Palapa_gal - I just saw your message as I have come to post my trip report. I have two versions - one is just text and one is text with pictures we took mixed in. If any one is interested in the one with pictures, email me and I would be happy to email them to you - although because of the size, I had to make 7 individual ones. OK - here goes...
Puerto Vallarta 2006
Day One
Well here we are. We decided to stay at a hotel the night before we leave for PV. So we decided on Canad Inns Polo Park because it’s the closest to the airport. We got settled in and went to meet my parents for supper – they are storing our truck while we are gone. After supper we went to the front desk to ask for a wake-up call for 2:30am as our plane leaves at 7am and we need to be there 3 hours before departure. We also had the front desk arrange to have a cab waiting for us at the hotel at 3:30 because I wanted to be first in line at the airport to hopefully get decent seats. No such luck, we got row 7 which wasn’t bad. There was a lady who handed all her paperwork to the security agent – including her ID – and it got misplaced somewhere. She was panicking by the time they started boarding because they will not let you on without ID. Ended up that she had to get them to call a lawyer to come and certify that she was who she said she was. It cost her $50! They were from Steinbach, Manitoba and were staying at Canto Del Sol along with us. Their names are Ike and Nancy Giesbrecht. Nice couple.
Our plane lifted off after getting de-iced about 15 minutes late. No biggie. We landed in PV and it was sunny and hot. They are doing a lot of improvements at the airport so they unloaded us on the tarmac and bussed us to where we enter the building. This time we made sure all our forms were filled out completely and we made it through the first obstacle. Then we claimed our luggage and then went to customs. A lady just before us got the red light and thankfully we got green. Then on we went to the timeshare room. Made it through there no problem and found our bus. There was a cruise ship in port today when we arrived; I think it was the Sapphire Princess.
Then we were off – first we dropped some people off at Villa Del Palmar and then we were dropped off at Canto Del Sol. Martin was working the front desk. We asked for a Pool View and he said they didn’t have any, but would have one the next morning. Last year we were in room 228 and this time we were in 225. Woohoo! It had a little pool view – we were right in the corner overlooking the Buffet Restaurant. We decided it was a good room and stayed there all week.
From check-in it took us less than 10 minutes to be at the pool. We grabbed towels, loungers, food and then drinks by the pool. Awww….paradise at last! We had our orientation at 4pm – which sucked because we told everyone we would be at CyC’s from 4-5 and to watch for us on the webcam. Anyways, we decided we would go to the orientation and then to CyC’s. We sat by the pool until 3:30 and then changed and headed to the orientation room. Sandra D is a wealth of info as usual. Didn’t really tell us anything new, but for newbie’s I’m sure it was good info. After that we invited the Giesbrecht’s from Steinbach to come with us to CyC’s. They said they would come along. So off we went. They had never taken the PV buses, so that was an adventure for them. We knew to hang on as soon as we got on. We got to CyC’s about 5:15 so we decided to have a light meal and a couple of Cerveza’s. Total bill for 4 of us was 428 pesos. Not bad if you consider the guys had 2 buckets of Corona’s and Nancy had 2 Pina-Colada’s. It got a little cloudy as the afternoon went on.
Then we went back to the hotel to sit around until the nightly entertainment came on. Good show. Last time we were here, I was sick for 3-4 days so I missed a lot of the shows. Went to bed about 10:30 or so.
Day Two
Robin woke up around 7:30 and went to save us some loungers. He got us good seats this time. Then he came and woke me up and we got ready for breakfast. Ate at the Buffet and then went to our loungers to sit around for a while. Once the activities start up for the day it gets a little more interesting. Robin really enjoyed the Beach Volleyball with Jerry. I think he played it almost every day. I preferred to just sit on the loungers and read or play cards. We pretty much sat around all day and got some sun. I saw the neatest little flowers beside our loungers. In the morning they were closed up as if they were about to bloom and then later in the afternoon they were open wide.
It was really neat. We went to Walmart today to grab some Shampoo & Conditioner (I left mine at the hotel in Winnipeg by accident) and some souvenirs. Boy was I glad I brought lots of money. We ended up spending $2000 pesos at Walmart on souvenirs for everyone here at work, my parents, Robin’s parents, the people who checked on our dogs and of course for us and the kids. Oh well, like Robin says, it’s just money. There was another cruise ship docked today.
Then we went back to the resort and stored our souvenirs and went for lunch. Then sat by the pool and had some drinks. We had a reservation for the Mexican restaurant for tonight at 6pm. I don’t find the selection all the good at this restaurant. You have 6 options for your main meal. I had the Chicken Breast and Robin had the stuffed pepper. He said it was very spicy, but mine was OK. I just picked out the center stuff. I think it was cheese of some kind. Then we went upstairs to have a little nap until the nightly entertainment. We went to the Hilo bar afterwards. It was OK – even after repeatedly saying no to the waitress for some Tequila shots – she would still come ask me. It got annoying, but I suppose that is their job. The waiter we had was nice. My drink was never empty. We stayed there until midnight and then took a taxi back to the hotel.
