My Crazy Vacation
Hello my dear Students,
As you know, I am now back from my vacation. And oh my! I have a lot of information to share with you – pictures too. Believe it or not, it was the first vacation I have taken in over five years!
On the following page, I am going to tell you a little bit about my trip, what I did, and provide you with a few pictures so that you can see not only where I was, but where I am living now.
To be completely honest with you, my trip was not really a vacation at all. In fact, it was a heck of a lot of work! Not only was I visiting a new city – I was moving there as well.
The city I moved to is called Playa Del Carmen. It is located in the Gulf of Mexico. It is approximately 45 minutes south of Cancun, Mexico. The area surrounding my new city is called the Riviera Maya. The Riviera Maya includes Cancun, Cozumel, Playa Del Carmen, Tulum, Puerto Aventuras, Puerto Morelos, Akumal, and several other small cities.
It is famous for its beautiful beaches, incredible scuba diving/snorkeling, and offers a countless number of activities for people of all ages.
Mexico is now ranked as the 10th most visited vacation destination in the world. More specifically, Playa Del Carmen is also considered one of the hottest tourist destinations in the country.
If you visit the following link, you can see that the city was ranked as the most satisfying Mexican destination by thousands of visitors to a website called TripAdvisor.com, a popular travel website.
As some of you know, I have also been building a website based around the city for the last 1.5+ years. I came here now because I want to complete that website (it is NOT quite done yet). It will be replete with information about the city, its restaurants, clubs, bars, nightlife, and the plethora of activities that are possible here.
Some of the activities include: swimming with dolphins, swimming with manatees, swimming with sharks, skydiving, parasailing, riding banana boats, renting jet skis, visiting ancient Mayan pyramids, exploring ancient Mayan cities in the jungle, cave diving, scuba diving, snorkeling, swimming in cenotes (sacred Mayan sinkholes), shopping, fine dining, dancing, jungle tours, bike riding, rollerblading,… and the list goes on and on.
It is quite beautiful here. (However, the beaches are currently plagued with a temporary seaweed problem as you will see in the photos.
Oh my dear students, I wish you were here to see it! You would love it! (NOT the seaweed, but the city!)
THE MOVE
As you might have guessed, moving takes a lot of planning. And planning takes a lot of time. I had been thinking about moving here for the last two years. However, I always made excuses and found reasons not to actually leave my old city.
“Procrastination is the killer of all ambition.” – Author unknown
The truth is that I was getting very bored in my old city. It was small, lacked diversity, and had become all too familiar. Finally I decided to “just do it.” Nike would have loved it.
Over a period of several months, I got so excited about moving that I shared all the information possible with my mother. At first she was not all that happy. However, after seeing pictures of the city, she too wanted to be involved.
When I gave her an exact date that I was moving, she decided to come and see the city I had been living in (central Mexico), help me get packed up, and accompany me on my move to Playa Del Carmen (Gulf of Mexico).
She arrived on Thursday, July 9, 2015. We immediately begin packing all of my belongings. I had been living in the same house for around 5 1/2 years. For those of you who have moved, you know exactly what it was like–lots of junk, lots of sorting to do, and lots of boxes!
To make a long story short, we got everything packed up by Friday, July 17. The same day that my vacation started. In fact, I left on an airplane to fly to Cancun, Mexico on that day– immediately after finishing my classes with all of you! Even my desk left before for I did!
Oh my dear students, if you could only imagine the stress I endured while moving. Moreover, it was the same for my poor mother! She was probably more stressed than I was! However, as you will see, she’s a lot stronger than I am (below you will see how she took a gun from a statue thief who was trying to rob us, and even saved the city from some dangerous arsonists who were trying to burn it down), so she can handle the stress better.
All of my belongings went with a moving company. It was actually quite cheap. I should have taken some photographs of my personal property piled high on two moving pallets, but I completely forgot. Sorry.
THE FLIGHT
The flight is where my vacation really started to get interesting. Yes, your humble narrator almost died in a plane crash!
Let me tell you about it…
Because the town I had been living in was so small, I had to fly out of a larger city that had a bigger airport. The airport was approximately two hours from my old city.
The city was called Aguascalientes. Find it on a map and you will know exactly where it is.
