad calling him in to take over for me but I felt for a moment that I wasn't paying good money to labor. After a moment of guilt, I resumed sweeping while asking Javier to look for more squeegies.

Finally, our last night there was on my sister's birthday, so the staff threw a party, piñata and all. The kitchen prepared a special surf and turf meal (did I mention that the staff, like Javier, went out fishing or divng every day for fish, lobster, etc.?). I think that was the best meal of the week (though I did miss another lobster night when sleeping for 12 hours). Josh, Jen(?), and Sascha (sp?) helped blow up balloons manually. Free margaritas and beer. Sort of. That was probably the downer of the night (and not that much of a downer really), but there was confusion over the alcohol. Originally, the staff had said the drinks were on the house, but then Melissa said no. Then she reversed herself and they were indeed free, I think to help make up for the inconveniences of the week. But later, when we went back to our villa, I heard the drinks were only free during the dinner party, not when we got back to CM2. Then, some staff brought over margarita mix and a bottle of tequila, saying it was on the house. Turns out, there was barely enough tequila for a pitcher of margies. All that waffling really made the apology seem disingenuous.

So, the trip was great overall, but could have been fantastic/fabulous. Maybe Casa Magna just has some kinks to iron out. After all, they have just recently (within the year?) opened villa #2, but based on the reviews on Trip Advisor, this may be an ongoing concern. My sister posted a review there, to which Melissa responded. After objectively reviewing what she wrote, my sis pulled her review. However, one thing Bonnie told me that Melissa had said is that Casa Magna was supposed to be more of a villa rental, where we are independent, than a 5-star hotel. I think if that had been the case, it would have been perfect. I would have loved to get into the kitchen and whip up some Coco y Cacao. However, we couldn't really use the kitchen. No refrigerator, no utensils, cookware, not that I searched very hard, but the kitchen was definitely not inviting. Also, I think there is a discrepancy between the web site and it's implied sense of luxury, and what Melissa is saying we were supposed to get - a villa rental. I don't normally think of daily maid service when I rent a cabin in Tahoe, only when I stay in a hotel. In general, I guess I would have preferred something a bit more defined. Either roughing it or luxury. This "rustic luxury" was almost like a tease. Here's a beautiful locale and villa, but yet it isn't as comfortable as it suggests. Or maybe it would be better in the high season, when the weather is better.

Finally (again), just to put things into perspective, most of this group is a bunch of seasoned travelers, myself excluded. OK, I've done my fair share of traveling over my lifetime, but much less compared to the rest of this bunch. Not only have they traveled personally and professionally, but they have worked in/with many hospitality/food service professionals (i.e. Joie de Vivre, Peninsula). They are heavyweights in branding, so basically, what I'm saying is they know what they are talking about.