Day Three
Because of our fairly late night – we are getting old you know! We slept in until 8:30 and then Robin went to find us some loungers. We didn’t get very good seats today, but as long as the sun shines on you, who cares? Ike and Nancy went on the Las Caletas Trip today so we were on our own. We went exploring the resort today and spent some time on the beach being hounded by vendors. I like them but once I have had enough – I just leave. We saw a bunch of parasailers take off and land within 200 feet of where we were sitting. Robin still cannot be convinced to go up. I would like to try it, but I am afraid of losing my glasses somewhere over the Bay. Even with my contacts I would need to wear sunglasses. Next time maybe.
After we got tired of the beach, we went back to our loungers to relax and have a few more drinks. Then we walked around the resort and found our way to the Tennis courts – not that either of us play. Just nice to know where everything is.
Later that afternoon Ike and Nancy got back from their tour. We sat and visited with them for a bit and then went for supper at the Buffet. We finished in time to watch the sun set. We didn’t remember from this morning, but they had the beach set up for a little wedding. Ended up watching that and then the sunset. Wow! Awesome sunsets down in Puerto Vallarta. I have never seen anything like them and they are gone so fast. This year we remembered to bring the camera almost everywhere so that we didn’t miss any like last year. Just as the sun was setting a man came riding up the beach on a horse with 3 others in tow. We wondered if they were for the wedding party, but he tied them up and stayed there at least until we left.
After the sunset we went to our room to lay down for a bit. It’s hard work sitting in the sun drinking Margarita’s all day! Then we went to watch the nightly entertainment. Then we headed up to bed but then saw one of the artists in the lobby doing his paintings. Well I am a sucker – I bought 2 that night for $50 USD. After they packed them up for me we headed back upstairs to go to bed.
Day Four
Robin got up early again to reserve us some loungers. We didn’t have any plans for the day except to go back to CyC’s around 4:30 to wave at the people back home and hopefully meet up with Greg & Kim who I had been emailing with. We just sat around all day reading, drinking, etc. Robin played beach volleyball again. That is one thing he likes to do down there. He played once in the morning, and then took a break for lunch. Then they had the water volleyball so he figured he would give that a try. Then again in the afternoon they went back to the beach to play again. I bet you his legs will be sore tomorrow. I just sat by the pool and read a couple of books. Then Robin came back to the pool about 3 so we went for a swim and headed upstairs to shower and get ready to head to CyC’s.
We arrived at CyC’s about 4:45 and found a table we hoped would be in line with the webcam. Turns out we were barely in the picture but Robin’s mom managed to get a little picture of us. We decided that we would grab something to eat while sitting there. Robin had their Chicken Quesadilla and I had the Chicken Salad. While they were being made, I walked down to the pier and saw some fisherman and some pelicans.
I’m not sure what kind of fish they caught, but I can’t imagine they would be very good to eat. But I’m just a girl, what do I know? A little boy kept having to shoo away the pelicans with a chair every time they would catch a fish. I had never seen a pelican up close, I thought they were neat. By the time I was done watching the activities on the pier, Robin had finished eating and was on his second bucket of Corona.
Both meals were wonderful. Robin said his Quesadilla was better this time than last year when he ordered it. We sat there until the sun went down – but it was very cloudy by then, so we didn’t think there would be much of a sunset. Shows what we know! I guess the sun just had to get below the clouds.
Turns out Greg & his wife were there on the beach, but I didn’t see them so we left. Another time perhaps. We walked back to where we could catch the bus and on the way took some pictures of the little shops by the Pier and I bought a nice soft poncho. One little kid came running after us to see the picture we took. He liked them.
We got back to the hotel and went up to our room to watch some TV and found the maid left us some flowers in a towel by the sink. Cool. So then we started a “game” as such. I started leaving her $1 more than the previous day just to see what she would leave for us. Keep reading to find out more of what she left us. After watching TV for a bit we went down for the Nightly show. I don’t know what the theme of tonight’s show was – but it involved audience participation for part of it. During their “break” the MC got 3 audience members up on the stage. Well, Robin was one of them. The other two guys went first and then it was Robin’s turn. First you had to put this sombrero on, and then pick up this foam horse. Then he had to pretend to knock on the door. Then they had to gallop their way over to the table where they needed to pound on the table and say “Maria! Get me some Tequila!” Then they had to down a glass of Tequila – not a whole glass – just over a shot. Then they were supposed to dance with “her”. Did I mention that “Maria” was actually a “Mario” with balloons for breasts and a wig on? When I could stop laughing, we headed back to our room. But again I saw the artist in the lobby and so I bought two more paintings for $50 USD. I’m such a sucker.
