Puerto Vallarta, MEXICO!

 Last summer Jeff and I attended a presentation given by a vacation company up in Murray, I think it was called Global Connections.  It was one of those "90 minute no pressure no purchase" presentations, which translates into "3-4 hours of constant pressure and persuasion to spend money and invest in their company."  We turned them down, but got a $100 7 night/ 8 day vacation out of it.  We originally were going to go somewhere local like Park City or Las Vegas, then when we didn't use it last fall like we'd planned, we started thinking of using it for our 5th Anniversary in May.  When Las Vegas was full and we didn't feel like going to Park City, we looked into other possibilities.  With the help of a family member with flyer miles, we were able to book our trip to PUERTO VALLARTA, MEXICO!

It was one of those surreal plans, something in a dream or just in talk, but not in reality.  But we both got our passports and made plans anyway, even though it didn't feel real.  I just kept thinking, something is going to fall through; this company will be a sham or our passports won't work or something and this trip won't happen.  But when we got our confirmation emails and then our flight plan, it started to feel more real.  Finally, on May 10 at 11:30-ish pm, it really felt real, as we finally boarded our flight!  

We had a layover in Atlanta, Georgia for a few hours.  It was in the middle of the night (early AM Saturday morning) so we were exhausted, but unfortunately couldn't find anywhere comfortable enough to take a nap.  We did manage a cute picture though...

After going through customs we found our pre-arranged transportation to our hotel.  (The travel group that we booked through provided a one-way taxi ride to our hotel.)

We stayed in the Mayan Palace: Marina.  We arrived close to 2:30pm, and after sitting through a spiel about their resort and their other nearby resort in Nueva Vallarta, we were taken to our room and left to explore the resort.

This is what the roads looked like just outside our hotel.  This first one is from where we would catch the bus.  

The streets were all cobblestone and always lined with taxis. 

The entrance to the hotel was way cool.  You walked in and around these big towers with Mayan drawings on them and water running down with Mayan music and drums playing throughout.  

Then as you exited the entrance your view was of this rotunda and pond with the pool just beyond and the ocean beyond that.  We have a picture further down taken from higher up so you can see it all...

We couldn't believe how open and airy the lobby was.  There was a breeze blowing in off the ocean and it was perfect.  They left these big doors open 24/7.  So cool.  

This is where we exited the hotel to get to the rest of the resort grounds, pool, etc.  

This is the walkway leaving that exit that took us down to the pool, internet cafe, restaurants, ocean, etc.  

View from close to where Jeff is standing:

Back view of the hotel

I found this one on their website:

Side building with more rooms, as well as the internet cafe, store, restaurants, etc.  

View from the top floor in the main building.  You can see the pond, pool, and ocean, as well as the side building on the right and another hotel on the left.  

View out the front of the hotel.  You can see the marina and hotel next door.

Hallway leading to our room:

Just after we first got into our room!

For some reason Global Connections booked us in a "Master Suite," which was a 2 bedroom suite with a connecting door.  It included: King bed, 2 queen beds, 2 full bathrooms (one with tub, one with huge shower), kitchen area, and living room with couches, tv, etc.  

We also had a private balcony from each room!  

After exploring the resort and getting settled we decided to figure out the bus system and head down to downtown Vallarta.  They have a flea market/ boardwalk area along the ocean.  We mostly just window shopped and talked to a few people.

Jeff was in heaven the entire trip, getting to use his Spanish to speak to everyone we met.  Most were surprised to hear a white boy like him speaking so fluently.  He absolutely loved it.  And I kinda liked just sitting back playing dumb, even though I can pick up pieces here and there and get the general topic of most conversations.  I just can't speak it at all...

After wandering we headed up farther into town to a little restaurant that was recommended to us by a local.  It was called "El Sazon del Aca."  

We shared an entree of Mahi Mahi Fajitas.  They were awesome. 

After dinner we just walked around a bit more on inner streets until we decided we'd better find the bus stop before it got too late and we missed it.  (It was a good 15-20 minute ride from our hotel to downtown.)  

We had to switch buses in front of Walmart so we decided to run in there and get some fruit, muffins, juice, etc to have on hand at the hotel so we wouldn't have to eat out every meal.  I wish I had a picture of their bakery area.  Most of the Walmart resembled ours here, but their bakery area was extended out the side of the building with rows and cases of all kinds of various bakery items.  You would just grab a big metal tray and tongs and go around picking out whatever you wanted, after which you'd take your tray to a register where they'd bag it and give you a tag (much like a deli does.)  It was kinda fun to pick and choose, especially when we had no idea what half of them were.  

