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Episode 14 - Mexico!

Published on Wed, 30 Jan 2019 23:59:00 -0800

Synopsis

The hosts, Andrew and Everett, record a podcast episode while on vacation in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. They discuss the watches they wore during the trip, their experiences trying on various watches at a few local watch shops, including checking out models from brands like Rolex, Omega, Breitling, and more. They also talk about the tropical storm they encountered, the books they've been reading on the trip, and the general experience of being tourists in the area.

The episode is filled with humorous anecdotes, such as Andrew getting insect repellent on his lips, their interactions with overly eager shop staff, and the challenges of recording an episode outdoors with ambient noise from wildlife, vehicles, and the resort environment. Overall, it captures the fun and relaxed vibe of their vacation while still discussing their shared passion for watches.

Transcript

Speaker
Andrew Hello, fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is the 40 in 20 podcast coming at you live from Mexico with your hosts, Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Everett, how are you?
Everett I got to tell you, man, this is really hard. It's hard living down here. Uh, you know, the sun shines a lot. I got a mild sunburn. I know, right? You're looking a little pink. I mean, it's just tough. This is tough living, I'd have to say.
Andrew I mean, tacos every day.
Everett Yeah. You know, the beer is, uh, it's pretty cold.
Andrew Mexican always and cold always with lime. We should go home.
Everett I would actually like to never go home.
Andrew Agreed. If we could find a way to finance our continued stay here, maybe not anywhere in Mexico, but here, I'm cool with it.
Everett So we're staying at the Riviera Maya, the Vedanta Riviera Maya. So this is a resort, uh, just outside of Playa del Carmen, uh, along the Caribbean in Mexico. Quintana Roo? Roo? I don't know. Roo?
Andrew My wife is the Spanish speaker.
Everett Okay. Well, she, your wife is also the Spanish speaker for me.
Andrew Yeah. She's, she's getting us there. She, so it's funny, Everett and I are not small people and my wife stands all of maybe five feet. She's not even five foot exactly. She's, she's four foot 11 and a half. When we go, when we got in the cab, she got in the front and you and me and my wife were like, what, how did the littlest person here get in the front? And then about 10 minutes, maybe five minutes into the ride, we realized that it made the most sense because she's the only person who speaks enough Spanish to actually communicate with another human being who speaks Spanish only.
Everett And she did. Yeah. And she did communicate. Communicate she did. Well, even. It seemed that way. It seemed that way. There didn't seem to be mass confusion or hysteria.
Andrew Either one. We got where we were going and got some advice on where else to go. Well, what have you been doing? What have you been doing?
Everett Well, I mean, I've been mostly lounging in and out of the pool.
Andrew Yeah. And drinking beer. Had some beer. We've had some, we've had some good days thus far. Highlighted, I think, by some of the watch things that we've seen. All the more reason to talk about them today as we're trying to publish an episode.
Everett Yeah, well, and look, maybe we should just give a fair warning. We don't have a topic for this episode, right?
Andrew Not really. Nor do we have our normal pseudo sound stage.
Everett Oh yeah, that's right. So, you know, we fully expect, so we're on the balcony. Yeah, patio. The patio of our suite. Yeah, I guess it's a, it's not a balcony cause it's the first floor. We're on the patio of our suite. So there are, you may hear, uh, vehicles going by. There's a road probably about 50 feet from us and there are electric vehicles that go by from time to time. You're going to hear some birds. There's a jungle between us and the vehicles and there's all sorts of animals in that jungle.
Andrew And you'll likely hear, not heard, you'll likely hear a mild panic from me as some insects land on me.
Everett Yeah, there are bugs. There are some bugs.
Andrew It's not a ton. Less than I expected, more than I'd hoped.
Everett Yeah. Yeah, that's right. That's right. You know, uh, I'm, I'm pretty stunned by this place. So this is the Playa del Carmen area, which, uh, just, just a bit down the road from Cancun. Now, Cancun is a totally made up place. It's fake. Is it? It is right. They just dumped sand in there. Some developer was like, Hey, this is a neat place for us to build a resort here. And then that became Cancun. This is actually, uh, Real piece of land that was that existed for many years but you know for those of you have been down here, this is a a sort of Mayan area, this is a this is a Mayan area. So there's several ruins within you know a stone circle from us Chichen Itza is very famous Tulum also very famous. So this is this really Kind of cool area of Mexico, but the the foliage and all the you know, I'd call it landscaping This is clearly a landscape place, but it's designed It's got this real jungle feel to it Absolutely gorgeous in terms of resorts. I love this place that you know, it doesn't have any sort of real strong resort vibe to it it just feels like a big kind of open or not open necessarily, but a Sort of sprawling resort all the paths are nested in the jungle.
Andrew It's not overdone. That's right Yeah, all the paths are like wooden board and wooden board catwalks, right? Somebody somebody in town called it the jungle prison the jungle prison, that's right Because it's hard to get out of it is you know, I think that they've got kind of a closed ecosystem here and it's probably
Everett beneficial to them if you don't leave. And they make it hard enough to leave that you don't want to. And they make it easy enough to stay. I'll grant them that. There's not a whole lot of reason for us to walk off the resort. We went into town the other day, but it felt a little bit like, we don't have to do this if we don't want to.
Andrew It was more for, I think, the function of just going into town than as a function of necessity.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. Let's get out and do something.
Andrew But we saw some cool stuff in town.
Everett We did. We did. That's right. So we went into Play-Doh. When we say we went into town, we went into Play-Doh Carmen. Play-Doh Carmen's a big city. It's bigger, I think, than I expected it to be. At least where we were, yeah. That's right. And it's bigger than it was when I was here probably 13, 14 years ago. A lot of people, a lot of vehicles. It's congested. It's nice. I like it. It's beautiful. We went down to Fifth Street in Playa Del Carmen, which is this tourist district. That's the only way to put it. Yeah, I think that's right. So they've got, there's a mall, but there are also just stands and restaurants and bars. Um, and it's this very long, I don't know how long it is, several kilometers for sure.
