Sorry, love. Not a lot of goodness going around here lately. Planning a wedding and juggling a business at the same time isn't exactly the kind of schedule where a blogging hobby and drinking habit can thrive. Dammit. In the meantime... Here are photos from an Internet photography service called Instagram.
Drink Up: 50 / 49 / Lime
As a man who enjoys his drink from time to time, I've had a share. I've been through the marathons and I've done the ground work. Specialty, blended, traditional, simple mix. With that, I've prepared this recipe for you, to be used in times when you don't know what to pour and in times when you do.
As a rum drinker, if you're not sipping neatly on one of the finer breeds, you're likely to want to mix it, depending on how numb you are at the time.
What This Post Isn't Suggesting...
Rum and coke or any sugary soda drink is years behind you. Not because you're too sophisticated. God no, I'd never suppose something like that. More so, you just can't take the damned sugar anymore. It's too much. You don't remember exactly when it happened, but you're sure you can remember polishing off a 2L Coke through the night, mixing it with whatever bottle that had a spout. Those days are gone.
Blended drinks, who needs that noise?
Specialty mixes, okay. You can get behind some of the finer rum cocktails from time to time. When you prepare them on your own, it takes a spark of motivation to get everything prepped, but mostly you ask yourself, "Who has the time or the inclination?" Out at the bar, at $10-13 for an ounce of liquor mixed in with some citrus rind you wonder, "Who can do that in good conscience? "
So what then?
The 50 / 49 / Lime. Now we're talking. It's easy to make, refreshing and as thick as you can pour one without getting your eyes wet. What is the 50/49/Lime, you ask? Traditionally, I've always made it with a mid level rum like Matusalem Classico, Cruzan, Havan Club Añejo or some of the aged Flor de Caña varieties.
I wouldn't attempt this with that Bacardi swill or well booze, unless you're so far gone you won't notice the sharp taste of ethanol. And good god, man, never white rum.
How to make the 50 / 49 / Lime
- Throw some rocks in a glass. The cubes pictured below were prepped with mint leaves which is something the lady likes to do. I approve. Mint is delicious.
- Pour it to the best of your ability, filling 50% of the glass with your rum of choice. This will become trickier as the evening (afternoon?) progresses.
- Top it up 49% with S. Pellegrino sparkling water. Or, as pictured below, for a little extra magic is my favourite non-alcoholic drink around: Aranciata. I also would stock up on Pellegrino's Pompelmo flavour if I were you.
- For the final 1%, squeeze in your lime and toss that wedge over your right shoulder, drink up and don't look back.
Now enjoy, and let me know if you have your own combo of the 50 / 49 / Lime that you favour.
Drink up, me hearties!
Brideaux in the Bar
(This is an old snippet of dialogue from a dusty folder and empty story I wrote years ago.)
* * *
"I'm a literary romantic," Brideaux answered.
"What does that mean? Like, you write romance novels? I like that. Especially with a sexy name like, Brideaux."
"It's Jimmy, and you've got it all wrong," he said, "It means I romanticize about being a literary type. Mostly I just drink like a dog, do a hell of a lot of drugs and fuck like a wild boar when I can get it up. It's an effort, if you're asking, and I'd rather not put either of us through the hoops tonight."
"Oh. Well, are you still going to buy me that drink? My friend says you're famous."
"I'll buy you that drink, sure, then you've gotta go. A lady friend of mine will be here shortly and if she sees me here with a pretty — what are you, nineteen? Twenty? Either way, it won't go over well and then you'll have to be the one fucking me tonight. And you don't want to be the one doing that."
"What makes you say that? I think you're kinda cute."
"I've got chlamydia, for starters," he said, lifting his glass to the air and shaking loose the ice from the last ounce, "Secondly, there's nothing to eat at my place and I hate going out for breakfast."
Take Me Back to Bacalar
Powering down after a work week switches back and forth from doing nothing but laying around having drinks in our pool to getting out the door and heading somewhere. Usually south. South brings finer beaches, beautiful landscapes, smaller towns and less humans. North brings tourism, mega resorts and house music.
Go South by Southwest
About three and a half hours south southwest from Playa del Carmen is a sleepy little lagoon town called Bacalar. We made it in two and a half. A German was behind the wheel and turned the Federal 307 into the Autobahn. He is a good man and I appreciated his enthusiasm to get the commute over with. The girls slept in the back, unaware of pace.
Now in Bacalar, we grabbed a quick lunch in the small town square, had a few beers and jumped on a boat. It was an independently owned charter, pitched to us by the young Romanian proprietor, Mihail. At first we considered he might just be The Tallest Man on Earth in hiding.
Mihail does all of the map and poster artwork for their little pirate operation, Piratas Bacalar. He has a sort of charm and a salesmanship we had to say yes to. That, and your other option for getting on the water in Bacalar is throwing on a neon life vest and choking on fumes from the little sardine boats tour groups pack visitors into. Instead, find the Piratas and take a private sailing trip on a daysailer with shark teeth painted on the bow. It just makes sense.
The sail lasts six hours from daylight through sunset and into the dark. It follows the routes in the image below with a guided history of the pirate and Spanish raids in the region.
At the time of writing this there are four different price points:
- 2 Passengers: $1200 pesos
- 3 Passengers: $1600 pesos
- 4 Passengers: $1800 pesos
- 6 Passengers: $2200 pesos
There were four of us, so it worked out to $1800 pesos ($140usd) for the full six hour private tour. The sail comes with fresh fruit and a dinner plate of meat, veggies and rice for all. When you run it down, you're talking about $75 pesos ($6usd) an hour, per person. Who says no to a $6/hr private sailing trip? Not you, that's for damned sure!
Pack enough beer, rum and wine for the whole trip. If you've been to Mexico or live in the area, you know that beer at the corner store is only about $0.50usd a can while a 750ml bottle of rum can be $10-12usd. Liquor here is practically free.
You'll start with beer in the sun, and switch to wine or rum as the sun sets with the boat anchored in the crystal clear shallows of the lagoon. El Capitan sails in right next to a tiny homebase island for what seems like every species of bird on the planet. They fly with their wings almost skimming the lagoon on their way around the boat to the island, sun setting in the background.
We got back to land, had some beers and cigars on our patio at Amigos Hotel until it was time to pass out. Rooms at Amigos run at about $700 pesos ($50usd). Below is a photo of our patio during the day, before sailing. The top photo in this post is the pier at Amigos Hotel. At a glance through the images on their site, Amigos may not appear to be much, but that's the town. A place less concerned with luxury property rentals and more focused on relaxing in a relatively untouched region of the Costa Maya, Mexico.
Bacalar is a quaint place of beauty, pot holes, dirt roads, street dogs, independently owned restaurants and hotels, all sitting on the Lagoon of Seven Colours. The next morning we left for Mahahual and already missed Bacalar. We'll be back soon, little town.
A Quaint Market
(Hi! So, I wrote this little story years back and found it kicking around in an old folder of Love & Rum posts. It's a short story about alcohol, travel, love and international intrigue. Or none of the above. Go ahead, take a read...)
* * *