Day Five
Once again Robin got up and went to reserve some loungers. Then came back to the room to wake me up (Heaven forbid I sleep in if he is awake!) We went for breakfast and then took our placed by the pool. We had decided to go to Hooter’s Puerto Vallarta for supper tonight to see what it was like. Robin played Volleyball again and I read some more. I brought 15 or so books and I was reading about 1-2 a day depending on what we were doing. We sat around the rest of the day after eating lunch at the Buffet again. Then we went up to get ready to go to Hooters and found the maid had left us this bow made out of the bedspread. Robin hoped she left us instructions on how to get into bed without wrecking it. No such luck. We got ready to go. We decided that because Hooters is at the end of the Malecon, we would get off the bus at the beginning and walk down there. I missed the seahorse statue. Maybe I’ll get a picture next time.
When we got to Hooters we sat down near the window to watch people. I am very much a people watcher. We ordered off the Spanish menu because the waitress didn’t tell us until we wanted chicken wings that there was an English menu. They don’t carry Corona there – who in their right mind doesn’t carry Corona in Mexico?? You can buy it at the convenience store – but not Hooters? Robin was shocked. While we were there, I guess a guy wanted the waitresses to give him a shooter – so they hung him upside down and spun him around a few times – then gave him the Tequila and spun him a few more times. I would have puked – but he did well. We finished our meal of Chicken Caesar Salad and Chicken Quesadilla’s and of course hot wings. Although mine had no flavor and were cooked way too long – between Robin and I we finished 10 wings of 20. Oh well. It’s just money right? The bill came to 331 pesos – not bad. We left her $40 USD and went next door for a Banana Split ice cream that I had been craving. It was a little different that the ones I get here in Canada. The ice cream is a different texture and in PV they put (I think) dates jam on top with some chocolate syrup. It was OK but I prefer the ones up here. Then we sat down while I ate it and then headed back to the hotel. We arrived back just in time for the nightly entertainment. Tonight was the Lip Sync contest and it was not that good. Oh well. The staff tried their best. There were a lot of people that left after the first performance. I thought that was rude. JMO
Day Six
Today – like every other day – Robin got up early and went down to reserve loungers. Then came back up and woke me up. We had made reservations for the International a la carte for 6pm. Robin played Volleyball again today. They also had a Dart Tournament later in the afternoon. Robin cannot pass up a chance to play - he is pretty good. He ended up winning a 1L bottle of Tequila. We ended up giving it to his dad who drinks it sometimes because we do not touch the stuff. We hung around by the pool most of the day. We went up to change to go for supper and found the maid had left us a heart made out of a towel. Cool. I hated to wreck it – but I needed a shower. We got ready and headed over to Villa Vallarta. We had never been there before so we looked around a bit. We weren’t impressed with the pool at Villa Vallarta – it seemed too closed it. We like the pool at CDS much better. It’s a LONG walk from the front desk to the restaurant. Wow. We should have brought along a snack for the long walk. We got there right on time. It looks nice – but we did NOT like the food. We both ordered the same thing – only because it’s the only thing we could both force ourselves to eat. We had some kind of cream soup and beef strips wrapped around cheese with some kind of funky potatoes and steamed veggies. The veggies were OK. We left the waiter a small tip and got out of there with our food still mostly untouched. We felt bad, but we weren’t about to force ourselves to eat something we didn’t like.
We went and grabbed a bite to eat at the snack bar because the buffet was Seafood and we don’t eat fish all the often. I know we may sound like picky eaters, but usually Robin will eat anything gladly. I am very picky. If I don’t like how something smells – forget it. I’ll go hungry. After that we went back up to our room to take a nap because we had set a wake-up call for 6:15am the next morning so we could go on our fishing trip. We woke up about 8:30 – just in time for the nightly show. Tonight was “Games” night. They grabbed some audience members and got them to play some games and trivia stuff. Them they had a mummy wrapping contest. Each team had to wrap up a member from their team with toilet paper. Then they had to drink a pitcher of beer between all the members and activities staff. Team Red won – but I think Team Blue should have won. They won everything except the mummy contest. They had a different artist in the lobby tonight – but he wanted way more money than they guys that I bought mine from. Oh well. I resisted the urge to get any more. We went to bed right away so we wouldn’t be tired for our fishing trip.
Day Seven
We got our wake up call this morning – 3 times! By the third time, I was annoyed. Not realizing they call everyone three times. Anyways, we got up and got ready to go. We headed down to the Pier where Alberto was supposed to meet us. He was a little late and we started worrying that we had gotten the days mixed up. Then we saw a boat coming from the marina area. We waited to see if it was heading to where we were – if it hadn’t been Alberto, Robin was going to go call him. It turned out it was him. Woohoo.
