Our first trip to PV! PART 2

[nmathis]

Thursday, Jan. 24

My brother-in-law wanted to go into Pitillal. There didn't seem to be a whole lot to see here. So we headed back to the Rio Cuale and the River Cafe. It was a very nice open air restaurant. From there, we hit the Mercado's again. My brother-in-law enjoys the whole barter game. I don't. I am not good at it. Just tell me how much it is. If I want it, I'll pay it. Then back to the hotel. Tonight was Mexican Fiesta night. This was a very enjoyable experience. They gave the ladies colorful wraps, and the hombre's a neckerchief and hat. The cocktails were flowing. The most enjoyable part for me was watching a high flying act. I don't remember their name. It was an Indian religious program. The leader, tapping on a tom tom while playing a piccolo. The 5 costumed males then climbed a 120 foot tower. At the top of the pole was a square that 4 of the men sat on. One on each side. The leader sat on the pole. The 4 tied a rope around their waists. The 5th continued with the tom tom and piccolo. Then the 4 leaned back. The square began to slowly turn. As it turned, the flyers began to "fly" around the pole. The flyers were each attached to a rope that was wound around the pole. The flyers slowly were lowered while they were spinning. The rope unwound until they reached the ground. As they were spinning and lowering, they had 1 leg wrapped around the rope. Upside down they took on the appearance of being dead. When they were down, the 5th slide down one of the ropes. My description does not do this display justice. It was a beautiful ceremony. Later there was Mariachi music and Mexican dancing taken from different parts of Mexico. They also had a couple of young guys who did rope tricks. It was an enjoyable event.

Friday Jan. 25

Today was a day of exploring. We took the bus and revisited a couple of the same Mercado's we had visited earlier. We had lunch at Cheeseburger in Paradise. From there we went back down to Rio Cuale, to Olas Atlas and onto Los Muertos beach. Saw a number of restaurants mentioned in the BB's.
Had a snack at the Choco Banana. From there we went down Basillio Badillio. We made plans as to which restaurants we wanted to go back to and hit. We took the buses back to the Nuevo Mayan. 2 people, the cost was $4.80. Taking a taxi would have been at least 170 pesos. We felt a whole lot more comfortable with the buses.

We went back to the hotel, picked up the rest of the family and headed back to Brasil Steakhouse. This way we could drop off some film. In hind sight, I would NOT have my film developed there. The pictures did not come out very good. We are in the process of having the negatives redeveloped and are finding a much better product back in the States.

Saturday Jan. 26

We spent most of the day on the beach. It was amazing, the sun never felt hot, although I did get a good burn. We went back to the Paradise Plaza and tried out Giudo's Italian Restaurant. Dinner was very good. If there are 4 or more of you, Guido's has a stretch limo and will take you back to your hotel. I picked up the pictures dropped off the day before. I was not impressed.

Sunday Jan. 27

Today is dive day. I was supposed to be going to El Morro, but, the currents were to strong. So, we went back to Marietas. We dropped over the side. I went to the bottom to wait for the other diver and the divemaster. The other diver was having trouble, so Erick stayed with him, until he was comfortable. I went through a small tunnel that was filled with fish. This is the amazing part, in the tunnel, the water was like 90 degrees! Outside the tunnel, the water was like 70 degrees. I saw another moray eel tucked into a rockmass. Visibility was again great. Our 2nd dive went fine. I enjoyed the rocks and walls and then sand. The ride home was interesting. The wind had picked up pretty good and we all got soaked on the ride back.

I went to the hotel, took a shower. I then went to the Mall and picked up my next batch of pictures and some groceries. There is a pretty good grocery store in the Mall.

Monday Jan. 28

The only drawback to our staying at the Mayan was that we had to attend a timeshare presentation so that we could get 15% off of our food and beverage bill. We did the deed and were done....4 hours later. But they were very good with us. As was mentioned before, my brother-in-law owns a couple. He was going to do more business with them. We did not buy. Why buy when we want to stay in town next time. Or if we want to stay in Nuevo, we can always get a suite through my bro-in-law.

We went back to the mall to get our pictures. Later, we had dinner at the hotel. We sat on the balcony un until bed.

Tuesday Jan 29

We took the taxi down to Mc Donald's on the Malecon. We were going to take my mother-in-law and her husband on the trolley so that they could catch a glimpse of PV. They can't walk to far. Neither can my bro-in-law. The trip lasted about a 1/2 hour.

We split from them after that. We wanted to hit El Torito's for lunch. This was a good lunch, the ribs were great. We went back to Pacific Scuba to try and set up 1 more dive. This time I wanted Chimo. They said they had snorkelers and 1 diver who wanted Marietas. I didn't want to do it a 3rd time. He said he would see if the other diver would mind changing. He would call if there was positive news. No call.
Pacific Scuba is a great dive shop, They have good philosophy and great people. The only problem is that they are small. IMHO- Chico's and Vallarta Adventures are big and may not be able to offer the personalized service. It's a pickle. We went back to the hotel and stayed there.