Andrew We hit at least 20 city blocks. Yeah, that's right. That's right.
Everett All blocked off from traffic. Yeah. No vehicles. I don't think at all. No, there was barriers. Right. On the cross streets. Uh, but pretty cool. I mean, you know, it's, it's all New Mexico that you expect it to be. And then some modern stuff, restaurants, pretty neat stuff. Uh, you know, normal fair, nothing, nothing spectacular. However, we did come across two, two watch shops.
Andrew Two noteworthy and, and some folks who claimed to be our wait staff from the resort because we have to wear these bracelets that, um, identify which hotel in the resort we're staying at. And they function as our room key, which is really cool because I typically either demagnify, magnetize? Yeah, demagnetize or lose room keys. So having it attached to my wrist has been helpful. We went and bumped into two folks who were like, oh, I was your waiter last night or two days ago at, you know, this location. Like, ah.
Everett Yeah, they like, it seems like they sort of wait for people. They recognize their bracelets or I don't know if they have a catalog of bracelets that they know, but they're The first one that came by, I thought... He was convincing. Yeah. Well, I believed him. It was actually your wife that was like, he did not wait on us. He's hustling us. And, you know, it wasn't until later, until like... The next person did it. Right. And the next person, we're like, oh, this is a hustle. They want you to feel comfortable. And, you know, nobody really hard sold us on anything, but... No, not even the guys at Walmart. Yeah. Well, no, the guys at Walmart hard sold us.
Andrew When we drew the line in the sand, that stopped. Yeah, that's right.
Everett They knew. They figured it out. These guys aren't into it. But, you know, it's different, right? It's a different ecosystem. It's a different economy. So everybody's trying to sell you something.
Andrew Oh, yeah. Even folks at Walmart.
Everett Right. That's right. That's right. You know, the Walmart here in Playa del Carmen is fairly new. It hasn't been around for a super long time. It seems like they've partnered up with, I say partnered up, they've allowed a few. They've accepted. Tourism companies.
Andrew Yeah. And they look a lot like Walmart employees. They're in button-ups, they have a lanyard name badge, they're in slacks. Right. They look like Walmart managers. Right. They're not though. They're not.
Everett Heads up. That's right. And when they hit you from After you come through the line, they're hitting you from their tourism kiosk.
Andrew Yeah, but the expressway lines are only for them. Yeah, that's right. At least it seemed that way. They had like a fellow blocking off the express lines. And he's like, oh, no, no, no. Come on, we got you. We got you over here. This line's shorter. Took us through the express line, got checked out, and then right up to their kiosk.
Everett Yeah. So I assume you guys are hearing the reverse beeps of the... You know, I swear there hasn't been this much traffic.
Andrew No, this is the only time this has occurred. I've never heard one backing up.
Everett Yeah, no, I mean, it's just, it's a different... Jeez, how far back does he have to go, do you think?
Andrew Is this like Austin Powers? Like, he's trying to do a 25-point turn on the single-lane road? Jeez.
Everett You know, it's a totally different economy and a different culture. And that's part, you know, I think it's probably a huge, a huge portion of their economy is the, uh, the, the tourism and their ability to, to sell trips and time shares, time shares. Yeah. Well, they, they did hit us pretty hard. There's a, a resort opening up somewhere, uh, somewhere down here. And they, they were really working hard to get us to go on a breakfast. Yeah, that was just a breakfast just go to this resort that's opening up and have breakfast and they'll show you around We kindly passed We've paid we've paid our way here.
Andrew Yeah, we don't need to sit through your time sure I'm not gonna listen to it There's one scenario where I'm in one of those and it's in handcuffs and unconscious, right?
Everett But you know, they route everything through the same few companies so they they're they're inclined to try to sell you everything they can so But gosh man, it's been pretty great. I'll tell you, the weather's been just about perfect. Save for our storm.
Andrew Oh yeah, well that happened. It was impressive. And having lived near the Gulf Coast, and having been on the Gulf Coast during storms, this was familiar, but a step above what I'm accustomed to might be a strong word, but familiar with. We were in one of the watch boutiques, and we'll circle back to these two watch shops that we stopped into. Sure. But we're in one of them, and we're just looking at watches. I think we were at the tag glass, and my wife walks up and says, we need to go. And I was like, I'm not going to buy a watch. What are you talking about we need to go? She's like, no, no, no. You don't understand. We got to go. And we looked outside, and day had become night.
Everett Yeah, it was really dark.
Andrew And we knew there was going to be some rain, but when it got that dark, we knew it was This is a little bit more than just a little, a little sprinkle. Right. And we got outside and the wind was starting to pick up and it was that really tropical swirly wind.
Everett And I realized, you know, at some point, I think like a soda can blew by me on the road, but not like on the ground, like rustling by, like blew by me in the air.
Andrew And I was like, oh man. Totally suspended. And we probably, we probably went a block and there was a restaurant next to us and I, I said, this is as good as any. Let's go inside and no sooner had we got in then the power started to flicker and the wind started to pick up and people outside started to just scatter like roaches. Running, sprinting. And we got seated at our table and like then suddenly the wind and the rain starts moving and you start to see like leaves blowing down the street and again suspended in the air blowing down the street and then a poncho and a bag and then some fruit flying through the air and there's this like tourism kiosk. It was like, it was steel. It was steel bars, like a steel frame. Um, and like a corrugate plastic top and signage on it starts to kind of rattle and shift in the wind. And then that bitch gets picked up and flies through the air. It didn't bounce. It just was picked up. Oh, smack your forehead. You got a mosquito. Oh yeah. I can feel it. Uh, you too. I only saw the one. Um, Hit your forehead, like just above your eyebrow. Hard. Right side, just above your eyebrow. Hard. Did I get it? No, you somehow missed it. Anyway, there's mosquitoes here. Big shock. Because it's Mexico. I'm moving. Welcome back. Not a fire fight, though it might sound. It was a gallant attempt to save Everett from certain itchiness. So and then you've knocked everything on the table over. I somehow knocked my microphone over your microphone over Killed the mosquito and then we got some mosquito wipes.