My mom and I had printed our e-tickets and boarding passes on my computer prior to leaving. Consequently, we were able to get on the plane quite easily after checking in our larger suitcases.
As we took off into the sky, we noticed that there was a thick layer of clouds high above. They didn’t seem like anything threatening, although we would later find out that they were not so benign.
The flight was scheduled to take around two hours. Two hours in the sky is nothing – at least not on a normal flight.
Everything was going as planned. People were smiling, a honeymooning couple were kissing in the seat across the aisle, and a child was crying because his ears were hurting from the pressure difference between the ground and the sky. The flight attendants (as usual) were dressed in their perfectly pressed uniforms while walking up and down the aisles. They were serving drinks and light snacks.
All of a sudden, as if Zeus himself were riding by on his chariot, the plane started to shake. “We are experiencing some turbulence. Please fasten your seatbelts and remain in your seats until further notice,” the pilot announced….
…at that very moment, the stewardess flew up in the air hitting her head on the ceiling of the plane. She looked like an astronaut at the international space station – a zero gravity environment.
The drinks on her cart went everywhere. A cup that she was holding hit the ceiling. Ice covered the aisle. A piece of ice even hit a woman in the head and fell into her empty glass. The Coca-Cola in her cup was already all over the floor.
People started screaming. The baby stopped crying. The flight crew looked like they had seen a ghost.
“Oh no!” I thought. I’m going to die today (or be stuck on some crazy island like the television show “Lost“).
My mom, however, remained calm. In fact, believe it or not, she was sleeping! How can someone sleep through this kind of nightmare? Crazy! However, it makes sense when you also know that my mom slept through an earthquake in California when her and my father were first married. Figures.
Luckily, just as lightning strikes suddenly and then immediately disappears, the turbulence abruptly stopped.
The rest of the flight went smoothly.
Wow! I could’ve been a goner!
Oh my dear students, you should know that I was thinking of you in what could have been my last few moments on Earth!
After arriving at the airport, we took a bus from Cancun to Playa Del Carmen. The ride took around 45 min, was air-conditioned, and most importantly – smooth.
THE HOTEL
My mom had already made reservations at a hotel called Luna Blue. It was beautiful–budget friendly, but beautiful.
The hotel included an amazing courtyard that looked like an oasis in the middle of a rain forest. There were birds flying around, beautiful butterflies, a lagoon-style swimming pool, and a bar that had interesting swing-style barstools.
Moreover, the decorations at the hotel were quite interesting – a large painting on the wall of a woman staring at the moon, interesting signs that showed the distance between the hotel and other popular destinations, artistic ceiling fans, Caribbean style memorabilia, etc. Every Thursday the hotel even hosted live music with a great singer from Canada (whose wife was from Argentina).
The hotel also had its own two cats to control the rodent population. I’m sure they also killed lots of other things unnecessarily as well, but thus is the nature of cats. Unfortunately, I only got a picture of one of them. However, the other one looked exactly like Garfield – fat, slow, and presumably loved lasagna. He sure looked like he had eaten a lot of it!
I should also mention that the hotel was centrally located. Playa Del Carmen is a small city. It’s only about 5 km wide, and all of the fun is packed into that area. This was ideal because it was easy to get around.
In order to make transportation as simple as possible, many people here ride bikes instead of driving cars. Not only is it more economic and better for the environment, but is generally faster because parking is so easy on a bike compared to a car.
Like the expression goes, “When in Rome do as the Romans do.” My mom and I rented bikes in order to get around–and search for an apartment.
As you will see after reading this, there were some very strange things that happened during my trip (even after the episode in the airplane). I will be enumerating most of them throughout this article, but I wanted to comment on one of them now because it was something that I noticed right away.
STRANGE SLEEPINESS AROUND CITY
As my mom and I were exploring the city, there were occasions of an unexplained sleepiness that affected a multitude of people in the city. Oddly enough, animals and insects appeared to be immune; it didn’t affect them. The most interesting thing about it was that nobody else seemed to comment on it but me. In fact, nobody even noticed!
Oh, my dear students, questions plagued my mind! If some of you could have been here to verify my observations, I would have been forever grateful!
Was I going crazy? Had the scare on the flight driven me to madness? Was I about to lose my mind? Or was there some sort of strange spell the people here were under?
