Recently, while in Riviera Maya, Mexico, I needed to do some souvenir shopping. I’m the kind of shopper who likes to look around and weigh my options. I’m not very splurgy, I know who I need to buy for and I usually have a good idea of what I’m looking for for each person. I quickly determined there were two basic ways to shop at our resort.
The Grand Palladium had 3 large shops that were open while we were there.. I found some items that interested me. The prices were all listed in Mexican pesos, so I had to do some calculating for my USD brain. Let me also mention, I hadn’t converted any of my money to pesos. The store would give me an exchange rate of 17:1, which wasn’t the exact exchange rate, but was better than other shops that were going on 10:1 exchange or anything in between. When calculating the prices, I realized that the gift shop prices were slightly higher than I would have paid for similar items at home. So, while I would have saved money by paying in pesos, since I didn’t have any, I would actually be paying more. AND the prices in the shops were non-negotiable.
Luckily, I quickly figured out that the Grand Palladium allowed vendors to come in each evening and sell their wares. If you’ve ever been to a craft market in another country, you already know that their prices are negotiable. I chose to shop mostly with the vendors.
My first stop was at this jewelry booth that was being worked by David Renteria. He basically had me sold on everything—it was all so shiny and beautiful! I really had focused in on a pendant that was decorated on both sides. One side had the Mayan calendar on it and the other side showed the Aztec calendar. It was so versatile with the colors on it.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t really planned on shopping that night and had limited funds with me. I had to remind myself that souvenirs for friends and family came first and it wouldn’t be smart to spend all my money at the first booth I came to. I settled on two cool identical bracelets with skulls on them for Harvey and Jasmine, two of my favorite, young English friends. I figured, even if they never wore them, the bracelets would be a funky reminder of our time in Mexico together. David sold me both for the asking price of one, which was so nice of him.
My next stop was at the booth being manned by Charlie Brown (he swore that was really his name too.) His specialty was in making pendants out of pesos.
He had quite the collection and even demonstrated some of his craft while I was making my choices. When I asked what he would sell me my picks for, he shot me a price way higher than the amount I had left. That’s what I get for shopping when it wasn’t planned.
I went to go find hubby (he hates the haggling so usually disappears when I start shopping the vendors.) I emptied the cash from his pockets and went back to see Charlie Brown. I pulled out every dollar I now had, which still wasn’t his asking price, but he was so kind to sell me the pendants I had picked out for the kids for the amount I did have.
I thought they were pretty neat looking and appropriate for each kiddo. I just hoped they would like them as much as I did. That wrapped up my shopping for that night since I had no more cash with me. But, little did I know, I wasn’t finished yet.
A couple of nights later, we walked into another gift shop located in a different part of the resort. It had a lot of the same selection as the shop we had already visited, but a few different items. I didn’t buy that night, but a couple of nights later when we had to go that direction again for dinner, I popped back into that store and picked up a quirky little handbag I had seen previously. I don’t really buy much for myself anymore—I have way too many t-shirts and refrigerator magnets, but I do try to find one unique item for myself as a reminder of places I’ve been. Now, don’t laugh or think I’m one of those weird cat ladies, but the handbag I bought DID have cats on it. And the price WAS NOT negotiable, so it was honestly a splurge.
Who knows if I’ll ever even get around to using it. In hindsight, I think I had cats on the brain. I was really missing our kittens back home by that day of the trip.
Even though I’m sure they didn’t even notice we were gone, I still considered my two different shopping methods to have been a success!
More Costa Rica–RIU Palace
A couple of years ago, we caught an end-of-season sale on Apple Vacations to go to Costa Rica. While we had many options of excursions, we really didn’t leave the resort for much. If you want to see what we left the resort for, you can check it out here. There was so much to do at the RIU Palace!
Hubby and I love getting massages and the first thing we did was get a chair massage poolside the day we arrived. Not a bad start to vacay! We then made an appointment to visit the resort’s spa, which was a Renova Spa. We had a nice relaxing couples massage that also included hanging out afterwards in their quiet community Jacuzzi.
The next day, we discovered the beach spas set up on the beach by locals. As much as we love massages, and when we discovered that their massages were half the price of the spa, we reserved time for two more massages each, for later in the week. It sounded so relaxing to have a massage on the beach. During the beach massages, when you can hear people walking by, laughing and chatting, and the massage ladies are recruiting their next appointment from passers-by during your time, you realize that it maybe wasn’t as relaxing as it sounded.
In hindsight, I preferred the spa massage more even though it cost more.. The quiet and serenity of Renova Spa, was just what I needed on vacay.
On the beach, we were also lucky enough to have vendors who were peddling all kinds of souvenir-worthy wares. You could find anything from wood-carvings to pottery, from dresses and cover-ups to jewelry. I had a particularly good time shopping with the jewelry lady. She had so many incredible pieces, and sometimes finding the matching sets in what she had, became challenging. It took quite a bit of time to stock up on sets for my friends, but it was worth her while. I ended up buying a LOT of it!
So much, in fact, that she threw in a wood-carved vase for free! She was such a sweetie!
Later in the week, we discovered there was going to be a poolside class on carving fruits. One of our travel buddies, Paula, and I showed up for it. Wow! Could these guys carve some incredible designs!
And they did it so fast and made it look so easy! But here’s what mine turned out like:
I’m not the craftiest one in the bunch, but I’ll keep practicing…
If I haven’t mentioned before how incredible the food is at a Riu Palace (oh wait, I have here) I must bring it up again, since we spent a lot of time dining on resort with our friends. We had a sushi restaurant where I could get Sake—I love the stuff! The Papagayo, which was the steakhouse, gave you the options of steak and lobster. It was so good, we went back twice! Saving the best for last, our themed buffet restaurant had seafood night the last night we were there.
The line for lobster tails stayed 20 people deep the entire time we were there for dinner. Luckily, hubby made friends with our waitress who admirably kept going over to the cook for more lobster, so we wouldn’t have to stand in the line. I believe he polished off 8 tails in the end. I might also add, that was ALL he ate. He loves lobster so much, he said there was no room for sides.
The last thing I discovered at our resort, that I really took a liking to were Cassava chips. Cassava is similar to a potato, but is actually what tapioca is made from. While I’m no fan of tapioca, I really enjoyed the chips.
The next time I go to Costa Rica, I do vow to leave the resort and experience more of the culture and environment. However, for this trip the Riu Palace was a great experience.