Trip report Aug 30 Sept 7, 2003
Do trip reports get harder to write with time, or is it just that my mind becomes less focused?
I love the fact that AJ has direct flights between Logan and Sangster. With a morning flight I am usually on the beach by 1pm.
The Bus ride from hell is back. What WAS a pleasant 60 to 70 minute trip this past year is now equally as bad as any time since I started traveling to Hedo in 1999. There is major construction on several of the bridges in the MoBay area and at a few points along the way there is only one lane on each structure. Oh wellyou are on vacationmake the most of it.
Having been there little more than two months ago I felt like I never really left.
Check-in was a breeze. I arrived around 1pm, completed my paperwork, and had keys in hand within fifteen minutes of arrival. I was assigned Rm 2234 the same room that I was assigned at about the same time last year. Wow Dj vu!
As always the grounds were in great shape. The beach was completely raked every morning. In June we observed that the point near Point Village has taken a pretty bad beating since last fall. There was a lot of exposed rock and they could really use a truckload of sand. Unfortunately it doesnt look like much has been done to improve it yet. As a result there is not a lot of room for chairs on the point.
While there, the new water ski boat arrived. Apparently Mr. Bourke is a big boater and he was out checking it out the day it arrived. Right before I arrived the cart that the dive staff uses to lug equipment to the dive boat broke. With a bit of help from Divemaster Chuck the replacement parts were there in a few days. It was encouraging to see problems addressed and repaired in short time.
I did have an opportunity to tour one of the model rooms. I found the grey and white color scheme to be very relaxing, but it does not work with the color scheme of the bedspread. The new bathroom was very impressive.
The sun sets early there this time of year. It was dark by 6:30.
Towels were never a problem. There were three in the closet when I arrived and the maid left one new clean one every day.
Before I even got away from the front desk the rains came. It rained so hard that I didnt even attempt to get to the room for about 2 hours. I grabbed lunch and a drink and sat back and watched lunchtime spin. No worries mon.
It rained the first two days (Sat and Sun). The rain was hard enough that everyone ran for cover and one storm lasted about three hours. Every time that you thought it would let up, it would come down even harder than before. After that the days were mostly sunny, warm, and glorious. Most days there was a nice breeze blowing in off of the water. A few afternoons the wind picked up strong enough that you couldnt really float in the ocean and there were waves hitting the beach, but by then most of the people had moved up to the pool anyhow.
It was good to see Agustus. We missed him in June. The guy sure deserved his vacation. This guy works harder every time I see him. After he was done raking the beach he now makes the rounds of the pool area picking up cups, plates, and almost anything else that is out of place.
I spent a lot of time with the crew from the dive shack. If you have ever wanted to try scuba Hedo is the place to do it. Spend a little bit of time getting your resort certification or one of the full PADI certifications. It is well worth the time and effort.
The ECs havent changed much since we were there in June. I had seen Buffy and Lawrence in NJ at the Hedo Reunion at Sandy Hook the weekend before. Both are taking a role in doing PR. Lawrence was back in time, but Buffy was still off the resort. The usual ECs such as Junior, Rose, and Chubby were seen around the resort regularly. Simone Berri is still heading up the ECs. This woman could be The Amazon Queen. She is close to six feet tall, with long straight hair and is stunningly beautiful, almost to the point of being scary. There are two new girls, Labella and one other whos name escapes me right now. This girl had an awesome shape and her chest would make a Playboy bunny blush. Ashley was much more out front and visible last week. She also sang two songs on Talent night.
I did not eat in any of the specialty restaurants, although all of our experiences there in the past have been good ones.
Lobster, lobster everywhere. In nine trips I have never seen so much lobster. There was lobster one night in the buffet and you could get lobster at the beach grill every afternoon. I had four half tails from the buffet and I would see people come away from the grill with three plates full some afternoons.
Jerk chicken was served at 4:30 instead of 6:00 as I remember it. As always it was one of the highlights of the afternoon.
There was an awesome selection of cheeses at every meal including four to six types at breakfast and lunch and ten to twelve different selections at dinner. I think that the US must do something to its milk products that the rest of the world does not maybe more preservatives or something. The cheeses and yogurt selections at Hedo were heavenly. Cheese the perfect dessert!
