Wine and Musicians

The jumbo jet from Paris arrived Thursday with a new group of exhausted tourists. The diving will change a lot now. The boats will be packed with French divers. They don’t have a good reputation in the diving community. Arrogance and the belief that you already know everything there is to know about diving is a terrible combination. We shall see. We took diving off again today and worked out on land. I have this routine of speed-walking throughout the resort and going up and down every set of stairs… great way to burn off the white chocolate bread ;)

Last night we went to the wine tasting course at the club. There was ten of us around this amazing table loaded with food for wine pairing. They even had a giant Serrano ham, which is really expensive, but lasts a long time. Fernanda, our sommelier, was great at starting us off with looking at the color, then the still aroma, followed by the aroma after it’s swirled. Then of course was the tasting; a simple sip, a swirling sip, conversation, another sip. Club Med is famous for its mediocre wine, so I was pleasantly surprised when they pulled out real wine. I brought wine from California, so I’m safe… in case you were worried. 

We were excited to find our spunky dive-master in the wine tasting. She and her boyfriend added a fun twist to it all.

It’s been a couple of days now since the French arrived and they have brought a great energy to the Club. They brought their children, so little ones are running amuck. It’s fun to watch the way they all interact. The teens are boring as usual. They strut around slowly and don’t acknowledge anyone except each other. Today a teen tried to order a margarita at the beach bar. The bartender (a girl, barely 21 herself) said nope. The teen said, “It’s for my mom.” The bartender leaned closer and pointing at the girl’s bright yellow bracelet said with a smile, “I don’t care if it’s for your dad, or your Grandma, your under age and you’re not getting a drink with alcohol in it!” I had to laugh at the girl’s frustration. She ordered a virgin margarita.

One of our ‘excursions’ is going to the airport. It’s a ten minute walk. They have a building that’s been closed every time we go there, a tiny gift shop, and a bar. The biggest road on the island (two-lanes) goes between the airport and the bar and gift shop. When a plane comes in the airplane crew walks over and an instant game of dominoes is played. This is an intense game here. They are very theatrical as they slam the dice cup down as hard as they can, and shout encouragement and complaints at each other. The other day one of them stood up and yelled, “Call 911! I need help!” This was met with laughter. When the flight crew isn’t around they sit around and watch T.V. together. There’s nothing like watching real life blooper shows where kids wreck on skateboards and cars skid on ice to make us all bond.

I have to pause from my writing right now to gaze out to sea from my Club Med barstool perch at La Pinta…………….. What a beautiful setting. It’s actually a little chilly, but I’m still in shorts and a tank-top, and bug spray. That brings me to a subject I plan to do a separate blog post on; travel tips for beginner travelers. But not right now.

One of the major highlights of this trip is the two French musicians we met on the flight over. They learned Kenny Chesney’s ‘No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problem’ and played it for us the other night. The crowd loved it. Then they played Margaritaville, another hit. The singer asked me if I could help him with a song they wrote. He was concerned about the English words he’d used. I was happy to help, but it turned out to be harder than I thought it would be. I’m not at all poetic, and really don’t understand music lyrics either. It’s probably why I like country and Christian… they make sense. I was able to help with some grammar though. Tonight they played it for the very first time and it was great. Kind of a soft romantic sound.