Pits, Peaks and Points – Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

 

Hudson

Pit: Flight cancellations

Peaks: Drunk kid in the hot tub, time in the surf

Points: Bring tubes 

 

Saylor

Pit: Getting a terrible tan and getting stuck

Peaks: Carmen’s food and reading

Points: Bring swimsuits that will leave good tan lines and Netflix in Mexico is superior to American Netflix

 

 

Cindy

Pit: Credit card being canceled at 2:30 in the morning while trying to book tickets to return home. Always hoping we were going to pass the Covid test.

Peaks: 1st night - Dinner at La Palapa – sun hitting my face, defrosting from the Seattle cold. Enjoying conversation with the family. Happy hour on our patio with my honey.   Last night – seeing our plane cross over into the United States! Such a relief!

Points:  If traveling during Covid bring emed.com test kits with you. Usually do this, but bring extra credit cards.  Enjoy the challenges too because as your family motto is….It’s an adventure!  

 

 

Andy

Pit: Covid always in the back of our minds, uncertainty about getting home

Peaks: Getting in the ocean every day, everything about Careyeros Beach, surfing on the paddleboard, time with family, Carmen’s food and outlook, reduced life stress and being nicer to each other.

Points: Overrun Sayulita is no longer charming, bring extra credit cards, leave the boogie board at home but don’t forget the tubes

 December 30th, 2021

Up earlier than expected at 1:30am to a text noting our back up flight to SFO had been cancelled. We also received several email notifications that flights into and out of Seattle were likely to be cancelled due to weather and crew shortages (Covid). We quickly rebooked this to a later flight into SFO and decided to book a third option into Seattle the following day. This is where things really started to unravel. The extra flight put us over our CC credit limit as we had just paid for a complete furnace replacement. After a call to the CC company they cancelled our card and told us it could take 48hr before someone could review the account. We booked the alternate flight on our debit card and went back to sleep at 4am wondering if we would get home today.

We intently watched to if our inbound flight was running on time figuring that was a good indicator of how things would play out. Once it took off we began to enjoy our last day pool side. Floating in the tubes, watching the Iguanas and winning a hand of Bingo were our big accomplishments. 

Ultimately our flight was only an hour late and we made it home with relatively no fuss. We cancelled our other flight options and walked out of the airport into freezing temps in shorts. The shuttle to the car wasn’t running so we took an Uber since nothing about getting home has been easy. Hudson though was very happy it wound up being a Tesla. A quick ride through the snow and we are officially home and excited to see the puppy tomorrow.       

 

Some extras we forgot to mention in previous posts:

Towards the end of the day (at Ziva) we all took a hot tub. Across from us is young guy of about 15years old looking pretty wasted. After finishing his drink he tilts his head back and nods off. This provides a solid hour of entertainment for the kids creating his back story and wondering if he might pitch forward drowning himself. Someone eventually woke him up and he of course stumbled back to the bar for his next drink. We had met his parents earlier in the day and can confirm they let this kid down. Their ice breaker conversations included “What would you do in prison” scenarios and preferences for body hair shaving.

Carmen our personal chef for a day was a gift. Energetic 60ish and in spectacles with an equal love for food and family. She is from a family of 20 and had all these fascinating perspectives. “Oh the Mexican men need to be macho and always have their wives pregnant”, “my sisters always are teasing me, but I love them”, “I loved to cook always, when I was little I would talk to the vegetables, you are going to be a salsa Mr. Tomatillo”, “with a big family we had very large pots”, “we are more natural here, when someone passes the family prepares the body”.

She did all the shopping, prepared her family’s recipes in our kitchen for 6 hours and fed us a memorable meal. All of the flavors were deeper and more intense than other Mexican food we tried. Even things like a little Poblano in the Guacamole made common things unique and taste better. We tried things we’d never had before like Aquachiles and blue corn Empanades. The Carnitas and Mole were the best ever and we had leftovers for days.        

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico - Donuts and Covid Testing!

 

 December 29th, 2021

Andy was up early for another round of surfing on the SUP, wishing he had found this sooner on the trip.

We packed up our place for the second time, officially checked out and headed to the beach. The boys spent time on the tubes in the ocean while Saylor worked on evening out her tan lines. We all watched intently to see if the donut guy would make his way down the beach.

After a few hours I got us situated with a table at El Barracuda for our second lunch there. Super excited since this time we had plenty of cash. At about the same time donut guy showed! The kids took care of everything and even got to use their Spanish a bit. Hudson came back laughing telling us Saylor told the guy he should go to his uncle to get change for us.

We ordered way too much for lunch with tacos, ceviche and surf & turf burgers. All of it was very good. The beach side location, great music and lovely staff made the meal. The music was so good we asked for the Spotify playlist, Taboo Tulum. Sad to leave this perfect spot and look forward to coming back someday. This is a great place for a last day because they have showers and changing rooms if needed before you hit the airport.

Back to Puerto Vallarta we decided to stay in a resort, Club Regina. It is a typical mega resort with giant pools, dance music and folks trying to soak up the sun. We liked that it was close to the airport, they provided Covid tests, gave us an easy day of pool time ahead of our afternoon departure. After checking in we took our tests and fortunately all came up negative! Andy and I went to celebrate and sit on a lounge chair to enjoy the sunset. They only had one room left given it is New Years week.  It was a beautiful room with tubs on the deck.  Kids decided to take full advantage.  

Thinking a massage could be fun Andy called Vallarta Massage. They let us know they it was very clean and professional then the conversation turned in an unexpected direction when the guy started to explain how prices varied based what exactly we wanted.  We aren’t talking infused oil or hot rocks, more like oral sex and masturbation. Once the true nature of the types of massages they offered became apparent, we recognized this wasn’t what we had in mind.

Dinner was done at restaurant at the marina and was unremarkable. Saylor stayed home and we picked up a pizza, also unremarkable and is likely the reason for some grumbly tummies. We did find a Pie shop that was amazing!