The Doctor and I had breakfast at the Adonis' cafe, and ate outside near the pool. I got Eggs Florentine. After we had ordered we discovered there was also a small buffet set up inside, with fruit, cheese, and bread so we helped ourselves to that as well.
When I checked in the day before, the desk clerk had told me they were at 15% capacity, and the place did seem pretty empty, but I didn't mind the peace and quiet at all. There were a few other gay men, mostly couples (including a very young twinkish couple), and one man who seemed to be by himself, and was alone every time we saw him. There was also at least one lesbian couple, and a surprising number of what appeared to be straight people, both couples and singles.
While we were having breakfast a slender man came over dressed casually but wearing a Dolce & Gabbana belt that probably cost more than all the clothes I had brought with me combined. He introduced himself as Michele, and said he was the resort manager. He said he hadn't seen us before and asked us when we had arrived, where we were from, etc. He told us there was an opera group staying there, but they were leaving that afternoon, and things should "calm down" once they were gone. I thought things were pretty calm as it was! Apparently most of the straight people I had seen were members of that group.
After we ate, we went and checked out the little Emporium. It was mostly a gift shop, and though it had some hats and golf shirts with ADONIS embroidered on them, I was disappointed they didn't have any Adonis t-shirts. They had some skimpy Speedo style bathing suits, which I showed The Doctor, and he picked out a couple pairs and spent several minutes trying them on. He called me back to the dressing room once to ask if he looked better in the small or the medium; he looked hot in both, and I really couldn't see a noticeable difference. I believe he ended up going with the small. I bought a few postcards with pictures of the resort on them.
We went back to the room, The Doctor put on his new swimsuit, and then we headed down to the Clothing Optional beach.
There were two men already there, and another couple arrived a short while later. This was a couple we had seen around the night before. They were from England. One of them was deaf, and he and his partner communicated through sign language. He was attractive and had a nice body. They went down closer to the water out of sight. Some time later a woman also came along, but she sat discretely up behind us in the shade of one of the outdoor beds.
At dinner the night before I had told The Doctor that if he wanted to take full advantage of the clothing optional beach, not to worry; I would not try to grope him, or stare, or take pictures (unless he wanted me to!), or otherwise behave inappropriately. And he told me that if I wanted to take full advantage of the beach, I too should go ahead. The other guys on the beach had all stripped down, and after we had been there awhile, I opted out of my clothing as well. The Doctor never did, I am not sure if he was uncomfortable doing so around me, or just in general. I certainly hope I wasn't responsible for cramping his style, but as it was his suit left little to the imagination . . .
We stayed at the beach for what seemed like a couple hours at least. It was very peaceful, just the sound of the ocean crashing against the rocks along the shore. After awhile, The Doctor said he was going up to take a dip in the pool, so I asked him to see if he could get a non-alcoholic frozen drink for me at the bar. When he came back he had a strawberry daiquiri and a pina coloda, and let me pick which one I wanted. I took the daiquiri, and it was soooooooooo good, especially after laying out there in the hot sun.
Finally he wanted to go lay up by the pool, so I put my swim suit back on, and we both took a quick shower under one of the outdoor showers, then headed to the pool.
It wasn't as quiet there. Music was playing, and it was kind of loud and a bit erratic. The songs would cut off right in the middle and another would start up, and at least once two songs were playing at the same time. Michele, the manager, was still sitting outside of the cafe near the pool, and seemed to be conducting business from there. The other guys who had been down at the beach also eventually came up to the pool, including the good looking deaf guy, who seemed to be shooting me fervent glances every time he walked by. The opera group were hanging out by the pool too, until they left.
A waiter named Juan was circulating poolside, and he must have brought me at least half a dozen more strawberry daiquiris. I couldn't get enough of them, and once I got it through my head I wasn't having to pay for them, there was no stopping me. The Doctor ordered a veggie burger for lunch, and when it came it looked and tasted so suspiciously like the real thing that he had to verify with Juan that it was in fact meatless. He really liked it a lot, and I ended up getting one as well.
We stayed by the pool for a couple more hours. I think this is the first time I can remember being on a vacation where I spent a whole day doing nothing but relaxing, and I have to say I enjoyed it. Just laying in the sun, drinking virgin daiquiris, with occasional dips into the pool. And though the Doctor's physique was attracting the majority of attention, I did get a few looks, especially from the deaf British guy who was not at all bad on the eyes himself.
