Last Days in PV

Jon: Well we're wrapping up our time in Puerto Vallarta.  We've enjoyed the R&R we've had here, and certainly tried to catch up on all the sleep we lost during the last weeks leading up to now :).  Siestas galore!  We've also been to the beach a few times, I wish we could have gone to a more secluded beach though.  At Los Muertos beach, you end up sharing it with 10,000 leatherbacks who broil themselves for weeks on end.  And of course, if you dare sit down, the venders take that as a sign you want to buy something, so they all approach like circling vultures, preying on us nice Canadians who can't say no.  Except that these two can :), and have said "no gracias" at least a hundred times a day.  But the water is nice, the waves are half decent, and well, its a sunny warm BEACH!  Snow? never heard of it here.  30 degrees in January, oh yeah!  Better believe it :).

Yesterday we went and bought another half roast chicken for lunch, and this time the girl tried to rip us off of 40 pesos, they do it so smoothly with a smile on there face.  But when you point it out to them, they don't even try to protest, they just look at each other and smile, "darn we got caught, oh well".  No apologies.  I guess there must be plenty of gullible tourists here who don't say anything becuase they are afraid to be rude or something.  I think we'll get used to it.  It'll be even better when my spanish improves and I can actually tell them off politely in spanish :).  Anyway, I wouldn't want to leave the impression we aren't loving it here, we expected all of this and more when we got here, and we look at each other and smile each time they try to rip us off.  I'm sure they'll get us sometime, but not yet.  You just can't be afraid to call them on it :). Tomorrow, we leave the beach town and head to Guadalajara!  A city of 6 million people, more than the province of BC.  I'm looking forward to the trip through the mountains, should make for some great photos!

Michelle:  I think it's all starting to catch up on us, the preparation to pack up your life and go on a journey with many unknowns is apparently tiring. I think I can get used to these Siestas! We've really needed this time to charge our batteries for what's up and coming. School starts Tuesday and it will be pretty intense so we gotta catch the sleep we can while we can. However on the note of sleep, last night it was extremely difficult to tune out the jet engine we had a few floors away. I'm not kidding, you have NEVER heard anything like it! This was no ordinary snoring, this was incredibly loud, it was like having an F18 above our bed with a constant whirring, and I guess the amusing part is that he (we assume it was a he, no woman could ever rev an engine like that and shake a 5 floor hotel) was a couple of floors away from us and it was still unbearable!!  We saw a gorgeous sunset last night, and an acrobat street show, so a fantastic way to finish up our time in PV. Our latest pictures can be seen at:  Last days in PV  We'll try to get som photos of the sunset up.  This blogging business is tough to keep up with :).

Adventures Exploring PV

Jon: well, today we ended up sleeping in until noon, which was totally ok with me :).  First order of business was to buy me a hat, since strolling around in the sun was starting to cook the top of my head.  We got ourselves a delicious lunch of half a roast chicken and a stack of tortillas for a whopping 40 pesos (a bit less than $4), then decided to wander the streets of old town Puerto Vallarta.  Mostly we were left alone in old town, but once we hit downtown PV, seems like all we said was "no gracias!'.   Everybody wants to sell you something!

Downtown is kind of nice, there's a walkway along the water, and everyone seems to think we'd like a nice ice cold tequila.  So after strolling through downtown a little and getting tired of it, we decided to hop on a local bus and see where it would take us.  The bus driver tried to short change us 10 pesos, I guess we looked gullible, he wasn't too pleased when I told him he owed us another 10 pesos.  Anyway, so there are hundreds of these buses running through downtown, and I think every driver is in training for the Grand Prix.  They've mastered the art of the gas/brake/gas/brake, and the ride is akin to a chiropractic treatment :).  We didn't really know where the bus was headed but we decided to ride it to the end of the line.  It took us through a little suburb/town called Las Juntas.  That was a lot more like the real Mexico.  Narrow, potholed gravel roads, and a surprising number of buses ran through this area, which meant drivers had to stop and talk to each other in the middle of intersections, holding up traffic despite the honking behind them.

After about half an hour of driving through the countryside and wondering where we were headed, we ended up on a little beach sort of settling, a cluster of ramshackle restaurants.  We decided to hop off and check out the beach a little.  The bus driver told us the next bus came along in about half an hour.  Turns out the buses run on mexican time, and the bus drivers aren't so good at estimating time.  We had stray dogs sniffing at us to see if we had food, Mariachis serenading passing vehicles looking for a ride.  Eventually the bus came, after about an hour and 15 minutes, which we were kinda glad for since we didn't relish the prospect of walking a few hours back into town along the beach.   A few minutes into the ride back into town, a boy of about 8 or 9 hopped up and started serenading the bus, which I found rather amusing, since that would never happen in Canada.  After which he canvassed the bus with hands out.  A great way to make pocket money I guess.

Back in Las Juntas, the bus driver passed a street vendor selling corn and decided to stop and buy one, while holding up traffic again.  And off we went again.  It amazes me how close these drivers race after each other, to quote a description I read, they drive so close the paint is touching.  One minute, they're racing after each other, next they decide to pause on a whim.  The rules of the road are barely a suggestion :).

On the street corners there always seems to be a corner store with a thick blue band and a yellow stripe (Corona).  Cheaper than water around here.  Then on the middle of a barren country road the bus driver stops, an oncoming bus and tells us we need to transfer to that bus.  Hmmm, we already didn't know where we were going and we transfer to an empty bus.  Anyway, this driver was doing an even better impression of Michael Schumacher.  We eventually hit the highway going back to Puerto Vallarta, which made us feel better, since it was getting dark and we had no clue where we were :).  Weaving in and out of traffic, these drivers essentially drag race each other, grinding gears and hammering the brakes at each stop.  We're definitely not in Canada now :).  We end up bypassing downtown, its now dark out, and we are wondering again where we are going since we're headed up a hill overlooking the city.  As luck would have it, we completely bypassed downtown, and ended up 2 blocks from our hotel.

