har@uvacs.UUCP (03/27/84)
Has anyone been to the Club Med in Cancun, Mexico? Experiences in general,
and scuba diving in particular? Thanks.
Stephen J. Hartley
decvax!mcnc!ncsu!uvacs!harhartley@uvm-cs.UUCP (06/05/84)
Well, here is my report on Club Med. First the facilities, then activities, and finally the attendees. The food was very good. There was always more than I could possibly eat with all breakfasts and lunches being buffet style. For breakfast there were fresh melon, cantaloupe, and pineapple juices, eggs any style, croissants, rolls, fruits, coffee, but no milk or oranges. Milk wouldn't keep in that heat and we speculated that the oranges were destroyed in last winter's freeze. Lunch was salad, Mexican food, stir-fried dishes, a hamburger (if you really wanted one!), vegetables, fish, casseroles, and on and on. I stuffed myself several times to my regret when I found myself on a rocking boat in the afternoon. Dinner was the weak point, but you could have all the wine and beer you wanted. I made sure I was buzzed so I wouldn't have to spend so much at the bar (Papal bargain). The bar was good, serving only Mexican beer, but a little on the expensive side. The room was very pleasant with a gorgeous view of the ocean. And the ocean is turquoise, as they all say: clear and you can see down at least 30 feet. Hot and humid is the weather, and the sun is a real bitch. I got scorched even though I wore sun-screen. The rays would hit the ground and then jump up and burn my ankles. There was a pretty standard disco at which I stayed every night until at least 2:30am (4:30am EDT) dancing and sweating. There were about 550 GM's (attendees), evenly divided between males and females, and about 130 GO's (staff people). The activities provided were excellent, I think: windsurfing, which I learned, sailing in one-person Laser boats, waterskiing, scuba diving, tennis (not me), and excursions to nearby ruins, which I didn't have time to go on. They had shows every night at 11pm, put on mostly by the GO's, but there was an outside group for Mexican night, and they were excellent. I went on four scuba dives: a check-out dive Sunday, an exploration dive off of the Club Monday, and two dives off of Cozumel during a day trip there Tuesday. The Cozumel dive was spectacular, even compared to Cancun, with clear water, lots of fish and coral formations. The reefs we dove near were Palencar and Santa Rosa. After Cozumel I couldn't get excited anymore about the local diving so I didn't go anymore for the rest of the week. Instead I concentrated on windsurfing and sailing. The people were in their 20's and some 30's mostly. Not many people in their 40's or above. My roommate was a New York kid, very obnoxious and loud- mouthed, but we got along ok, and did lots of stuff together. But for the most part, I thought I was in a high school crowd. Urban, superficial people, for the most part not very interested in who I was or what I did. I would ask people about where they were from, what jobs they had, and maybe that turned a lot of people off. Maybe they wanted to escape. It was the end of the week before I found some good friends, and then it was time to leave. I would guess that three quarters of the people there were from New York City, Los Angeles, or San Francisco. I think I will go back some time for Cozumel diving again, and for the ruins which I didn't get to see. Stephen J. Hartley (the Pope) University of Virginia (but really the University of Vermont) USENET: decvax!mcnc!ncsu!uvacs!har decvax!mcnc!ncsu!uvacs!uvm-cs!hartley CSNET: har@uvacs ARPANET: har.uvacs@csnet-relay