Having a reason to go to Mexico is a great way to start a trip. My mom's sister retired in Nuevo Vallarta two years ago and she's been there since. My mom hadn't visited her yet so we finally took the initiative and planned a trip. My dad didn't go since he's not too much into the walking around in hot weather shopping all day, so he was our taxi to and from the airports.
The weather in Mexico was perfect. 80 degree days and 70 degree water was great considering when we left SFO it was cloudy and raining. Nuevo Vallarta is pretty much a town that the hotels have taken over and re-established. It's nice, but there really isn't anything to do there. We had to take a 30 minute bus ride into the downtown "El Centro" of Puerto Vallarta to do all of our shopping. Puerto Vallarta is a nice little city. I was surprised that all of the city streets are cobblestones. Real stones. Very bumpy. Hazardous for when we were dashing across the streets trying not to get run over. Apparently in Mexico, cars have the right of way.
In El Centro there is a wide walkway along the water called the Malecon. There are a lot of incredible views of Bahía Banderas and on the particular day we were there, we could see all the way to both ends of the bay and it's freaking huge. We spent an entire day just walking around P.V. checking out all of shops and open-air markets. All of the vendors totally inflate their prices by 200% so naturally we always had to bargain. The next day we decided to go on a horseback ride up to El Eden where there are still remnants of the "Predator" set. It's not exactly a destination I needed to see; I was more excited about the ride up. Our tour was a bit more than three hours and it was only 225 pesos which is like $25. It was quite nice and I would have liked to go on a longer one. I had never been horseback riding before but my horse was nice and we got along fine. My mom's horse never wanted to keep up with the group and my brother got a pregnant mare that kept stopping to eat everything.
I didn't really do all that much when I was in Mexico. We did a lot of shopping and walking around El Centro. It's very easy to get turned around in P.V. because all of the streets look so similar. Cobblestones with big white buildings along them. The curbs are funny though. Most of them are raised about three feet and have a thick yellow line painted along the edge. Brian and I likened it to the BART stations. I guess it's to prevent pedestrians from being run over.
I was much appreciative of them when I saw how incredibly crazy Mexican drivers are. It's scary, really. But all in all, there are some nice shops where the keepers are very patient and enunciate and I could totally understand everything they said. It's just my memory that wasn't holding up because I always had to go back and count from treinta to cinquenta to remember my numbers.
The day before we left Mexico we had a laid-back day at the beach. The sun is quite hot and I suppose I could have gotten a better tan that I did but I couldn't take the heat. It's nice to be able to stroll through water as my mom put it, "that doesn't make your toes curl." Indeed, it was nice. They even have little vendor huts on the beach that are ultimate tourist traps but they were very convenient.
Our flight out of PV on Monday wasn't until the afternoon so Brian and I took one last trip into Puerto Vallarta to do some more last minute shopping. We woke before sunrise, packed up most of our stuff and headed out on the first bus into town. I think we very well may have covered more ground in three hours than any other day. I think we bought just as much. It was oh so fun trying to stuff everything back into the already full luggage. We took a taxi to the PV airport and had some incredibly overpriced airport lunch and were on the way home.
Even though I totally could have taken advantage of the whole being able to drink thing, all I had was a Brazilian tequila drink, a glass of wine and I bought a six pack of Coronas. But it didn't really matter because I can't hold my alcohol anyway. In the end I've concluded that although it was fun going to Mexico with my family, it would be so much more fun with friends. There was so much I wanted to do and no one would do it with me. So if anyone's game for going to Mexico sometime, give me a call and let's go!