We were off for our much anticipated trip. Robin had looked forward to this all week. We headed out under VERY cloudy skies. We shivered for the first hour or so. Then the sun came out. We tried trolling for a bit – apparently to try to catch some squid. No luck. Thankfully Alberto brought some along for us to use as bait. I took a couple of pictures while we were driving around the Bay. He drove us around for a bit and then settled on a location. We dropped our lines and I was the first one to catch a fish.
Needless to say, I was not going to win any awards with this tiny thing. They threw it back. After that one, we started going crazy – Alberto’s helper was kept very busy. Our lines had two hooks on them and more often than not, we would have two fish at a time. We do not have this kind of fishing back in Canada. The fish were an OK size and there were lots of them. Robin kept hooking some little catfish. We stayed out for a little over 4 hours and Alberto asked us if we wanted to be dropped back off at the Pier or if the Marina was OK. They were both about the same distance from our hotel. We chose the Marina. We got back there and Alberto was nice enough to give us a ride back to the main street and even told us which bus stop to go to. Wonderful guide!!! Would recommend him to anyone!
Once we got back to the hotel we decided to head to the pool to cool off. This is what we found when we arrived back to the room. The maid left us these swans made out of pillow cases and towels.
The sun on the water is very hot. I felt burnt, but thankfully I wasn’t. We sat around by the pool for a bit and had a couple of drinks. We decided we wouldn’t push our luck by sitting in the direct sun after the morning on the water so we say by these baby palm trees. Gorgeous little palm trees. We had decided the other day we had a craving for Pizza and decided our last night we would have pizza brought in. We were going to order Dominoes, but then I saw a Pizza Hut delivery bike. Wonder how cold the pizzas would be back home with these as delivery vehicles. I bet they get good gas mileage though. Coke also has these bikes as well as Dominoes. We settled in to eat our pizzas. They were good! Two mediums cost us 228 pesos – maybe a little more than they cost at home – but who cares. After we finished we sat on the patio for a bit and then went for a nap because we needed to be up early again tomorrow. We woke up about 8:15 and went down for the show. It was Tropical night. Good show. We headed upstairs and watched TV for a bit and then went to bed.
Last Day
We had again placed a wake up call for 6:15 because we had to check out at 7:30 and the bus was coming for us at 8:30. We got ready to go, tried stuffing our suitcases with some extra souvenirs and went down for breakfast. We ate and then went upstairs to grab our bags and go check out. The same cruise ship that was in port when we arrived was back again. I thought that was weirdly funny. For those of you who don’t know yet – PV has made a policy that everyone’s luggage needs to be searched prior to leaving. Signature now makes arrangements for you to be at the airport 4 hours before your flight leaves. We were the first busload to the airport so we were the first bunch searched. No problems. We went through Security and as always, Robin set off the detector. He must have a metal plate somewhere. We stopped at the Duty Free and I got some things. Robin was hungry so we stopped in at the Sub shop – big mistake – after we were eating Robin figured out how much USD two subs, a coke and two bags of M & M’s were - $23 USD!!! Wow! I think I paid 50 pesos for each bag of M & M’s I bought. That’s $5 USD. That is insane! Oh well, what could we do? We were already eating the food. After that we settled in for a nice long wait til our plane left. The plane we were taking back to Winnipeg landed about 30 minutes before we were to leave. It was bringing people from Winnipeg down to PV. As people got off the plane, they were all dressed in long pants and sweaters. Did they not realize they were coming to sunny and hot Paradise? I got on the plane a week ago wearing a tank top and capris and sandals knowing it would be hot when we landed. Oh well. I’m sure they all changed when they got to their hotels. We were in tow 18 going home. It was right over the wing so I couldn’t get very many good pictures.