The situation reminded me of the adventures of Odysseus, who was driven off course by storms that forced him to port his ship in the land of Lotus-Eaters, a colony of people who ate lotus plants which put them in an eternal state of sleepiness.
If you haven’t read Homer’s Odyssey, I strongly recommend it!
Luckily, I had my camera with me, so please tell me what you think about this unexplained phenomena!
SHOPPING
Playa Del Carmen is a city with many faces. There is a beautiful beach that runs parallel to the main street (Fifth Avenue). There are many condominiums, hotels, and large resorts that run along the beach. There are also beach bars and various style night clubs that cater to people who like to hear the sound of waves lapping against the sand while they are having a drink (or two).
In addition, Fifth Avenue offers hundreds of small shops, restaurants, and department stores where you can find anything from diamond rings to memorable ashtrays. I took some pictures of some cool wooden sculptures that I saw. You can see them above. You can also see how busy the main street is!
There are people from all over the world who walk up and down the street both day and night. On nearly every block that you walk, you can hear three or four different languages being spoken – English, Spanish, French, Italian, Russian, German, Portuguese, Korean, Japanese, Ukrainian, etc. The diversity is quite amazing
However, just as I was walking along enjoying the day, I saw something that I will not soon forget. Let me tell you about it…
Most of you probably remember Michael Jackson. He was a famous American pop singer. However, around two or three years ago, he unexpectedly died – supposedly. The media alleged that he died of a heart attack. But wait….
I saw him here! I swear! He was even dancing to one of his most well-known songs: Thriller!
Oh, my dear students, I was really freaking out by now. Believe me, you would have been too!
Was this another fantasy that had simply transpired in my mind, or was this real?
A near-death experience in the plane ride here, a strange sleepiness that secretly affected the local people/my mom, and now Michael Jackson–alive in my new city?
What the heck was going on?
Here are the photos to prove this was real! Could one of you please help me solve this mystery? How did Michael Jackson fake his death and end up in my new city several years later?
Maybe I’ll never know.
E.T was here, too! Check out this photo!!!
ACTIVITIES
As I mentioned before, there are a lot of activities to do here. Because I was so busy moving, I did not have the opportunity to participate in a lot of these. However, I did get a few photographs.
Lo and behold, my dear students, I simply wanted to check out the beach and another strange thing happened – people were taking their clothes off!
Playa Del Carmen is famous for its beaches. There are many of them, there a lot of people at each of them, and people walk up and down them for hours on end.
However, my first visit to the beach was tainted by the strangest experience yet.
Of course I brought my camera along because I was taking photographs for you; I wanted to share my trip with all of you and show you exactly what it’s like here.
Just as I was beginning to enjoy my first visit to the beach, it happened.
Oh my! I could hardly believe my eyes! Three women were sunbathing – naked! Heck, one of their kids was even naked! (Don’t worry, I censored the photograph and removed anything that could be offensive.)
Wow! This is illegal in most states in the US, and in many countries around the world. Come to think of it, it would probably get you killed in many countries and even beheaded in others (think Islamist countries and the crazy Islamic State terror group).
I think it must have been the strange sleepiness that drove them to madness or some such thing. However, I must remark that I recently read that female toplessness is now LEGAL in parts of Canada, a highly respected western country. It is the same in some parts of the US.
Thus, if you don’t want to see topless women (and men) on the beach, you should stay away from parts of Canada, parts of the US, and definitely Playa Del Carmen!
Nonetheless, there were many other activities that people were participating in – Mexican children swimming neck-deep in seaweed (what were they thinking?), crazy natives wearing full regalia dancing near the beach (were they preparing to attack tourists?), couples riding jet skis, groups of snorkeling/scuba diving tours (did they see any sharks?), ferry boats carrying people to a nearby island (Cozumel–look it up on a map!), tourists parasailing high above the ocean (a boat pulls them around with a parachute behind them), and of course there were many people sunbathing in the rays cast by the star at the center of our own solar system millions of kilometers away (i.e. the Sun).
Interesting!
