The Bel-Air, Our Adopted Hotel

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It was a very lazy day today which we spent mostly just relaxing around our condo, laundry, tidying up, reading. It felt like Sunday although it was only Saturday.

We have wonderful views of the ocean from our condo but we are not quite waterfront, those places are across the highway about a block away and would cost substantially more than what we paid. Our pool is lovely, the infinity type, but its pretty small, there's a few white plastic loungers and chairs with cover pads. Overall, our condo complex is fine but pretty basic and nothing fancy.

So we've decided to adopt the large orange waterfront hotel across the street called the Bel-Air, we popped through their grounds on our walk back from town but yesterday we toured it in detail. It's really nice, their grounds are spotless and perfectly manicured, we really like their large pool surrounded by comfortable loungers and complete with a swim up bar, lovely large beach with more loungers and covered beach beds, outdoor shower to rinse off the sand, couple of nice looking restaurants and bars, concierges to help with any tours we might want, yes - this will be just fine and we will make ourselves right at home. The trick is to walk in like you're supposed to be there. We smile and wave as we walk by the security guys in the lobby, which is also lovely, reminds me of our place in Cuba. We figure all us Gringos all look the same to the locals anyway.

The beach extends as far as you can see in both directions, it's amazing but very empty, where is everyone? Maybe its too cold today? It's only a balmy 24 C, we feel a little guilty as we see on the news how most of the country is in such a winter deep freeze. We go for a short walk on the beach, we'll go further next time. Although the ocean looks so beautiful and begs you to come in for a cool dip on a hot day, this is not a good place to swim as there are very dangerous under-tows, we have been warned to stay out. We have heard there are some beaches that are safe to swim and snorkel but that is not here. Seems a shame but still so lovely, like walking through a postcard.

Then we walk a little further down the other side of the highway looking around some of the stores and amenities, banks, restaurants, spa, car dealership. We head back to our condo for even more relaxing with chicken fajitas planned on our self indulgence calendar today for dinner.

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