MeatSpace Adventures

What’s better than an all-inclusive resort, bottomless pina coladas, all the fine food you can eat, AND a 40-minute Chalkdust Torture?  Nothing!  Ok, so you like Phish, don’t like Phish, never heard of Phish… doesn’t matter.  Take my advice and go to Cancun for a week and relax.  You’ll thank me later.  Tassa and I are celebrating our 25^th wedding anniversary this year and we went to the Moon Palace Resort in Cancun, Mexico.  Honestly, Tassa and I never really celebrate our anniversary and we were married in June, but we used that as an excuse and justification to buy an all-inclusive Phish Mexico package with my brother Brent and his wife Jessica for six nights and four Phish concerts thrown in to boot. One of the best aspects of this trip for me personally, was that I got to spend quality time with Brent and Jess. We are all kindred spirits beyond being family, but my kids are grown and their kids are little, they have stressful jobs beyond being the parents of four kids, and time being what it is there hasn’t been enough opportunity for us all to get away and have these experiences together. Tassa and I love to travel and as we get older it is easier for us to get away, and it was really awesome to spend this valuable time with Brent and Jess too.  

It was pricey and Tassa and I have never done anything like this before.  Normally, when we go on vacation, we take our camper, or a tent and we do all the cooking and cleaning.  I have never complained. We are nomadic by nature and love the process of setting up and deconstructing our camp and moving on to the next place.  The closest we ever came to this type of vacation was in 2016 when we went on an Alaskan cruise, which we both disliked but it wasn’t all-inclusive, and that is the key – go all-inclusive!  Literally spending a week with no obligations and not worrying about costs or anything was freaking awesome and worth every penny!  We had connected rooms with Brent and Jess and courtyard views from our balconies.  A little extra money got us the courtyard view and we were only a five-minute walk from the concert venue and pool.  Like I said, worth every penny.  

We were beyond stoked as February 19^th finally arrived.  We had a direct flight from St. Louis to Cancun at 8:30 am.  Tassa and I have serious anxiety when it comes to flying, not because we are scared to fly but because we are afraid the stupid plane won’t take off.  Last spring we wanted to do something spontaneous and fly to LA to see Phish at the Hollywood Bowl.  I got hotel reservations and concert tickets but couldn’t get out of Chicago.  Our flight from St. Louis to LA was canceled so we scrambled and got a flight to Chicago that connected to LA the day of the concert, but it was delayed 12 hours, and we missed the show.  It was so aggravating.  For this trip we got to the airport super early, not that it made any difference, but it made us feel better.  Luckily, this time everything went smoothly.  Well, almost.

It is no secret that Phish and partying go hand in hand.  It has become a negative stereotype that you must be on drugs to enjoy Phish concerts, which isn’t true but also not completely false.  At any given Phish show you will see all kinds of people on all kinds of substances and chemicals.  I think this fact is one of the band’s endearing qualities.  There is a sense of freedom at a show that has always made me think that at the very least it is awesome that something like this exists.  I am not a drug addict or anything, but I do enjoy a good buzz now and then and especially when I am on a four day Phish run.  Like I said, it’s not mandatory but it goes hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly.  After lots of research and Reddit posts I decided to bring some stuff with me to Mexico.  

I went to a dispensary for the first time before this trip to Mexico.  I bought a pineapple kush vape pen and a bag of sativa gummies.  I put the cannabis gummies in a regular vitamin gummy container, and the vape pen inside two plastic baggies, then I stashed them inside my toiletry bag along with my toothbrush, toothpaste and stuff like that.  I was not nervous about the St. Louis airport since it is now legal in Missouri, but as I went through the security scan they pulled me aside and my heart started racing.  The TSA lady asked me if I had an electric lighter as she started to open my backpack.  Like an idiot, I told her no that it was a vape thing.  She looked at me weird and started to go through my bag.  She was looking in the wrong part of my bag, so I told her it was with my toothbrush.  She dug down in my bag and grabbed my toiletry bag, but she just looked at me and I directed her to the vape, which she pulled out and looked at it and then back at me, remember I had it wrapped up inside a couple of large Ziplock bags.  She set it down and went back to my bag.  I was confused and she asked me again if I had an electric lighter and I said no.  She showed me on the screen what she was looking for, which was a square block thing in the front of my backpack.  Then she pulled out my headlamp, which I didn’t even think to take out along with my iPad and phone.  This is what she was looking for.  She looked at the baggies with my vape pen and then at me and said, “Do you want to put all this back or should I?”  I quickly grabbed everything and went over to Tassa, who was watching and waiting for me to go to jail.  I couldn’t believe the TSA officer didn’t even care about the vape at all.  The last scare (and what I was originally worried about) was getting into Mexico.  As I waited for my checked luggage, I kept watching people getting their bags searched by Mexican police over in another area.  I was so nervous, I almost threw my stuff away.  As we finally started walking towards the exit, I saw the people getting searched in the area where you declare stuff.  I don’t even know what that means, so I asked this Mexican girl who obviously worked at the airport what I should declare or where I should go and she looked at me like I was an idiot (BTW I get that look a lot) and she said, “Just go.”  So, I did! I straight up walked out of the airport into the Cancun sun with my vape and my edibles and it was awesome!  The X factor that convinced me to do this in the first place was that everyone going to this Phish event was bringing stuff with them, I wasn’t doing anything everyone else wasn’t doing but it was a sketchy feeling.  Then I realized – What a world we live in today!  20 years ago, this would have been certain death, completely unthinkable!  Today you can totally take whatever wherever – well at least whatever to Mexico. Seriously, no one cares. The drug dogs that walked past me didn’t even care! Obviously, this is only my experience and no one should ever attempt to do anything just because they read about it on the internet. Is that a given? That should be a given.

