Got up. Loaded the car. Picked up the girls and headed for the border. Got into Minneapolis about 6pm. We booked the Travelodge by the airport – big disappointment! Hot tub was colder than the pool. Pool was tiny. Service was terrible. Oh well…we were only sleeping there for 5 hours or so.
Monday:
We had asked for a 2:30 wake up call and a taxi for 3am.Got to the airport no problem. Waited there for an hour or so until the Frontier counter opened. We were the first in line. Found out we would be delayed an hour and a half. We were to have a 2 hour layover in Denver so hopefully it would all work out. Checked our bags and walked around for a bit. Went through security no issues. Headed to our gate to play the waiting game. The kids colored and napped. I was glad I brought little blankets for them. Started loading the plane about 7:30 and we were in the air by 8:10. It was an hour and 20 minutes to Denver and our plane to PV was supposed to leave at 9:45. Yikes. I asked the flight attendant if we were going to make the connecting flight. She said no problem…there were 23 of us going to PV. Got to Denver and headed to our next gate. Turns out the second flight was delayed 15 minutes (probably to switch over the luggage). Pretty much got on the plane and then we were gone. Got into PV at 2:25 instead of 2. Got through Immigration without any issues. Got our baggage – it was all there…woohoo. Got a porter and Robin gave him 70 pesos for 5 bags and said “No timeshare”. Got a green light at Customs and we were off to the Shark Tank. Got through there without being snagged. I didn’t find them too bad, but I can see how a first timer would find it very overwhelming. Mark from Children of the Dump was there to pick us up. Found him OK and we were off to the hotel. The kids didn’t believe me that it would be hot there…they found out in a hurry that I didn’t exaggerate. Lol. Landing in the afternoon is nice. Still have the afternoon and evening to unwind. At the hotel we had hoped for 2 connecting rooms, no such luck. No biggie. Cody and Tamara would be in the second room. Morgan, Robin and I would be in the other room. We both had main floor rooms – which is a first for us. It was nice. Our room was 183 – we could step out the patio and be at the pool. It was nice. The kids had a room facing the street but they weren’t there often so it didn’t matter. Changed and headed for the pool. The kids liked that they didn’t have to pay for anything… welcome to the all inclusive life. Headed for supper after our swim and then Tamara and I headed to Walmart for some drinks, cooler and misc snacks. When we got back we watched the nightly entertainment. Then it was off to bed.
Tuesday:
Got up, had some breakfast and a swim. Headed to a Cambio to exchange some money. Then it was off to the Malecon. The girls took a lot of pictures there. Stopped at McD’s for a McFlurry. We had to be back at the hotel for 4 to meet Mark so we didn’t stay long. We got back to the hotel, changed and headed down to the lobby as Mark was pulling in. Headed out to the School of Champions to hand out donations. We handed out toothbrushes, toothpaste and some clothes. It made me thankful for what we have at home. Hopefully the kids thought the same. Morgan took a lot of pictures. Had a little tour and got back to the resort around 7. Had a quick supper, the kids had a quick swim and we went to watch the entertainment. After the entertainment we headed to the rooms for bed.
Wednesday:
Today was the last day of their Christmas celebration. They brought the statue of Guadalupe to the beach and sang. Then they brought it back into the lobby and sang some more. Then they headed across to the Villas to do the same. It was nice to see some of their celebrations. We decided today should be a pool day so we stayed at the resort all day. Cody and Robin played in the dart tournament…Robin won again. This time instead of Tequila he won a T-shirt. After supper we headed down to Café Roma. There were parades and such so we got kicked off the bus and had to walk. It was a long walk since we got kicked off even before the Malecon. We finally found it and had some wings and drinks. We got them to call a taxi and we headed back to the hotel. Tim and Amy from Oregon arrive tomorrow and we’re to meet them at CyC’s for sunset. Time for bed.
Thursday:
Stuck around the pool for most of the day. Headed down to CyC’s about 4. I asked Linda why the webcam wasn’t working – she said someone was supposed to come fix it this week. We’ll see. (Edited to say: After 3 weeks, it still isn’t working). Bought some stuff from the beach vendors. Tim & Amy and their daughter showed up and us girls went to see their rental condo. When we got back we had a light supper. Watched the sunset and visited for a bit. Headed back to the resort in time for the nightly entertainment. They got Robin back up on stage for the “Maria” skit. He says they fed him 6 or 7 shots of Tequila. We went to bed and he fell straight to sleep. Musta been the tequila.
