What Happened to Me in PV

droyce · Post by **droyce** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 8:24 pm

After reading of the purse snatching I thought I should share my purse story while in PV. I had breakfast at the Banana Cantina and left to lay out on the beach. About 2 hours later I started looking for my sunglasses and realized I did not have my purse. I panicked and started back tracking. I had all my cash, designer sunglasses and my Sony digital camera in my purse. When I arrived at the Banana Cantina I asked them if they had seen my purse, which they promptly pulled from behind the counter. The most important thing to me was my camera that had almost 500 photos on my disk including a trip to France and Spain that I could never duplicate. It was there along with all my cash and everything else. Needless to say I was so greatful, and offered a cash reward that was refused. How's that for honesty?

Recently on a different trip to PV I arrived at Venus Spa on Aquilles Serdan for a massage and while waiting in the lobby for my appointment, the receptionist walked up to me and held out a pair of silver earrings in her hand and asked if they were mine. It took me a while to look at them. But then I recognized them as being earrings I had purchased on my last trip to PV 2 months earlier and I thought I had lost them in my condo. I think I only got to wear them once. But yet here they were at Venus Spa and this recpetionist remembered me from 2 months ago. I never would have recognized her as somebody I had ever seen before. But yet she remembered me and that the earrings belonged to me. I was amazed. Earrings reunited. It gets better.

Then I'm locked out of my condo with no phone, no cash and no keys. As the wind blew the automactically locking front door shut when I carried the trash out to the front courtyard outside my front door. After sitting on my front staircase for over an hour my neighbor asks me what I am doing on my staircase for so long. I tell him my story and he returns with the tallest ladder I have ever seen and he proceeds to stand it up against the side of the building where he climbs about 3 stories high over my balcony railing and onto my balcony where he walks through my open doorway into my living room and out the front door, voila! Simple as that. I would have dreaded climbing up that high on a ladder and had he fallen and injured himself his wife and 2 small children would have financially suffered. Yet he did this without even being asked and his wife held the ladder for him while he did it! How fabulous is this?

Then on Sunday I'm strolling through the townsquare and watching the birds flying about when I see this young boy sitting on the ground alone with his mother. It appears as if he has polio or that something might be wrong with his legs as he never moves from where he has been positioned. The two of them are feeding the pidgeons. Across the square on a bench I see another family also feeding the pidgeons when to my horror I see their son capture one of the pidgeons with his bare hands that has been lured in with the food they are feeding the pidgeons. I shudder to think the fate of this bird and consider walking away so I don't have to see this bird stuffed into a pillowcase for later consumption. However after the boy has calmed the pidgeon down he carefully carries it over to the smaller boy sitting on the ground alone with his mother and gently hands it to the younger boy. The look of happiness and gratitude that spead over this young boys face was only surpassed by that of his mother when she saw the kindness this stranger had bestowed on her son. And for you morbid thinkers, NO the pidgeon did not go into their stew pot for dinnner. After holding the very calm pidgeon for several minutes the little boy released him to fly back into the safety of the tree tops just above them. I'm so glad I took the time to watch the events unfold. One of the many reasons Puerto Vallarta is my favorite place in the world are these many acts of kindness that happen day after day, time and time again. I could go on with so many stories of kindness I have witnessed here. I'm guessing for every bad experience we read or hear about there are probably 10 great ones we will never know of. Have a Happy Day and enjoy Puerto Vallarta

travelbug_jp · Post by **travelbug_jp** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 8:48 pm

Those are beautiful heartwarming stories, thank you for sharing them with us. I have also found that the people in PV have fantastic memories. I also have an example.
Last year after admiring a particularly charming piece of pottery at the market and striking up a conversation each time with the lady who worked in the store I finally bought it from her co-worker who had only been in the shop the first time I had been in. This year, I saw her sitting outside her shop so I stopped to say hello and called her by name. Her face immediately lit up that I had remembered her name and she recalled mine as well. Now here's the kicker, her co-worker was there and expressed his surprise at my remembering her name and then proceeded to describe to the smallest detail the small piece of pottery I had purchased!

Joyce

Jennybean · Post by **Jennybean** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 9:07 pm

droyce, your stories just brought a tear to my eye. This is the reason PV captures my heart. The daily human kindness shown to others that we seem to forget in our fast paced, electronically organized, down-to-the-second scheduled world...and most PV natives never even give it a second thought, nor expect compensation for it beyond a smile and a kind thank you.

That connection to the human spirit is something I think all of us could learn from.

Post by **webmaster** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 9:13 pm

Thanks for those experiences, very valuable contribution, lit up my day.

Mogens

Plus4 · Post by **Plus4** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 9:42 pm

Great Stories...