Michelle: Last night and today we are already testing the limits of our immune systems and seeing if they will hold up against genuine Mexican food, so far so good! We are being very careful with what we eat and from where, keeping an eye on hygiene practices etc. We'd love to shop at the supermarket but until we reach Guadalajara we don't have the use of a kitchen. Gourmet meals will have to wait ;)

We enjoyed venturing out of the tourist area and not really knowing where we were going. On the rickety old bus we got chatting to a couple from Kentucky and were laughing at all the things that you would never see back in the States or Canada that are just common everyday life here. It sure is a different world here, that's for sure. Our destination in the middle of nowhere was pretty nice, the beach was lovely and as we waited for what seemed like ages for the bus we watched a man working incredibly hard to salvage just a few pieces of wood from a pile of rubble, probably from a fire. In the hour or so that we watched he had rescued only 4 or 5 pieces of wood and we couldn't help but comment on how much more they are willing to work for a few bucks. Labour is cheap .The buildings are made from every kind of wood imaginable, one of the restaurants even used wood pallets as part of the wall. There's not the same kind of waste like there is back home, no Canadian or Australian that I know would work that hard for the timber, they'd just head down to Home Depot or Bunnings and get new stuff. You can definitely say that the Mexicans know how to recycle, everything from car parts to cardboard boxes to old couches all seem to find a home for themselves long after we would throw them out!  

 Like Jon said, we had an interesting, harrowing ride on the bus and can only imagine what it will be like on Saturday when we head through the mountains to Guadalajara and they have a windy open road instead of city traffic to deal with... should be great fun with my travel sickness, even by the end of today's run I'm sure my stomach was in my throat it had been bumped around so much! Speed bumps are just a way to get air, not for slowing down! It's pretty funny really, but the comfort is that even though they wont stop for anyone or anything and road rules don't seem to exist, except one: If you're bigger you go first, everyone else will give way to you... the bus is probably the safest place to be simply because it is bigger! That's what i'm gonna have to tell myself and convince myself of each time I take my life into my hands and go for a ride  :)

First Days in Puerto Vallarta Photo Album

Bienvenidos a Mexico!!

Jon: We made it!  It's a lot of work to reduce your life to a backpack and a small carry on bag, but if anything goes according to plan, that is how we might be living for the next two years!  Getting through customs at PV airport was a breeze, getting through all the timeshare vultures was a little more challenging.  They get pretty creative, they threw something little on the ground behind Michelle and told her she dropped something, a way to get her attention!  Sneaky schemers!  Then all the taxi drivers descend like vultures as well, the first guy quoted a ridiculous price, fortunately I already knew how much it was supposed to cost, and told him "not a chance".  Then another guy came up with a lower price that was more like it should cost.  It pays to do your research :).  Speaking of which, Google maps with street view is incredible and very useful :).

We got to our hotel, its a tiny little room 4 floors up with no elevator :).  Looks like a watermain is being repaired beside our hotel and jackhammers are being used constantly.  There are no stop signs at most of the intersections in this part of town, but traffic flows.  For dinner, we took our chances on street food :).  So far so good, I had 3 big quesadillas for about $5.  Most of the restaurants around here are "tourist priced" so finding a good street vendor took some looking.  But this one had a constant stream of locals, and I got to try out my spanish.  Its pretty limited, but its nice to be able to understand some of the chatter I'm hearing all around.  We'll post more pictures soon!

Michelle: Mexico-oh-oh-oh!! The last 45mins of our flight the reality started to set in, this is no holiday to the beach for a week, this is the new chapter of our lives, this is REAL! The feelings it invoked; definitely excitement, a little apprehension, some amusement.... My thoughts kept asking if I was ready to do this; ready to live out of a backpack for the next couple of years; ready to live in countries with very different cultures; places where the language is garble to my ears as I don't understand it? My response was to desperately start trying to recall the few spanish words I do know- I would be capable of a very stilted awkward conversation at best and I wished I had gotten serious about Spanish lessons. They must have just been pre-landing nerves because within minutes I had a can-do attitude back in full force. Of course I can do this, with a little background in charades and a little bit of trial and error, I'll be set for survival. The great part is that we're easing ourselves into being immersed into Spanish by first coming here to PV- There are so many Americans here and so much has been Americanized that being here for a few days should take away some of the culture shock. Every sign has english, the people speak basic english- anyone with anything to do with time shares speak excellent english (however you want to avoid them- they see white tourists, wedding rings and they start drooling, right before your eyes you almost see the dollar signs swimming around their heads! :)

Our room is very brightly coloured and tiny but has everything we need. We have it all set, we've pulled the bed away from the wall, turned the mattress over and checked for bed bugs, taped the legs of the bed for any stray creepy crawlies (all from the advice of Jon's pest control Dad, thanks Dave)! Thank goodness this place seems to check out. I can't say I'm too keen on the alternative! Coming from cold Canada this morning was a little bit of a shock and so we have the fan cranked (air con cost more, so we'll have to suffer through it). Can't wait to climb into bed, it's been a very long, busy and draining couple of weeks!! We don't really know what's in store for us on our journey, but Mexico, WE'RE HERE!!!!

The beginnings of our adventures!

If this works, these are a few pictures from our previous adventures!  Enjoy, once we hit Mexico, we'll get some current photos up!  I'm still learning the blog process, I think google is pretty simple though :).

Jon and Michelle :)

Past Adventures Photo Album