We landed 25 minutes early because of a strong south wind. We got through Customs OK and grabbed our luggage. Then we got to the second Customs agent and she pulled us aside saying that “the dog showed some interest in one of our suitcases”. Uh oh. I get very nervous around cops and such so I could feel myself going red. It doesn’t matter that I didn’t do anything wrong. So she grabbed one suitcase and pulled everything out. Did her drug test thing and found nothing. She figured it was the bag of sand we brought back with us for the kids. She called someone over from Ag Canada. He said it was fine to let us keep it. We took the elevator upstairs and went to find my mom. Found her no problem and headed across town to drop her off. Then we went to meet Robin’s dad to get the girls. Cody was supposed to get dropped off after his hockey practice and I went to get the dogs once the kids were all in bed. Now I have nothing left to do but dream of the next time we will be back to the Puerto Vallarta Paradise.:(
The End
Hope you all liked it - I am not a very graphc writer - just a simple one.:)
Puerto Vallarta 2006
Day One
Well here we are. We decided to stay at a hotel the night before we leave for PV. So we decided on Canad Inns Polo Park because it’s the closest to the airport. We got settled in and went to meet my parents for supper – they are storing our truck while we are gone. After supper we went to the front desk to ask for a wake-up call for 2:30am as our plane leaves at 7am and we need to be there 3 hours before departure. We also had the front desk arrange to have a cab waiting for us at the hotel at 3:30 because I wanted to be first in line at the airport to hopefully get decent seats. No such luck, we got row 7 which wasn’t bad. There was a lady who handed all her paperwork to the security agent – including her ID – and it got misplaced somewhere. She was panicking by the time they started boarding because they will not let you on without ID. Ended up that she had to get them to call a lawyer to come and certify that she was who she said she was. It cost her $50! They were from Steinbach, Manitoba and were staying at Canto Del Sol along with us. Their names are Ike and Nancy Giesbrecht. Nice couple.
Our plane lifted off after getting de-iced about 15 minutes late. No biggie. We landed in PV and it was sunny and hot. They are doing a lot of improvements at the airport so they unloaded us on the tarmac and bussed us to where we enter the building. This time we made sure all our forms were filled out completely and we made it through the first obstacle. Then we claimed our luggage and then went to customs. A lady just before us got the red light and thankfully we got green. Then on we went to the timeshare room. Made it through there no problem and found our bus. There was a cruise ship in port today when we arrived; I think it was the Sapphire Princess.
Then we were off – first we dropped some people off at Villa Del Palmar and then we were dropped off at Canto Del Sol. Martin was working the front desk. We asked for a Pool View and he said they didn’t have any, but would have one the next morning. Last year we were in room 228 and this time we were in 225. Woohoo! It had a little pool view – we were right in the corner overlooking the Buffet Restaurant. We decided it was a good room and stayed there all week.
From check-in it took us less than 10 minutes to be at the pool. We grabbed towels, loungers, food and then drinks by the pool. Awww….paradise at last! We had our orientation at 4pm – which sucked because we told everyone we would be at CyC’s from 4-5 and to watch for us on the webcam. Anyways, we decided we would go to the orientation and then to CyC’s. We sat by the pool until 3:30 and then changed and headed to the orientation room. Sandra D is a wealth of info as usual. Didn’t really tell us anything new, but for newbie’s I’m sure it was good info. After that we invited the Giesbrecht’s from Steinbach to come with us to CyC’s. They said they would come along. So off we went. They had never taken the PV buses, so that was an adventure for them. We knew to hang on as soon as we got on. We got to CyC’s about 5:15 so we decided to have a light meal and a couple of Cerveza’s. Total bill for 4 of us was 428 pesos. Not bad if you consider the guys had 2 buckets of Corona’s and Nancy had 2 Pina-Colada’s. It got a little cloudy as the afternoon went on.
Then we went back to the hotel to sit around until the nightly entertainment came on. Good show. Last time we were here, I was sick for 3-4 days so I missed a lot of the shows. Went to bed about 10:30 or so.
Day Two
Robin woke up around 7:30 and went to save us some loungers. He got us good seats this time. Then he came and woke me up and we got ready for breakfast. Ate at the Buffet and then went to our loungers to sit around for a while. Once the activities start up for the day it gets a little more interesting. Robin really enjoyed the Beach Volleyball with Jerry. I think he played it almost every day. I preferred to just sit on the loungers and read or play cards. We pretty much sat around all day and got some sun. I saw the neatest little flowers beside our loungers. In the morning they were closed up as if they were about to bloom and then later in the afternoon they were open wide.
It was really neat. We went to Walmart today to grab some Shampoo & Conditioner (I left mine at the hotel in Winnipeg by accident) and some souvenirs. Boy was I glad I brought lots of money. We ended up spending $2000 pesos at Walmart on souvenirs for everyone here at work, my parents, Robin’s parents, the people who checked on our dogs and of course for us and the kids. Oh well, like Robin says, it’s just money. There was another cruise ship docked today.
Then we went back to the resort and stored our souvenirs and went for lunch. Then sat by the pool and had some drinks. We had a reservation for the Mexican restaurant for tonight at 6pm. I don’t find the selection all the good at this restaurant. You have 6 options for your main meal. I had the Chicken Breast and Robin had the stuffed pepper. He said it was very spicy, but mine was OK. I just picked out the center stuff. I think it was cheese of some kind. Then we went upstairs to have a little nap until the nightly entertainment. We went to the Hilo bar afterwards. It was OK – even after repeatedly saying no to the waitress for some Tequila shots – she would still come ask me. It got annoying, but I suppose that is their job. The waiter we had was nice. My drink was never empty. We stayed there until midnight and then took a taxi back to the hotel.
