One sunny afternoon, we tired of creating stories for the pool patrons of our hotel and took a long, hot stroll along the beach to sus out the bar options for the evening, including the “world-famous Cafe Mambo” and slightly sleepier, “world-famous Cafe del Mar.”

A fan of Defected, I suggested to the gentleman that we stick our head in for a refreshing (non-alcoholic) drink as we enjoyed the super chilled out daytime DJ. The place was pretty empty and we enjoyed a table right on the water, impressive with our only $10 tab.

The afternoon slid into evening and after a return to the hotel for a shower and refresh for dinner, we found ourselves again in front of Cafe Mambo. The DJ was far more lively and the crowds were building. Typically, you reserve in advance with quite a high spend minimum requirement. We thought, maybe they’ll let just just perch around the bar or something… well… we found ourselves taking a table of another party who didn’t show and committing to the $200 minimum. Whoops!

We were just above the super pricey tables on the water, where we sat for free earlier in the day, but I think we did better. The people watching was great and we had such a gorgeous evening enjoying each other and taking it all in. We had to meet our minimum so we went for a few snacks to start- croquettas and olives and did our best to drink our weight in water.

My strategy was the nicest bottle of champagne just under the threshold…his was cocktails then a slightly less pricey bottle. Well played. We were there for the better part of two hours, waiting for the sun to set.

And set she did. The amount of people racing around to try and capture its beauty was astounding. I enjoyed a quick step down to the beach to capture a few shots without the interference of the bar clientele.

And there she went… another trip around the sun…