day 4 in paradise
Jan. 19th, 2005 01:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_siobhanIt's warm here.
The trip went pretty smoothly. Lee showed up from Scotland on the Thursday, so when the cab arrived to take us to the airport we were both operating on about five hours of sleep out of the previous 48. On the plus side, that means I slept through most of the plane ride - including right through takeoff.
We were routed through O'Hare, which was kind of weird, because they managed to lose our plane. They found one for us - with a busted started. Our takeoff time got pushed back from one hour late to two as we waited for some truck that would come and jump-start the plane's engines. I slept through most of it.
By the time we landed in Puerto Rico is was dark out. People with clipboards herded us onto buses and we arrived just in time for dinner. The next day a group arrived from Vancouver - their plane had actually had an engine explode on takeoff. They made an emergency landing and ended up spending the night in Los Angeles. A few of them said to hell with this and went home instead.
The resort occupies a massive piece of land about 20 miles outside of San Juan. The hotel backs onto the ocean and there is a 15-minute drive through a nature preserve to get to the front doors. Everything is starched and spotless and tastefully decorated. Room service shows up three times a day.
The ocean is the temperature of a cool breeze, with surf that knocks you right off your feet. The beach sand is fine and soft and a combed by a tractor every day. The pool and beach are lined with deck chairs three deep, waiters in hawaiian shirts bringing drinks, towels and newspapers to the sunbathers. The grounds are full of iguanas, fat docile things that only skitter away when they are surrounded on three sides by gawking tourists.
I feel like I've fallen through a hole in one of the semi-destroyed walls in my Parkdale house and landed in another universe.
I would sincerely love to talk to the leader of the team who organized this whole thing. Every detail has been covered, from special cocktail napkins that are used whenever a member of our group orders a drink to the labeled chocolates and gift bags that get left by housekeeping whenever we leave the room. There was a cocktail hour and awards party on Sunday night with a caribana theme, showgirls in gigantic feathered hats lead the crowd on a conga line while stiltwalkers waded through the crowd. ACHIEVERS shows up everywhere, in powdered chocolate on the desert plates that arrive after every three-course meal, carved into the side of the watermelons on the buffet breakfast, in wood lettering on the drinks cart that circles the pools.
There are five "outings" that you can register for - shopping trips, tours of Old San Juan and the Bacardi distillary. We registered for two, the hike through the rainforest and an all-day snorkling trip. We did the rainforest trip yesterday - our guide was a wise-cracking character of a Puerto Rican who grew up in New Jersey, so he spoke Spanish with the melodic accents of a native but spoke English with an unmistakable Newark twang. He took us up the side of the El Yanque mountain in the Puerto Rican Heritage Park, talked about the history and politics of the island, pointed out trees and flowers and told us stories about the places and people. Most of the group hared off ahead on the trail, but it was slippery so we took our time so we could take pictures and stare at the scenery on the way. We swam in a crystal cold waterfall, saw dozens of tiny grey anoles and snails the size of your fist and heard hundreds of bird calls (although we couldn't see any birds through the canopy.) At the end of the trip he stopped the bus a grocery store just outside the resort so we stocked up on exotic flavours of rum for $12 a bottle and packages of crisps made out of plantain and casava.
I'm writing this on the balcony, listening to the ever-present sound of the crashing waves and the salsa music wafting up from the tiki bar. Tonight is the big formal do (mohawk decision still pending) and tomorrow we go snorkling. That will be my trial of fire, I've managed to avoid any burn other than a slight reddening of the bridge of my nose. Every day we wander down to the pool just to smirk at the Toronto temperature posted on the bullitin board.
Friday we we go home. I'm actually looking forward to sleeping in my hard cold bed and talking to people who aren't bankers.
The trip went pretty smoothly. Lee showed up from Scotland on the Thursday, so when the cab arrived to take us to the airport we were both operating on about five hours of sleep out of the previous 48. On the plus side, that means I slept through most of the plane ride - including right through takeoff.
We were routed through O'Hare, which was kind of weird, because they managed to lose our plane. They found one for us - with a busted started. Our takeoff time got pushed back from one hour late to two as we waited for some truck that would come and jump-start the plane's engines. I slept through most of it.
By the time we landed in Puerto Rico is was dark out. People with clipboards herded us onto buses and we arrived just in time for dinner. The next day a group arrived from Vancouver - their plane had actually had an engine explode on takeoff. They made an emergency landing and ended up spending the night in Los Angeles. A few of them said to hell with this and went home instead.
The resort occupies a massive piece of land about 20 miles outside of San Juan. The hotel backs onto the ocean and there is a 15-minute drive through a nature preserve to get to the front doors. Everything is starched and spotless and tastefully decorated. Room service shows up three times a day.
The ocean is the temperature of a cool breeze, with surf that knocks you right off your feet. The beach sand is fine and soft and a combed by a tractor every day. The pool and beach are lined with deck chairs three deep, waiters in hawaiian shirts bringing drinks, towels and newspapers to the sunbathers. The grounds are full of iguanas, fat docile things that only skitter away when they are surrounded on three sides by gawking tourists.
I feel like I've fallen through a hole in one of the semi-destroyed walls in my Parkdale house and landed in another universe.
I would sincerely love to talk to the leader of the team who organized this whole thing. Every detail has been covered, from special cocktail napkins that are used whenever a member of our group orders a drink to the labeled chocolates and gift bags that get left by housekeeping whenever we leave the room. There was a cocktail hour and awards party on Sunday night with a caribana theme, showgirls in gigantic feathered hats lead the crowd on a conga line while stiltwalkers waded through the crowd. ACHIEVERS shows up everywhere, in powdered chocolate on the desert plates that arrive after every three-course meal, carved into the side of the watermelons on the buffet breakfast, in wood lettering on the drinks cart that circles the pools.
There are five "outings" that you can register for - shopping trips, tours of Old San Juan and the Bacardi distillary. We registered for two, the hike through the rainforest and an all-day snorkling trip. We did the rainforest trip yesterday - our guide was a wise-cracking character of a Puerto Rican who grew up in New Jersey, so he spoke Spanish with the melodic accents of a native but spoke English with an unmistakable Newark twang. He took us up the side of the El Yanque mountain in the Puerto Rican Heritage Park, talked about the history and politics of the island, pointed out trees and flowers and told us stories about the places and people. Most of the group hared off ahead on the trail, but it was slippery so we took our time so we could take pictures and stare at the scenery on the way. We swam in a crystal cold waterfall, saw dozens of tiny grey anoles and snails the size of your fist and heard hundreds of bird calls (although we couldn't see any birds through the canopy.) At the end of the trip he stopped the bus a grocery store just outside the resort so we stocked up on exotic flavours of rum for $12 a bottle and packages of crisps made out of plantain and casava.
I'm writing this on the balcony, listening to the ever-present sound of the crashing waves and the salsa music wafting up from the tiki bar. Tonight is the big formal do (mohawk decision still pending) and tomorrow we go snorkling. That will be my trial of fire, I've managed to avoid any burn other than a slight reddening of the bridge of my nose. Every day we wander down to the pool just to smirk at the Toronto temperature posted on the bullitin board.
Friday we we go home. I'm actually looking forward to sleeping in my hard cold bed and talking to people who aren't bankers.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-19 09:11 pm (UTC)I hope you're enjoying your hard earned reward! :)
(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-22 08:12 pm (UTC)Had a good time but coming back to -20 degrees & snowstorm was a bit rough.