Late in the afternoon the sky grew very dark, and the wind picked up. The staff started rushing around taking down the large umbrellas, and people quickly began to abandon the pool and head indoors. We went back to our room and it did rain for awhile.
The Doctor had spent more time swimming than I had, and with all his time in the pool, he ended up with swimmer's ear in his left ear. It really bothered him quite a bit the rest of the evening, and nothing he tried was successful at getting the water out. As for me, I was beginning to realize I had spent too much time in the sun, and even though I had applied a sunscreen with an SPF of 150 a few times over the course of the day, I developed a pretty bad sunburn. It was a spray on sunscreen, and apparently I hadn't applied it evenly enough, as the burn was sporadic and splotchy. Some of it was on my upper torso, but the worst of it was on my legs, especially the top and inside of my calves. The affected areas were beet red, and grew more and more painful as the evening progressed. Considering the fact I had spent a good part of the day at the clothing optional beach, I was truly fortunate that some of my more delicate areas had been spared . . .
In spite of his swimmer's ear, The Doctor went to the gym for another workout, and then we went to dinner. We ate in the Italian section of the restaurant that night.
We got a tomato and cheese appetizer, and The Doctor got a pesto fettuccine dish, while I got the lasagna which he had had the night before. Although the portions were small, everything was delicious.
I washed it all down with a few more virgin Strawberry Daiquiris. Juan, who had been our waiter poolside during the day, also served us that night. He was very attentive, and it didn't take him long to figure out we didn't drink. But when he brought me my first Daiquiri at dinner, he put it down with flourish and said "Mucho alcohol!" It took us both a second to realize he was just kidding.
When we left the restaurant, we could see the hot British deaf guy and his partner having a nice romantic dinner in the gazebo overlooking the ocean. Apparently they had arranged to be served there, as we could see a waiter tending to them. In spite of the deaf guy's wandering eyes (at me!), the two of them made a very nice couple. Earlier in the day at the pool they had often been in each other's arms in the water, and appeared to be very much in love.
On Friday morning (7/20), The Doctor still had water in his ear, and my sunburn felt like my skin was on fire. Even worse than the pain was how hideous I looked. I would have preferred an even burn, but mine was more splotches of bright red here and there. Looking like that, taking off my shirt was out of the question, especially around the guys at Adonis.
We ate breakfast again by the pool. Our waitress was a pleasant Mexican woman named Victoria. She took our order, but explained that there was no buffet table that morning; that was only something they did when they were busier and had more guests . . . Apparently the day before was what they considered to be "busy", but now that the opera people were gone, things had slowed down for them . . . While I was in the bathroom, Victoria told The Doctor that when she was not having a "quiet day" she liked to ask the guests where they were from and what they did, but today she was having one of her quiet days, so she didn't ask us anything . . .
Our plan for the day was to visit the ruins of Tulum, but we made a quick stop first at a nearby grocery store to try to find something for The Doctor's swimmer's ear, which was really bothering him. The store had a good sized pharmacy (or "farmacia"), but we couldn't find anything associated with the ear. He finally asked the girl at the counter. She didn't speak English, but he was able to get his point across enough for her to be able to tell him they didn't have any "drops". I pointed out some Q-tips, and helped him find some rubbing alcohol, and when we got back to the car, he spent several minutes working on his ear with that, but it didn't provide any immediate relief.
The Tulum ruins were just a short drive from Adonis. When we got there, I dropped my new camera when I got out of the car. It separated a little along the joining seam at the top, but didn't seem to affect it otherwise. I did begin to wonder if I had ended the curse of my sunglasses only to start a new one with cameras . . .
I had been to Tulum once on a cruise a few years ago. It is a modest collection of ruins concentrated in a relatively small area (compared to Chichen Itza), but the location on a cliff overlooking the ocean makes it a beautiful and unique site. As my guidebook pointed out, while not as impressive as some ruins, the ancient inhabitants must have been very smug with themselves when it came to the view.
Having been there once already, I didn't take many pictures. The Doctor took some, but it didn't take us long at all to walk through the complex. Once I went to take off my sunglasses - the pair I had bought at Chichen Itza to replace the ones I had given to the young boy - and again the arm broke in half! I had hoped my deal with the boy had broken my sunglasses curse, but apparently it had not. And considering I had almost broken my camera too, I was beginning to fear my luck had only gotten worse!
