Ross & Ramona - February, 2009
February 14-22
Trip Summary
Saturday:
Woke up in the pre-dawn hours to get to the airport.
Everything there
went smoothly. Traveled all carry-on this time,
(we overpacked so
much last time). The shuttle bus was easy to find,
and they were
quite quick to get us on our way. We made a
mid-way stop for red-stripe
and such, and then we felt like we were beginning to get
our groove on.
Met Damon and Lori on the ride up.
We got to the property around 2pm. It was early
enough that they
didn't have our rooms ready, but we were free to have
lunch around the
main stage and we did a little bit of shopping at the
gift shop. The
whole place was decked out for Valentine's day, with a
few spa
specials listed. We decided to go for the
chocolate rub later on in
the week.
Got into our rooms, threw our clothes in the drawers as
quickly as we
could, chattering away about what we'd do first.
The room was a
first floor ocean view prude. Nice and clean.
Ramona loved to look
out onto the beach and that water. All our
previous Hedo rooms had
been garden view nudes at H2 and H3 and a quad room at
H3. We think
this location was the best so far. It was quiet
enough that we could
sleep, had a beautiful view to wake up to, and was
nicely situated
near the disco and main stage area, so that we could get
up, get food
and drink and just keep walking west to the nude side.
OK, so with
our stuff stowed, and Ramona in her pink cowboy hat, we
left to get
some hummingbirds and hit the beach.
Note: there is this new deal about towels. A past
problem with towels
had been that they would run out of clean towels at the
pools.
They've started a new policy of visitors hanging on to
their towels
and exchanging dirty for clean at certain areas.
So you keep your
beach towels with you as you go about your day and trade
them for
clean ones sometime in the morning (or whenever you
start the day).
It is awkward, but not as awkward as not having towels
on chilly
evenings.
We got our hummingbirds and towels and went to the nude
side. The
last time we were here was early August, and in
comparison, this time
it was crowded (it's all relative, though, as it gets
more crowded
later this week). The beach was much much improved
over last time. I don't
know if it's seasonal or what, but the usual carpet of
seaweed which covers
the floor of the bottom of the beach-cove was much more
sparse and sandy,
making it more fun to hang out in the water. A
good many more fun blow-up
flotation devices were out on the water, some recently
brought and donated
by the kind visitors from the previous week.
Another comparison I think we should make is about the
weather. In
August it storms about once a day. In February,
not a drop of rain.
Always sunny, with beautiful sunsets.
We also heard that the prude side was clothing optional
this week.
Not sure if this was because of a nude take-over or
because management
is trying something new. But we were glad for
that.
We said hello to the nude pool grotto. Hung out a
bit longer, and
then made our way to another good friend, a prude side
outdoor canopy
bed. We had dinner at the main stage, watching
tons of people in
their valentine's day best (oops! we hadn't thought to
bring any).
We went to the piano bar, where they were doing a
Karaoke night. We
met Amy and Jeff, and enjoyed Amy's rendition of the
Rose (the first
of many). We stayed and sang a few songs until it
closed. Then we
went to the disco, which was a bit dead, made some
rounds at the hot
tub, and turned in.
Sunday:
Trying keep our good habits for as long as we can, we
went to the gym.
3 out of the 5 treadmills were out of order and the 4th
was acting a
bit flakey. Ross likes his running. It cures
his hangovers. So this
was a negative. Eventually, he got on the good one
and had a blissful
time, running three miles, watching people walking
outside in the sun,
listening to John Galt's speech on his Atlas Shrugged
audiobook
(doesn't get much more indulgent than that).
Tonight's theme was to Jamaica night. We decided
to hit the gift shop
to see if we could pick up anything for that.
Their gift store was
well stocked (except for a lack of redbull -- Ross sad).
Ramona
bought a very nice bag which we used for the rest of the
trip. Ross
bought some green, yellow, and black hot-pants.
Breakfast was dirty bananas for us, and then on to the
beach. We
swapped some stories with Lori and Damon. Ross
meets Mitch, whose
wife, Sharon, is on an informal shopping mission of
sorts with the locals.
Sunday is a big day of transition, a lot of people just
coming or going.
We also meet Rhonda and John, who, if we recall right,
were sticking
around after rest of their group left.
EC Omeca comes by and incites an expedition to do naked
water-sliding.
We meet Steven and Michelle on the way there.
Again the evening is spent at the main-stage. A
lot of Jamaican music
and tasty food.
