Puerto Vallarta

Our vacation was AMAZING. I literally didn't want to come home. So here is the blow-by-blow as promised.

Thursday - Our flight left LAX at 11am so we met Dave's Dad in Huntington Beach early in the am to drive us there. The flight was uneventful, thankfully. The 2.5 hours seemed to crawl by so slowly though. We finally landed in PV, check thru customs and we were off in a cab to our resort, Ocho Cascadas. The cab ride took about half an hour. But, everything was so beautiful that the trip didn't seem to take long at all. PV has so much culture and 'old world charm'. All the streets are cobblestone and everything has an air of art about it. After leaving the airport we drove by the harbor and saw a gigantic cruise ship docked. Then through down town and along the main beach. On our left we passed shops and restaurants of all styles, sizes, and decor and on our right was the beautiful beach. Every 200 feet or so along the beach we would see huge sculptures emerging from the sand. Each one a unique piece of art. Then we started the trip up the mountain above the sea thru Conchas Chinas (a high priced residencial area, which our resort is in the middle of). They call it the Beverly Hills of PV. As we traveled up the thin winedy roads we passed the most incredible homes. Each more ginormous and elegant than the next. We ohh-ed and ahh-ed; each trying to grab the others attention to point out an even more spetacular home.

Once we arrived at Ocho Cascadas we were informed that there had been a mistake and we were going to be staying in villa 9 and not villa 7. Dave and I both looked at each other we bright eyes as we both thought that villa 9 was the penthouse. Just as our excitement was getting difficult to contain they showed us to our villa and we realized that villa 10 was actually the penthouse. Bummer. Villa 9 was really nice though. There are only 10 villas in the resort and each one gets its own floor and its own private pool. Each pool has a cascading waterfall that falls down to the pool in the villa below it. Ours was the top pool of the 8 (hence the name Ocho Cascadas). The villa is all open air with no windows and nothing to block our 180 degree view of the rainforest covered mountains dropping into the teal sea. It was there that we were greeted with our first PV sunset. I seriously doubt if there is a better place in the world to watch a sunset than from our villa. INSANE!

Before it got completely dark we decided to walk down to the restaurant just above the beach below is, El Set (named after the amazing sunsets which can be viewed from the restaurant's colorful tables tables). I had fajitas and Dave had sea bass. Then we had Crepe Suzette for dessert. Once we were satisfied with our leisurely dinner we caught a cab back up to our villa. You see, the walk up the hill to the resort would not have been a problem. But, it was the hike up the stairs from the office at the bottom of the resort all the way up to villa 9 were more than we could face on out first night of vacation after a big meal and a few fruffy drinks. There is no way for me to describe these stairs so I will post some pics that should give you an idea.

Just as we arrived back at our villa it began to rain. Dave and I laid in the hammock together with only candle light surrounded by the darkness listening to the rain and the waves lapping the shore below us. As it grew darker we began to see little geckos coming out to feast on the many moths fluttering about the ceiling. We laid in the hammock looking up at them and enjoyed rooting for the little guys in their hunts. We especially enjoyed watching "Gary the Gecko", we called him, track a particularly spry moth. It took about an half an hour and lots of disappointing near missed until he finally devoured his prey and Dave and I could go to bed knowing that little Gary would feast well that night.

Friday - Since everything is open air, including the bedrooms, the sun comes in and decides when you should wake up for you. However, we refused to give in and would spend a couple ours lounging and reading in bed each morning before we would face getting up. In fact, most of Friday...wait I take that back...ALL of Friday was spent lounging and reading. Actually, we didn't leave the villa all day! It was wonderful. Our villa had a hammock that over looked the ocean and that was a favorite spot for lounging. Mike C. and Karen C. arrived around 4:30pm. Once they were settled in we decided to stay in and enjoy the view and the sunset and made quesadillas for dinner. Then we finished the evening to some games, ofcourse.

Saturday - We once again spent the morning lounging and reading before we finally headed down to the beach around 1pm. Karen and Mike decided to go running first, but Dave and I could not bring ourselves to exert that much energy while on vacation. They met us down at the the beach later. The ocean water was so warm that Karen described it as feeling like "warm butter all over your body" (she was trying to talk me into joining her in the water at the time). I did go in eventually, but the waves were just a little to strong for me to ever really relax. Had fun reading, tanning, laughing, and throwing around the slash bomb ball.

This time we decided to make the hike all the way up to our villa and save the cab $. It was a tough climb and we were all exhausted by the time to got back. The rest of the gang hung out in our pool while I made us all nachos with cheese and black beans. They were actually pretty good. Considering my cooking skills I was quite impressed with myself.