There were several tour groups at Tulum, but I thought I recognized one of the guides as the young man who had been our guide when I had been there previously. He looked very much like him, and what he was saying when I walked past him sounded almost exactly like something our guide had said to us. I stopped to watch him to try to figure out if it was in fact him. He glanced at me once, but kept talking, and then finally looked at me again and said to his group "Do we have a stowaway? Yes, I think we have a stowaway." He was referring of course to people who attach themselves to guided groups to get a free tour. While I admit to having eavesdropped a couple times at Chichen Itza when a guide was within earshot, I never actually followed a group, and none of that had been my attempt now. I was a bit embarrassed and offended by his comment, which I thought was rude and unnecessary.
Once we had seen all we cared to of the ruins, we descended the wooden stairs down to the beach, which is rated one of the ten most beautiful in the world. We spent some time in the water, but kept a wary eye on our belongings left on the shore. Once in Australia The Doctor had everything stolen while he was in the water at Bondi Beach, and ended up having to walk through downtown Sydney to the police station wearing nothing but a Speedo. Considering how much he likes showing off his physique, I imagine he rather enjoyed that part of the experience, and I am rather sorry I missed it. In any case, it has left him cautious about leaving things unattended, and the Tulum Beach would have been an easy place to fall victim to such a crime again.
The waves were bigger here than they had been at Isla Hobox, and I almost got swept off my feet a couple times. The surroundings were beautiful, and it would have been easy to have spent the rest of the day there. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling all that great, and was concerned about making my sunburn worse. And as lovely as it was here, I think we were both eager to get back to the luxury of Adonis.
(I'm too sexy for this rock!)
We did leave finally, and when we got back to Adonis, I went straight to The Emporium and bought my fourth pair of sunglasses since arriving in Mexico. I was alone, as The Doctor had run back to the car where he had left his money. As I was going in, the British couple were coming out. The attractive deaf guy looked at me as we passed, and after a few paces I turned to look back only to find him turning to look back at me . . .
Back in our room, The Doctor worked again on trying to get that pesky water out of his ear. I crashed on the bed and dozed off a little. When I awoke I told The Doctor I thought I had heat or sun stroke. I was really feeling lousy. He was concerned, but not so much but that he decided to go out to lay by the pool.
(The Doctor at the pool . . .)
I joined him after awhile. He was in the sun of course, but there was no way I was going to do that again. I was trying to figure out how to put up one of the large umbrellas, when someone came over to help me out. I thought it was one of the staff at first but it turned out to be Michele, the resort manager. He was wearing only a swimsuit, a tiny little pair of black shorts, and showing off his pierced nipples AND pierced naval. He explained it was his day off, and he was spending it relaxing by the pool. He had seemed to be doing the same the day before, I guess the only difference between a work day and a day off for him was what he wore while lounging poolside.
After he got the umbrella up, he asked if I wanted anything and I told him a virgin Strawberry Daiquiri would be nice. Soon Victoria came over with my drink, and was horrified by my sunburn. I had kept my shirt on and just a regular pair of shorts, because even though I planned on staying out of the sun, I was quite embarrassed by how hideous the sunburn looked, but she could still see how badly burned my calves were.
A little later we ordered lunch. The Doctor got another of the suspicious tasting veggie burgers which he really loved, and I got some nachos. I made sure Victoria understood I wanted no meat in the nachos, and no alcohol in my steady flow of Daiquiris. "No meat, no alcohol", I told her, and she said "That's good!".
After we ate I dozed off under the umbrella and slept really hard in spite of the loud music. When I awoke The Doctor was no where to be seen. I thought maybe he had snuck down to the clothing optional beach to exercise his option without having to worry about me gawking. There was a small island in the middle of the pool with some small trees on it, and I thought perhaps he was in the water on the other side of the pool out of sight, but he was gone for so long that I guessed that was not the case or it seemed like he would have swam back around eventually.
