Adventures in Mexico!

So we decided to have a nice vacation in Puerto Vallarta Mexico, and go the all inclusive route.

View from our hotel room

The adventure began as soon as we got off the plane. Not only was it spring break week for a lot of schools but it was also Easter week, so there happen to be quite a few people in line for going through customs. But we made it through with no problems and out the airport to make our way to the hotel. We had forgotten to make plans to get from the airport to the hotel, so off to find a cab we were. (Of course our hotel was 45 min drive from the airport) Coming from Houston, we weren’t real familiar with the cab system, so we were a little skeptical at first (being in a strange city, not familiar with the place, not really knowing where we were going) but with no other options, into the cab and off to the hotel.

Ready for a week of relaxing on the beach!

After the first day of relaxing by the pool and the beach we decided to do some of the tours offered by the hotel, which turned out to be quite fun and adventuresome.
The second day there we took this boat ride to a secluded beach only accessible by boat (No it wasn’t a “couples” activity it was a group activity) Where there was yoga, swimming with sea lions, cooking, nature walks, etc…

We got to hold a monkey

And a Parrot

It was quite an adventure just getting there. We all met in the lobby and waited for our tour guide. He arrived (on Mexico time) and said everybody for the bla bla bla tour over here, it sounded like our tour so we gathered and he said that the water was to rough for the tour to be by boat and that they were going to all take cabs to their destination. I say their tour because this was not our tour. It turned out that our tour would be leaving after theirs. So they all got in their cabs and left, then our tour guide came to us and said well your tour is only accessible by boat so off to the boats we go. We were a little skeptical because we just heard him say that it was too dangerous for them to go by boat but here we go to this little boat that holds about 10 people, and we are told to rush to get onto the boat because it was hard to keeps stable on the beach. But we were here to have a good time so we weren’t going to let a couple of waves hold us back.

The boat we took

So we get in this little boat and off we go and this thing is literally seesawing on these waves, you should have seen the death grip that Suzanne had on my arm. We get pretty far out on the ocean and they tell us we now have to switch to this bigger boat, as we are rocking up and down. Once on the bigger boat we felt much safer and started to relax a little. We finally made it to our destination and had quite an enjoyable afternoon in the sun. On the way back they told us it was too dangerous to get back into the little boat to make it back to our hotel so they took us to the marina and we had to get a cab back to the hotel. (Another 45 min cab ride) But we had friends this time because there were about 7 of us from our hotel who all needed a ride back, so we all piled into the same cab and made it back.

Day three we decided to be less adventuresome and take a bus tour of the city.

We got some good pictures had a nice time, until we got to the flea market. We were told, go shop for about 30 minutes, come back and meet on this corner and we’ll go to our next place. So we shop for about 30 minutes come back to the corner and no one was there. We thought that no one had come back yet because we were on Mexico time here right, so we wait and wait and wait. After about 20 more minutes this other couple that was on the same tour as us show up so we start to think ok they are starting to show up now so we wait and wait some more. After about another 45 minutes we realized that they had left us and we were on our own, in the middle of a strange city with very little money and no clue where we were. (Luckily for us our hotel was a very recognizable hotel) So off to find another cab we were. By now we’re getting pretty familiar with the whole cab system.

The next day we decided that we had had enough gallivanting around and decided to stay close to the hotel, we tried out a little snorkeling, a little kayaking, and pretty much lounging around.

Then came time to go, we had finished all our adventures and off to the airport we were. (At least we had thought that our adventures were over)

One thing that I haven’t mentioned yet was that the road from the airport to our hotel was a little winding two lane road, and that it was the only road to our hotel. This only becomes important when trying to get back to the airport.

We sleep late and have a nice breakfast the last day because our flight wasn’t until 2 o’clock and check out was at 12, and we figured that would be plenty of time to make it to the airport. Again there was a cab involved, we get in and off to the airport. About 10 min down the road and as you probably could have guessed by the intro there was this big long line of cars and nobody was going anywhere. So our driver decides he is going to go find out what’s going on, slides on to the wrong side of the road, passes everybody (waving as he passes a couple of his cabbie buddies) pulls up close to the blockages and pulls to the side of the road gets out and walks to see what’s going on. About 10 min later comes back and says “Well there was a wreck, yesterday.” Apparently there was a propane tanker that had flipped, was leaking and blocking the road, and wasn’t going anywhere any time soon. But our driver had a plan. He said we could take a water taxi, which basically meant he’d get one of his buddies on the beach that had a boat to ferry us to the other side and we could get a taxi from there to the airport, but we had to go fast because our flight was leaving soon (at least what was now fast approaching anyway.) So he rounds up his cabbie buddies, who also had people trying to get to the airport at the same time and back to the beach we were. It must have been such a sight to see us 7 gringos and all of our luggage, running across the beach to this little boat (basically the same boat we took our first tour on) trying to get ferried across to catch another cab to the airport.

grabbing luggage off the boat

So we get off the boat, and haul all of our bags off and try to find a cab (quickly.)

Our boat driver decides to help us find a cab, which amounts to finding an acquaintance of his who has a car (SUV) that can accommodate us. This vehicle has the front two seats and a bench seat in the back with a large area for luggage behind the bench seat. If you are keeping track this is 7 of us and all our bags and the driver and there are 5 seats, and just barely enough room for our stuff. But as the old saying goes “when in Rome…” We cram in and as we shut the door the driver pulls out a 6 pack and cracks one open and offers the rest to us and off we were to catch a plane.

Only in Mexico!

Anyway we made it home and are now preparing for many more adventures on our trip to Nigeria, and other parts of the World.