Then we all hit the showers and prepared for a night on the town. We took a cab to El Arrayan, a little authentic restaurant down town, for dinner. We got there quite a bit before our reservation so we decided to explore. We head toward the beach and took lots of fun pics with the many sculptures we passed.

Dinner we very VERY good complete with live music. Once we were done we headed back down town to enjoy the night life. We even got to see a special Mexican tradition. Not sure what it is called, but 4 guys climbed to the top of this insanely high pole down by the beach and then would swing down on ropes. Okay, so I am not doing very well at describing it. I will post a pic.

Sunday - So Sunday we took lounging to a whole new level as we didn't even look at the time until 3pm! By then it was time to get ready for big date nights out. Each couple went their own way for the evening to enjoy our spouses. Dave and I went to dinner at Daquari Dicks on the beach on the south end of town. The meal was incredible and the view and sunset were even better. For dessert we had a crazy coffee drink which was lit on fire a few times before the wieghter handed it to Dave to drink. Flammable desserts were a favorite of mine.

When Dave and I got back to the room Mike and Karen had not arrived back yet. So we took full advantage of the solitue and full moon. Dave put on a few of our favorite songs from his i*pod shuffle and we slow danced. It was so romantic and beautiful.

Monday - We awoke early to catch a cab to the harbor to catch a truck to the rainforest for our canopy tour. I had never been in a raiforest like that before. It was filled with sights and sounds that I had never experienced. It was so incredible and beautiful and alive. The trees and foliage was so thick that you couldn't even see the sky only its glow thru the leaves. After an extensive and entertaining training session we were ready for the tour.

The Canopy Tour was a series of 9 zip lines, 2 suspension bridges, 1 tarzan swing and a 90 foot rappel down the final tree to the ground. It was so much fun. It took some concentration, but was an amazing thrill and a cool way to experience the rainforest. I felt like a bird flying from tree to tree. We purchased a dvd of the tour so hopefully I will be able to take some pics from that to post.

That evening the boys cooked a gourmet candle lit spaghetti dinner. And we observed yet another impressive sunset. Then finally concluded the evening with a vigorous game of Cities and Nights (Mike won).

Tuesday - Another low key restful day. Mike and Karen headed to the flea market for some shopping, but Dave and I decided to stay at the villa. Dave spent some time tanning from a raft in our pool while I read and took pics of him and the many butterflies that were everywhere you looked.

That night the traveling chef served us up a wonderful meal in our own villa while we enjoyed the sunset. We also got to enjoy another flammable dessert :o)

Wednesday - In the a.m. we headed to the beach. From our villa I had seen a little protected cove that didn't seem to get any waves so we headed to try to find it. It was wonderful. The water was warm and clear and we had it all to our selves (except for the many crabs that watched us from their perches on the rocks). Then we found a spot in the sun to catch some rays. Dave even saw a big blow fish. And Mike swam with a pelican.

Mike and Karen had a 5pm flight to catch so they had to leave around 3pm. We said our good byes and watched then drive away in the back of the cab. It was sad to see them go. But, it was even more sad to realized that that would be us in 24 hours. We decided to make the best of our time left and headed to the river and the flea market in the island in the middle of it. It was beautiful. I purchased a little piece of art from a local artist. I had Dave take a pic of me with the artist holding my new piece. It is a cute little watercolor that I will keep at work to remind me of my wonderful vacation to Puerto Vallarta.

While we were there we decided to have some drinks and an early dinner at The River Cafe. It was yet another wonderful restaurant with great food and a romantic atmostphere. Then to the villa for some games and more reading.

Thursday - We woke up early in order to make the most of our last morning. We stayed in bed late and read and snuggled. Finally we got out of bed to start the packing process. We said good bye to the view and to the butterflies and to our geckos (including Gary ofcourse). I didn't want to leave. We contemplated ways to not have to go home and back to work. Like stealing a kayak to get out to one of the cruise ships and hoping on. Then we would stash our stuff somewhere on the ship. We could sleep during the day while laying out at the pool to not look suspicious. But, we didn't think that we could pull off sneaking on the ship part of the plan. So after entertaining a few other ideas we finally resigned ourselves to having to go home. We drug our luggage down the many many stairs to the office where we checked out and left our bags. We hiked it down to El Set for our final meal. We took our time enjoying every moment before grabbing a cab and heading to get our bags and going to airport for the depressing flight home.

Friday - Back to work and the real world :o(

Pics to be posted soon. Don't worry I took over 400 of them (probably closer to 450 if you count the 4 videos and the underwater camera which I have not yet got developed yet).