The Big Day

Wednesday 28 April

Wednesday morning started just like any other, up for a coffee at Starbucks. I’ll be glad to get back home, well not really but to make a point let’s pretend, so the next Starbuck’s we see will be on the way to the Tango Palace. This time we decided to walk along the beach with the coffees and headed south. Little did we know that our day would bring us back this way for an entirely different reason. It was a beautiful morning and the walk took us much further than normal.

They say that good luck is what results when "preparation meets opportunity". How true. Before heading out, I attached the super zoom lense to the camera to get closeups of the beach before heading home. About half way through the walk we came upon a group of people holding light reflectors, and a hip looking dude with high end camera on a tripod. But most importantly, standing there on the edge of the sand was a latin goddess, and I am not exagerating, unbelieveable, stretching out to the sky with her back arched all decked out in a tiny white bikini. Good luck!! ...Not!! Unfortunately, just before leaving the room, I had changed my mind and put the camera back in the safe. My tears could not console me.

The weather had turned towards the end of our walk, and it looked like we had to find a few indoor actvities to keep entertained, so, we did what all good Norte Americanos do, and headed to Walmart. It was a quick $3 cab ride, and when we walked in doors, I had the same thoughts as I do when hitting Walmart back home; "what the heck did I ever come here for". The walk back was only ten minutes, and with the weather getting worse by the minute, the rest of the day was planned.

Now all week, we had been hit up by hucksters on the street to go visit the new Sandos Resort for dinner, lunch, breakfast, drinks....whatever we wanted as long as we went over. They try all kinds of enticements, and we ignored them all. But, since this was a rain day, our plan was to wrangle a free adventure for our final day, and get a nice meal inside a large resort away from the rains. We would go, get our goodies and tell them no thanks. So after arranging to get a $150 ATV trip for tomorrow, we headed in a prepaid taxi to the Sandals Playcar Resort.

Have to say, the place was impressive. We were greeted by a number of people trying to get a read on whether we might actually be a prospect. We were given the grand tour by Jessica, an extremely pleasant transplanted American from Washington DC. I won't bother with the details, but in the end, we walked away with a two unit, three week vacation ownership that we hope will be the cornerstone of our retirement plans (with more to come if it works like planned). The flexibilty of the plan, the price tag, and the thousands of 5+ star locations available to us world wide, turned me from a skeptic to a believer. Of course, it helps to be prepared to walk away to get the maximum they have to offer. Incredible deal.

After walking away, and going through the usual second thought process, my only regret is that we did not pick up an extra couple of weeks. I will be looking at that in the future.