The week went by way too fast.  There were lots of activities, drinks, and restaurants.  One of the coolest things they had going on was an 18-hole disc golf course that was laid out through the resort.  The disc golf company Innova held tutorials and tournaments each day and even had the pro Philo Brathwaite there to give lessons.  The course was sweet.  The holes were set up in the courtyards and landscaped areas of the resort.  Tassa and I played in a double’s tournament, and it was the first time we ever kept score.  I have a buddy who is way into disc golf, and we have played with him but that is just going out and playing for fun.  At the resort, it was the same type of vibe but with strangers and we kept track of our score.  Tassa and I were probably annoying to the guys we played with because they were way more serious than us, but it was a great time!  The Innova guys came around with cold beer and even hung out with us on the last six holes.

We ate so much!  The buffet was great, and the restaurants were top notch.  The Mayan Riviera restaurant was our favorite.  Full disclosure, I have been on an almost 100% plant-based diet for six years, except for seafood when I am at the ocean and a handful of times I have eaten pizza with real cheese, but in Mexico I decided to eat meat and lots of cheese for the first time.  Not cool.  I should have stuck to my dietary integrity and saved myself the pain and misery of recklessly eating whatever I wanted.  I had always wondered what would happen if I strayed too far from the vegetables and now I know.  I am not really into situations where food is the focus, however, it is like an internal switch that is turned on when you have all you can eat food 24/7 and you just eat to eat.  Likewise, when it is all you can drink then you instinctually just drink to drink.  I am primarily sober most of the time and I am pretty locked in with my diet, so this type of trip was out of my element and my body paid the price.  If I could go back, I would eat less and stay truer to my eating habits.  I would indulge and try lots of different foods but dabble rather than overindulge. 

Besides eating, drinking, and disc golf, our time was mostly filled with chilling at the pool and relaxing.  This is what a vacation is all about.  There were DJ’s playing good tunes all day.  The weather was picture perfect.  The people watching was exceptional.  On Tuesday the band had their soundcheck, which was perfectly audible from the pool.  I was in the water with Tassa and a margarita and listened to a 40-minute jam -> Mountains in the Mist -> My Soul.  It was one of the coolest Phish moments I have had in the tenure of my obsession with this band.

Phish played a one set show on Wednesday night and then two set shows the next three nights.  It has been said of the Mexico shows that historically the band doesn’t really bring the fire.  It’s more of a destination experience and the shows are good but not epic.  Well, I think this can be laid to rest after the 2024 Mexico run.  The shows were dirty, funky, spacey, and jammed out.  Wednesday night had a nice Down with Disease and Stash for the die-hards.  A sick Alaska, Destiny Unbound, Julius, and Sand.  The gem of the night was a new tune called Life Saving Gun.  Topped off with a Mango Song -> Carini encore and night one was a banger. 

Thursday night was an absolute killer show!  Probably in the top 10 shows I have personally seen.  Highlights include a 20-minute Birds of a feather followed by a set one closing Axilla (part II) with a long drawn out ending.  Set two was Phish at their best with A Song I Heard the Ocean Sing->A Wave of Hope->Oblivion->Tweezer->Tube->Runaway Jim->Tube.  They went big with A Wave of Hope jamming it out for 35 minutes.  Friday night was another baller, with a set two centerpiece Chalkdust Torture clocking in at 40 minutes.  This Chalkdust was one of the deepest jams in the entire 3.0 + era or of anything in the entire Phish cannon for that matter.  Saturday night was relentless too.  They opened with a great Simple->Sanity.  Wolfman’s Brother and Bathtub Gin are always appreciated but set two brought the funk.  They opened with The Howling at the crowd’s bidding due to an intense full moon hovering ominously out over the ocean.  The Golden Age had some intense moments and the set ended with a crowd-pleasing Possum.  They encored the run with More->2001->Slave to the Traffic Light.

I was thoroughly impressed with the resort and the shows.  It was totally epic.  Throughout the week when talking to people, they either expressed that they come back year after year or were going to come back, and I get it.  There is nothing that can compare to this overall experience.  It is worth it to have one week where you can totally cut loose and relax, worry about nothing, party, eat, and then rock out to Phish each night.  The fact that this event is in February and breaks up winter and gives you something to look forward to amidst the doldrums of the new year is worth the money in and of itself. 

I can respect the fact that for many, Phish isn’t their thing.  The Phish factor is the reason I went but knowing now what the resort experience is like, I would go back for a regular vacation. I often struggle with cost to fun ratio.  Something must be worth the money for me to really enjoy it and most things in my experience are not really worth what they cost.  I do not think you can go wrong with the Cancun all-inclusive resort experience, Phish or no Phish.