I even got to take a picture of my mom on the beach! Although she did not want to swim in the water. Playa Del Carmen is having a major problem with seaweed nowadays (apparently due to global warming and several other factors), so she didn’t want to go swimming in the ocean. I thought it was a great picture nonetheless! My mom looks friendly, doesn’t she? ESPECIALLY WHEN SHE’S NOT FALLING ASLEEP!!!
Besides the beaches, there is another great thing about this city that I’m going to tell you about now…
THE FOOD
Because Playa Del Carmen attracts such a broad group of people from every part of the planet, there are restaurants to serve the appetites of ALL the people who visit here–and even some oddities to boot. The plethora of visitors creates a huge cesspool of varying appetites and demands. Simply stated, there is a HUGE variety of food here.
You can find food from Mexico, the United States, Canada, Brazil, China, Japan, India, Germany, etc… Sometimes even better, you can find a mix of all of them in what they call “fusion” restaurants.
Fusion restaurants mix foods from different styles of cooking – for example, French with Italian – in order to make some absolutely amazing dishes!
However, due to time constraints, my mom and I only spent a small amount of time at restaurants. Despite this, I still took a number of photographs to show you what kind of food we were eating.
I’m so sorry if they make you hungry! There is a simple solution – come here and try all of them for yourself on your next vacation!
First Stop – Bio-Organicos
The name of the restaurant simply means “bio-organic” and is in essence a health food store with a restaurant attached. I have found that healthy food is usually not very delicious, but this was an exception – it was amazing!
The pictures that you see of the fried eggs with cheese on top has special ingredients hidden below – beans, chili peppers, and a delicious sauce that was nothing short of mouthwatering. If you ever make it here, it is something worth trying.
Second Stop – Lucky Luciano Pizza
The second restaurant that my mom and I ate at was called Lucky Luciano New York Pizza Bar. Not surprisingly, they specialize in pizza – New York style! (Actially, I think the pizza is probably better in New York.)
As you can see from the pictures, it was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately, we only ate there one time, so we were not able to try all of the pizzas. However, when I have the opportunity, I would like to taste more varieties. You can see from the pictures that it was quite enticing.
Third Stop – Chicago Beef
For me, this is a strange name for a restaurant. However, names can be deceiving. The food was amazing! I ate the “Philly Steak” sandwich, a thinly sliced steak sandwich that supposedly originated in Philadelphia. Wow! The sauces that you can see on the side were a delicacy!
My mom had the fettuccine Alfredo. The noodles were a little bit dry, but the flavor was outstanding. I am definitely going back to this restaurant again – probably when my mom returns.
Fourth Stop – El Fogon Mexican Restaurant
El Fogon is a famous restaurant in the area. In fact, it has become so popular that they have four locations in the city! It serves classic Mexican-style food at reasonable prices. All of the meat is cooked on charcoal, and the flavor of charcoal casually seeps into the food. It makes for not only an amazing aroma, but a unique taste as well.
My mom, who is slightly scared of eating the meat here in Mexico, had the cheese quesadillas.
I, on the other hand, wanted to try some beef. It was served with guacamole sauce (a mix of avocado, peppers, onions, and lime juice), cheese, jalapeno peppers, a few tortilla chips, and of course, warm tortillas.
I must say, although the food was delicious, it was a little bit different than I expected – the meat was slightly tough to chew. Nonetheless, it was still tasty, and because of the restaurant’s reputation (and the fact that there were a hundred options on the menu that I didn’t try), I would recommend the restaurant to anyone who comes here.
Oh, my dear students, if you could have tried the food! Honestly, I hate torturing you with these photographs, but I really wanted to share them with you.
Now, just as my mom and I had worked up an appetite shopping, searching for my new apartment, and biking around the city, something else also had an appetite – and you’re not going to believe this!
FEET EATING FISH
Every living thing needs some sort of nourishment. That’s a fact. But what I’m about to tell you is going to boggle your mind!
It really surprised me. And by now, after what I had seen in the city, I wasn’t surprised by anything.
As we were walking down Fifth Avenue, we saw four middle-sized fish tanks. They were filled with hundreds of tiny fish. The fish looked quite innocent. Ironically, the tanks also had seats on the side of them. “Hmmm..?” I thought.
At first I had no idea what they were. However, when we walked by these same tanks on our way back, there were people with their feet inside the water. (Huh???)
