Thursday, 24 March 2016

Riu Touareg, Boa Vista, Cape Verdi

Wednesday 23rd March
Here we are, in Cape Verdi, for a week of winter/spring sunshine over Easter.  We arrived yesterday afternoon from Gatwick, Kev, Mum, Linda & Me to a teeny airport on one of the Cape Verdi Island's Boa Vista.  

A 2.30am alarm got us ready for the 4am drive to Gatwick, a really quick check in, then breakfast before I hit the shops!  Love a bit of duty free! Chanel perfume, mascara and eyeshadows, whisky and aftershave for Kev (a new blended single malt called monkey shoulder was his whisky du jour!) and an accessory for his go-pro which if we'd bought on amazon prime one day earlier, would have cost us £20 less! But then he wouldnt have had it for the holiday! Lol! Gotta love my hubby 😘

The flight was 6 hours, not too bad, and we mainly occupied ourselves with sleeping (well it was a 2.30am wake up to go to Gatwick!) and movies on the iPad.  

On arrival at the aforementioned teeny airport, we queued for passport control.  I wish Id got a photo as it really struck me how much like a disney ride queue it looked!!  All these people, snaking back and forward in a roofless adobe building painted in terracotta colours.  We could have been queuing for the indiana jones ride at universal no problem!! Lol!

Luggage collected we went outside to board the oldest tattiest coach ever, before heading onto a dust and stone track (i cant call it a road, because it wasnt!!) dodging goats, boulders, and the very occasional vehicle coming in the opposite direction!  The first 15 minutes were almost as if we were now on the Disney ride, bouncing up and down, side to side lol!

Heres the views from the window of the barren lanscape and stone strewn road!  







After 15 minutes we hit a tarmac road.  Now I should point out the with the exception of the airport and a few adobe house near the airport, we saw no dwellings or people on the whole of our 30 minute journey.

After 30 minutes, we noticed a golden shimmery lifesize sandcastle in the distance, right on the blue sea edge.  The huge sprawling oasis is the 5* Riu Touareg, according to TA the number one hotel in Boa Vista.  It looked so impressive, almost as if all the buildings had been sculpted from sand, and so at odds with the surrounding nothingness! Lol!

Check in was fairly quick and easy, Id emailed ahead and made some room requests which were all honoured, with Kev and me getting a top floor suite in the adults only section, with mum & Auntie Linda next door.  The sea views are lovely from the balcony.





Heres our room - Excuse the unmade bed!




We had a drink at the bar, and I set up everyones ipad onto the free and really good wifi - Excellence resorts should take note!

A quick nap then back to the bar for pre dinner drinkies, a meal, a show and an early night.

Now, the weather is very overcast today and its extremely windy - believe me, Elnett 'brick' hold wont do any good here!!!

This morning, after breakfast, we sat in the main square, just read, caught up on facebook etc until lunchtime were I had a fabulous lunch of poppadum filled with cooked chicken and salad - seriously yum!!  

So thats it, a dull first day! Lets see what tomorrow brings! BFN! X





Riu Touareg, Boa Vista, Cape Verdi

Wednesday 23rd March
Here we are, in Cape Verdi, for a week of winter/spring sunshine over Easter.  We arrived yesterday afternoon from Gatwick, Kev, Mum, Linda & Me to a teeny airport on one of the Cape Verdi Island's Boa Vista.  

A 2.30am alarm got us ready for the 4am drive to Gatwick, a really quick check in, then breakfast before I hit the shops!  Love a bit of duty free! Chanel perfume, mascara and eyeshadows, whisky and aftershave for Kev (a new blended single malt called monkey shoulder was his whisky du jour!) and an accessory for his go-pro which if we'd bought on amazon prime one day earlier, would have cost us £20 less! But then he wouldnt have had it for the holiday! Lol! Gotta love my hubby 😘

The flight was 6 hours, not too bad, and we mainly occupied ourselves with sleeping (well it was a 2.30am wake up to go to Gatwick!) and movies on the iPad.  

On arrival at the aforementioned teeny airport, we queued for passport control.  I wish Id got a photo as it really struck me how much like a disney ride queue it looked!!  All these people, snaking back and forward in a roofless adobe building painted in terracotta colours.  We could have been queuing for the indiana jones ride at universal no problem!! Lol!

Luggage collected we went outside to board the oldest tattiest coach ever, before heading onto a dust and stone track (i cant call it a road, because it wasnt!!) dodging goats, boulders, and the very occasional vehicle coming in the opposite direction!  The first 15 minutes were almost as if we were now on the Disney ride, bouncing up and down, side to side lol!