The next morning was Sunday and Mother's Day.  We ate breakfast in our room and then went for a walk outside the hotel.

We then decided to go check out the pool and go swimming for awhile.  It was kinda nice that it was Sunday, as it made it even easier to just sit back and relax all day, especially since I'm not all that good and sitting around doing nothing.  ;)

I also found this cool picture of the pool at night on their website:

They had happy hour while we were out there with half price drinks so we decided to get a few pina coladas.  LOVE them. 

I'd also never been in a pool with a bar... It was fun to sit and chill on the seats while still being in the water.

We spent a good fifteen mintues watching this iguana wander around, and chatting with an American guy who had retired in Mexico and lived somewhere a few hours away.  He liked trying to feed the iguana pineapple. 

We decided to go check out the ocean too...

After swimming we went into the internet cafe, which was inside their convenience store, to get on skype with our families and Alex.  We were able to to talk to both Mom's for a bit, Alex, and even Shad.  Afterwards we got dressed and headed down to the Bakal restaurant, which was part of the Mayan Palace resort, for dinner.

It was a pretty cool restaurant...

I had a shrimp burrito that was AMAZING.   One of my favorite meals of our trip, minus the fact that it came with fries.  Granted I like french fries, but not when I can get them at home and I'm in Mexico!  The burrito was still amazing enough to make up for it though...

Jeff had Tacos de Asado (steak tacos) which he also really enjoyed.

And since it was Mother's Day we splurged and got dessert too... It was a spongy lava cake type thing with ice cream.  It looked like something we'd be able to find in the U.S. but it tasted different than anything I've ever had... in a really good way.  And I don't usually like chocolate cake... 

The next morning (Monday) we were taxied over to Nueva Vallarta (20-30 minutes away) where the sister resorts were.  We were there to sit through another vacation presentation, but got some sweet perks out of it too.  They gave us 500 pesos, a free buffet breakfast, cab fair there and back, and access to all their amenities for the day.  

We started with an awesome buffet breakfast at this restaurant on the property, we can't remember the name for sure, but we think it was the Cafe del Lago.    

After breakfast our host took us to a room in one of the hotels where they sit you down and give you their spiel.  There were a ton of people in that room getting the same speech.  They actually were a pretty cool company, with multiple resorts around the world, (like 15 or so,) all of which you could have access to.  You were buying a room, like a time share, but you could "rent" it when not using it so you were making money off of it too.  The resort we were on was MUCH bigger than ours back in Puerto Vallarta.  This resort at Nuevo Vallarta had like 5-6 hotels, 2 golf courses, a water park, and was on like 25 acres.  They were also building more hotels, an amusement park, etc on the property.  They took us up in one of the buildings so we could see the whole property.  It was pretty cool. 

After we politely turned them down 2 hours later, we were free to explore the huge resort.  All of the hotels are connected  by these wooden pathways with lush greenery all around.   I loved it.

In the center they had this big water area with restaurants around it.   

We discovered they also do some evening shows there.  You can see the platform under the water here.  We saw them raise it and push a piano out on it later in the day.

To get to the pool area we had to go through the Grand Mayan hotel.  You walk into this dark doorway to enter and then all of a sudden you're in this huge tall dark room with these massive statues and loud Mayan music playing, much like back at our hotel, but way more impressive.  And I thought ours was cool... What made it even more breathtaking was the fact that you walk in from the bright sunlight so it takes your eyes a minute to adjust before you see everything inside.  It was way cool.

Their pool area was also bigger than ours, with multiple pools and a slide. 

One of my favorite parts of this resort was their outdoor beds.  They just seemed like something out of a magazine, not something I'd ever get to relax in and enjoy!

We headed out to the ocean next to chill on the beach...  

It wasn't long though before a parasailer nearby caught our attention and we decided to go for a ride.  I made Jeff go first...

You can barely see the boat below pulling him around.  They said it was a 500 foot rope.  I don't know how high that made us in the air, (because of the slack) but pretty dang high!

The first thing he said to me when he got down was, "you're gonna want to take that camera..."  So I did.  

Gorgeous and exhilarating!  

After our rides we just relaxed for a while, turned down a bunch of beach vendors trying to sell us junk, and Jeff rode a few waves.

We then went to relax and dry off in one of the outdoor beds.

After changing back into our clothes we ate at Taco Break, which was part of the resort also, but just outside the gate.  

We shared a steak torta, tostada, 2 steak tacos, and shrimp taco.  They were all pretty good.  Jeff especially was in heaven with all of the authentic food we had all during the week!