I’ve always been a curious person, so it was no surprise when I asked them why they were putting their feet in fish tanks with hundreds of tiny fish.
The response I got was amazing…
The fish were there eating the dead skin off of their feet! Yes, that’s right – these were feet-eating fish!
Day by day, hour by hour, they were fed nothing but tourist feet!
Most surprising of all, the tourists actually paid to have the fish eat their feet!
When I asked one of the tourists what it felt like, she told me that it was like a strange buzzing all over your feet as the fish devoured the dead skin off the bottom, top, and sides of her feet.
There was no way I was going to let a fish eat me – and definitely not hundreds of them!
What a strange city!
Apparently the fish were some kind of Turkish carp that would eat almost anything put in front of them. However, these fish had an appetite for skin!
If you think this was strange, wait until you hear what happened next!
MY HEROIC MOM
Remember how I told you that my mom is a lot stronger than I am? Well, now you’re going to find out why.
On the third or fourth day of my visit (I don’t know which it was), my mom and I spent most of the day searching for an apartment.
Unfortunately, in this city there is not a central website where people list all of their properties for rent. You have to search old-style – for my mom and I, that meant riding around on bicycles, taking pictures of “FOR RENT” signs, and contacting the owners individually.
It was a lot of work!
However, at the end of each day, my mom and I usually walked down to Fifth Avenue and get some delicious food. That was exactly the plan for this day. But…
My mom was held up at gunpoint! No joke, she had a gun pointed at her head and got robbed. But what happened after that was most amazing! Please read on…
As we were walking along Fifth Avenue with bellies full of fantastic food, we saw what appeared to be a statue. The statue looked like a Mexican bandit – the type that used to roam around the country stealing from law-abiding citizens a 100 or so years ago.
My mom was walking ahead of me, and just as she passed by, the statue came to life! In fact, it was not a statue at all! It was a person dressed up as a statue in order to rob tourists!
Immediately he pointed a gun at her head and screamed, “Give me all your money!”
I was scared to death! However, my mom just smiled. How could she smile with a gun pointed at her head?!?
“Mom, give him your money – quickly!” I said.
What else could I have done?
Thankfully she did, but what she did next almost scared me to death!
As she was handing the statue-robber her money with her left hand, she turned slowly, punched him in the groin, and stole the gun from him–and her money, too!!!
Wow! What a mom!
Magnanimously, she let him keep all his other money (presumably the money that he had stolen from other tourists)!
I couldn’t believe it!
I felt like a real coward. While my mom was out fighting with gun-wielding statue-robbers, I was holding my hands up, scared out of my wits.
I told myself, if something like that happens again, I’m not just going to stand there like an idiot!
Little did I know, I would have that opportunity only a few days later.
HOW MY MOM AND I SAVED THE CITY
You have heard stories about citizen-heroes who save lives, right? Superheroes who fight bad guys? How about tourist firefighters who save a burning city?
Well, that was my mom and I you probably heard about! Let me tell you about it…
Several days after the run-in with the bandit statue-robber, my mom and I were walking down the same street (Fifth Avenue). As I have mentioned before, it is the highlight of the city and contains all of the most important restaurants, shops, and tourist portals. Consequently, it would be a complete disaster if this all-important street were to be destroyed – or possibly burned down.
After a long day of hard work (eating pizza, visiting the beach, and general sightseeing), my mom and I were looking for something to do. So we decided to go shopping.
As we were nearing the end of a street block, we ran into a large shopping mall at the end.
If you know this city, you know that much of the roofs are made of dried jungle plants. (Technically, the rooftops and substructures are called “palapas.”) Not only are these plant-based buildings cost effective, but they are natural and have been used by the natives for hundreds of years to protect from rain, the sun, and to provide shelter.
However, there is one drawback – they are very dry, and thus, burn quickly. Even a small spark could send them up in flames!
The shopping mall that I mentioned was outdoors, and each of the stores were accessible through separate entrances that could be navigated by a brick road running along the sides of the buildings. In a somewhat artistic way, the pedestrian-friendly brick street curved around and back again with several small (almost secret) exits that went out to the main streets it ran parallel with.
Because of the design, there were lots of corners with large, open spaces around each of them.
