A Day at the Beach

My apartment is only four blocks to the beach, but I walk an additional 5 or 6 blocks south to Playa Los Muertos (yes, I know it means "Beach of the Dead" but have forgotten why).  Most of the south beach has been set up by hotels or bar/restaurants:  I go to Blue Chairs or Green Chairs.  Oh, on the way I pass by my favorite coffee house and will stop for a tall iced latte.

If you arrive before noon you can usually pick your own spot.  I have been going to Green Chairs for they have fewer palapas and thus more sun.  Blue Chairs is a huge complex of bar/restaurant, hotel and disco on top.  Green chairs just has the bar/restaurant.  Each palapa (sort of a thatched umbrella made of palm fronds) has 3 or 4 lounge chairs and a couple of tables and each is assigned a waiter.  I have alway over tipped in the hope they will remember me and give me better service.  Alas we all look alike to them (fat old white men) so it hasn't worked that well.  After about 6 weeks Luis did remembered me.

You mainly order drinks, but you can have lunch served at your palapa.  I usually drink beer with a glass of ice.  It is popular here to pour beer over ice, it stays cooler and lasts longer.  I did finally have my pina colada under a palapa last week.  It was delicious.  I prefer to go up to the restaurant above the beach for lunch.  Unless you are just having a sandwich, it isn't easy eating off one of those little tables.  The food is just okay, but the view is awesome.

The waves have been breaking right on the sand, so it is not a great surfing beach (like I would anyway!!)
Only a few will brave the waves.  The crowd is almost all white (well, some are quite tan) and not all American.  There are lots of Canadians, and some Europeans, as well.  The water is still pretty cool, but I do walk along the beach letting the waves lap around my ankles.  There was a small pier at one end of the beach that is being torn down.  I was unhappy to see this, then learned that a newer larger pier would replace it in order to accomodate larger ships (I hope not the Carnival Lines)

Parasailing and jet skis are the popular sport (no I have not - at least not this trip).   Mostly people just drink and lie out in the sun.  I still can't do more than about 3 or 4 hours of sun a day.  Both Blue Chairs and Green Chairs blares out disco tunes all day long.  In the afternoon they both have a life disc jockey.  You don't want to sit between the two, or the competing beat, beat, beat will drive you nuts.  At five clock Blue Chairs opens the disco on the roof with "dancers".  I have yet to see this for as I said, by 5:00 I leave the beach.  The whole day at the beach (drinks, lunch, palapa, and heavy tip) cost less than $20.00 (including my latte on the way)..