Day Three
Because of our fairly late night – we are getting old you know! We slept in until 8:30 and then Robin went to find us some loungers. We didn’t get very good seats today, but as long as the sun shines on you, who cares? Ike and Nancy went on the Las Caletas Trip today so we were on our own. We went exploring the resort today and spent some time on the beach being hounded by vendors. I like them but once I have had enough – I just leave. We saw a bunch of parasailers take off and land within 200 feet of where we were sitting. Robin still cannot be convinced to go up. I would like to try it, but I am afraid of losing my glasses somewhere over the Bay. Even with my contacts I would need to wear sunglasses. Next time maybe.
After we got tired of the beach, we went back to our loungers to relax and have a few more drinks. Then we walked around the resort and found our way to the Tennis courts – not that either of us play. Just nice to know where everything is.
Later that afternoon Ike and Nancy got back from their tour. We sat and visited with them for a bit and then went for supper at the Buffet. We finished in time to watch the sun set. We didn’t remember from this morning, but they had the beach set up for a little wedding. Ended up watching that and then the sunset. Wow! Awesome sunsets down in Puerto Vallarta. I have never seen anything like them and they are gone so fast. This year we remembered to bring the camera almost everywhere so that we didn’t miss any like last year. Just as the sun was setting a man came riding up the beach on a horse with 3 others in tow. We wondered if they were for the wedding party, but he tied them up and stayed there at least until we left.
After the sunset we went to our room to lay down for a bit. It’s hard work sitting in the sun drinking Margarita’s all day! Then we went to watch the nightly entertainment. Then we headed up to bed but then saw one of the artists in the lobby doing his paintings. Well I am a sucker – I bought 2 that night for $50 USD. After they packed them up for me we headed back upstairs to go to bed.
Day Four
Robin got up early again to reserve us some loungers. We didn’t have any plans for the day except to go back to CyC’s around 4:30 to wave at the people back home and hopefully meet up with Greg & Kim who I had been emailing with. We just sat around all day reading, drinking, etc. Robin played beach volleyball again. That is one thing he likes to do down there. He played once in the morning, and then took a break for lunch. Then they had the water volleyball so he figured he would give that a try. Then again in the afternoon they went back to the beach to play again. I bet you his legs will be sore tomorrow. I just sat by the pool and read a couple of books. Then Robin came back to the pool about 3 so we went for a swim and headed upstairs to shower and get ready to head to CyC’s.
We arrived at CyC’s about 4:45 and found a table we hoped would be in line with the webcam. Turns out we were barely in the picture but Robin’s mom managed to get a little picture of us. We decided that we would grab something to eat while sitting there. Robin had their Chicken Quesadilla and I had the Chicken Salad. While they were being made, I walked down to the pier and saw some fisherman and some pelicans.
I’m not sure what kind of fish they caught, but I can’t imagine they would be very good to eat. But I’m just a girl, what do I know? A little boy kept having to shoo away the pelicans with a chair every time they would catch a fish. I had never seen a pelican up close, I thought they were neat. By the time I was done watching the activities on the pier, Robin had finished eating and was on his second bucket of Corona.
Both meals were wonderful. Robin said his Quesadilla was better this time than last year when he ordered it. We sat there until the sun went down – but it was very cloudy by then, so we didn’t think there would be much of a sunset. Shows what we know! I guess the sun just had to get below the clouds.
Turns out Greg & his wife were there on the beach, but I didn’t see them so we left. Another time perhaps. We walked back to where we could catch the bus and on the way took some pictures of the little shops by the Pier and I bought a nice soft poncho. One little kid came running after us to see the picture we took. He liked them.
We got back to the hotel and went up to our room to watch some TV and found the maid left us some flowers in a towel by the sink. Cool. So then we started a “game” as such. I started leaving her $1 more than the previous day just to see what she would leave for us. Keep reading to find out more of what she left us. After watching TV for a bit we went down for the Nightly show. I don’t know what the theme of tonight’s show was – but it involved audience participation for part of it. During their “break” the MC got 3 audience members up on the stage. Well, Robin was one of them. The other two guys went first and then it was Robin’s turn. First you had to put this sombrero on, and then pick up this foam horse. Then he had to pretend to knock on the door. Then they had to gallop their way over to the table where they needed to pound on the table and say “Maria! Get me some Tequila!” Then they had to down a glass of Tequila – not a whole glass – just over a shot. Then they were supposed to dance with “her”. Did I mention that “Maria” was actually a “Mario” with balloons for breasts and a wig on? When I could stop laughing, we headed back to our room. But again I saw the artist in the lobby and so I bought two more paintings for $50 USD. I’m such a sucker.