Friday:
Seems my rash is back but not as bad as it was in March. Went for a Massage – wow! Loved it. I will be sure to get another one on our next trip. ½ the price for a longer massage. Can’t complain. Headed downtown to the markets and Malecon. Got some more jackets from a market by the Malecon. Headed to the flea market and got some more stuff. Necklaces, purses for the girls, misc stuff. Headed to Café Roma for a quick drink. Got there just in time to watch them set up for the open mic night. Fox dedicated a song to us because we’re from the same town. Headed back to CyC’s to meet up with Tim and Amy again. Had a few drinks and watched the sunset. Headed back to the hotel to watch the entertainment. It was OK…nothing we haven’t seen before. Tomorrow we’re going to get pedicures – it’s the girls’ first ones. We’ll see how they like them. My muscles are sore from my massage so I think it’s bedtime.
Saturday:
Me and the girls headed downtown for our pedicures. The boys were going to get massages. Once we got back we had lunch and then headed for the Water Park...we figured it would be nice to take the kids. What a waste of money. 165 pesos to get there by Taxi only to find out the shows were all over for the day. Since we were already there, we decided we might as well stay. 865 pesos for 5 of us…what a rip off! We only stayed for 2 hours or so. It was dead. We pretty much had the whole place to us. They even wanted to charge us 30 pesos for a tube because we weren’t from the cruise ship. We found a few lying around so we just grabbed them. Grabbed a taxi back to the hotel. This time it was only 150 pesos. Hmm. Left the kids with robin and headed to walmart. I wanted to get some stuff for the kids for Christmas. Got back to the hotel to find everyone in our room. The supper was Fisherman and no one liked it. So Robin went and got KFC. Much better. The nightly entertainment was in the lobby tonight and it was Karaoke. Not my cup of tea. After that it was bedtime.
Sunday: Today we wanted to go to Bucerias. That was an adventure. We bought all of our gift exchange gifts there. Bought Cody a few rings. The girls got some bracelets and such. Had lunch at Adrianos. It wasn’t as good as when we were there in March. 600 pesos for 5 of us. Not bad. Headed back to the hotel. After supper we went down to the beach to get the girls hair braided. I had 8 braids put in and she charged me 240 pesos. OUCH! Lesson learned…always ask the price first. Another girl did Morgan and Tamara’s hair and only charged me 550 pesos. Morgan got all her hair done and Tamara just got the top part done. We also had our “henna” tattoo’s touched up. The beach vendors are starting to take CDN $ - cool. Headed back to the lobby for the entertainment. It was OK. We met up with a couple of girls from Alberta that we met earlier in the week. We decided since it was our last night we’d go to Andale’s. We had a blast. Left the hotel at 10:30 and got back at 2:30.
Monday:
Our last day. We got up and went for a quick breakfast. I had the kids bring their suitcases into my room so I could start organizing them. Got that done in an hour and headed to the pool for a swim before we had to check out. Headed down to the front desk at 11:45 to check out. We had to leave around 12:15 for the airport so we grabbed a quick bite at the snack bar. Headed to the airport in 2 taxis and got checked in no problem. Got through security in record time and then all we had to do was wait. It didn’t seem like we had to wait that long and then we were on our way. Go into Denver and customs was a piece of cake. I think we were the only visitors so we had no line up. Got our luggage and got it rechecked. We had a 3 hour layover so we found the food court and grabbed a bite to eat. Then we went through security again and went to our gate. Denver offers free internet so the time flew by. Got into Minneapolis a little early and grabbed our luggage. We were at the hotel by 12:30 and went straight to bed.
Tuesday:
Got up and grabbed a quick breakfast at McDonalds. Stopped at Walmart for a few things and started our trip home. Stopped for lunch in Fargo and then Walmart for chips. Stopped in Grand Forks for gas and kept on going. Got to the Canadian border and for the first time this entire trip…the agent wanted to see my consent letter. Like duh! What were they going to do if I didn’t have one? Not let the girls back in? Jeepers! Got home around 7:30 and Cody had to be at hockey practice for 7:45. I had to go to my parents to get the dogs. Back to reality I suppose.
Summary:
Canto del Sol – they are doing a lot of renovations. New doors as people check out. They still had the keys and they are now going to card locks. Good idea. Fresh paint and updated beds, rooms, etc.
Frontier Airlines – Good service. No problems at all. Food service sucks though. Chips and pop/water was all we got for 6 hours of flights.
Travelodge Hotel – Awful – won’t stay there again.
PV – was wonderful as always. We will definitely be back.
I'm still working on the pictures...once I have them done and uploaded, I'll post the link. Hopefully by next weekend.