Everett So this is real life people.
Andrew This is yeah No, we're in that we're in a fight for our lives.
Everett So we're now covered in deep woods deep woods off These are scented towelettes. So we'll put in a link in an Amazon affiliate link.
Andrew Yeah, we'll include in the show notes the Three things, four things that I don't travel without. I don't travel without gold bond body powder, body glide, baby wipes, or mosquito repellent. I got a lot on my lips. My lips are a little tingly. Doesn't matter. So anyway, yeah, so that, that tourism booth flew through the air, a bunch of like plastic totes, like street vendor stuff flying through the air. And then the power went out.
Everett I'm not sure we can even, I'm not sure you can adequately describe because it's, It sounds, I mean, I'm not sure it's clear to everybody, right? This is a, you know, a 10 foot tall, probably, you know, it took five, five foot by six grown men to write it and then move it back. Right. And it flew. I mean, it was, it went 50 feet or so picked up into the air, at least three feet in the air. Yeah. Uh, pretty crazy. So we, we popped into this restaurant, you know, this fifth street in Playa del Carmen is this tourism area. And, uh, They've got restaurants and shops and, um, you know, we, we popped into this restaurants and open air restaurants, you know, the, the front is, is open to the street, but you're in, you're inside a building and the probably, I don't know, six or seven people on staff and they were all like congregating in the restaurant area and just watching the carnage. Cause they're like, whatever, we'll get your beer in a minute. We're watching this. And fortunately they had gas. You know gas powered implements in the kitchen because they were still able to make food after the power went off the power was off The entire time we were there right over an hour. Yeah You know the no lights Which was fine because you're still getting light from inside we could see everything but everybody was just sort of bowling about watching the the storm play out on the street and meanwhile we were eating tacos and tacos and Drink a beer. Drink a Bohemia beer. It was pretty fun. It was exciting, but different, right? We're in this tropical beach location. So Andrew is currently.
Andrew I'm going to walk away for a second.
Everett I got so much mosquito repellent. He's, he's crippled himself with mosquito repellent, which, which happens. It happens to all of us, right? When you're on vacation in Mexico. I got to say, so my wife and I went to Hawaii a couple of years ago. Porto Verde haven't posted on Instagram much in a couple of days. And I thought, you know, I'll be posting on Instagram every day and just keeping up with that. And at some point I decided, you know, I don't really feel motivated. I don't feel motivated to stick with everything. You know, not that Instagram is a burden or that this is a burden. And certainly it's not. We really enjoy it. But it felt really nice to have this disconnect. Yeah, that's right. And I feel like I'm totally unplugged. You know, I haven't done my several times daily sort of Filter of the Instagram, you know people tag us on stuff and it's very cool when that happens It's really humbling and exciting and I felt like I've had to just sort of kind of leave that Right, you know, I know there's there's a couple folks that are are really good friends of the show then I feel very a little bad right that we've we've don't understand they'll understand right so This is vacation and I'm just really, you know, I'm really enjoying this opportunity just to spend time with Kim and we've got, obviously, we're great friends and our wives are great friends of each other and, you know, the most important people in our life. It's been super cool to just have this opportunity to unplug from the world, unplug from life, and really enjoy these, you know, these women and our families, you know, we've left our kids, which feels so good. Thank the Lord feels so good. You know, I love those people, those little people there. They're my favorite little people, but gosh, this has been so refreshing. Uh, you know, and we're only halfway through our vacation. We still got a bunch of time left. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's, it's been really great. So, uh, happy to take this time out.
Andrew This is great. Yeah, save for the insect repellent on my lips. Yeah, that was stupid. You're kind of dumb. I wish I could say this is the first time it's happened. It's not. It's not? Nope. The numbness and the tingling sensation is going to pass in about 15 minutes and I'm going to be good. Until then, it's going to be a little mild discomfort, but it's something that I do because I always get the tube of 100% DEET and I'll like spray it and then rub it in and then almost certainly I'm either going to pick my nose, I'm going to rub my mouth, sometimes both. Put your finger in your butt. Well, that's a given. No matter what, I get insect repellent in frequently sensitive places. I mean, it's the same thing when I eat wings, like within an hour I'm going to pick my nose and or rub my eye. Right. There's going to be some like, I don't know, I'm not, I'm not a, I've, I've, I learned things, but for some reason I never, learn about those like long-standing chemical burns that will occur to my soft tissue. Whatever. I'll be good.
Everett Well, so Andrew was saying, well, first, what are you wearing, man? What are you wearing today? Nothing.
Andrew I'm in shorts. I don't even have pants. Like not pants, not socks.
Everett So these people don't want to know about your exposed nipples. Yeah.
Andrew Not even sunburned nipples. On the watch front today, I wore the Orient Mako. on a Aberlty Grey Toxic Nato. I have switched it to the Black Toxic Nato. So we talked about this last week, your Wet Nato, Dry Nato. Wet Nato, Dry Nato. The Wet Nato, what, we're like 45 minutes out of the pool, you think? Yeah, an hour maybe. Still a little damp, but it's sitting on the edge of the railing drying out. Yesterday I wore the SSB-031. You had some concerns about that. I did. I talked about this before, I don't even like getting the Mako wet and it's a by design dive watch, right? I had some concern about it because I don't like getting watches wet, which I think is fair. So I wore that yesterday, but what I didn't like is I swell up a lot in the heat. I think, I don't know if maybe more than most people, but I had, I had some like bite marks on my wrist from where the bracelet was. So I wanted to go to something on a NATO and I brought the, uh, I brought the world timer. I opted not to go for the Bambino. So I brought the world timer, the Mako, and the 031. And I wanted to go away from a bracelet today since we're going to spend time in the sun and in the pool. We're going to get some wrist size fluctuation. So I went for the NATO. And it was comfortable. And the only thing that I'm not a fan of is the sludge that's coming from the pool, which is all melted and dissolved. sunscreen that just clings to every surface. Yeah. So I'm looking at the NATO and there's like grease streaks. Right. In the NATO and on the watch. It's a little bit icky. What'd you bring?