As my mom and I were going around one of these corners, we saw something that startled us – a man and a woman were lighting sticks on fire with a gasoline-like liquid and swinging them around the buildings and tourists. (One of the tourists even lit her cigarette on a burning stick the criminals were swinging around! See photo below.)
At that very moment I knew that a catastrophe was about to take place – they were trying to burn down Fifth Avenue! In fact, several of the buildings were already on fire and tourists were beginning to scream!
If the crazy criminals continued lighting the surrounding buildings, all the other tourists would be trapped inside a burning inferno – literally, a “tourist trap!”
Immediately, I consulted with my mom. Together we formulated a plan.
This was the plan:
1) We would pretend like we were helpless tourists. (Heck! Everybody else was just staring at them screaming, even cheering them on, unable to do anything about their criminal activity.)
2) After they had finished lighting the surrounding buildings on fire, I would act like I was admiring them, and then ask them if I could take their photograph.
3) In the meantime, my mom would run down to the ocean with a bucket (the ocean is only one block from Fifth Avenue, so it would be fast and easy).
4) While I was chatting them up, my mom would douse the flames with water, put out the fire, and save the city.
“Please!” I thought. “It had to work! If it didn’t, Fifth Avenue would be destroyed like the Library of Alexandria was 2000 years ago. It would go up in smoke!”
Oh my dear students, you would have been so proud of me – and my mom! She moved like The Flash!
If you could have heard me talking to the criminals, you would have been surprised!
“You two make a great criminal team!” I said. “How did you learn how to light fires like this? Do you need any help burning down the rest of the city? I would be glad to help you!”
It was complete nonsense!
But it worked; they were seriously distracted.
Just as I was about ready to run out of things to say, my mom had returned with a large bucket of water, poured it over the flames, and the city was saved!
It was amazing. I’m not trying to brag, but I did an incredible job of distracting the two arsonists, and it was just enough to get the fires put out.
By the time they turned around to see that there were no more flames, there were sirens blaring in the background. They knew the police were coming soon. Both of them took off running.
SUMMARY
To sum things up, I had an incredible “vacation.” It was a lot of work, but it was still fun. As I stated before, I hadn’t taken a vacation in 5 1/2 years, so it was long overdue.
Between the original move, the crazy plane ride, the strange sleepiness that I found throughout the city, a sighting of Michael Jackson, naked tourists on the beach, the food, a statue robber, feet-eating fish, and the odious fire starters, it was several weeks that I will not soon forget!
Oh my dear students, I wish you could have been here, and I hope all of you come in the near future!
I hope you enjoyed reading about my journey as much as I enjoyed writing about it.
Because I wrote this for YOU, and I know that all of you are doing your best to master English, I have written down several words that I used throughout this trip report.
YOUR ASSIGNMENT
1) Look up the words below.
2) Use each of them in AT LEAST one sentence.
3) Send me the sentences during our next class together.
Thank you, me dear students, for reading this!
Lots of love, and may the odds of learning English be forever in your favor…
The Teacher
—-FREE BONUS ENGLISH LESSON—-
You will see throughout my website that I go by “Rufus.” I think the statue robber and his friends / the fire starters and their friends are still looking for my mom and I, so I have to keep a low profile here. Thus, the crazy name “Rufus.”
Joking.
Actually, I am using a literary tool to help with marketing. The name on my website will be Rufus Riviera.
The literary tool I’m using is called alliteration. It is very similar to rhyming, except that the beginning of several words sound the same instead of the ending.
Rhyming Examples:
goose, loose, noose
dime, time, lime
name, same, dame
Alliterating Examples:
Peter, Piper, picked
nothing, named, never
Mickey, mouse, mimics
Scientific evidence has shown that people remember a group of words better if those words either rhyme or alliterate. For some reason these groups of words stick in the mind better than a group of random words that neither rhyme nor alliterate.
I WANT EVERYBODY I MEET TO REMEMBER MY NAME!!! Every company/professional person does. My name is part of my brand. The more people who remember it, the better it is for promoting my website!
Think about this: the most recognizable brand name in the world is Coca-Cola. Interestingly, Coca-Cola both rhymes and alliterates! The beginning sounds the same – two “C’s.” And the ending sounds the same – two “a’s.”