Heres the views from the window of the barren lanscape and stone strewn road!  







After 15 minutes we hit a tarmac road.  Now I should point out the with the exception of the airport and a few adobe house near the airport, we saw no dwellings or people on the whole of our 30 minute journey.

After 30 minutes, we noticed a golden shimmery lifesize sandcastle in the distance, right on the blue sea edge.  The huge sprawling oasis is the 5* Riu Touareg, according to TA the number one hotel in Boa Vista.  It looked so impressive, almost as if all the buildings had been sculpted from sand, and so at odds with the surrounding nothingness! Lol!

Check in was fairly quick and easy, Id emailed ahead and made some room requests which were all honoured, with Kev and me getting a top floor suite in the adults only section, with mum & Auntie Linda next door.  The sea views are lovely from the balcony.





Heres our room - Excuse the unmade bed!




We had a drink at the bar, and I set up everyones ipad onto the free and really good wifi - Excellence resorts should take note!

A quick nap then back to the bar for pre dinner drinkies, a meal, a show and an early night.

Now, the weather is very overcast today and its extremely windy - believe me, Elnett 'brick' hold wont do any good here!!!

This morning, after breakfast, we sat in the main square, just read, caught up on facebook etc until lunchtime were I had a fabulous lunch of poppadum filled with cooked chicken and salad - seriously yum!!  

So thats it, a dull first day! Lets see what tomorrow brings! BFN! X





Thursday, 10 March 2016

Facebook Group for EPM Lovers

for all those who love EPM, theres a cracking facebook group called 'We Love Excellence Playa Mujeres'.  Lots of the TA regulars have joined and its a great fun community.  Theres lots of tips and advice, loads of photos and videos, and its a great laugh - seriously a good vibe.   1200+ members already 😀 And its only been going a few months.

Its Run by the wonderful Dawn who does a marvellous job of keeping us more rowdy ones in check whilst ensuring everyone enjoys the fun and banter.  

If you've not joined yet, then pop on over to FB and join the fun.  You know you want to.....😉




Sunday, 16 August 2015

That's all folks! - Live from wrap up

So that's it, 21 fabulous nights at EPM.  If you've been following my live from on Trip Advisor and or the blog, then I think I've pretty much covered everything we've seen, done, eaten or drunk!!  So it's just a quick wrap up from me and I'll be writing my review and posting during the week.  If you have any questions re EPM or anything else, then feel free to PM me or leave a comment on the blog.  I'll be carrying on the blog in the future with other travel related stuff, love you to follow me if you enjoyed this one.

I would like to thank so many people for coming to see us off on our final morning -  the wonderful Nelson and Aldo, big thanks for all you did for us making sure we enjoyed every moment of our holiday.  To Lirana, our maid, who bought me a beautiful personal keepsake on our last day, thank you Hun for all your hard work, smiles and little touches in our room.  To the great team of hostesses and servers, who all managed to pop by for a hug - Angel, Alberto, Freddy, Lizeth, Shehily, we're both going to miss all of you and to Eric Cervantes who personally came to say goodbye, and to chat with us before we left.

So that's it, except my final staff member of the day - dedicated to all 780+ team members, who work so hard to make sure guests enjoy all the facilities at this wonderful resort.  I can't name them all, but here's a big shout out to:

the plumbers, electricians, painters, decorators, pool staff, beach staff, maintenance team, stone masons, laundresses, gardeners, cleaners, IT Support, administration, kitchen assistants, chefs, bar staff, room service staff, hostesses, maitre d's, waiting staff, concierges, maids, receptionists, bell hops, customer services officers, the sommelier, all the managers - thank you very much for making our vacation so special and we look forward to spending time with you again very soon.

Mandy & Kevin Webb ;-)

Our last full day..............

Thursday, Our last day at EPM, was everything and more that we could wish for, the perfect end to a fabulous holiday and a memory that will keep us going until the next time.

We woke to bright sunny sky's, a beautiful blue morning.  We toddled off to Toscana to spend one last leisurely breakfast with the team there, Angel, Marcos, Lizeth & Shehily especially.  I took down my little pocket LG photo printer and printed off photos for all the staff that we had taken over the three weeks we had been there, well they all loved them and we then had to take photos with them and print more so they could have keepsakes of all of us - such a little thing but all of the team loved them and there were so many exclamations, laughter and smiles over the little photos!!