Everett Well, yeah. So I mean, one with regards to the sludge, you know, we're both sort of disinclined to get sunburned. I think both of us have had pretty... I'm a ginger, y'all. Yeah. We've both had pretty traumatic sunburns on vacation. So we both are committed to being sunscreened up. And for better or worse, that means that our watches are in a perpetual state of sludge, slime, film, grease, which is fine. I had mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I think maybe just bringing my Emperor Diver. That's all you've worn. Well, that's right. So I ultimately decided to bring a couple of watches because Just in case. Right. You know, so I brought the, I brought this, the Sarbo 35. I brought my Vostok Amphibia, my AM Diver Mod. Good call. And I brought the Emperor Diver. I flew with the Emperor Diver on, um, and I got here and the Emperor Diver was fine. And it's just been my everyday watch. In fact, I haven't had it off. I haven't put on either of the other watches. I considered the first time we went out putting on the Sarbo and I thought, eh, this is fine. I'm not sure I'm going to wear either of those other two watches.
Andrew It's a nice day of the options. I brought a lot more pairs of underwear than I'm going to wear. Right.
Everett That's probably true for me too. Yeah. I've been wearing the same pair of underwear since we got here. Pool rinses them out. Right. But yeah, right. I mean, you want to have the options, but at some point, gosh, you know, I'll tell you.
Andrew This tram does not run this frequently when we need a ride.
Everett I don't think I've heard it go by once since we've been here. I certainly haven't. Yeah, maybe we're just not paying attention. Uh, so, so yeah, I mean this, the Emperor Diver has been my all day, everyday watch. It's been, it's been fantastic.
Andrew And you're not feeling any pinch from the bracelet with the expansion of your wrist?
Everett No, you know what, when you got here, I asked if you had a spring bar tool because I thought I might, uh, release one. This has a bunch of micro adjustments, holes, and, uh. It's got like five on there? That's a lot. Yeah, six, I think. And I thought, you know, maybe I'll spread it out one, but your spring bar tool didn't work to loosen that.
Andrew I have like the $4 special.
Everett Yeah, no, and I'll tell you, I'm okay, actually. It feels fine.
Andrew Oh, because the spring bar tool on mine is broken off. Yeah, that's right. The punch end is broken off.
Everett So I didn't bring a spring bar tool, and it's fine, actually. It hasn't felt uncomfortable. Um, mine was uncomfortably tight. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. And you know what, if this was any tighter, it would be uncomfortable too. So, but I, I'm the same way, right?
Andrew You get in the sun and the heat and they swell up a little bit, but I've used three holes on my NATO. Oh, really? Yeah. The, like before I get in the pool, I'm, I'm like at the widest during the day. I'm typically at the middle and then in the pool, I have to tighten it down one just from the fluctuation of my wrist expanding, contracting. Yeah.
Everett You know, it's funny. It's something you don't think about, but it's a real thing.
Andrew Yeah?
Everett It's a real thing. We are having a hard time here, folks. This is really tough, the expansion of your wrist. I know, gosh.
Andrew Sympathize. This is a hard life, people. It is. We got some Dos Equis in front of us. There's some Modelo in the fridge. We might take a break and make margaritas. Margaritas, dude.
Everett I have drank more this week.
Andrew Ugh, than probably in the previous three months.
Everett Man, I feel good today. Yesterday we got out of the pool and I was like, oh boy. I'm drunk. I drank more than I intended to.
Andrew It's hard though in the sun. I think you drank an appropriate amount shaded. When you incorporate the sun into it, I think there's a whole different dynamic going on there.
Everett This isn't an all-inclusive resort. So many of the resorts in Mexico are AI, so you have You just eat whatever they have and you're captive. And, uh, this, this place isn't all inclusive. So you pay as you go in terms of food and you have a, you have a room number that you bill everything to. So it's easy to get, get caught up, but I'll tell you the food here has been fantastic. Tacos, man, I've had so many tacos. You know, my, my one complaint, and I think everybody's complaining about all inclusive is that, uh, the food sometimes leaves a little, a little something to be desired. The food here has been really fantastic.
Andrew Yeah. Every step of the way. I haven't yet. Oh, no. Some of the pastries they have at the breakfast buffet. One of the available options for breakfast. The pastries leave a little wanting. Their donuts are basically bagels with powdered sugar. That's pretty dense. No, it's a bagel. It's not a dense donut. It's a bagel.
Everett But with that said, the rest of the buffet is fantastic. Oh, it's great. Barbacoa. Some carnitas. Everything's been super good. I've been really, I've been really impressed by all the food here.
Andrew I've eaten so much. I've eaten more calories since we've gotten here, probably the previous two weeks.
Everett Yeah. Well, you know, Kim and I are breaking on keto. Keto fasting break. That's right. So for this week, we're just, we've decided that we're going to enjoy all of the carbs that Mexico has. And I think I've eaten most of them actually. Most of Mexico's carbs.
Andrew Yeah, they might have, they might have a carb, like, A shortage. Crisis. Yeah. At the conclusion of our trip.
Everett Right, because I've had a lot of those. Me too. Yeah. But yeah, the food's been good. Everything's been good. You know, what do we talk about on this broadcast?
Andrew Beer, usually. Beer. Food.
Everett Watches.
Andrew Oh, there's the one. Today's topic. Today's topic. Let it build. Are we in? We're at about usually where we get into the topic. Let it build.
Everett Yeah, we're 20 something minutes.
