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Greetings from Vacation Friends!

May 28th, 2009 at 02:07 pm

Greetings!
We are having a fabulous time here in Puerto Vallarta! This truly is one of those adventures that has been one great experience after another!
The flight here was very uneventful, just a short, 1 hour delay in LAX. Arrived to PV under an hour late. Got off the airplane to major humidity (at least for an Oregonian) filled out a form to determine if there was any risk of us bringing in the swine flu (hey, that’s kinda backwards??) Hit the button as I was told and got a red light, which meant my luggage was searched, then, off through the maze of people hoping to get us into a timeshare presentation. (holy cow) Made it through without being sidetracked and found our ride to the hotel. Whew.
The Westin was beautiful. Our room was very nice…service was great- the view, well, unbelievable! We enjoyed dinner under the stars…and slept to the sound of the ocean. Mmmm!
Day 2 was a day of exploration. We went to the marina and enjoyed a nice Italian- with a Mexican twist breakfast. I learned that the Mexican definition of hot is not the same as mine Smile but enjoyed my eggs and Serrano(?) chilis all the same. Dinner was a fabulous carnivorous feast. The restaurant where we dined served 10 different tastes of charbroiled meats, 1 at a time…bacon wrapped filet, new York, flank, turkey, chicken, etc There were had two local dogs hanging outside of the railing who enjoyed the scraps that we shared. Unfortunately, we learned that you are not safe from the timeshare pitch even at dinner. Our waiter, who was so friendly and fun, turned out to be a salesman too,and we realized that we were being pitched near the end of the dinner. We were very straightforward and polite, and he stopped, but his demeanor certainly changed. However, we did not allow that to get in the way of our fun. Took a nice leisurely stroll back to the hotel and fell into bed.
Day three we went downtown. Here is where it really started to dawn on me that this economy is suffering greatly from the recession and the flu scare. THE PLACE WAS VIRTUALLY DISERTED. Of course, this meant an even greater plea from the merchants for our business. We shopped until we were weary of everyone asking us to come inside and then pushing products until we could take no more and then headed for the Malecon, which is a wonderful boardwalk along the ocean. There was an amazing sand castle display of Mermaids, a dog, etc. Then, this FABULOUS one of the Last Supper. WOW. It was larger than lifesize. I have some great pics that I will download when I get home.
We were told to take the blue and white bus back to the marina, so we hopped on the blue and white bus, it took a long time, and this guy sitting next to me asked what hotel we were staying at…(uh oh, another salesman.so I was vague,but (thankfully)he asked more sternly a second time and so I told him and he said we were on the wrong bus. We ended up getting off in the middle of nowhere, but he assured us that another bus would come in about 20 minutes. He had gotten off at the same stop and he showed back up about 3 minutes before the right bus arrived to let us know that this was the bus we needed to take. And low and behold, 30 minutes later we were back at the hotel.
We arrived at the Villa on Tuesday afternoon and were greeted with a tour. OMG this place is unbelievably gorgeous,and some chips, homemade salsa and guacamole (Marta is an amazing cook) and icy margaritas. The rest of our groups flights arrived during the early evening and by dinner time, we had all arrived safely. We enjoy the first of many wonderful meals by Marta, then turned on the music, swam, visited, played cards until the wee hours.
Wednesday was incredible! In the morning and from our patio, we watched dolphins, stingray, eels, crabs and many other fish playing and feeding in the ocean. It was spectacular.
We went to a place called El Eden. Gramma Ray did the zip lines! OMG. I literally flew over the tops of palm trees and soared with the birds. All in all, there were 10 zips. I made it to all but two in the middle. The climb was steep and the sun was hot. I could tell my asthma was not happy. So I sat out those two and waited with a huge iguana that was sunning on a nearby rock, for the group to zip over the canyon and back to where I was. Then came the granddaddy of all the zips. 350 feet high over 1650 feet long. It was one of those experiences that will be forever ingrained. Beautiful, terrifying, and an adrenaline rush like no other all tied with a glorious bow when I landed on the other end having experienced it.
We zipped our way down the mountain and the tour was over. Then, we swam in a huge, natural pond where you can slide off a rock. I did that too, ONCE. Lol for some reason, I slid in such a way that my hind-end flew up higher than my head and I did an incredibly clumsy, spread-eagle flop into the pond all caught on camera by my ‘friends’ for future laughing pleasure Im sure. After a long, hot day that pond was Heaven.
Crossing over the rocks to get back to the taxi I managed to slip and land fairly hard on a rock – ouch. My little purse, money, passports, all were soaked. So last night, I did not sleep well. I am sure this bruise will be getting much worse before it gets better. However, it is no big deal…afterall, I SURVIVED THE ZIPLINES!!! Wa-hoo. We got home to an amazing meal of carne asada and homemade flan. Ok,nummers! Swam, watched a movie and tried to sleep with little success, finding a comfy position was too tough, so I have been up for several hours. I have watched the sun come up and enjoyed some coffee while recording these memories while they are fresh.
I have never had a vacation like this.
Ahh,hope all is well at your end!

I will try to figure out how to post some pics later!!

9 Responses to “Greetings from Vacation Friends!”

  1. Broken Arrow Says:
    1243517246

    Pictures! Pictures!

    Glad you're having a good time!

  2. ceejay74 Says:
    1243520224

    Wow, amazing! Hopefully someday I'll get up the courage to do something like zip lines. Smile
    When I went to Vegas, I noticed the same effect of the economy. I'd been twice before, and never had I gotten the full-court press of sales pitches like I did this past March! It was exhausting and annoying after awhile.

    I'd be afraid to go to Cozumel, because I went there during an economy boom and the sales pitches were already crazy--I imagine now they grab you and drag you into their stores. LOL.

    Anyway, so glad you're having such an amazing time! The food sounds incredible--I'm jealous!

  3. creditcardfree Says:
    1243521833

    I'm glad you are having fun! Can't wait to see pictures.

  4. Ima saver Says:
    1243522946

    Enjoy your vacation!

  5. dmontngrey Says:
    1243528125

    Wow, what an adventure you're having! Sure can't wait to see the pics!

  6. boomeyers Says:
    1243533055

    Sounds awesome! Wish I was there! Hope you feel better soon, take some ibprofin!

  7. frugaltexan75 Says:
    1243563063

    Sounds like you're having a great time! Smile

  8. baselle Says:
    1243571053

    Sounds like a great vacay!

    Easy to post pictures, if you don't already know. Write your post, Hit Save with Images, click on Browse to find pics on your hard drive, click into the one you want, Hit Save as Draft, let the website do its thing. Copy the whole tag (starts with [img....]) you see next to the picture, paste the tag into the body of your blog. Save and Publish. Rinse and repeat for multiple pictures.

  9. miclason Says:
    1243619615

    Woo-hoo! Vacation sounds great so far!
    Put some ice on that bruise!

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