Instead of using all the money they gave us on cab fair we decided to just ride the bus back to Puerto Vallarta.  We got off close to where our hotel was, planning to walk (since that bus didn't turn off the main road to go right to our hotel) and discovered this whole area with all these shops and hotels.  It was the marina, which we'd heard about, but didn't know how to get to or what exactly it was.  We were so glad we'd decided to take the bus or we never would've discovered it!  Or we would've discovered it much later in the week and been disappointed...

It's basically a big marina with hotels, shops, and restaurants all around it.  It had like 5-6 lenghts that you had to walk around to get to the other side (where out hotel was.)  

If we'd taken a taxi we also would've never met Juan Estevez.  You can see him in this picture below (where the arrow is) right before we met him.  He kinda stopped us as we walked by to chat.  His job was to catch tourists and set them up with tours and things to do in the area (these people were EVERYWHERE and all got commission if they set us up) but he wasn't very pushy at all.  He actually seemed to want to talk more about us than what there was to do in Mexico.  He commented on how happy we seemed (everyone in Mexico called us "honeymooners" and were shocked when we told them it was our 5th anniversary and we had a kid...)  He ended up really opening up to us and talking to us about his life and how he had a girlfriend who he'd married and had a kid with.  She took off for a few months to visit her family in the U.S. and left him with their baby, and then came back one day to visit.  She said she was going to take the baby shopping and then never came back.  She had taken her back to the U.S. where Juan couldn't go to visit or get her back.  He was pretty solemn about it and said he had really gotten depressed afterwards.  He then had a conversation a few months later with a religious man (we're guessing Jehovah Witness) who told him there was good reasons to live, etc. but then never came back or contacted him again.  He wondered if we were from the same church.  Half of the conversation was already in Spanish so I just kinda hung out and picked up what I could, but when he asked about the church the change in Jeff and his Spanish was really cool.  He kinda went into missionary mode a little, and you could suddenly feel the spirit.  His Spanish became even smoother and better than it already is.  It was really cool.  He said it almost felt like the the Spirit came from behind him, through him, toward Juan.  Juan was pretty interested and gave us his phone number and email and let us know that he was interested in hearing more!  He said he was in a place in his life where he needed something else to focus on, to occupy his mind and time since his wife and baby were gone, and he loved how happy we seemed.  It was so cool.  We both went back to our hotel all smiles.   

The first thing we did was went straight to the internet cafe to enter him in on mormon.org as a referral.  I really hope the missionaries were able to make contact with him!  (Jeff emailed him a couple weeks after we got home but he said he hadn't heard from the missionaries yet.  I really hope they find him!!  He was golden.)

Showing our fresh sunburns to the mirror:

 My early anniversary present!  A silver ring was one of the things I went to Mexico wanting to find.  We found this one in a shop on our resort property.  I love it!  

Tuesday we had a party barge tour booked on a boat called the "Beach Boy."  This huge map of Mexico was in the harbor where the tour boats were docked. 

So was this big seal that they were taking people's pictures with.  They had it trained to hug and kiss you on command, it was funny.

They of course tried to sell me this picture at some outrageous price but I'm happy with just a picture of the picture:

Aboard the Beach Boy:

View of the marina from the boat:

This boat didn't have a cover on top so everyone on board crowded on the lower deck to be in the shade.  Our tour was mostly full of older folks who were all there in a big group, which was pretty dang entertaining when the booze started flowing... 

It was way cool to see dolphins crest as they came up for air!

View of the shoreline and downtown Puerto Vallarta where the boardwalk is:

Los Arcos.  We almost didn't get to snorkel because there were a lot of jellyfish in the area, but they ended up letting us anyway.  We got in the water but I was only in for about 2 minutes because the water was so murky.  There was nothing to see!  I guess May is the end of their dry season.  If we'd come in a few months in the rainy season then the jungles would be greener and the water would be clearer...

Jeff had fun floating around for a few more minutes, even though he didn't see much...

Not too far past Los Arcos was the private beach.  

I think the tour guides were trying to talk people out of hiking up to the waterfall, as there were no horses around and they said the waterfall was basically non-existent because of the dry season.  I had taken a Dramamine before the tour because I was worried about the boat ride, and it made me super drowsy so I ended up falling asleep under an umbrella and spending the whole afternoon there.

Lunch was included in our tour so that was served a few hours later...

This mariachi band was going around singing songs and taking requests...

You can't tell in this picture but we ended up being really sunburned after sleeping UNDER that umbrella all afternoon... apparently it didn't fully block the sun like we thought... crazy!