So we then went and rested up by the revive bar until lunchtime and then strolled around to the grill, Angel set us up facing the sea, and we have a really leisurely lunch, no rushing and excellent service as always.  For lunch I had my favourite chicken wraps, with some cold Sauvignon blanc and Kev had the burger with a few pacificos.   We just spent nearly two hours chatting and watching the world go by with a perfect turquoise sea in front of us and the sounds of the musicians drifting up from las olas. 


After lunch we went back to the revive bar for a couple hours more, then retired to our room to start the gently art of throwing things in the suitcase for our trip home!!!  Lol!!





A little while later, Nelson arrived to give us a little tour of some of the resort we missed, including some of the more select rooms - well you have to dream don't you! We then finished the afternoon at the excellence club Chocolate Tasting with one of Ceasars seriously fabulous chocolate mint martinis! Oh my! Liquid after eights! They were so so good!

A little rest before dinner, then I dressed up in a new dress I'd been saving for the last night (yes I actually had clothes to take home that I hadn't even worn in the three weeks!!! Lol) and for once, my hair went perfect! (Told you it was a good day didn't I? Lol!!! It's the little things ain't it!!!! )

A final French martini at the bar before dinner and then off to our favourite restaurant, chez Isabel for the last time, and oh what a meal! Señor Pedro, Christian and the lovely Martin (with a more than a little help from Aldo!) ensured our last evening was truly memorable.  A beautifully decorated table, then starters of pear and blue cheese salad for me and bouillabaisse for Kevin - Christian had warned us to keep the starters light as the chef had prepared us a special main.  The pear salad, with thinly sliced small pears, frisée lettuce, little gems of Roquefort cheese, a delicious dressing and then literally teeny zings of orange, was delicious - every mouthful just burst with flavour.



Kevin had decided he really wanted a Monte Xenic red wine for our last meal, Martin had introduced us to this wine the last time we came to EPM and it's still one of our favourites.  So we relaxed with a glass until Christian came with our three main courses.......

The chef had prepared us a main course each of Duck Confit on a bed of herby potatoes and delicious braised apple and cinnamon.  This was accompanied by a sharing dish of Filet Mignon, cooked in a red wine reduction, with lobster sans shell.  Oh my, where to start - well for me, it was the duck, which was butter soft, melt in the mouth Devine and the accompanying cinnamon apple, even now I'm salivating! Both Christian and the chef knew duck was my favourite and they had conspired together to surprise me!   Seriously seriously delicious!!!  And the third main -  rich, deep, steak, with delicious soft buttery lobster.  Kevin was in his element!



We had said we would skip dessert, but Christian - the little devil - had let us relax for a time with the wine before bringing out another gorgeous surprise - the best one yet!!!  Two Chocolate baskets made from white and bitter dark chocolate, filled with soft dark chocolate mousse, complete with candles, and large blackberries, and 'happy anniversary' iced on the side with chocolate.  So whilst I was full, one taste and there was no way I was leaving it!!! They were so delicious and right up my street!  


One last surprise, Señor Martin brought us both over a special liqueur each which he thought would go with the chocolate dessert.  It was delicious as always - You can always trust Señor Martin to choose something perfect.  

Finally, our meal was over - we were fortunate enough to visit Señor Martin's wine cellar before we left and have a chance to spend a little bit more 'one to one' time with him, then a very quick au revoir to both Señor Martin and Señor Pedro as I was getting a bit teary by this time.  Until next time my friends 😘

After dinner a quick bye with Caesar and we retired back to our room to sleep - or so we thought! Nelson had arranged a romantic send off, rose champagne, a Marble slab of delicious chocolates, fruits and tarts, rose petal strewn floor and a rose petal strewn, foam bath jacuzzi.  Told you it was a perfect day, didn't I!!!  




Now, I'd like to finish with a romantic story, about how we both enjoyed the jacuzzi, sat sipping champagne whilst gazing into each other's eyes and how it was all so perfect..........but as you all know, Kev has a history with this jacuzzi, so this is what really happened.......

I thought it would be good to get a photo of him in the tub for the blog, Kev said, no, I'll take one of both of us using the timer on the camera.  So we both put cozzies on (no topless photos of me on the internet peeps!), moved the little side table into position, I gingerly got in (well I had had quite a bit to drink and didn't want to slip and beak my ankles on holiday again - long story!!!!........) and proceeded to pose so he could check the angles of the camera.  

Everything set up, choccies and champagne in the foreground, me ready with a glass of bubbly, smiling like a nutter! Kev then pressies the timer and literally leaps for the tub, does this mad flip, dive bombs and hits the water, which leaves the tub at 50 miles an hour straight up, then down on my head, drowning my 'perfect hair, champagne, chocolates, walls, towels etc.  Then, the camera flashes.  I took one look at him, then at my 'bubbly covered' champagne glass in my hand, then at the foam covered chocolates and literally fell back in the water laughing my head off!! You can take the boy out of the east end, but not the east end out of the boy!!!  