Very nice to read good words...
Thanks for sharing

michelle/tyler · Post by **michelle/tyler** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 1:23 am

Just in case I wasnt teary enough these past few days ,I had to read this.Thank you so much it brightened the day.So often we hear the negative and not the positive and I am guilty of this as well.I forgot to let everyone know that on our last night in pv we were at cheeky monkeys before we went for supper and we said our goodbyes and took our photos and left, half way down the malecon I said to tyler boy does my purse ever feel light then I realized I left my camera so I ran back to cheeky monkeys and a couple that was next to us was still there they had seen I left the camera and turned it into troy so I went to troy and he laughed and said yes my michelle I have it here. I was a bit embarrassed thats why I never mentioned it.

smitty · Post by **smitty** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 1:39 am

A very good post !

JROJEFF · Post by **JROJEFF** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:55 pm

I agree with the acts of kindness and am so shocked when somebody I barely met remembers me ,let alone my name from a year ago. Great post, nice to see a positive post.

JROJEFF · Post by **JROJEFF** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 11:21 pm

droyce wrote:One of the many reasons Puerto Vallarta is my favorite place in the world are these many acts of kindness that happen day after day, time and time again.
This is what I was refering to

String Peddler · Post by **String Peddler** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 11:34 pm

Goodness does happen everywhere. It just feels like we don't hear enough about it in PV or Mexico in General. We hear a lot about people falling from balconies or getting way to drunk and getting hurt only to blame the locals when responsibility lies on us.
We too, have been the recipient of kindness. In Jan we picked up a friend from the cruise ship and showed her around. We took her shopping down by the flea market. Having just purchased a house we wanted to show it off, so we hoped into a cab. In our excitement we jump out of cab and forget our bags. As we were walking to our place we noticed neither of us had the bags and the cab was gone. Disappointed and mad at ourselves we carried on and dropped our friend back at the terminal. My wife and I headed back to where we caught the cab with a slim hope of finding him. As we wandered around this taxi driver looks at us and smiled. He reached into the front seat and handed us our bags. We of course gave him a tip and laughed at ourselves as we had just repurchased everything. It felt great!!!!

canynhikr1 · Post by **canynhikr1** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 3:04 pm

I started reading and my heart was brimming with emotion because so many wonderful things happened in the city I love.
Does anyone have any more "good" stories? I want to hear stories about the spirit of PV.

pvgemini · Post by **pvgemini** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 4:32 pm

I have a good one.
When I was in PV in early October 2008, with 3 married girlfriends, we went to eat at Cafe de Olla, only to discover, sadly, that it was closed for vacations. Fortunately, however, some of the waiters whom we have come to know over the years, were there working on the place. We talked with them for a bit, and one of them offered to come to our house to make ceviche for us.

On the agreed upon date, he got up early and went fishing right by Burros Bar. He caught a beautiful fish, cleaned it, then went to the store to buy prawns and everything else he needed. He climbed up the hill to our house, and proceeded to make ceviche in our kitchen, as we wrote down the recipe.

As the ceviche marinated, we hung out and went swimming. We had a wonderful afternoon meal, and he asked for nothing in return. Actually, we were joking that "men will do anything if they think it's foreplay" LOL!! But seriously, he asked for nothing, refusing our offer to at least pay for the groceries.

Sally

canynhikr1 · Post by **canynhikr1** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 6:17 pm

I have one also:

Two years ago we were on our yearly trip to PV and took our group to Pipi's for dinner. Our nightly dining tradition includes meeting for cocktails in the condo before we leave. So, we were in jolly good spirits when we left the Mayan Palace in Nuevo Vallarta for Pipi's.
Once we got to Pipi's my husband realized he didn't have his camera with him. He wanted to get a photo of the hard working little boys who clear the tables there. We love those little guys and have never seen anyone work harder. When he realized he didn't have his camera our group assured him he must have left it back at the resort. He had a sinking feeling he left it in the taxi that took us to the restaurant but we kept telling him he would find it.
Upon returning to our room, we found that it wasn't there. It had to be in the Taxi. He went to the front of the Mayan Palace immediately to let the taxi stand know he may have left his camera. We were certain we would never see it again. Because the taxi numbers are logged, the taxi stand called someone who told us that driver was no longer working that night. The next day, got a call from the taxi stand stating that our camera had been located. The driver brought it to my husband, who in turn tipped him well.
The best part of the story is that the taxi driver took a photo of his mother and wife with our camera in the kitchen of their home. We developed it and it's part of our Puerto Vallarta memories. The driver could have easily said that he didn't find a camera. But not the case.
Me encanto Puerto Vallarta!

Plus4 · Post by **Plus4** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 6:23 pm

A great thread to bump up...

I have enjoyed re reading old posts and am enjoying reading the new stories..

Thanks...

What Happened to Me in PV

Very Nice

Good Story

Save It

can you say ceviche?

One more story!