Then piano bar. The favorite thing in piano bar
this week was getting
people up on the piano doing kinky stuff (Dion did a
good job as piano
guy). It was fun to watch. Amy sang the
Rose, doing another
excellent job. At the disco, Ross's hotpants go
over well, but the
disco got dead pretty fast again.
Monday:
This morning our exercise consisted of a Kayak trip out
to and around
Booby Cay, a small island just off the property where we
went last
time. Really pretty water and scenery. The
most important thing
about this trip, however, was the discovery of the
lobster salesmen
who set up a little lobster grilling operation on the
cay, selling
them for $10 a piece. We picked out our lobster,
and were told it
would be shuttled to the beach at 1pm for lunch, giving
us plenty of
time to kayak back and hang out on the beach (see
later).
Yes, it is possible to make these lobster deals right
there at the
nude beach, but it was more fun to pick out lobsters
out, and smelling
the garlic and butter coming from the grill really got
us in the mood
for them.
We make it back to the beach with plenty of time to
spare. Ramona
decides to use that time well. We swim out to the
floating platform
with a cup of our favorite agent provocateur, Appleton
rum cream.
Some folks there are playing some Doobie brothers out of
their iPod
and
portable speakers. Before we know it, a boat tour
from another
resort has parked itself to watch and honk its horn in
support.
When we come back to shore, we meet up with Amy and Jeff,
and share
the rum cream.
Then the lobster arrives. Yummy. We did not get
our act together to
get more lobster on later days, unfortunately. We chat
with Steven
and Michelle about lobster and Booby Cay. They tell us
that they got
snorkels and snorkeled out to the Cay. Sounds like
that would be a
fun trip too. Next time.
We spend the evening watching the sunset from the edge of
the nude
beach. Mitch and Sharon come by to watch it with us
and make plans
for the evening.
We hang out at the piano bar, with M&S, and then at the
disco. Now,
we have to take a break here for a public service
announcement. This
evening, we took some good things, but we learned that
unless you know
what you are taking, you should not take it. We leave
the disco to spend
the night curled up in our beds waiting for it to be over.
Tuesday:
Kind of a lost day for us. We slept for 80% of the
day. Woke up
around 2pm, got some grub at the Reggae cafe, and then went
back to
bed until midnight. Headed to the main stage for the
best midnight
hotdogs we've ever had, and then to the disco. It was
PJ night.
Sadly, we missed most of it.
This was the first night of major hot-tub action that we
saw.
Wednesday:
Trying to get back into good habits, and well rested, we
take a 10am
Pilates class given by Enita at the gym. There we meet
Enita and Joe,
who are doing the morning exercise classes this week.
We got our breakfast drinks and lounged about at the beach,
keeping
our heads down, until it was time for our chocolate scrub
appointment
at the spa.
This was a new kind of exfoliating experience for Ross.
They covered
us with chocolate and some abrasive scrub and then, just
like the name
says, they scrubbed us. Our skin was silky smooth (and
smelled great)
after, as Amy will attest. It was pretty rejuvenating.
We'll do
again.
Now at this point, a large group called the FlufferNutters,
are
beginning to trickle into the resort for a big week the next
week. We
meet a few, and at the piano bar this evening we're all
taught their
"Hedo song" by their leader John. Also at piano bar EC
Winston showed his
mad singing skills and solicited people for talent night.
Disco had its moments for about an hour. Saw lots of
hot-tub action again.
Thursday:
Ross gets another run in at the gym, but mostly a low-key
day.
Now, tonight was toga night and talent show night.
Ross was going to
do something for the talent show, so we hung out at the main
stage for
lunch, for the rehearsal and also the toga tieing lesson
which was
sheduled to happen, but didn't.
We took the long beach walk, through Sandals and passed
Beaches. We
get pretty far up the beach and saw a blue and white house
that the
sign says is owned by H2 and available for rent.
Didn't notice that
before. During this walk, Ross is able to finally
purchase some
redbull from a local store (the H2 gift shop never got it in
stock).
So if you find that the H2 shop doesn't have something you
want, it's
worth taking a walk up the beach and availing yourself of
the other
options.
On the way back between Beaches and Sandals, Ross gets into
a
economics discussion with the guard. Not sure if he
was just having
fun or what, but he really seemed eager to hear what an
American
thought about the world financial crisis.
This was our second trip and there was a "Repeaters
Cocktail" this
evening. We hurried back for that. Nice finger
foods, but really, if
you aren't a major repeater (only our second trip to H2), it
isn't
worth the hurry.