Andrew When we, when we went to Playa, it wasn't yesterday, was it? No, it was two days ago. Two days ago. We went to Playa Del Carmen. We went to their downtown, their fifth street. Their, I would say tourist district. Yeah. And we're walking on the street. We're visiting all the market, like all the, all the little shops. We're getting offered tons of free tequila shots. Yeah. That happened. We took one of them. We did take one of them. We took a guy up. We found a University of Oregon. So they have these like wooden masks that are Mayan, kind of traditional Mayan art. But honestly, they look similar to basically every ancient culture's masks, right? Like there's tons of African cultures that have really similar masks, maybe not exactly the same motif, the same shape, but they're all like hand-carved masks. Yeah. But they have on these where like the forehead ought to be sports teams. Yeah. They had all 32 NFL teams. I don't know if they had all 32, but they had a number of them. They had all 32 NFL teams. I looked. They had a handful of NHL teams, which I thought was interesting. So Canadian tourists must be big here to be able to warrant hockey teams. And one college team. Just one, folks. The University of Oregon. Go Ducks. Which we are both alumnus of. So we bought it. Two-time alumnus. Yeah. Anyway, so Everett bought it. And it was cool because there really wasn't, and I'm not exaggerating here, Alabama wasn't there, Clemson wasn't there, Ohio State wasn't there, Michigan wasn't there. Other schools that have what I would think to be international acclaim weren't there. Just the University of Oregon. Just the Ducks. And he called us out.
Everett He was like, go Ducks.
Andrew Fuck yeah, guy. So we, we bought it and had a tequila shot with him, which was lovely. It was actually, it was a good tequila shot, but I think you're probably onto something in that it was almost certainly cheap tequila mixed with like an almond liqueur. Yeah, that seems right. Anyway.
Everett It was tasty. It was good. It was. And it was free. Yeah. And it wasn't free. We paid way too much for that mask, but.
Andrew But you paid less than he asked for you. Right, that's true. So anyway, we kept walking down the street. Keep walking and keep getting offered free tequila. So, you know, see some cool stuff. We saw an IHOP. Saw a couple Starbucks and I looked to my left and I started saying, uh oh, uh oh. And we were at a natural pause in our progress. And I say, uh oh, one more again. And I, and Sam was like, whatever, just go in. And it was a watch store.
Everett Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. There's more to it. So we're all walking. So this is the four of us. It's me, Andrew. And our wives. And our wives. And Andrew looks to the left as we're walking and says, Uh-oh. Uh-oh. And I look to the left and all I see is this young, I'll call her a young Mexican woman, but not wearing very much clothes. No. Not wearing very much clothes. And I turn around to Andrew because we're walking with our wives and I'm thinking... Bold move, Cotton. This is a little awkward, Andrew, because we're walking with our wives. And Andrew's wife, bless her heart, says go ahead yeah something to the extent of go ahead you can look and yeah she did say that she did she said go ahead you can look and i look again and i'm thinking why is this you know a what about witnessing i i don't i i don't really understand how this conversation is working out and b is making me feel a little awkward right i don't know you know Husband and wife interactions are always weird, but I'm thinking why am I being made part of this bizarre ceremony? And so I kind of double take and I look to the left again and still that she's still there and I look to the right again and Andrew and his wife are in agreement that Andrew should go explore and I'm feeling very uncomfortable.
Andrew And then Andrew, I beeline straight through the door of this watch shop. I figured it out. And I walk in and it had, within it, had a couple of Bolivar cases, two Citizen cases, an Invicta case, and two G-Shot cases. Several G-Shots.
Everett Several Invicta cases.
Andrew Yeah, maybe three, yeah, and then a G-Shot case. Uh, so we got to go in and I got to try on a couple of watches that we've talked about. And last week, as you're listening to this, and we talked about last week, I got to try on one of the curves, which I loved. Yeah. My concern was that the case size would be a little big, but that curve on the wrist pulls it so tight against your wrist.
Everett That's right.
Andrew That it, it didn't feel any bigger than 40. It was, it, it was a terrific watch. And they were running a special. Buy two, get three free.
Everett Which we didn't talk about pricing at all. We didn't explore this. We weren't going to buy a watch from this poor gal. Buy two, get three free? Is that what she offered us?
Andrew She offered me buy two, get three free.
Everett I assume that she was asking for full MSRP.
Andrew My assumption also, which is not a good deal.
Everett Well, you know, I'm not sure that it would have been a terrible deal. Even if we had spent a thousand bucks and got five watches, we'd have done okay.
Andrew Your neighborhood of what you could get on, on gray market pricing on belovable watches. And it might've been the whole store. We might've been able to get out of there with a Lunar Pilot, a Nighthawk, a Skyhawk, a Curve, and a G-Shock for a grand.
Everett Yeah. Yeah. Well, they had, they, I mean, they had pretty cool watches, watches that we've talked about on the show.
Andrew Yeah. We, they had a Nighthawk and actually the Nighthawk was really cool. It was the Blue Angels edition. So rather than being the traditional black and orange. It was it was black and yellow Which I dug I I think I might have liked it more in yellow With the accents being yellow instead of orange and did it have like an ion-coated bezel, too? It looks to be but without having put my hands on it's hard to say.
Everett Yeah I mean, I think that it was like a steel case but with an ion-coated bezel on the on the Nighthawk blue so Blue Angels Nighthawk We'll have to look it up and see if we can find it before we publish or we probably won't so we won't look it up
Andrew You can feel free to.
Everett Yeah, because, fuck, we're in Mexico, guys. Sorry, this is, we're really working hard here to even get you this episode.
Andrew I mean, you heard the battle that went down earlier with the mosquito. So, the Nighthawk was great. The curve lived up to it. Yeah. It's what I wanted. It did. And when I tried on the Lunar Pilot, I was so let down.
Everett Yeah, it's big, man.
Andrew It's a, it's just, it is bigger in every dimension than I would have hoped. And it's just such a bummer because I was really, really looking forward to that watch. I know I don't want it, but I still do want it. It's like this weird, it's like after you've gone through the buffet line three times and you're like, man, I should probably go for some more tacos, but I don't want to go for more tacos. That's the environment that I'm living in with respect to the lunar pilot and I'm I'm bummed.
Everett It feels right, but it's wrong.
Andrew Yeah, I'm bummed. Now, the chronograph on it was great.
Everett It's a precisionist chronograph, is that right?
Andrew Yeah, the chronograph was great. Actuating it felt really good. I really liked it, but it just didn't fit me. It's big. It's a big watch. It was just too big for me. It's too much watch for me to handle. So we left without a watch.
Everett Well, what else do we try on there?
Andrew We tried on the... You tried on... What did you try on? Oh, you tried on the Devil Diver.
