My First Paid Vacation!

The last week of October I spent my time enjoying the sun, sand, water, and adventure of the Bay of Banderas. It's one of the largest bays in the world, and home to the town of Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. On the same latitude as Hawaii, it is a gorgeous setting with both beaches and tropical forests and mountains. I went on this trip with my Dad, Aunt Judy, and Uncle Gary. How it came to be three siblings and myself, I'm not quite sure, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Below are the memorable moments, adventures, and pictures from the trip. Enjoy!

Saturday: Day of Arrival! Pretty basic arrival day - we got checked in and settled in the condo, enjoyed a 'Welcome to Mexico' cerveza, and headed into town for dinner. Then we briefly browsed the street vendors in the market square and checked out some restaurants for future dinners before heading home for the evening. We had a big week ahead of us!

{living room and doors leading out to our massive balcony}

{looking up at the 'resort' from our balcony - it was built on a steep hill; very neat architecture}

{view from our balcony over the pool deck out to the ocean}

{at the entrance of the 'resort'}

Sunday: First full day - Sunday was an adventure right from the start! We had set up a time-share pitch at 8am in order to get some good deals the rest of the week. However, we decided early that we didn't want to go anymore, so we called the number given to us if we wanted to cancel. We canceled that and promptly called a taxi to go to the MEGA Store in town to get groceries for the week. Conveniently the taxi showed up right at 8 o'clock and as we were piling in, we saw the time-share guy waiting for us in his taxi. Apparently he didn't get the message. I told Dad we should tell him we called to cancel since he clearly didn't get the message, but that turned out to be a bad idea. The man proceeded to tell us we owed him money because if we didn't show for the pitch he would have to pay for the breakfast and reservation. And this wasn't just a few dollars; he wanted $150 (US currency)! He was very persistent and would not leave us alone, so my dad instructed our taxi driver to "go!" as the time-share man continued to demand money from us. Our taxi driver thankfully did go, but that wasn't enough. The time-share guy and his driver followed our car all the way through town until at one point our driver pulled over. Then of course the other car pulled over and the man got out to come demand money again. He threw a few "F bombs" at us (his English was surprisingly good and he used his explicatives very appropriately), and he almost had us on our way to the hotel to pay 'at least $20' as a withdraw fee or something. That was when our driver stepped in and started speaking to him in Spanish. Side story...apparently everyone in Puerta Vallarta knows to be very wary of people involved with time-share sales because they try to rip people off and are desperate for money. I think our driver put it as 'men with babies on the way or newly married men work there because they get paid commission and when they make a sale it's big bucks.' Anyway, our driver eventually told this guy to beat it because he wasn't going to get any money from us. Then he drove off and, while driving, handed our receipt/reservation for attendance to the time-share guy through the window. I couldn't catch everything our driver said, but whatever he said it worked because the guy left and we didn't see him the rest of our time in Mexico. I'll be honest though, I thought there was a point when the chance of a gun being pulled on us was not far from possible. Exciting start to the day, let alone the week in Mexico!

The rest of the day was mostly uneventful with events such as shopping at the local store (in which everything was written in Spanish), a looong walk down to a beach, trying to snorkel, and a home-cooked dinner back at our condo along with a sunset. You may notice I said we tried to snorkel. That was due to the fact that the waves coming into the beach were so strong they thrashed my uncle all over the place until he had a deep gash in one of his fingers that wouldn't stop bleeding and some more scratches on his elbow. Needless to say, the water wasn't too clear for snorkeling at this location had he been able to get in the water. Anyway, take a look at day 1.