On the ride home the old people really had a lot to drink and got kinda crazy with their congo line.  It was pretty entertaining...

On our ride home we spotted a few horses just hanging out on the beach near the marina.  This turned out to the be the highlight of our day and the good that came out of that Beach Boy tour...  One of my bucket list items is to gallop a horse on the beach.  We couldn't pass up the opportunity!

At first we just followed this guy along the beach, but he kinda kept his distance and we were free to walk up and down the beach, in and out of the water.

And then we got a little more confident and I took my chance!  It was awesome, especially at sunset!  I was even able to ignore the stirrups digging into my sunburned shins...

On our way home we stopped in the marina and ate at El Fogon.  

This wasn't our favorite meal of the trip, but it was kinda cool that Jeff's was cooked over the flame over his shoulder:    

Jeff liked his food alright, but mine wasn't all that great.  But we ended up getting mine for free, so that made it more okay.

These are just a few more pictures of the inner shops at the marina at night:

We stopped at a convenience store near our hotel to see if they had some aloe vera gel and got this ice cream bar.  I was curious to see how they compared to ours.  They were pretty similar in taste, just not in shape.  You don't usually see an ice cream bar combined with an ice cream sandwich...

The next day (Wednesday) we saw this guy up in the tree cutting coconuts down on our way through the marina to catch the bus.  I think we walked through the marina almost every morning and night after discovering it because it saved us a lot of bus fare.  

This day we had a zip line tour booked.  We had to catch our ride to the zip lines at The Colage, a club just on the other side of the marina from our hotel.  We didn't know what to expect as our transportation, and were surprised to see this truck pull up with rows of seats and open air.  It had terrible suspension, but was kinda fun still.  

I couldn't get over how crazy the people drive there, and the fact that we never saw an accident!  The buses come so close to side swiping each other, and they all drive so fast and just cut in front of each other.  It's nuts.

I just thought this little boy was super cute:

The truck took us through downtown Puerto Vallarta...

And stopped at their office to get something...

It then took us along the coast after which it turned up into the mountains.  As we got up into the mountains we went through a few small towns that really showed a piece of authentic non-tourist Mexico.

After an hour or so ride we made it to the set of the movie Predator, which is where the zip line tour is.  

They have this really cool restaurant and waterfall on the property:

All ready for the zip lines!

Pathways and stairs going between lines:

I took this picture right before the photographer with the feather (on the right) freaked out on me, telling me that cameras aren't allowed- tour rules.  He then tried to get me in trouble, as he got on a radio and spoke to a supervisor who didn't care.  He was speaking Spanish, figuring we wouldn't understand, but of course Jeff did.  We just laughed to ourselves...

We got to ride a few of the lines upside down.  Some were pretty fast too!  It was a fun tour.  

Afterwards we had time to hang out at this restaurant and wade in the waterfall.  

We ended up just getting chips and salsa and then putting our feet in.  The cold water felt so good on my sunburned shins and feet!

On our way home we stopped at this tequila distillery.  They showed us all how they make tequila and then tried to get us to buy some.  It was a pretty interesting process, even though we don't drink...

After sweating all day on the tour we decided to just go down to the beach and swim and relax for a little while...

We then got dressed and went into the marina for dinner.  We had been wanting to try this Brazilian place since we saw it in the marina so we decided to go there for dinner that night.    

Man I love pina coladas!

The meals here were huge!  We kinda had to talk them into letting us share one... We ordered steak fajitas, which came with a bunch of different sides/salads, and a few different sauces/ salsas, as well as rice and beans.

I'd never had chimichurri before, but I LOVED it here in the fajitas!  

Near the end of our meal the manager/ owner gave me this rose!  Pretty, and sweet, even though she was a chick...

Thursday was our actual anniversary!  

We decided to have breakfast in the marina at Victor's.  The prices were lower and it had been highly recommended.  It was good, but not amazing.  Jeff said it was actually the spiciest meal he had all week.  

I had a more American dish with eggs, bacon, and a hashbrown type thing, with refried beans.  Somehow their beans were amazing everywhere we went.  I wish I knew how to make them here, I've never loved refried beans so much!  

We also got this:  We can't remember what is was called, but it was basically a bread type thing with cinnamon and sugar on it.  

This was Jeff's.  He said it was called, "Puntas a la Mexicana."  I don't think it came with tortillas but he got some and ate it like fajitas.  