Everett Oh, that's right. Yeah.
Andrew Which was smaller than we expected.
Everett That's right. That Bulova Devil Diver, you know, I'll tell you, that's a watch that we had talked about, obviously, on the show, on our Bulova episode, and we speculated about the size of it.
Andrew And we both expected it would be a little big.
Everett You know, the size on that is great. It's fantastic. And the details on it are really perfect. You know, I'm not sure that for the price they're asking, it would be my first choice if I was going to buy something in that vein. But I was actually really impressed by it. All the details, everything were exactly what I expected. I'd say if that's something that you've been thinking about and you know what you're getting into, you wouldn't be disappointed with that watch.
Andrew If you're comparable in size to me or ever, that watch is going to fit nicely.
Everett I'll tell you, the bracelet on both of those watches, on both the Bolivar Curve and the Devil Diver, the bracelets were well put together. They were both lighter than I expected them to be.
Andrew And the curve was a butterfly clasp. Yeah, that's right. Which I didn't recognize that it would be. Maybe shame on me. I just didn't expect it would be. And I liked it. It was good.
Everett It was good, yeah. You know, the clasp on the Devil Diver was kind of a letdown. It was stamped. uh stamped uh mechan or not mechanism but stamped uh what do you call the the foldy thingies stamped foldy thingies yeah on the devil diver we've been drinking beer all day folks give us a break the foldy thingies were stamped uh yeah so uh both both i i think both really good watches um you you know fun easy to do the lunar pilot's a little disappointing but They also had some pretty cool, you know, they had that g-shock The g-shock Window, but there was also Casio's. That's right. They had some like old-school sort of 90s style You know vintage analog or digital Casio and some anodigies Casio.
Andrew They didn't oh, no This was well, we'll get down to this later, but they had the the anodigy Skyhawk that we talked about
Everett Well, and they had some other ones. They had, they had like a Anadigi dress Casio, you know, clearly a nineties model. They had a camouflage, G-Shock, like it was cool. Yeah. Some of these, these old school Casios that you see, but never really have an opportunity to see in person. It was neat to see some of that stuff. So that was a great shop. They were nice and everybody was super nice.
Andrew We just walked out and then didn't buy any watches. And then we made our way down the street and hit the gem.
Everett Yeah, it was a real, a real deal watch boutique, I'd say.
Andrew We saw the Rolex logo on the outside and we had come to a natural stopping point in our walk. And I said to Everett, do you think they'd let us in?
Everett Cause there was an armed guard at the door. And we just walked in. Like Alfred's best booze.
Andrew Yeah. They were right as soon as we walked in. They're like, all right, you guys want some water, some coffee, some tequila? You know, I was like, well, no.
Everett A, everybody on the street has offered us tequila.
Andrew But also, I think the reason they're offering us tequila and have an armed guard is the tequila to make the purchase and the armed guard to protect us after the purchase. I really think that armed guard is there to protect men from their wives post-purchase. I really do. It's possibly true. So we went in and what did they had?
Everett Gosh, they had a bunch of brands.
Andrew So much there. They had Rolex right up front and you tried on Two Datejust, yeah? Did you try on both sizes?
Everett Yeah, I tried on the Datejust, the standard 36, and the Datejust 2, the 41 millimeter, both in stainless steel models, the 36 with a smooth bezel, and the 41 with a fluted gold bezel.
Andrew They were great. And what did I look at? There was one that I saw... You know, he was really... Was it the Yacht-Master that was... Yeah, it was the Yacht-Master that when I saw it finally in person, I was like,
Everett I get it now. Yeah, that's right. You know that, that Yachtmaster, I'll tell you, uh, I expected it. I expect it when I see it to be a little bigger than it is. It's a really conservatively sized watch and it made me like it a lot more.
Andrew Yeah. It was the, a lot of Rolexes I've seen, I've only seen in pictures. Most I've only seen in pictures. And I saw a guy on the airplane with a Datejust and I saw it and it was the Datejust II. And I saw, I was like, yeah, no, I still, it's cool. But I like, that's it. It, my appreciation for it ends at it's cool.
Everett Yeah, well, you could tell the salesman really liked the size of the of the Datejust 2. Yeah, he did. He, you know, I said, gosh, I couldn't like to try on the 36. And he was like, look, you know, it's all subjective and you get what you like.
Andrew But he was really selling hard against the 36.
Everett Right. He said, you know, for the size of who you are, the size of your arm and your hand, I think that the 41 is a better fit for you. And there might be something to that. Generally speaking, I know for me, if I was going to buy a Datejust, it'd be a 36. I really think that watch You know, it's got longer than sort of average, relatively speaking, lugs. And so it wears great. That 36 millimeter Datejust, I think, is just a totally ubiquitous and an amazing size watch. But he was convinced that the 41 for, you know, above average or average plus size male like myself, the 41 would be the truth. And I'll tell you that that's not what I would buy if I was going to buy one. But he was convinced that that's the answer.
Andrew He also wasn't a watch guy. It was pretty evident after having talked to him for, I don't know, we probably talked to him for an hour.
Everett Yeah, maybe not that long.
Andrew 20, 25, 30 minutes. We were in there a while. Yeah. But after about an hour of talking to him about watches and seeing the pitches he's making, we came to realize he's a trained salesman, not a watch person. Sure. Nothing against that. So we made our way past the Bolivar case, or past the Rolex case. And on to next was the... Next to a Rolex case was a Bvlgari.
Everett Yeah, maybe they had Bvlgari. They had, um, Lagine.
Andrew They had Rado. They had, uh, they had a citizen case. They had an, a, uh, Victorinox case, which the Victorinox was, was the one there that I was like, well, why are you here of everything else? Um, there was one case that I can't remember they had. So Longines, then you turn the corner and you hit a, uh, Panerai, a Bell and Ross, an Omega.
Everett Those Panerais were way bigger than, you know, I know that it's a big watch, but I was like, holy shit, who wears this?
Andrew Yeah, they had like 36 millimeter bands. Like they were just huge. They had a Breitling case. What'd you do? What'd you do the Breitling?
