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March 06 Puerto Vallarta the beginning....Monday - Well our trip started off on an interesting note when as our plane was taxi-ing to the runway, a man behind us had a freak out and started saying he couldn't breathe and then he ran up to the front of the plane screaming. He wandered back with an airline host and just said "I'm sorry honey" to his wife and turned around and walked off the plane (as it had turned around and returned to the gate by this time). So the wife is crying by this point and the kids are starting to cry and then the pilot tells us we have to wait as we have to remove his baggage (which is also hers and the kids). This delays us an hour as they had checked in very early. He finally decides that he should Fed Ex her the luggage as the earliest she'll see it is in 3 days and by this time a lot of us were thinking about doing some permanent damage to him for causing this entire event. The weird thing was 1) she never said anything to him at all, 2) the kids never said anything to him (nor he to them), 3) and the rest of their travelling companions (there were at least 8 more of them) never said anything to him or he to them either, and lastly 4) we were such polite Canadians no one even squawked about the delay (although after the fact, C and our neighbouring passenger decided in hindsight that they should have held him down and forced tequila into him until he calmed down). We were off to a rough start but fortunately things got much better as we had a tailwind and made up half an hour.
We flew directly over the Grand Canyon and it was a pristine clear day so we could see the vast beauty of this amazing part of the earth. We landed around 4pm and successfully located our luggage after it didn't show up on the correct carousel (of course was being loaded in on Mexican time), and then we managed to get away from the timeshare bandits to our bus. Off we went through the edge of town and then through the winding roads of the Mexican coast, farmland and mountains. What a beautiful country - and the area around Puerto Vallarta totally reminds us of Vancouver (Mexican-style). We were the last group off the bus as our resort was almost at the tip of the crescent and WOW what a fantastic resort! I completely recommend anyone thinking of going to Mexico to consider the Palladium Vallarta if they are planning a vacation. It's about 30-45 minutes from the downtown, and basically in the middle of nowhere, but the resort itself has all you would ever need. Look it up online thru Signature Vacations for more details as I don't want to sould like I'm selling you a timeshare.
Tuesday - We went to our little welcome meeting in the morning and booked our restaurant reservations as well as booked a tour of the city. We returned to the beach and caught some glorious rays (someone turned close to the colour of the Canadian flag but it was not me - hahaha!) and then continued to explore this vast resort. It was basically a lazy beach day and we had no complaints at all.
Wednesday - Was our tour of the city. we were picked up in the morning and gathered more and more people from the various resorts as we made our way towards downtown. Along the way we learned that the first road in Puerto Vallarta was built in 1970. Up until that time you had to fly into the city or take the ocean. In the mere 37 years the city has dramatically grown, the locals have witnessed their fields, farms, lagoons, ponds, homes and memories go the way of the wind. We learned that while one could be bitter over this, some chose to see the plus side. They all have jobs and the ones with jobs have homes, even the ones without jobs have homes as their country can now afford to help those who need help (like unwed mothers). They also have excellent education systems for their children and the government funds much post secondary education or the employers assist employees families with education and medical requirements. Puerto Vallarta and Mexico do have much to thank for becoming a tourist destination.
We visited the original church of the city and a fantastic silver store as well as the market and the boardwalk area. We got back on the bus and went up into the mountains to a restaurant in the middle of nowhere and had the best lunch I can remember in a long time. We continued winding along the coast learning more history, facts and whatnot until we came to a tequila factory where they still make it by hand. This factory does not sell their product in stores, you have to buy it on location and of course after tasting 4 samples everyone was buying some to take home. We now know the difference between good tequila and what we think is tequila  We returned to the Palladium after a full day and then kept things to a dull roar. We met some new friends from Iowa and watched a Mexcian musical version of Grease - it was great!!! |
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