Last day at Allegro Playacar

We had an absolutely wonderful time here. In retrospect, we didn't do much, just relaxed and took things easy. In spite of the expensive laundry service and lack of options in regional beers, this place was amazing. What really made it great, I think, was the staff at the resort. They were all extremely friendly.

There were activities going on all day including water polo and other games in the rowdy pool. One big beefy guy acting as MC would organize the games wearing a cowboy hat and a woman's swimsuit. I actually didn't notice for the first few days as it looked like some kind of lifeguard's uniform, but eventually I realized that it didn't fit right in places.

Every staff member would give you a cheery "hola" when you walked by. In the buffet, the waiters would chat and make little cat noises that had Baby looking under the table for the cat.

Everyone loved Baby, with her curly blonde hair. She got lots of attention. Ina, at the front desk, even bought a little gift for her from downtown. Ina and Remco worked at the front desk and we got to chatting with them when we were looking for lost sunglasses. Turns out Remco is Dutch and a very interesting guy to talk to. Ina learned English for this job by spending six months in Medicine Hat. In winter. Talk about steep job requirements.

There was a Kids' Club where our kids would spend part of most days. The staff there would play games with the kids, but mostly Baby would watch videos like Beauty and the Beast on the aging big screen TV and the boys would play games on the PS2. At one point Donnie Darko did make a new friend, a boy in a room near ours. They spent quite of bit of time together the last few days.

Today the boy's parents got the timeshare spiel and Donnie and their son played videogames. When the spiel ended the boy and his parents left. Donnie stayed behind and played games for another couple of hours. After awhile I got to wondering where he was. I looked everywhere for him, which is easy to do in this resort, but I couldn't find him. I started getting worried. We eventually found the timeshare place through the disco. I hadn't thought to check the disco.

So that was our excitement for the week. Donnie Darko's friend and the boy's family were from Edmonton. There were a lot of Canadians at the resort -- there are a lot of Canadians in Mexico in general -- but we also met Americans, Italians, and of course Mexicans. The place had a nice cosmopolitan feeling, a nice mix of cultures. The next resort we went to was bigger and more impressive, but there was less diversity. It seemed more touristy, less friendly, and not as cozy, but we had a blast there too.