Highlights from Mexico, part 4

Not all of the adventures from Mexico took place out and about on the town. One of them took place right on the balcony off our hotel room. And it featured "Instant Animal Capsules."

These were a birthday gift to me back in August but we hadn't yet found the right moment to play with them. This was it! There were 10 capsules in four different colors, each containing a small sponge in the shape of an animal - but you don't know which animal until the capsule is dissolved and the animal is unleashed.

We decided to make it a competition (of course) and here's how it worked: we each chose 5 capsules, and then one match-up at a time, we tossed the capsules into glasses of warm water. In each match-up, the more ferocious animal was the winner.

Some were clear-cut victories (coyote vs bat, alligator vs rabbit) but we also had a couple of tough calls: beaver vs deer. Which is more ferocious? It's hard to say.

Gross epilogue: we used two of the glasses in the room as the test pools in which we dissolved the capsules. The next day, after housekeeping had come and gone in the morning, I went to use a glass and discovered a thick, sticky clear film at the bottom of both of the glasses in our room: capsule residue! That's thorough work, Westin housekeeping. Ew.