Viva La Mexico

**Thank you to my sweet friend Leann. She was much more Johnny-on-the-Spot and already had her blog of the vacation typed up, so I just copied and pasted hers...with a few modifications to make it my own. Stolen like a true teacher!**

September 27 - October 4, 2009: Josh and I, with two of our best friends, went for a much needed "sunny vacation" to Puerta Vallarta, Mexico. While we were, there we enjoyed many of Mexico's finest activities including beach side laying, boogie boarding, outdoor excursions, dolphin swimming, romantic beach side dining and even a few "Umbrella Drinks."

The airport was interesting. We are very fortunate for our American luxuries. As we arrive in the Puerto Vallart airport, the ceiling had various water leaks, they don't use air conditioning, and you are bombarded with begging salesman as you try to get out the door. We literally had to push through them...much like what a quarterback goes through . It reminded us all of those annoying paper flickers that are street side in Vegas.

Our "ride" for the week was this cute little Renault Kangoo Elf. Everything is very different in Mexico..for example, did you know in Mexico they make left turns from the far right lane at a traffic light? Yep.

Our resort was Paradise, as it advertised. Upon arrival, we were met with cold fruit drinks, ice cold wet towels for our sweaty faces and a warm, "Welcome Home!" from all of the attendants. They were very accommodating and hospitable. I'd recommend this place to any who need to be pampered. We stayed on the Marina Side of the resort in a two bedroom suite with a kitchenette.

The resort's property was covered in beautiful foliage, not short of fruit trees, like this banana tree. They were too yummy to pass up! Close to this particular banana tree were some tiger cages. They also had an on site zoo, although we didn't make time for that.

We had done quite a bit of planning before leaving on our trip. Thanks to Leann and her endless Internet searches, we got a good deal on 3 excursions. They ended up being the highlights of our trip. Our first excursion was an "Outdoor Adventure", which certainly lived up to its name!

These Unimogs, used to transport us to and from our outdoor adventure were equipped with seats/seat belts and "oh s*&^" straps to hang on to. They were made "Mercedes Tough" and we were so glad they made the choice to spend the extra money on this vehicle because the roads were a bit scary up to the mountain where we would start our adventure. We were not allowed to take cameras on the outdoor adventure, so we re-enacted our repelling for memory sake! The sign behind us is a true picture of the waterfall repel we took part in on the excursion.

During our outdoor adventure we took a 25 minute mule ride up a very narrow and sludgy trail, zipped down 10 zip lines, rappelled down two waterfalls, trudged through some chilly rivers, across fun bridges and a tequila tasting finale, for a total of 6 hours of fun!! Needless to say, some of us were very sore for the rest of the week, but what an amazing time we had. Now we know how Tarzan feels flying through the trees. Yee Hawww!

On the third night, we took our second excursion. The four of us "shee sheed up" and headed out for a very romantic beach side dinner on a remote island about 25 minutes from the resort. We got there by boat and it was an amazing experience. This was what we saw as we approached the island we'd be having dinner on. It was beautifully lit with many torches and candles. After dinner was an amazing Mexican Heritage show, full with Mexican instrumentation, chants and music, a live python and some interpretive dance depicting the Mexican culture. It was so neat!

The sunset in Mexico is so beautiful against the water. Our boat ride to our romantic dinner was 25 minutes. We were entertained with games, drinks, snacks, and performances by the funny staff. Of course, we couldn't miss out on a romantic kiss!

Our final excursion we Leann's favorite, our dolphin swim. We had a baby and Mama pair of bottle nosed dolphins for our adventure. The hour and a half long experience was full with dolphin facts, mini training session, belly to belly swim with them and lots of belly petting. Dolphins are like big underwater dogs, they love attention!!

In between excursions, we were sure to take a couple of hours to do a bit of shopping at the local flea market. The prices weren't as low as we'd hoped for, but we managed to find a few things for our kids. Wow, it was warm! This is a beautiful church near the market.

Among the many things we did on our vacation, we were sure to stay on our beautiful resort for a lot of the week to enjoy their pools and beach. As adults staying at Paradise Village, one of the luxuries we were granted was access to the relaxing "adult pool." Adults Only? We livened that up in a hurry.

The waves along the beach were so much fun this week. We did lots of boogie boarding and wave conquering. The last day we were there, the waves were around 10 feet tall...that was fun. We all got "bucked off" a time or two. I believe we all got our allowed sodium intake for the rest of the year this week...all but Josh, he started running fever on Tuesday. We immediately thought swine flu, so we called the on-site doctor who came and checked him out, only to report he had a bacterial infection he mostly like got home before coming to Mexico. Safe to say Josh spent much of his time under a teaky hut snapping pictures of the rest of us making fools of ourselves, but loving every minute of it!

What is a vacation without the spa and gold course. That is our deal, Josh gets to play golf while I go to the spa...its a win-win if you ask me! While the ladies enjoyed a few spa days, the guys got to go out to the resort golf course, El Tigre.

Law Enforcement is a bit different, as are many things in Mexico. These men look like they're back from a military tour. No. These are the "cops" in Mexico. They are all armed with, we assume, loaded giant black guns thrown over their shoulder and goodness knows what else that may be hiding. They are on street sides, outside of stores, etc. Leann and I had our own run in with the "cops" on our way back to our resort from another resort. What was supposed to be a relaxing afternoon of spa treatments quickly turned into a nightmare. As we were driving, one of these "cops" STOPPED our car on the road and started speaking spanish at us through the window. Other "cops" had cars pulled over on the side of the road being searching through them while more "cops" were stopping all the passing traffic. Safe to say I jsut knew we were going to jail. All I could say to him was Puerta Vallarta...as neither Leann or I spoke spanish. Thankfully that worked for him as well, and we were on our way! Whew...I had never quite been so frightened in all my life.

The week was great, the company was excellent, and a good time was had by all...but, it was sure nice to get home and love on our babies!