Well worth seeing

Look at me - I'm well worth seeing!

Look at me

After the previous night’s 5am finish I woke in time to see the last couple of minutes of morning. I made my way downstairs. Chica the dog was outside on the terrace, her nose pressed against the patio door, tail wagging. There was no sign of Sim so I made myself a coffee, said morning to Chica and had a dip in the pool. The coffee and the cool water of the pool failed to fully wake me up and I had a little nap on one of the sunbeds by the side of the pool. As I drifted off I felt like I was having an out of body experience. I was looking down at myself on the sunbed and it was as though I was living someone else’s life. Here I was in a stunning villa overlooking apicturesque bay, napping by the pool in the Mexican sun. It certainly made a change from the Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 office hours I had become used to before I quit my job. And before any of my old colleagues comment 9 to 5 were my hours of attendance in the office, not necessarily the hours I actually did work.

I woke an hour or so later. Sim had surfaced and I made us a fresh pot of coffee. We sat out on the terrace with that morning after the night before feeling, both of us saying that we were getting too old for two late nights in a row. The day was really starting to warm up and we headed for the pool to cool down. We relaxed in the pool and chatted about the quality of the boys in the bar the previous night. I told Sim that they weren’t really my type. They all seemed so young. Sim didn’t seem to mind that as much as me. He said that it was sometimes difficult being a “foreigner” going out as the “locals” assume he is a wealthy sugar daddy (despite him being younger than me). It seems to get Sim no end of attention but sometimes makes him wary as to the motives behind it.

I felt really comfortable talking with Sim and we talked about feelings and past relationships, something that I am not normally very good at. I blame the fact that I am (a) a man and (b) from Yorkshire. After all, the start of the Yorkshireman’s motto is “’Ear all, see all, say nowt...”. As we talked about past relationships we both noted how gay men tend to remain friends with their exes in a way that straight people don’t. I had lost touch with a couple of exes over the years but there was only one that I had lost touch with on purpose. I still saw some of them fairly regularly too and we had become good friends.

I was so relaxed at Sim’s the days seemed to fly by and I couldn’t believe it when my last full day came round. We had spent a couple of days just chilling at the villa, swimming, writing, drinking, eating and watching scary movies. I was up fairly early and had breakfast with Sim who had a busy day of work ahead of him. He was up early to let in some men who had come round to cut the coconuts down from the palms around the villa. One guy would climb the tree, barefoot, with nothing to stop him from falling out then hack away with a huge machete & then lower the nuts to his colleague at the base of the palm. It was impressive to watch. After they had done all the trees I got a photo of myself holding a lovely bunch of coconuts. They were bloody heavy.

I’m well worth seeing!
Miriam headed over to the villa and the two of us went to the beach for the day. We settled ourselves in a couple of chairs under an umbrella. It was about 11am so I ordered a beer. The beach kept us entertained for the day. Aside from the beers, some amazing cerviche and guacamole, swimming in the clear blue waters there was plenty of people watching to be done. There was an older guy in a Speedo jogging along the beach. Not a pretty sight but not that unusual until he made his way back in front of us, this time jogging backwards. When he reached the end of the beach he jumped up on top of a large rock and proceeded to do something that looked like a cross between tai chi and the crane move from The Karate Kid. Miriam and I could hardly do anything for laughing. After his rock moves he swam out a little way to where a pontoon boat was moored up, climbed onboard & proceeded to do a series of push ups and hand stands before diving in from the top deck. He was clearly enjoying himself down on the beach and he kept us entertained for hours.

Dinner on the final evening was at a restaurant called Aquachile with Sim, Miriam, Jamie and Omar. We sat out on the terrace by the ocean. There was one other table of diners who were being entertained by a little mariachi band. I resisted the urge to join in singing when they started to play Guantanamera. It was another last meal on my trip where I was with a group of new friends who had gone out of their way to show me a great time and I felt a little sadness that I would soon be leaving.

The Manzanillo gang

My final morning I was up and packed early. Sim and I made our way to Margarita’s for a farewell breakfast. It seemed a fitting place to go as it had been the place we had had breakfast on my first morning in Manzanillo. Jamie and Miriam joined us for breakfast before the four of us headed over to the airport. I checked in for my flight and dropped off my case. The small airport had a few passengers milling about. They would all be on my flight, it was the only one leaving for several hours. We stood in the terminal building checking out the other passengers, working out my chance of being sat next to a hot guy on the flight. Practically nil. Still, it didn’t matter too much. I was off to Mexico City and then on to Cancun to be reunited for a week with my sister and Mother.

“Look at me- I'm well worth seeing!” 
Lyrics from Look at me from the musical The Witches of Eastwick