The brochures were not lying – the view, the hotel, and the ocean were so stunning that I almost did not believe it would be true. My photography skills are mediocre, so these pix are from the brochure.

Our flights were uneventful, and we arrived at 1:20 pm as scheduled. The airport-to-resort shuttle was waiting to take us to the Zoetry Casa Del Mar. 30 minutes later, we were there.
Check-in was painless, and a hostess showed us to our room. She also showed us another suite upstairs that was like ours but with a different view. We liked the original one best.

A banner across the door said, “Feliz Anniversario,” meaning Happy Anniversary. I got to practice my Spanish with real people – some even understood what I said! A lot of the time, I spoke in vain due to denture lisping and slipping. Spanish AND English were both mangled. My hubby did not understand me half the time, either. I just shut up when I got tired of repeating myself 2 or 3 times.

Communication was not my only challenge. I really needed a straw. Juice glasses had small openings that caused the dentures to float. No straws were available. In fact, a waiter confided that straws had been outlawed in Cabo to protect the sea turtles. You just can’t make this stuff up. One of the customer service staff smuggled 2 straws to me. He did not say where he found them, and I didn’t ask. It was at that moment he became my adopted Grandson. GiBraun. He said it was like LeBron but with a G in front.

I finally figured out how to drink the juice. I stole a wide-mouth glass from a nearby table and transferred it over. It was fabulous! Yogurt, papaya & banana smoothie. Very yummy. Now, I needed to figure out how I could manage to eat in public. I could not order anything from the menu, so I ordered refried beans with cheese. These came in a bowl and were the consistency of soup. I expected pinto beans but got white beans. That was not the issue. I could not eat it using the spoon they served with it. It was the size of a serving spoon. I wish I was exaggerating.

They drink very strong coffee in Mexico. Our room had an automatic expresso machine. After two tiny cups of that, I could not sit still. They must use Mexican Jumping Beans to make it. Once we found out normal coffee was available in the bar at 7:00 am, hubby would go down and fetch us some every morning, and we would sip it while we enjoyed sitting on our veranda, watching the ocean. We read and did sudoku & crossword puzzles. I wrote thoughts in my journal. In less than an hour, we continued our relaxation in the room because the sun began hitting the veranda and warm-up our coffee.

Being treated like a princess reminded me of our “Thrones.” There was this pair of high-backed chairs positioned against the wall between rooms. They were very stiff and formal-looking, not made for comfort. I decided that these were our thrones. I wish I packed my tiara. Hubby humored me and would sit on his throne when I sat on mine. When housekeeping was cleaning our room, we had a place to wait.

To my knowledge, no one else ever sat on our Thrones.

To be continued…