We woke up exhausted, dying for the quiet beach/ pool time we’d been looking forward to. It wasn’t to be…
We eventually made it down to breakfast, to a cacophonous room with lots of small children. And no tea (this would turn out to be the first day in c30 years I didn’t have a cup of tea). Then we went out to find a quiet, comfy sunbed on which to snooze the day away.
It turned out that this was not that kind of place. It was a huge resort with multiple pools, gyms, spa, kids areas, restaurants, bars, sports areas - even snack bars brimming with food and drink open to 2am. It was loud everywhere - music, people shouting, just noisy. And full of people - the resort must house a couple of thousand, in the hotel, and the villas. All the sunbeds by the pools were full. The beach had deckchairs, not sunbeds. After a fruitless and depressing tour around, we eventually found some free sunbeds by the indoor pool, not far from the main family pool - where they had a samba band playing. It was so loud, my headache intensified. This was NOT what we’d been expecting…
Lunch was a decent buffet, again accompanied by very loud music: in this case a twenty-person choir with supporting band singing what we found out later were Carnaval classics from the 50s and 60s - the lunchtime crowd were very appreciative with dancing and singing breaking out all over.
I felt like a complete spoilsport. Here were lots of Brazilian families having a fabulous time, and all I wanted to do was put them on mute, if not make them disappear. But we were very tired…
But finally, after lunch, we found the holy grail: comfy cabanas slightly away from the noise: comfortable, quiet shade. Bliss. I was asleep within minutes.
Things looked more positive by the evening. As Kevin wisely said, we were all going through a process of adjustment - this was not what we’d all been expecting, or looking forward to. We’d booked into the Japanese restaurant (one of 5) for dinner, and it was very tasty. Early to bed - we’ll see how we feel tomorrow…
Lunchtime choir (with appreciative audience):
Oysters for lunch:
Afternoon chilling:
Feeling slightly more cheerful at dinner:
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