{happy hour snack time}

{cooking dinner on the pool deck}

Monday: Day 2.5 - We headed to Mismoloya, the second to last bus stop before the road ends, and accordingly, the second to last town before a boat is required to reach other villages in the bay. Here we ate good food, tried to relax on the beach, instead got hounded by vendors selling anything you can imagine, bought stuff from those vendors, and swam in the ocean. The water was freezing, by the way, but we put up with it because we were in Mexico! After spending most of the day at this village we headed home to shower and go into downtown Puerta Vallarta for dinner. We ate at a little place on the beach, where I got the most quintessential dietitian's meal ever: ribs, fries, and 2 margaritas. :-)

{looking back towards the beach and town of Mismoloya}

Tuesday: Canopy Adventure. We took an hour long drive in an old army vehicle into the forest outside of Puerta Vallarta. We traveled through tiny Mexican towns and past a local prison too. The last 15 minutes or so of the drive I feared for my life. We had left the paved road for a dirt road that followed the edge of a mountain. One tire over the side of the road and we were goners. BUT, we made it, and then we put our lives in danger again (not really) to zip-line through the canopy! Rappelling, climbing 60' rope ladders, and crossing swinging bridges were also part of the fun. And we saw a rattle snake!

{our crew: Chico, Giovanni, Mariana, Alex, and others}

The drive back was just as exciting. The final maneuver of our driver was my favorite. We needed to make a right turn off the main street to get to the adventure office from where we left. However, traffic was stopped and we weren't the first car in line to be able to make our right turn. No problem! We zipped into the left hand turn lane and then proceeded to turn right in front of 3 lanes of traffic. It's OK though, because all the cars were stopped and there are no traffic laws in Mexico! Fun day!!

Wednesday: Booze Cruise to Majahuitas y Yelapa. We boarded the catamaran early and went straight to Majahuitas to snorkel and kayak. After that, we boarded again to eat lunch and head to Yelapa, an old Mexican Village in the southernmost cove of the bay. Post-snorkeling was also when the margaritas and other drinks became available...unlimited and "free" because it was all included in the initial price. Once at Yelapa, we walked to a beautiful waterfall, through the village, and across a canal to the beach where we spent part of the afternoon. Eventually we boarded to head back to the marina. At one point our crew leader thought everyone was being to boring and sleepy...so he entertained us to get the energy back up. Once back on land, we strolled the boardwalk in Puerta Vallarta and wandered the streets until almost dark.

{our crew doing their introductory dance}

{Los Arcos}


{a blow fish!}





{just off the dock at Yelapa}

{in the village looking down to the beach}

{near the beach looking back to the village}

{and this is our crew leader entertaining us. he had an array of costumes}

{the boardwalk in Puerta Vallarta}

{local school club practicing for some performance on the boardwalk}

Thursday: Spent the day at Boca de Tomatlan, the last town accessible by vehicle before a boat was necessary. In the evening we went on a sunset cruise to Las Caletas, where we had a candle-lit buffet dinner near the beach and watched Rhythms of the Night, a performance of culture and history.

Friday: Final Day - Spent on the beach in downtown Puerta Vallarta before having dinner at a restaurant specializing in shrimp. I had the coconut breaded shrimp and it was to die for! I don't even like coconut, but this was delicious.

{my aunt, who was still recuperating from hip surgery and a consequently broken femur, decided to go para-sailing. I didn't think it was an awful idea, and she really enjoyed herself!}

{check out the size of the fish on my uncle's plate}

Saturday: Departure Day - up early to head to the airport. And, we finally saw dolphins during our breakfast on the balcony! There were at least 15 I would say, and they were jumping quite a bit! After finishing breakfast and packing, we headed off for the airport. The thought was that we could check our bags then wander downtown sans luggage until our flights in the afternoon. It didn't quite work as planned, but eventually we all got our bags checked. Gary and Judy opted out of wandering, but my dad and I took the bus back in town for an all-out sprint to find two gifts: something for my brother, another for my boyfriend. After finding said gifts, my dad and I had what may have been the best meal of the entire week: a chicken burrito at a little shack of a restaurant across the street from the airport. It was phenomenal.

Then we left and went back to reality; ie: cold weather and an 8-5 job (for me anyway).