DON'T LOOK A GIFT HORSE IN THE MOUTH.

 This old saying/proverb is most often credited to St. Jerome from around 400 A.D.  His exact words: "Never inspect the teeth of a gift horse."   This proverb is based on the fact that a horse's value is determined by his age, which, in turn, can be roughly determined by an examination of his teeth. The message conveyed is that a gift should be appreciated for the thought and spirit behind it, not according to its value.

That said let me tell you a little story.  Good friends of ours called a few weeks ago and asked if we´d like to have a certificate they had won in a local drawing.  This certificate was for an overnight stay in one of the local Hotel/Resorts and they would not be able to use it before returning to the states.  Dolores quickly said yes and we met with them and received the certificate. 

Last week we drove to the Hotel/Resort to make reservations for our stay.  After a couple false starts and the assistance of several persons we were finally made to understand that we had to call the telephone number barely visible in the lower right corner of the certificate and provide the award number next to the telephone number.  When I asked if I could borrow a telephone they said we had to call from an off-site telephone.  Tipping the valet driver for parking our car for 15 minutes we headed home.

The following day Dolores made the call and talked with the local representative (who was located at the Hotel site).  We agreed on the reservation date then he wanted us to email him a copy of the award certificate.  My scanner wanted to recognize the certificate in two-parts because of its oversize – so we crossed our fingers and emailed the scanned photo(s).  The next email said that wasn´t acceptable and no we couldn´t bring it bye except after the reservations were verified.  Just before I told them where they could store the certificate, Dolores suggested I take a picture and email it.  It worked and we were in!  However, they reminded us - don´t forget to bring the real certificate when we checked in.

Upon arrival I took the two niño´s we had brought along to enjoy lunch and a swim (before going back home in a taxi) to show them the pool and to see if there were any lounges available.  Returning to the lobby entertainment area I went to the bar and asked for two coca-colas and a dark cervesa – I could see Dolores was still evolved in the checking in process.  When I tried to pay there was confusion on the bartender’s part, and myself, when finally he said he had no cash.  Several minutes later he said it was “happy hour” and poured me another beer.  At this moment Dolores showed up and said there had been confusion at the check in, they had us down for the month of August instead of July; however everything was OK and we could go to our room.  We tried once more to pay for the drinks or give them our room number – no luck – so we headed to the room expecting our luggage to follow immediately.  One hour later the porter came, with excuses, and politely asked if there was anything else.  Dolores had attained the wi-fi codes (one for inside the hotel and one for outside the hotel (go figure); however, I´d had no luck in getting the wi-fi to work.  After several more attempts he called the desk and it seemed the server was down, but they´d have it working soon.

Changing into our swimming gear we headed to lunch.  They had a menu posted at the door without $$$ value and when I asked the hostess said the property  was all-inclusive…mystery solved, though I’m certain she told her fellow workers about the idiot gringo who didn´t know.  We had brunch and refresco’s, with the liquid being the only thing worth remembering about lunch, found three chaise lounges nearby and spent a couple fun hours swimming and ordering hamburgers, refresco’s, and gin-tonics.  Finally it was time to cleanup and send the niño’s home.  They went to the room to shower and change and we followed somewhat later.  Then I placed them in a cab with the necessary pesos and sent them on their way.  Returning to the room, I settled down to read when the overhead fan came on at high speed.  Grabbing the controller I turned it down, then it went back to high, to medium, to high, to low then I was able to shut it off.  Thirty minutes later it came back on at high speed.   I shut it off and then removed the controllers’ battery.  Once again we read in peace when the fan again turned on at high speed.  Replacing the battery I shut it off then got a drink out of the refrigerator and damn near slipped in a large pool of water – a leak from the A/C in the ceiling.  Maintenance was called and arrived in minutes.  He had had a complaint from next door that their ceiling fan wasn´t working…their control was programmed to work our fan.  Twenty minutes later everything was fixed and we were able to finally relax.

When we returned to the room we had looked at the French menu on the sites second restaurant and noticed that it had prices posted so we´d decided to call room service an hour and one half before service was scheduled to end.  The menu had some interesting items so Dolores ordered two chicken soups with several toppings and rolls.  It arrived just ten minutes before shutdown (Dolores was already asleep) with the announcement we owed $85 pesos…$85 pesos (all-inclusive)?   I paid with a tip and we enjoyed the entries – very lukewarm, but tasty (or were we just hungry..).  The remainder of the evening was comfortable and we enjoyed the T-Storm thunder and lightning display outside of our balcony.

Breakfast was excellent and then we proceeded to checkout.  After removal of the $85 pesos charge for the previous evening’s room service that I had already paid I settled the bill with cash, tipped the valet service and departed for home.  The next morning when Dolores checked her banking she saw a $1000 peso charge to her account,  Geezzz!!  When we re-contacted the desk they said that would be removed within the next 7-10 days and assured us it was a normal procedure used in order to see if our credit card could handle any bills that might occur during our all-inclusive stay.  Sure enough it was removed the following day and we had a call from the GM apologizing for all the little problems and invited us back to enjoy Sunday brunch as their guests…whatchatink?¡¿  Don´t look a gift horse in the mouth?