Everett So they've got a, gosh, what watch was that? It was the Transocean. So we walked by the Breitling case and they have a Transocean on this really nice. It wasn't, it wasn't the OG strap.
Andrew No, it was a rubber brace or a rubber strap on it.
Everett Right. Well, I think that was common rubber, but it was like a, you know, sort of, it was a Breitling strap, but it wasn't the original strap on it. And I think this is a used watch, but I kind of pointed it out. It was a big watch, probably 45 millimeter watch. I said, hey, can I try on that Transocean? He pulls it out, and the strap was fantastic. And I asked him if I could actuate the chronograph. And he said, yeah, no problem. And so I click the chronograph, and nothing happens. And I click it again. I pull out the crown, and I'm kind of messing with it. And it doesn't seem to be working. He says, yeah, it's not. And then I realized that the bottom pusher was stuck in depressed. And I kind of started to pull on it, and I just I realized at that point this watch is broken and so I handed it back to him and he looks at it and he fussed with it for a few minutes. Yeah. Yeah. And it was broken.
Andrew I mean, that's the answer. Thanks for bringing this to my attention.
Everett You know, you didn't charge me for it, which is the good news.
Andrew No, we didn't leave with it. They had a couple nap timers in there.
Everett Yeah. Yeah.
Andrew No, no digital nap timers. That might've been the. Too much for you to handle.
Everett I would've been, I would've bought it. No, you wouldn't have. Because your wife was there.
Andrew In full view of my wife, I would have said, box it. We're leaving. They had Bell and Ross. They had the skull in there.
Everett Man, that big square Bell and Ross skull watch, I love that. I don't know what that is.
Andrew I don't like it. You don't like it? No, I didn't like any. I thought the designs were cool, and they had a couple analog, like round case shape Bell and Ross that I think looked pretty cool. Not for me, but But pretty cool. And you know what really stood out to me was the Longines pocket watch style, uh, pulsometer.
Everett Yeah, that, that, that Longines pulsometer. Well, maybe we can see if we can find that and put it in the show notes. That's that pulsometer was really cool.
Andrew Yeah. It looked like a pocket watch that was canted at probably like 15 degrees.
Everett No, it's a different watch. That's a different watch. You're thinking of two, you're, you're.
Andrew No, no, no. The pulsometer was the, was the one with the single crown on the top that was canted about 15 degrees. Yeah. No, you shake your head all you want. That's the one I'm talking about. And then they had an A11 style and a trench wash style. All those long jeans were cool. They had a, uh, a Monaco GMT in there with a, with a really cool colorway on the dial. With the Gulf livery on it. Yeah. Yeah. And we spent a good, good chunk of time in there and the guy was super, like it was clear we weren't going to buy anything. Right. But he was, uh, he didn't really. make us feel like we ought to leave um he's a young guy probably 28 29 years old he told us a story about uh space watches uh-huh um which is what like i i had like this weird apprehension i was like i just i don't know if this guy like i don't know if he fully knows what he's talking about i i feel like he knows just enough to be dangerous like just enough to sell you a rolex but not enough to tell you anything more than this watch looks really good on you and here's the price tag And then he told us a space watch story, and I was like, oh yeah, no, there it is. Boom. Got it. He doesn't know anything about watches. And he was wearing a cool Hamilton. It was cool. Yeah, I don't know what it was, but it was cool. And it looked good. And then he started talking to us about space watches and all the companies that had submitted designs for space watches. And I was like, oh.
Everett Yeah, it was in between Rolex and Omega and Hamilton. And they were the three front runners in the space watch.
Andrew Yeah. I was like, ah. Wrong. Well, maybe that's just a gap in history. But if I think if that's the if that's the anecdote you're going to offer when trying to sell me a Speedmaster, I think that's indicative of not having a full grasp of A, who you're selling to, or B, what you're talking about, right?
Everett Yeah, well, and he was a super nice guy, but it was clear that he was not. He wasn't watch people. He wasn't watch people like we're watch people.
Andrew Yeah, I mean, he didn't charge you for the Breitling you broke.
Everett Yeah, that's right. And in fairness, you know, we're sort of... More informed than the average bear. Yeah, and maybe ridiculously so, you know. And I think probably a lot of you guys out there are the same way, right? You go in a watch shop and you're the smartest watch person in the store. And that's okay. I mean, it's not... I don't know that salesmen need to have all the knowledge or all that sort of deep, dorky... Do we, though? Yeah, no. Neither do we. uh you know but it's it's interesting to see different people's uh take on it uh he was nice i really liked him uh and the store was really cool i mean it was cool you know i know those things exist i just don't have the opportunity to go into those stores very often it was it was neat to see some of these watches that we you know a number of watches that we've talked about on the show and uh yeah you know watches that we probably could never buy could never buy that's right or or or even to the extent we could we probably wouldn't yeah
Andrew He didn't believe you about having played a role in the development of the Nemo, though. It was clear he didn't believe you.
Everett Or not the Nemo, the Emperor Diver. Oh yeah, the Emperor, yeah. Yeah, he was asking us about our watches, and showed them the... I was wearing the Emperor Diver, and showed him, and said, oh yeah, this is a, you know, this is a watch that four of them made, and, you know, I had a hand in the creation, and they were made, and you could tell he was just like, yeah, you're lying.
Andrew Yeah, he did that. And he looked at mine, he's like, well, what are you wearing? And I said, oh, I'm wearing an Orient Makeout. And he goes, hmm, Orient. I'm like, don't you look down your nose at me. Don't you dare.
Everett So yeah, that's true. That all happened.
Andrew Yeah.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew But a great experience, I think, like in the way of, you know, you hear some pretty bummer stories of people's experiences in authorized dealers and in watch boutiques in general. We had a really positive experience. The power went out, and he's like, yeah, whatever. They're probably just doing some work on the power lines. Like, just come on, keep looking. It was cool. I mean, I enjoyed it. I'm glad we didn't get chased out. I'm glad the armed guard didn't block our entrance. We got to see some, definitely some cool watches. I'm trying to think of what else was there that would be worth noting.
