Hola, Amigos!

I wanted to first thank everyone for their overwhelming support on the last posting.  If there's one thing that is universal, it's love.  And while I'm not quite to the point of 'being in', I have shut myself off so much over the last couple of years that allowing myself to feel anything for anyone is amazing enough, albeit such a special guy, with or without it's hardships, current or future.  We have decided to give it a week while I'm away to really think about it.  It never fails that I always meet someone right before I leave for a trip and I'm heart-sick the whole time.  A 7 hour time difference doesn't help.

I must say that this was the easiest trip I've every taken, as far as logisitics goes.  I was from my front door, picked up, parked, shuttled, checked in, through security and at the gate in an hour... and a half hour of that was transportation time.  We breezed through security (sadly, no free groping from security) and had two hours before our flight.  It was a little more crazier when we landed, but we got all settled in quickly and what can I say... it's absolutely gorgeous here. 

The ocean water is so turquoise and clear... the grounds are immaculate... our room is modern, clean and nice... it truly is paradise.  I thought I'd have more problems with the internet, since it was explained to me that it's $20.00 for a 24 hour connection, but it turned out that it's a 24 hour bank of time, so I have 4 hours per day of access... not that I want to be inside using the computer when it's so beautiful outside.  Eating has proven to be a little difficult as well... even at McDonalds across the street, it's hard to just get a chicken sandwich... between communication, money conversion and trying to get salsa and jalepeno's off what seems to be everything that they cook here, it's been a little challenging.  We have a convenience store across the street as well, so we've been able to get things cheaper than in the hotel.

Last night, we ate lightly and hung out in the lounge/lobby area and met 9 women from Ohio, and quickly became the token gays, since this is obviously straight-boy heaven.  The lobby has a 7-story atrium with vines growing down from the top floor and a restaurant at the bottom... it's gorgeous.  We opted not to get the all-inclusive package so that we wouldn't feel like we had to eat and drink so much to get our money's worth.  Everything is so cheap here, and there are plenty of americanized restaurants (TGI Fridays, Bubba Gump) that it doesn't make sense.  Mike and I are both watching what we eat, and so far, we've been doing well.  We went to the fitness gym in the hotel this morning and had a great workout... later, we're going to take a walk.  After that, we hung out at the pool to get a decent base tan and was in the ocean, where the water wasn't as warm as bath water, but was pretty close.

Tonight, we're going to hit their buffet here, which had a great selection of healthy foods and head more into the commercial area to shop around a bit.  Since neither of us are of the spring break mentality, hitting the clubs isn't high on our priority list.

I'm sitting in the lobby, overlooking the pool and the ocean.... it's sunny... and the warm breeze is blowing the palm trees and the air is coming through an open window... I am in paradise.  I'm very thankful for life right now.

(Click on any picture for the big version, click again for magnified)