Hedo is still serving the Oakville Chateau Blanc and Chateau Rouge with lunch and dinner. The white was acceptable when chilled properly. The red was hardly passable.
Basically, I practiced Guerilla dining. If I pulled myself off of the beach in the afternoon for lunch, I just grabbed a few things and headed back to the beach. At dinner, I got there early, hit the buffet hard and then went and crashed till about 11.
If there was ever a place that celebrated diversity, Hedo is one of those places. I heard at least five languages spoken and met people from the UK, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, France, Poland, Venezuela, and Italy. Add the usual Jamaicans, Americans, and Canadians and you really have a great mix. I do not know if it was the mix of people, or just the fact that I am getting soft in my old age, but it sure seemed that there was a large group of very beautiful women and handsome men in attendance this tip.
I was also amazed at the number of repeaters. I had been there during the second week of Sept last year. Even though I moved my trip up a week this year there were still many familiar faces.
Vinnies??? In the terms that we have come to define them, there were none, however there was a wolfpack of 5-6 guys that always traveled in a pack. They regularly showed up at the hot tub around dusk and again after midnight. A few got in the hot tub, but two of them hardly ever even got in the water or unclothed. They just sat on the brown bench and watched.
Wallys??? In fairness, I have to include myself in this group this trip. Most nights I was happy to just sit back and spectate.
Gawkers / Hot Tub Lurkers??? Besides the wolfpack there were two guys that pulled up chairs near the cool tub each night and just scanned the area looking for any action.
Creepy Dudes there was one guy who walked around the hot tub with his magic wand in his hand every night sticking it in the face of almost everyone that was sitting in the hot tub. This dude seriously creeped me out.
The Sex Police were nowhere to be seen.
There was a good amount of sexual tension to keep the days interesting and the nights plenty steamy. Activity seemed to peak between 6 and 7pm and again between midnight and 2am.
I had the pleasure of being there when Divemaster Chuck was around. I did nine dives on seven non-travel days. On most occasions there were only two or three divers and the divemasters / instructors for the early, deep dive and a slightly larger group for the later, shallow dive. However, by Friday many new people came in and the later dive filled up to about 14 divers. Having gotten spoiled with a small group, I passed on going out when there was a full boat.
We spotted many sea turtles and rays, one shark, one huge morey eel, barracuda, lobsters, and countless beautiful fish. With Divemaster Chuck in attendance the dive crew seemed more open to going to areas that they do not usually frequent. We had the opportunity to do two wall dives, which was a new experience for me. It is pretty amazing swimming level at 90 feet below the surface and still looking down realizing that the bottom was at least 30 to 50 ft further down.
The water temperature was easily in the 80s (F) and the visibility was very good.
I upgraded to PADI Advanced Open Water Certification while there. Little did I think ahead of time that I would be going to Hedo and sitting on the beach studying dive tables and charts, but it was worth it.
I have heard that the organized snorkeling trips are good, but did not try them.
Music in the disco was particularly good this week. I still have a snapshot in my head of looking down over the crowd while everyone was wriggling to Wayne Wonders No Holding Back and thinking, What a beautiful group of people and what an awesome scene.
The music by the nude pool was equally good. There was a good variety of songs for a change, so we were not listening to Show me your pussy and Short dicked men six times each day. That gets a bit old after nine trips.
They are no longer distributing Hedo Bucks. We asked one of the ECs why and she replied, Cause some jerk counterfeited like a million bucks and screwed it up for everyone else! Instead they take your name and room number and give you points. Hedo, being Hedo, they really dont have a good system for totaling the points, which really sucked. Also you used to be able to pass on unused Hedo Bucks, but cant pass anything on anymore.
Also, they were no longer giving away bottles of booze during ring toss. One day they were simply using rocks and if you circled a rock you received points. Another day they had bottles of booze filled with colored water. This took away most of the incentive and fun.
Volleyball was fun and competitive, but we only played two or three afternoons.
Nude invasions of the waterslide with 40-60 people were tons of fun!