So that was our last full day, great or what?!!!  ;-)





Thursday, 13 August 2015

Nearly at an end............

Ok with our holiday nearly at an end, we started yesterday by the revive bar, in 'our' spot.  We love this spot, we spent our last holiday there and with the exception of our days out and the one day at the beach, we've spent the last three weeks there - PJ we well and truly have these loungers under control - beaten into submission more like!!! Lol!

As usual the wonderfully attentive Emiliano looked after us, moving me gently through the day from sparkling water, to sparkling water with menthe, to mohitos, to strawberry mohito (a real surprise that one but yummy!) a gentle transition over many hours I should add! Lol!

Lunchtime saw us at the grill with Angel, my favourite herby chicken wrap for lunch, for Kevin mixed fajitas.  Gonna just comment about the salsa - I love the fresh salsa - lots of teeny pieces of tomato, onion and coriander -  it's delicious! but I especially love it in Toscana at lunchtime where I sprinkle one of the little dishes of it over my salad! Yum!

So after lunch we wandered back to the pool until 4.30ish, and then went in for a cool down and rest.  Kev to sleep, me to sit in the hot tub watching re-runs of friends and the Big Bang theory and again, I do mean the comedy show! Lol!


So last night saw us sipping Caesar's finest French martinis and g&Ts for Kev.  Caesar served Kev a drink up in a slanted glass - he thought he'd drunk too much at that point!! Lol!



Off we went to the flavour market for dinner - and oh what a dinner! We put ourselves in Luis's capable hands as the chef Señor Rafael wanted to make us something special and oh my, he did himself proud!!

A beautiful cheese and fruit platter to start, then a dish each with the famous steak and blue cheese topped with a grilled prawn, scallops on soft creamy risotto and lastly the most delicious price of Chilean Sea bass that actually melted in the mouth - everything tasted so good!!! Really well seasoned, and cooked to perfection.  Dessert was the little round chocolate ganache cakes, so good, but I really could do them justice !







This little restaurant is fabulous and we've loved every mouthful we've eaten there. The service bu Luis and the team, together with the ambience has put this restaurant at a close second to my favourite Chez.

Before we started dinner, Señor Martin had sent down a little Tempranillo for us to try - very dry, very aromatic with spices and a deep chocolate smell.  He then picked us out a delicious Merlot to go with dinner, he said it's a fairly new addition to the wine cellar and it was the perfect accompaniment.  I have to admit to learning so much from Señor Martin, were by no means experts, but everything he's chosen for us has been delicious!  Perhaps it just I'm a lush? Lol! ;-)



So a nightcap of brandy Alexander, then as we strolled back across cafe Kafe to our room there was a cracking salsa band playing, so I risked the mossies to sit and enjoy the late night music.  Perfect.

Ok staff member of the day - has to be Señor Rafael - perfection on a plate is all I have to say - and the foods good as well!! Lol!    


Wednesday, 12 August 2015

Freedom of speech..............

I noticed on Trip Advisor my other thread about what I dislike at EPM has been closed down! Obviously I hit a nerve or someone was worried that if I said anything negative at all about EPM it might reflect badly on them, particularly if they are in line to get a free upgrade if they keep all EPM discussions on a positive note.

I particularly hate that TA'ers are not allowed to speak freely about all aspects of their holiday, good or bad.  How on earth can you trust some bodies opinion if they never ever say anything negative? Or allow anyone else to say anything negative?

If you missed yesterday's discussion, it started with my comments on how some guests - a very very few minority - are very selfish, and that I'd noticed some gobsmacking acts of rudeness and selfishness by other guests - from reserving six beds in the morning for a single couple, to literally hiding floaties under beds, mattresses, and in rooms to stop other guests from using them.

The thread spurred other comments about guests rudeness towards staff, playing music too loud by the revive pool, drunken behaviour in the pool area etc etc etc.  This sort of behaviour doesn't happen every day or week at the resort, and the 99.9% of guests we've seen are very respectful of other guests and staff alike, however, like everywhere in the world, there are some selfish people out there and EPM guests are now exception.  Nobody was named and shamed in this discussion, it was more a general discussion on what irritates TA'ers at the resort - there wasn't even anything negative about the resort itself.

To report and close down an honest discussion on this subject is beyond me.  At least on my blog I can speak honestly without fear of upsetting so someone's hard earned pitch............