A bit after I woke up a cute young Mexican guy came swam over. He introduced himself as David . . . or maybe Michael. The Doctor had met him the first day in the gym, and described him as Adonis' version of Julie McCoy - a reference to the cruise activities director on "The Love Boat". He had a very hot, trim, atheletic body, and was very easy on the eyes. He had a ball with him and told me he was trying to get a water game started but everyone just wanted to relax and no one wanted to play. He told me they were having a "show" that night at the resort's club at 11:00 and said that I should come. The way I felt then I wasn't even sure I would still be alive at 11:00!
He apparently succeeded in getting the game started as I could hear a great deal of shouting and spalshing. Most of it was on the other side of the little island, but once in awhile it would swing into view at the far end of the pool. The hot deaf British guy was there with his partner and probably four or five other men. I am not sure exactly what the object of the game was, but it appeared to be simply to just to try to get the ball away from whoever had it, maybe some sort of Capture The Flag, though I couldn't really tell if there were teams or it was just every man for himself.
Once when the game came into view from behind the island, I was surprised to see Doctor was playing! Somone was trying to wrestle the ball away from him, and he was putting up a valiant effort to hold on to it. Another time he again had the ball, and the whole gang seemed to attack him unitl he was in the middle of a cluster of men all grabbing at him . . . more at him then the ball, or so it seemed to me. And once I saw him one on one with another guy who had him in a bear hug from behind, again under the pretense of getting the ball away from him, but it appeared he had other purposes in mind. Considering The Doctor has a strict "NO TOUCHING" policy as far as I am concerned, I was just a little jealous that everyone else was getting piece of him while I couldn't.
I stayed at the pool for awhile longer. The deaf British guy again kept sending me interesting looks, and would frequently float by staring at me pretty intently. But we exchanged nary a word.
(Nice view of the pool . . . and the hot deaf guy!)
After it appeared The Doctor had no intention of getting out of the water and rejoining me, I finally gathered my things and went back to the room.
He returned eventually. In addition to his water sports activities, he had spent some time talking with Michele. Michele had told him that he had been critizied for spending so much time out by the pool on his work days, but he said he felt he could get a better sense of what was going on and what needed his attention there than sitting in his office crunching numbers. He was a little peeved that a former guest had even referred to him in a TripAdvisor.Com review of the resort, saying "Michele the resort manager is pretty worthless". He had come to the resort to replace the previous manager, someone who was straight, and though not a homophope, really didn't have any insight into gay sensibilities. Michele had made several changes to make the resort more appealing to gay men, and I believe he told The Doctor the clothing optional beach was one of them. He asked The Doctor how long we had been together, and The Doctor of course had told him we had known each other for over 25 years, but were just friends, and not a couple. I hope he made it very clear that that is HIS choice and NOT MINE!!!
He also found out that Mark . . . or David . . . the cute activites director had only been working there for three days. He talked with him a little too, and Mark was asking him about his workout routine, how often he worked out etc. He obviousl y was in great awe of The Doctor's body. He told The Doctor that he wanted to bulk up and put on another 20 or 30 lbs, but both The Doctor and I agreed that he certainly didn't need to do that, and look just fine with his trim, atheletic build.
That night we had dinner at the Asian section of the restaurant.
We ordered a salad with seaweed on it, and got vegetarian sushi rolls for our entree.
Juan was our waiter, and at the end of our meal he brought us a rather lengthy comment/suggestion form to fill out, covering our stay and experience at Adonis. I am not sure how he knew personally that it was our last night, but it seemed to be something of which he was aware.
(View of the pool from our table at the restaurant)
After dinner we took a walk to the end of the promenade and stood a long time just listening to the waves crash on the rocks beneath us. Lightening was flashing off in the distance, though it never seemed to get any nearer, and closer to us some lightening bugs were doing their best to put on their own display. It was, in a word, very romantic . . . just without any romance . . .
The night before, he had decided to go for a walk after we had gone to bed and had gone out by himself. In one corner of the resort, he had discovered another army of Leaf Cutter Ants hard at work. After we watched the lightening for some time, he took me searching for the ants, and with some effort we did find them, though I am afraid we may have stepped on some of their contingent in the process. We studied them for a bit, and then went back to the room.
I was more than ready to go to bed, and I assumed The Doctor would be too, so I was surprised and a little disappointed when he poked me almost flirtatiously with his water bottle and asked if I was ready to go "clubbing" with him at the resort club. I certainly was not up for it, but he really wanted to go, so he went by himself, and I called it a night and turned in.
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