Day Five
Once again Robin got up and went to reserve some loungers. Then came back to the room to wake me up (Heaven forbid I sleep in if he is awake!) We went for breakfast and then took our placed by the pool. We had decided to go to Hooter’s Puerto Vallarta for supper tonight to see what it was like. Robin played Volleyball again and I read some more. I brought 15 or so books and I was reading about 1-2 a day depending on what we were doing. We sat around the rest of the day after eating lunch at the Buffet again. Then we went up to get ready to go to Hooters and found the maid had left us this bow made out of the bedspread. Robin hoped she left us instructions on how to get into bed without wrecking it. No such luck. We got ready to go. We decided that because Hooters is at the end of the Malecon, we would get off the bus at the beginning and walk down there. I missed the seahorse statue. Maybe I’ll get a picture next time.
When we got to Hooters we sat down near the window to watch people. I am very much a people watcher. We ordered off the Spanish menu because the waitress didn’t tell us until we wanted chicken wings that there was an English menu. They don’t carry Corona there – who in their right mind doesn’t carry Corona in Mexico?? You can buy it at the convenience store – but not Hooters? Robin was shocked. While we were there, I guess a guy wanted the waitresses to give him a shooter – so they hung him upside down and spun him around a few times – then gave him the Tequila and spun him a few more times. I would have puked – but he did well. We finished our meal of Chicken Caesar Salad and Chicken Quesadilla’s and of course hot wings. Although mine had no flavor and were cooked way too long – between Robin and I we finished 10 wings of 20. Oh well. It’s just money right? The bill came to 331 pesos – not bad. We left her $40 USD and went next door for a Banana Split ice cream that I had been craving. It was a little different that the ones I get here in Canada. The ice cream is a different texture and in PV they put (I think) dates jam on top with some chocolate syrup. It was OK but I prefer the ones up here. Then we sat down while I ate it and then headed back to the hotel. We arrived back just in time for the nightly entertainment. Tonight was the Lip Sync contest and it was not that good. Oh well. The staff tried their best. There were a lot of people that left after the first performance. I thought that was rude. JMO
Day Six
Today – like every other day – Robin got up early and went down to reserve loungers. Then came back up and woke me up. We had made reservations for the International a la carte for 6pm. Robin played Volleyball again today. They also had a Dart Tournament later in the afternoon. Robin cannot pass up a chance to play - he is pretty good. He ended up winning a 1L bottle of Tequila. We ended up giving it to his dad who drinks it sometimes because we do not touch the stuff. We hung around by the pool most of the day. We went up to change to go for supper and found the maid had left us a heart made out of a towel. Cool. I hated to wreck it – but I needed a shower. We got ready and headed over to Villa Vallarta. We had never been there before so we looked around a bit. We weren’t impressed with the pool at Villa Vallarta – it seemed too closed it. We like the pool at CDS much better. It’s a LONG walk from the front desk to the restaurant. Wow. We should have brought along a snack for the long walk. We got there right on time. It looks nice – but we did NOT like the food. We both ordered the same thing – only because it’s the only thing we could both force ourselves to eat. We had some kind of cream soup and beef strips wrapped around cheese with some kind of funky potatoes and steamed veggies. The veggies were OK. We left the waiter a small tip and got out of there with our food still mostly untouched. We felt bad, but we weren’t about to force ourselves to eat something we didn’t like.
We went and grabbed a bite to eat at the snack bar because the buffet was Seafood and we don’t eat fish all the often. I know we may sound like picky eaters, but usually Robin will eat anything gladly. I am very picky. If I don’t like how something smells – forget it. I’ll go hungry. After that we went back up to our room to take a nap because we had set a wake-up call for 6:15am the next morning so we could go on our fishing trip. We woke up about 8:30 – just in time for the nightly show. Tonight was “Games” night. They grabbed some audience members and got them to play some games and trivia stuff. Them they had a mummy wrapping contest. Each team had to wrap up a member from their team with toilet paper. Then they had to drink a pitcher of beer between all the members and activities staff. Team Red won – but I think Team Blue should have won. They won everything except the mummy contest. They had a different artist in the lobby tonight – but he wanted way more money than they guys that I bought mine from. Oh well. I resisted the urge to get any more. We went to bed right away so we wouldn’t be tired for our fishing trip.
Day Seven
We got our wake up call this morning – 3 times! By the third time, I was annoyed. Not realizing they call everyone three times. Anyways, we got up and got ready to go. We headed down to the Pier where Alberto was supposed to meet us. He was a little late and we started worrying that we had gotten the days mixed up. Then we saw a boat coming from the marina area. We waited to see if it was heading to where we were – if it hadn’t been Alberto, Robin was going to go call him. It turned out it was him. Woohoo.