I spent a good bit of time in the disco each night. With the good selection of music and the beautiful crowd in attendance it really made for some surreal moments. Occasionally I would stand up on one of the benches and look down over the crowd and think, Wow, what a beautiful group of people.
One night I brought a pocket full of blinking, pin-on lights to the disco and passed them around to people that I knew and to break the ice with others. At one point I found myself talking to one couple and thought, Man! This woman is absolutely gorgeous and what a handsome man. They make an awesome couple. I actually found myself honored to be in their company. At home I would never approach a group of strange people and now it hits me You know whatif you see someone like that and you want to talk to them, just go up and do it. You never know. You might have something in common.
Later, still in the disco, one man who spoke almost no English came up to me sheepishly and asked, Where you buy them? referring to the blinking lights. He seemed amazed that I was trying to give him one. No really! Please take this one!
What can I say about the three crazy girls from outside of DC. Being around them was like trying to have a discussion with a fan. Just try getting a word in They talked at 100 miles per hour and did everything else at about the same pace. And to think that they were making fun of me for walking to fast when leaving the disco One afternoon there were a good half dozen of us rolling around on the bottom of the sprinkling pool laughing hysterically. That image will stay with me for a long time.
I viewed my first underwater marriage proposal. I have never cried inside a diving mask before. I would have been paranoid about dropping the ring, but it went off well and there was much handshaking and back slapping.
I am going to bag that shit one girl referring to another.
Have you two hooked up with anyone yet? Well if you are interested let us know.
OH BABY, I like it on top!
IM SHY! (in huge letters)
I f***ed your girlfriend! (on a female, of course)
Theyre Real
And of course, GOT MILK?
I did most of my sleeping between 8 and 11pm each night, because you sure dont get much sleep at night there.
If you see someone that intrigues you go up to them and talk to them. The vast majority of people at Hedo are very social and friendly. You may very well find that you have something in common to talk about. If not, move on and dont take it personally. There are ten times more people that will be happy to spend a few minutes with you.
I had previously seen the couple that approached me in the disco one night in the pool every day. I realize now that I missed out on what could have been a good friendship, because they did not approach me until their last night. I will not let another opportunity like that pass by again.
I traveled a week earlier this year than last so that I did not have to blow off a week of school. As a result many of the people that I remembered from last year, came in at the end of my trip. Because I traveled alone this trip I did not want to impose on a lot of the couples and at a very minimum I wanted them to realize that I was not The Creepy Single Guy. So I was very flattered when several couples from last year came up to me saying that they remembered me or other couples came up to me and introduced themselves. I realize that I was being too sensitive about traveling alone and will be a bit more open in similar situations in the future.
SpongeBob was big. There were several SpongeBob themed toys in the pool.
It is not my intention to ruin this for anyone else, but Toga has gotten kind of stale.
As much as I like the circus show I have missed it the last five Friday nights.
I few comfortable pairs of shoes are very important. I tend to do a lot of walking at Hedo and the paths cause lots of wear and tear on my feet and ankles. Glass does break in Veronicas and in the disco.
A bar of deodorant soap. The Hedo liquid soap is OK, but not the best.
Extra razors, shampoo and conditioner. My beard grows faster down there for some reason and with all of the trips in and out of the water having extra shampoo and conditioner was key.
Moisturizer you are in and out of the water constantly and in the sun part of the day nuff said.
Pool toys I always try to take a few pool toys. I picked up this cool, purple, self-propelled swimming toy from Target that caused hours of entertainment in the pool and hot tub.
Castile soap this low-sudsing peppermint soap is great for poolside massages. It feels awesome, tingles in sensitive spots, and smells great. It also is great for hand washing things in the sink as it rinses easily.
The blinking light pins I brought about 30 red blinking light pins and passed them around in the disco. I was amazed at the places that they turned up around the resort.
A 24 oz insulated mug. Worth its weight in gold.
My own mask, fins, snorkel, and dive book. The Hedo equipment is OK, but the equipment on the catamaran smells and tastes like fuel.
A lightweight synthetic shirt great for wearing under your dive vest. It prevents abrasion and dries easily.
A plastic coat hanger great for hanging damp clothes.