Today, Kristen and I decided to opt out of diving. After being here for two days, we decided we needed and deserved a day of doing nothing. Yesterday, Eli told us that the power in our unit would be out from 8 am–1 pm because they were hooking up a generator in case of future power outages, so we planned for a relaxing day by the pool.

Kristen rented a bicycle in the morning and ventured to the closest market to find a band-aid. They didn’t have any. They didn’t have eggs, either, but while she was shopping, they went and got her a dozen. Gotta love this place.

The power went out around 9 am. I computed until Kristen came back, then lubed up with sunscreen. Kristen took the bike out one more time while I headed down to the pool with our stuff. One key and all . . .

Damn, it was a scorcher.

Kristen wasn’t gone long, and she came back all sweaty. We set up a lounging station by the pool with two chairs and two umbrellas and immersed ourselves in our readers. Amir dropped by every 15 minutes or so to make sure we had enough to drink and to remind us to put sunscreen on. He also informed us the temp was 101. Even in the shade, I felt like I was in the sun, and the burn I acquired yesterday was very displeased.

After a few drinks, Kristen switched to virgins. Then we ordered lunch—conch ceviche and a club sandwich to share. The divers came back not long after, and everyone enjoyed lunch and drinks poolside. I took a nap. Cindy and Kristen were kind enough to keep me shaded while I slept.

When I got back in the room, it was hot. Not a fun day for the A/C to be off. Again. It was worse than the first day. The power returned around 4 pm. A loud whooshing noise woke me from my almost-sleep as the fans, fridge, and other devices kicked on.

Curtis delivered sad news. Amir was told he wasn’t needed anymore and he wouldn’t be returning tomorrow. Kristen and I were very disappointed to hear this, and I was bummed that I would have had the chance to say goodbye if I stayed at the pool a tad bit longer.

After the power had been on a bit, Kristen noticed the place wasn’t cooling. We called the front desk, and they sent up their all-purpose repair man.

The seven of us congretated in our hot condo and ordered pizza. None of us really felt like going out at all, and we didn’t want to eat at Foot Prints again. Or I didn’t, anyway. That and I was a little bitter about no more Amir. Sure it was his trial week, but he was supposed to work through Sunday. I have to imagine they just don’t have enough guests right now to support more staff at the restaurant, and that it didn’t have anything to do with him personally. I hope he finds work quickly.

Some time later, someone came up with a key to the unit below us. He told us we could sleep there and they would fix the A/C again tomorrow. Kristen, Cindy, Ellie, and I went downstairs to check it out. It’s a much ritzier version of our unit.

We ate pizza and watched some show about SNL on VH1 before heading down to the cold condo for bed.

We woke up early after getting a good night’s sleep. Thank you, air conditioning! Kristen made oatmeal for breakfast, and I felt right at home Blog Cabin. We moseyed on down to the pier at 8:30 to be picked up by the dive shop.

After we dove, we took a dip in the pool. Ted, Ellie, Nick and I took full advantage of the swim-up bar. Ted and I ordered a banana daquiris, Ellie got a piña colada, and Nick ordered a club sandwich. Kristen didn’t want to get in (wimp), so I ordered her a margarita and swam it to her.

After I finished my drink, I went back to the room to make a sandwich of my own. I didn’t feel like putting on sunscreen before going back to the pool (it was after 2 pm), so I didn’t. Ted was kind enough to position an umbrella over my chair. The shade didn’t cover the whole thing, so I had to curl up in a little ball. I started feeling toasty after about an hour, so I headed back to the room. Yep, I was burnt. The damage had already been done. My tan lines were from the swimmer I wore diving. Since I don’t typically apply sunscreen before diving, I have to assume I got over sunned on the surface interval. I was in the shade, but I was on the dock. Next time I’ll bring sunscreen for in between or I’ll find a shady spot on the beach to sit.

After being in the sun, I lay down for a nap and crashed hard. When I woke up, I had just enough time to shower before dinner. We took the water taxi into town. The 15 minute straight-shot was much faster than renting a golf cart would be (vehicles aren’t permitted past the north bridge, so taking a cab from the resort isn’t an option).

We only had to walk about five blocks to get to El Patio, the restaurant I raved about in one of my prior posts. Of course that was all the distance Kristen needed to stub her toe on a hidden shell and gush blood all over her foot. A man selling his reggae CD started pitching a sale to us and Kristen asked him if he had any band-aids. He rushed her into a store. Cindy followed, not wanting poor Kristen to be alone. Apparently the reggae guy asked the store owner if he had a band-aid, to which he replied, “No man, I sell weed.” Kristen eventually got a band-aid and purchased the CD from the reggae guy for $5.

We made it to El Patio otherwise unscathed. I ordered the same meal I had last time—spicy coconut snapper fillet with coconut rice and garden salad with ranch dressing—and was slightly disappointed. Not that it was bad by any means, but it wasn’t what I was expecting. Maybe my memory was just wrong. The meal was great, but what was bad was the ranch dressing. In my prior post, I said it was the best ranch dressing I’ve ever tasted ever in the whole entire world’s history of ranch dressing . . . or something along those lines. This time it was probably the worst ranch dressing I’ve ever tasted ever in the whole entire world’s history of bad ranch dressing. It was thick, super thick like the consistency of mayo, and didn’t have much flavor. And it was room tempurature. Blech. Oh well, I probably would have still picked the same side items if I didn’t have a preconceived notion of what was good.

After dinner we stopped at The Salty Dog souvenir store. I bought a new sachel purse ’cause I left mine at home. I’m really excited to use it when we go on a tour of the ruins. Nick got a t-shirt and a bell for Grandma, and we also bought some chocolate. After that we hurried back to the Coastal Xpress water taxi station and went home hotel.