For some reason, perhaps related to the global economic
downturn, they
really didn't emphasize toga night. We had to call up
someone to even
get the sheets. We kind of remember rules like "no
toga, no food" on
previous toga nights. So that evening there were maybe
2 dozen people
at dinner in their finest Roman garb, and the rest, in the
usual civies.
The talent show was a lot of run. Ross sang the Ballad
of the
Scotsman (surprised at how well Hedo band accompanied him).
Amy did a
great performance of Janis Joplin's "Mercedes Benz" song.
The guy who
really stole the show was Dr. Paul, who belted out "House of
the
Rising Sun".
EC Winston gave an excellent drag show.
Then came the toga segment of the evening. One good
thing about
having so few people in togas, is that we were both crowned
Queen and
King of toga night (winning some rum and some earrings).
Seemed like after that, there were big red targets on our
foreheads,
because that night at piano bar, Dion picked on us to get up
on the
piano and visually assist him with "YMCA".
The disco was totally hopping this night. The DJ did a
good job, kept
everyone dancing.
Friday:
It seems we had our second wind. Ross and Ramona start
up at the gym,
get our dirty bananas, and then hang out at the nude pool.
Had lunch at the reggae cafe. You know, it might just
be that we know
more about what's good to eat (curried goat, jerk chicken,
chicken and
beef patties), or that they were making it better, but we
had good
experiences with the food this time around.
The ECs were really visible today, and more FlufferNutters
had shown up.
So it was fun to hang out in the pool and just make
conversation.
The FN's kept the hot-tub constantly filled. Lots of
games and fun
stuff to watch.
We spent the evening on the beach watching the sunset.
The theme tonight was Rock Star. We didn't quite have
the wardrobe
for that, but we made due with a few things we had.
Some of the FNs
were costumed to the hilt (like Dianne and Max). We
spent dinner at
the main stage, watching everyone. The FNs were
definitely in the
majority.
The piano bar was crowded and way fun. John made some
announcements
to his FN followers regarding the clothing optional prude
side (I
think this is definitely the way to go, H2).
The disco was very good again.
The hot-tub was pretty packed.
Saturday:
Today we went on one of those cruises to coves and caves,
nicknamed
the "booze cruise". This was the first time we'd done
that. Although
it costs a bit extra, and you have to wake up earlyish, this
excursion
was well worth it. More beautiful water, some caves,
the boat is a
lot of fun, and you get a lot of swimming and snorkeling in.
It's
clothing optional, so you get to flash other boats.
One warning, we
feel that we should make is that if you aren't careful about
the slide
off the boat, you can make a surprisingly huge belly flop.
Ramona's
impressive bruise surfaced a couple days later.
Back at the nude pool we have a good time with the
FlufferNutters.
One of them was passing around a jar of marshmellow flush.
Again the
ECs are way active, and play some body-shots games.
Ramona gets a
temporary tat from Dianne, and we meet our two new grotto
buddies,
Ping and Stefan.
We hung out by the hot-tub as the evening set in.
Again it was
super-crowded.
This evening we dined at Pastafari (we ended up not getting
our acts
together for Munasun). Mmmmmmm Pastafari is always
excellent every
time, at either club.
Karaoke night at the piano bar. Ross and Ramona
duetted "paradise by
the dashboard light". Dr. Paul was there and did some
great numbers
too. The bartender and the ECs. You know, some
people write off the
Karaoke nights. We like them too.
Disco was ok for about an hour.
The hot-tub was pretty nice. Not very packed.
Chatted with Dr. Paul and Tee.
On the way back from the hot-tub was crashed our way into
the disco
for some clothing optional dancing. Hey! It was
our last day!
Sunday:
Ramona nurses a hangover (as well as lack of sleep) while
Ross
takes the hair of the dog, in the form of that bottle of rum
we'd won for
our togas. Kids, remember, you only have two kidneys
and one liver.
They do get tired.
As we get on the shuttle, the driver makes Ramona put on
more clothes
(though what she had on was technically legal). Sigh.
So sad.
We get to the airport with plenty of time, run through all
that and
poof! Back to reality.
Summary:
Weather was great. Hadn't noticed EC Winston before,
but he was
really fun. EC's Mystery, Omecka, and Mega were treats
as always.
Disco was mostly dead this time around. Best place to
eat: Pastafari.
Best place to eat regularly: Reggae cafe on the prude side.
Take the
booze cruise. We really liked having a clothing
optional prude side. Also
eally liked having an ocean view room. Staff was very
responsive to
technical troubles we had with the TV. Fix the
treadmills next time, please!
Ross & Ramona