Marketers know all about alliteration. Here are a few examples of company names, names in entertainment, and other expressions that use alliteration:
Samsung (two “S’s” Sam Sung)
American Apparel
Bed, Bath & Beyond
Best Buy
Borders Books
Caribou Coffee
Circuit City
Dunkin Donuts
Krispy Kreme
Range Rover
American Airlines
Coca-Cola
Johnson & Johnson
LifeLock
Ted Talks
Weight Watchers
Spic-N-Span
Armor-All
Roto-Rooter
BlackBerry
Palm Pilot
[The] Great Gatsby
Lolita
Pride And Prejudice
Revolutionary Road
Bible (two “b” sounds)
The Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Words That Work
Baby Back Ribs
Bananna Boat
Captain Crunch
Grey Goose
Minute Made Lemonade
Planter’s Peanuts
Speed Stick
Tasty Treats
Tater-Tots
Tetley Tea
Tonka Toys
Bon Bons
KitKat
TicTacs
TV Shows
Beavis & Butthead
Brady Bunch
Buffalo Bill
Gilmore Girls
I Love Lucy
Sanford & Son
Sesame Street
Sex and the City
SpongeBob SquarePants
SportsCenter (both words have an “s” sound)
The Bold & The Beautiful
The Six Million Dollar Man (Million, Man)
The West Wing
Cartoon Characters
Bambi
Beetle Bailey
Bruce Banner
Bugs Bunny
Daffy Duck
Donald Duck
Fred Flinstone
Jane Jetson
Mickey Mouse
Mighty Mouse
Minnie Mouse
Peter Parker
Porky Pig
Road Runner
Spongebob Squarepants
Woody Woodpecker
Aaron Altman
Betty Boop
Bobby Brady
Boo Boo (the Bear)
Captain Kangaroo
Charlie Chan
Daisy Duke
[The Jolly] Green Giant
Lois Lane
Mini Me
Peter Pan
Peter Parker
Rocky Raccoon
Tony The Tiger
Willy Wonka
Golden Globes
Million Man March
March Madness
Super Bowl Sunday
TedTalks
Buffalo Bills
Boston Bruins
Cleveland Cavaliers
Jacksonville Jaguars
Los Angeles Lakers
New Jersey Nets
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsuburgh Penguins
Pittsburgh Pirates
Seattle Seahawks
San Antonio Spurs
Bedknobs & Broomsticks
Beauty & The Beast
Dirty Dancing
Hannah & Her Sisters
King Kong
Pink Panther
Red River
The Dirty Dozen
The Watcher In The Woods
Victor Victoria
Chevy Chase
Charlie Chaplin
Dick Van Dyke
Katie Courec
Marilyn Monroe
Sue Simmons
Tommy Tune
Jesse Jackson
Michael Moore
Ronald Reagan
Alibaba
CitySearch (soft “C” sounds like an “S”)
ConstantContact
FriendFinder
Google (two “g” sounds)
PayPal
Beach Boys
Billy Bragg
Chubby Checker
Eminem
Goo Goo Dolls
Janet Jackson
Lady Gaga (two “g” sounds in last name)
Los Lobos
Marilyn Manson
Modest Mouse
Tina Turner
Cold as a cucumber
Cream of the crop
Dead as a doornail
Head over heals
Hit the hay
Live and learn
Pole position
Sail into the sunset
Sink or swim
Swan song
Super-Size
The more the merrier
Trash talk
Trick or treat
Bodega Bay
Cape Cod
Chevy Chase (Maryland)
Baby Boomers
BB Gun
Bunsen Burner
Cash Cow
Casual Carpool
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Coo-Coo-Clock
Deep Dish (Pizza)
Downward Dog
Harry Houdini
Jessie James
Monday Morning
Nascar Nation
Does it make sense now?
So, why the name Rufus Riviera?
Well, as I mentioned earlier in the article, the area I am now living is called the “Riviera Maya.” I wanted a name that represented the area and also alliterated. Once I decided that I wanted to put “Riviera” somewhere in the name, then I had to come up with another name that started with “R.”
That’s where I came up with “Rufus!” Thus, “Rufus Riviera.”
Wow! Now you know both a marketing secret and another English lesson all at once!
You are welcome!
Talk to you soon….
Rufus Riviera (a.k.a. The Teacher)