Everett No, I think those are the biggies. I think we've hit the biggies.
Andrew They had a Cartier.
Everett Oh yeah, the Cartier Santos. They didn't have the new Santos, but obviously they had a number of Cartier Santos.
Andrew I was hoping to see the Crash. I wanted to see one in person and try it on, but they didn't have any there.
Everett I really like those Santos. I think that's just a really classic, neat looking watch.
Andrew What else? What stood out? I think I was just so taken by the fact that somebody let me in. And I wasn't chased out with a stick and that it was hard for me to make note of what I saw. The reduced Speedmaster I did like though. Yeah, the 38 millimeter Speedmaster. That size was, yeah, that was right.
Everett Some of those Speedmasters are bigger than I expect them to be. Uh, you know, that dark side of the moon was pretty, I thought, gosh, this is a little bigger than I think that I'd want it. So, well, uh, you know, other stuff I was thinking we, we both are, are most of the way through books that we've read on this trip. Do you want to,
Andrew Yeah, I hit I've only finished one I'm in about halfway into the other and I'm working on a couple novels that I figured would take like a day, day and a half to read through and I read some Ian Fleming, did some James Bond. I'm about halfway through Diamonds Are Forever and over the previous two days I read Live and Let Die. It's actually surprising to me how much how much they can grab we're gonna let this tram pass which very seriously we've waited for forever and just opted to walk places and yet here it is driving by for what the fourth time since we've hit record I was really surprised at how much like oh like that like the way they did season one of Game of Thrones where basically the first book was perfectly transcribed into the screenplay for season one of Game of Thrones this book was like Shot for shot, it felt like. And as I'm reading, I can see the movie in my head playing through. So far, Diamonds Are Forever is pretty much the same way. I wanted to pick a couple novels that I could read through quickly because some of these biographies are going to bog me down. They're going to take two weeks to read. So I wanted to basically make up weeks where I get through two, three, two, three books over the course of the week. So that was my, my choice. How did those read? How did those Ian Fleming books read? Easy. Me, watch me. I mean, I burned through it. I started reading Live and Let Die when I got here and I was done with it 38 hours later. Are they pulpy or? Insofar as like the movies are.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew Like you could have basically moved that book over into a screenplay, you know, obviously reformat it and add lines and add like scene and staging instructions and it feels similar. Any sort of differences?
Everett Notable differences between the way the books read and the way the movies play out?
Andrew I don't feel like it. Maybe after I read a couple more. I'm only going to read two of them.
Everett Same sort of randy sexuality.
Andrew Yeah. Surprisingly so.
Everett Yeah.
Andrew They add cues. They add screen cues obviously to really add to it, but as he's writing about it, it's pretty close to it. Yeah. Yeah.
Everett I'm always curious about that, you know, when you read these classic books and there are movies you know real well, or stories at least, or characters that you know well, how that book is going to play out.
Andrew It's a good read. It's quick. It's easy. And I read a book.
Everett First time through both of those. I'm reading Starship Troopers. I don't think I've read quite as much as you have since I've been here, but I'm reading through Starship Troopers. I'm really amazed. I've not read through it. I know you've read it a number of times and have recommended it to me Into all y'all yeah into all y'all It's it's really interesting You know, you wouldn't probably if you had just seen the movie you probably wouldn't Be inclined to think you know, it's this it really gets a political treatise. I think that's what it is Oh, it absolutely is.
Andrew I mean it spawned and created an entire political theory.
Everett Yeah You know and some of that stuff. I think is really well developed and and Thoughtful and other parts of it. I think this is maybe not all that thoughtful Science fiction novel man give him a break. Oh, oh right and so no criticism, you know, but I'm feeling myself be a little challenged by You know these these theories that are put out pretty boldly and the way the story is presented and it's made to present these theories boldly, which I'm not sure that Heinlein was intending to publish a manifesto and maybe he was, who knows, right? I don't know, maybe he's talked about it. I certainly haven't read any interviews with him, but these theories are presented really boldly and Cavalier. And so I've felt a few times like, like arguing with the book, which is such a silly feeling to have. And so, um, but gosh, I'm really enjoying it. Uh, it's been a lot of fun and the story is sort of secondary to the, you know, Johnny Rico's sort of coming of age. Um, and you know, the, the movie's all story versus this book, which is less plot. I should say the movie's all plot and the book, the plot is sort of secondary. to the the the plot is a vehicle for laying out the theory to a degree the philosophy which which it is fun it's not it's not at all uh it's preachy without feeling like it's not overt it's a very very subtle constant onslaught of that application of theory but if you read it absent of that and your thought is only to follow the storyline
Andrew It's a fun story to read and I'm telling you, if they decided when they made the movie to keep it closer to the book, man, it would have been so much better a movie. Now, Starship Troopers, the movie as it is, is terrific. I love it. It's totally and wholly unlike the book. We're talking like equating Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings in difference. Yeah. Would you agree with that? That degree of separation between the book and the movie?
Everett Yeah, no, that's right. And you know, I think that the movie sort of tries to touch on the theories, but it does so in such a tongue-in-cheek way that it's hard to pick that up. So, you know, they operate independently of one another. They're two completely distinct creations, even though they share a common genesis. But yeah, it's super fun. I've been really enjoying it. And I think I'm just about done with that. I'm probably in the last 25-30 pages at this point, so I'll finish that up tonight is my guess. Well, dude, I would love to go get some tacos. Let's do it. You know, we're going to leave you. Sorry for the weird audio. I assume this audio is going to be bizarre. Good luck with that. We hope you listen, though. And if you have any comments or if you've been down here and you have any, well, shoot,
Andrew We'll be long gone by the time you hear it. Share us your stories, your travel stories.
Everett Love to hear them.
Andrew Have you gotten pitched by someone who was supposedly your waiter last night?
Everett Right. Uh, thank you for joining us for this, uh, hour of 40 and 20. Don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like. Our music today is Bummin' on Tremolo by Kevin MacLeod of incompetech.com, licensed under creative comments by attribution 3.01.