We were off for our much anticipated trip. Robin had looked forward to this all week. We headed out under VERY cloudy skies. We shivered for the first hour or so. Then the sun came out. We tried trolling for a bit – apparently to try to catch some squid. No luck. Thankfully Alberto brought some along for us to use as bait. I took a couple of pictures while we were driving around the Bay. He drove us around for a bit and then settled on a location. We dropped our lines and I was the first one to catch a fish.
Needless to say, I was not going to win any awards with this tiny thing. They threw it back. After that one, we started going crazy – Alberto’s helper was kept very busy. Our lines had two hooks on them and more often than not, we would have two fish at a time. We do not have this kind of fishing back in Canada. The fish were an OK size and there were lots of them. Robin kept hooking some little catfish. We stayed out for a little over 4 hours and Alberto asked us if we wanted to be dropped back off at the Pier or if the Marina was OK. They were both about the same distance from our hotel. We chose the Marina. We got back there and Alberto was nice enough to give us a ride back to the main street and even told us which bus stop to go to. Wonderful guide!!! Would recommend him to anyone!
Once we got back to the hotel we decided to head to the pool to cool off. This is what we found when we arrived back to the room. The maid left us these swans made out of pillow cases and towels.
The sun on the water is very hot. I felt burnt, but thankfully I wasn’t. We sat around by the pool for a bit and had a couple of drinks. We decided we wouldn’t push our luck by sitting in the direct sun after the morning on the water so we say by these baby palm trees. Gorgeous little palm trees. We had decided the other day we had a craving for Pizza and decided our last night we would have pizza brought in. We were going to order Dominoes, but then I saw a Pizza Hut delivery bike. Wonder how cold the pizzas would be back home with these as delivery vehicles. I bet they get good gas mileage though. Coke also has these bikes as well as Dominoes. We settled in to eat our pizzas. They were good! Two mediums cost us 228 pesos – maybe a little more than they cost at home – but who cares. After we finished we sat on the patio for a bit and then went for a nap because we needed to be up early again tomorrow. We woke up about 8:15 and went down for the show. It was Tropical night. Good show. We headed upstairs and watched TV for a bit and then went to bed.
Last Day
We had again placed a wake up call for 6:15 because we had to check out at 7:30 and the bus was coming for us at 8:30. We got ready to go, tried stuffing our suitcases with some extra souvenirs and went down for breakfast. We ate and then went upstairs to grab our bags and go check out. The same cruise ship that was in port when we arrived was back again. I thought that was weirdly funny. For those of you who don’t know yet – PV has made a policy that everyone’s luggage needs to be searched prior to leaving. Signature now makes arrangements for you to be at the airport 4 hours before your flight leaves. We were the first busload to the airport so we were the first bunch searched. No problems. We went through Security and as always, Robin set off the detector. He must have a metal plate somewhere. We stopped at the Duty Free and I got some things. Robin was hungry so we stopped in at the Sub shop – big mistake – after we were eating Robin figured out how much USD two subs, a coke and two bags of M & M’s were - $23 USD!!! Wow! I think I paid 50 pesos for each bag of M & M’s I bought. That’s $5 USD. That is insane! Oh well, what could we do? We were already eating the food. After that we settled in for a nice long wait til our plane left. The plane we were taking back to Winnipeg landed about 30 minutes before we were to leave. It was bringing people from Winnipeg down to PV. As people got off the plane, they were all dressed in long pants and sweaters. Did they not realize they were coming to sunny and hot Paradise? I got on the plane a week ago wearing a tank top and capris and sandals knowing it would be hot when we landed. Oh well. I’m sure they all changed when they got to their hotels. We were in tow 18 going home. It was right over the wing so I couldn’t get very many good pictures.
We landed 25 minutes early because of a strong south wind. We got through Customs OK and grabbed our luggage. Then we got to the second Customs agent and she pulled us aside saying that “the dog showed some interest in one of our suitcases”. Uh oh. I get very nervous around cops and such so I could feel myself going red. It doesn’t matter that I didn’t do anything wrong. So she grabbed one suitcase and pulled everything out. Did her drug test thing and found nothing. She figured it was the bag of sand we brought back with us for the kids. She called someone over from Ag Canada. He said it was fine to let us keep it. We took the elevator upstairs and went to find my mom. Found her no problem and headed across town to drop her off. Then we went to meet Robin’s dad to get the girls. Cody was supposed to get dropped off after his hockey practice and I went to get the dogs once the kids were all in bed. Now I have nothing left to do but dream of the next time we will be back to the Puerto Vallarta Paradise.
The End
Hope you all liked it - I am not a very graphc writer - just a simple one.