We both had found a few red spots like bite marks on our legs and we felt like they were showing up in the morning so we decided to talk to the front desk about the possibility of bugs.  They decided to move us to another room just in case, which turned out to be 2 floors up with a better view!  

For our anniversary we decided to head back downtown to visit the "Zona Romantica" (Romantic Zone)  which was a shopping area kinda near the flea market and board walk.  We also visited more shops and the rest of the flea market that we'd missed on Saturday.  It was fun to shop for souvenirs and to just walk around without a tour or anywhere we had to be.  

We bought this cool dish:

At this store.  It took me forever to pick one!  I ended up having to go by price and style and not color.  There were so many to choose from!    

We also got Shad a cool little Mexican soccer jersey there.  (Pictured here a little after we got home.)

Boardwalk between the flea market and Zona Romantica.

A few of the streets more inland.  I just wanted to try and capture the way they looked, but it was so hard to do in just a few pictures...

Way cool old tree:

As far as souvenirs go, we also ended up getting me a shoulder bag that's blue and green with flowers on it, a leather bracelet with a sea shell on it, (see below), Jeff got a red Puerto Vallarta ball cap and a big and small bolero for Shad and himself, a few bottles of Mexican vanilla, 2 magnets for the fridge, and a bunch of peanut butter candies called "de la Rosa."  They taste like the inside of a chico stick or a butterfinger, but they're soft and almost powdery.  We got one of those to bring home for each member of our families.  

We finally were able to see the sunset on our anniversary!  We'd missed it every night before then due to being too far away or in the marina eating dinner where we couldn't see it, etc.  

We had sampled some coconut shrimp from this restaurant called The Blue Shrimp earlier while wandering around, and I couldn't get it out of my head.  So we decided to go back there for our anniversary dinner. 

We got there and seated just in time to see the tail end of the sunset.  So perfect!

Our meals came with trip to the salad bar:  

Jeff ordered Jumbo Portuguese Shrimp, which was wrapped in bacon, on fire, and stuck in half a papaya when they delivered it. 

And I of course got the coconut shrimp I'd been craving all afternoon.  And it was awesome.  Definitely rivaled the shrimp burrito as my favorite meal.  

After wandering back through the Zona Romantica and boardwalk we topped the night off with some Mexican gelato/ ice cream.  I can't remember the flavors, but they were different than here.  And they were pretty good!  

"Mexican Car Show" ha ha

Friday we didn't have any set plans.

We decided to take a bus out to the town of Sayulita, which was about 45 minutes away.  We were told this was a great little tourist area, but not near as crowded or busy as the Puerto Vallarta beaches. 

All of the buses in the area were stick shift and all the drivers had these old school coin holders.  I thought they were cool...

The main reason we decided to go to Sayulita was to try paddle boarding and surfing!  

We tried paddle boarding together first, but having two people on the same board proved to be much harder as we were both trying to balance and would just throw each other off.  

So we decided to take turns instead...

Me on the paddle board:

The sand there was really cool.  These pictures don't really show it, but it had tons of gold specs in it.  They would float and sparkle with every wave.  

Jeff on the paddle board:

Then we decided to try surfing!  Jeff did really well!  

Me, not so much, though I really did enjoy it...

This was the best ride I had:

Jeff again:

Me:

 And this was the closest I came to standing up:

We left wishing there was somewhere closer to home to surf because it was really addicting!  We both really loved it! 

We really liked this little town, because it wasn't so saturated with tourists that there weren't any local people or businesses still in existence.  It seemed more authentic in general than the other places we'd visited.  

Ready for dinner on our last night.

We decided to go back to The Bakal that was on our resort's property, (where we ate Sunday night) because they were having a Mexican buffet special that night.   

After dinner we walked down to the beach to watch the sunset one last time.

We also watched the water swirl around the rocks and the crabs and sea urchins climbing all over them.

View looking back up at our resort.

We also discovered this little outdoor bar that was part of our resort.  (The one on the right in the picture above.) 

We decided to sit for a few minutes and enjoy a firework show!  Okay, it was only like 5 fireworks...

Saturday morning we walked through the marina one last time and ate breakfast at Fajita Banana.

After packing up our stuff and checking out we went back to the little beach-side bar place we'd discovered the night before to just relax till it was time to leave for the airport.  

Puerto Vallarta Airport:

Most of the money we spent on the trip was in pesos.  That was a fun new experience for both of us.  And we had to get used to handing someone a bill that said $200 on it and remembering that it was only around $18 U.S. dollars...

Waiting to go out and board our plane:

Sad to be headed home: 

Bye Puerto Vallarta, we will definitely miss you!