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I’m home from Spring Break. I have been in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for the past week with about 21 other people we know. It’s a tradition. Last year we were there for nine nights. This time, five. Next year, we need to find a happy medium because it wasn’t long enough this time, although I did make it to a friend’s dance for the first time ever. Even though it was kind of short, boy did we make memories.

From our resort, we could see both ends of the bay. Apparently it’s 26 miles from one end to the other. We almost went to the other side to go surfing, but we didn’t.

Day 1
The Arrival

I’m always nervous when I return to a place I’ve been. I’m afraid things might have changed, which they did, but not much.

Our plane ended up getting delayed about a half hour and then because of air traffic, we sat on the tarmac for another half hour.

We took pictures while we waited.

The time is confusing because we flew out on Sunday, aka daylight savings time. Mexico has no daylight savings. We woke up Sunday, moved our watches an hour forward, got on the airplane and when we took off, moved them back an hour. By the time we landed, it was around 3:30ish.

We were waiting for our taxi to take us to the hotel. It was kind of cold outside.

 

The first thing we see when we walk up the stairs in front of the hotel. Home sweet home.

Since dinner reservations were at 6 that night, our family didn’t go to the beach. We stayed in, took showers and unpacked. Then we got ready for dinner.

Dinner that night was at my favorite restaurant, La Pergola. It’s considered the international restaurant at our resort, Marival. I always have the Parmesan chicken when I’m there.

Two different views from our first room. Yes, I said first. Remember that.

Day 2
The Day of the Sunburn

The reason for the first day of vacation is to show you where you need to apply the sunscreen better on the second day. -My mother

This was our first day on the beach. After today, everyone realizes that they do in fact get sunburned. I got off the easiest, just a little spot on my arms and ears. Some people were in agony just wearing a t-shirt.

There were nine little kids with our group. That’s sophomore and under. They aren’t really little kids anymore. The age keeps increasing at they get older. They’ll never be able to move to the big kid table. I imagine us all 30 years old with our own kids still sitting at the big kid table. The kids boogie board and swim all day. I read.

This ties in this post with London. I got travel books as well. I am prepping! We’re almost to 100 days to go!

Dinner was at my least favorite that night. The Mexican place, Las Palomas. It’s good, but there are only four restaurants so one has to be at the bottom of the list. I had reallllly good soup that I’d never tried before. It was lime-y.

We all had that color dress to wear on the same night, but Daryl decided to break it out early.
Day 3
Switcharoo
 
So, it turned out that my dad hadn’t been able to sleep the entire trip. There was apparently a screeching noise that wouldn’t stop all through the night. We had to switch rooms. Of course this would be the first trip I ever unpack during. I think I packed up my entire room in about 15 minutes.
The view right before the sunset.
The view from our new room. It was an ocean front. It was the only room available so we got it.
On a better note, a beach vendor walked by us today with jewelry. He had some cute bracelets that the day before, another man had been selling for $10 each. This guy was selling the exact same. He sold them to us for 5 for $20.
Day 4
Oh Yea, Pipi’s Yea
 
Several things happened on this day, some of which I won’t tell because “what happens at Pipi’s stays at Pipi’s.”
I learnt that I quite enjoy cappuccinos, for one.
The main thing we did this day was walk the malecon to our dinner reservations in downton PV. We all had loud, blue t-shirts that said Puerto Vallarta, so no one was getting lost. We took a cab from the hotel to the end of the malecon and walked.
The ride there was peaceful. The ride back, not so much.
We walked over a scary hanging bridge to get to the artisan market. I don’t have any pictures there because I was too busy looking around at all the stuff.
We stopped in several stores along the way and bought stuff, but mainly we just looked. One stop we had to make was the church.
It’s a Catholic church and every year, we get there right as the bells are ringing to start Mass. There is a real bell ringer. It’s really cool to watch.

 

Looking up
We ate dinner at Pipi’s that night. I won’t go in to what happened there because I could type pages and pages about it.
LOVE this picture of a sea of blue shirts walking into Pipi’s. The shirts were great on the malecon. No one could go too far without being seen.

 

All I’ll say is that our group made the restaurant’s Facebook page. We like mariachi music.  #sorrynotsorry
The cab ride home was…scary? We were probably about halfway home when a car in front of us started break-checking the cab. The driver tried to go around the car, but the car sped up and swerved over like he was going to hit us. The cabs in Mexico don’t have seat belts so our hearts were pounding. Our driver rolled down his window, yelled at the guy, and we thought it was over. Nope. Five minutes later, the car comes speeding back and zooms around us and we never see him again.

Imagine this:
You’re sitting, unseatbelted, in the back of a taxi. There are ten other people with you. Everyone is laughing and singing along to the Macarena and Achy-Breaky Heart in Spanish. All of a sudden, the driver hits his breaks and silence falls. We look ahead and see a small red car driving ahead of us. We continue driving and stop again. The red car was break-checking the taxi. The taxi switches lanes and attempts to pass the red car, but the car doesn’t like that. The taxi has overtaken half of the small car when all of a sudden, the van swerves to the right. You look out your window and see the red car narrowly miss hitting the corner of the taxi on purpose. The driver opens his window and converses in angry Spanish with the red car driver. You can make out a few curse words. The taxi speeds back up and the red car disappears behind it. A few minutes pass and you’re starting to laugh about the incident. You know when you get back to the hotel, karaoke is waiting for you and the group. Everyone thought the ordeal was over. It wasn’t. All of a sudden, a loud engine roar is heard throughout the cab. You look next to the van and catch the small red car zooming down the road and cutting us off. After that, you never see him again.

Day 5
To Surf or Not to Surf
 
Today, we were going to go to Sayulita for surfing lessons, but it was really cold outside and they told us that there was coral under the waves that would cut us all up. Instead, a lot of the group took lessons on the smaller waves at the hotel so next year, we can go to Sayulita and be pros.
That night, we went back to the first restaurant. Once again, I had the chicken parmesan.
All the adults got flaming coffee. I love watching them make it, but I doubt I’ll ever try it.
Day 6
The Farewell
 
Until next year Puerto Vallarta!
The last look out at the beach.
Going to the check out desk
There was a crazy long line to check out. A
dance contest was starting that day.
The last breakfast

 

On the way home now 😦