Puerto Vallarta is endlessly fascinating. There are lots of things to do and see if you can drag yourself away from the beach or poolside.
There are upscale shopping malls, bull fights every Wednesday at 5pm, an art gallery walk every Thursday, flea markets, farmers markets, multi-screen cinemas, great restaurants every where you turn (many with open air, beach front seating), the Malecon (their version of an ocean front boardwalk that goes for at least a couple miles), an open air amphitheater right at the waterfront with free entertainment every night.
All the entertainment you need could be found along the Malecon at night. It is lined with discos, restaurants, artists displaying their work, street food-vendors (for the brave), street performers playing instruments, every kind of souvenir shop imaginable (think Senor Frog!) and a fireworks display every evening at 10pm.
On the Malecon I found an experience I had heard of before, and was excited to try. One shop had those little fish that eat all the dead skin off of your feet. It was SO COOL!! For $9 you sit on a bench and put your feet into a tank of gold fish-sized fish that nibble on your feet. All I really felt was a neat tingling sensation, and 10 minutes later baby smooth skin.
We did a lot of exploring while we were there. I think it would be a marvelous place to retire. Now I just have to talk Chuck into considering it. He did humor me while we were there, and we spent 2 afternoons with a real estate agent. It gave us an idea of the different areas in Puerto Vallarta as well as some neighboring towns and what kind of real estate we could get for our money.
We saw some lovely, affordable homes.......and most with incredible views!!!
Each picture is of a different house we visited, and these are not all we saw- they are just representative of different neighborhoods. All the houses had such amazing outdoor spaces. In many of the houses an entire wall of glass on the view side would open to let in the ocean breezes and incorporate the outdoor living space. They all had pools of some sort- from larger lap pools to smaller "dipping pools".
One of the best things I did, was take my own pillow to Vallarta and it came home smelling like the beach, which guarantees me sweet dreams every night.
While in Puerto Vallarta last week, Chuck and I took a couple of boat trips. Boats are always problematic for me because I can get motion sickness in an elevator (no joking).
The first trip we took was a snorkeling excursion to Las Marietas Islands. The swells on the ocean were pretty big, making the boat send up lots of spray going over every one. My Dramamine was working great and I was feeling good. I even went and stood on the bow of the boat like Kate Winslet in the movie Titanic. Although with the swells I felt more like I was riding a bucking bronco than "flying", but it was WAY fun, nonetheless. While the actual snorkeling portion of the trip was disappointing because the visibility in the water wasn't that great, the boat trip itself more than made up for it. I wanted to sit in the very first row next to the front railing, because I wanted as much fresh air as I could get to help prevent getting sick (which turned out to be a non-issue). But our seating choice turned out to be priceless. On this trip we saw and followed a whale for a while, then saw flying fish and a sea turtle. But the best part was a pod of dolphins decided to come play with our boat!! They would get on either side of the bow where the surge would roll off the front of the boat and surf in the wave it created. This was practically right under my feet- it was SO COOL! They stayed with us for a good 15 minutes. One of the neatest things I have ever experienced.
The second boat trip was a dinner excursion to a place called Las Galetas. There was a show called "The Rythms of The Night". It was almost a Cirque du Soleil type thing with a Mayan (Lamanite) culture theme.
This was our view as we approached the shore....
Those are hammocks in the front right of the picture.
This Lamanite was welcoming the boat by blowing on this conch shell.
This is what greeted us as we disembarked from the boat:
We were surrounded by music every where we went.
The dinner was served buffet style outdoors on the waterfront. We were surrounded by tiki torches and wandering musicians while we ate.
The food was delicious! Much better than we were expecting- especially the hand made tortillas that were being made while we waited.
When it got dark we followed the path uphill away from the beach into the jungle along a torch lit path to find an amphitheater facing a replica Mayan ruin.
This guy wandered through the audience and kept us entertained until the show began. He was pretty cheesy, but funny.
The show itself was impressive- very 'Cirque du Soleil'. It included a lot of singing, acrobatics and fire dancing. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed during the show itself. We definitely got our moneys worth. I would recommend it to anyone planning to vacation here.
Chuck and I spent last week in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It was a blast!! The warm weather was delightful to say the least. We spent every day basking in the sun.
We stayed at a hotel called Velas Vallarta which was right on the beach in a beautiful setting....
It had 3 pools and a river that connected them all.
There were also large fish ponds filled with Koi.
In fact, my favorite part of the hotel was the wild life. No, I didn't say "night life", I really mean wild life. Peacocks wandered the grounds and woke us each morning with their cries. They are surprisingly loud. It was like having roosters to wake us each morning. But the noise they were making wasn't to greet the sun, it was to beg for breakfast as they wandered between tables at the outdoor restaurants.
The other wild life that kept us entertained was the many iguanas that live on the hotel grounds. They spend their nights in the palm trees and come down during the day to sun themselves on the pool deck.
This one lived in the tree right outside our 6th floor window. I couldn't get him to turn his head to face me, no matter how much noise I made- maybe he was still sleeping.
His much larger brother was already down on the pool deck just cruising around.
This guy was huge, about 3 feet from nose to tail. The iguanas just wandered around, and if a swimming pool got in the way of where they were going, they didn't walk around, they would just throw themselves into the water and swim to the other side, climb out and continue on their way. It was freaky to be in the pool and have this gigantic reptile swim by you. They mind their own business, but they certainly aren't shy around people. They'll walk right under your lounge chair to get where they are going. I spent more time out by the pool watching all the animals than I did reading my book.
Today is my last day in Heber with Rachel, Nate and the kiddos. I have had a great time.
Evelyn agreed to share a bedroom with her brother for the duration of my stay even if it meant she had to sleep on the floor. (of course, at 3 sleeping on the floor is more of an adventure than a sacrifice). This freed up her bedroom to allow Grandma to lounge in comfort. I am very appreciative.
We have done lots of fun things over the past 12 days, some of which I have already posted on the blog.
We spent the better part of a Saturday driving around Salt Lake and looking at a lot of model homes in new housing developments. One of my FAVORITE things to do.
Rachel and I took the kids to the Kamas recreation center to play in their activity pool. It is a kiddie pool that is very warm and very shallow in places, with slides and waterfalls and a river-like section with a strong current that floats you along. You literally can not stand still in the current, because even though it isn't that deep the current knocks you off your feet. There is one two-story twirly slide that comes down into deep water that both the kids enjoy if they can ride on Rachel's lap on the way down. It gets going really fast.
A few days ago we enjoyed a trip to the brand new dinosaur museum in Lehi with Aunt Linda and Nates' sister Lindsey. It was pretty impressive with lots of exhibits, lots of hands-on activities for the kids and an IMAX theater that also shows 3D movies. Linda and I watched a 45 minute movie on Jerusalem, from the original settling by the Jebusites thru modern day. Really makes me want to visit there! Both Linda and I were impressed with the movie.
It has been a great trip and I am very grateful to Rachel and Nate for allowing me to come.
While visiting Rachel, we took the kiddos for a trip to go visit (great) Grandpa & Grandma Elder. It was so good to spend some time with them and feel of their love for us, and the wonderful spirit that fills their home.
Evelyn is missing from the picture because she wasn't in the mood to have her picture taken. But she did enjoy the visit. The Elders' have special "toy closet" filled with treasures to entertain the many grands, greats, and great-greats that frequently visit.
Their home is warm and welcoming to all who pass through their doors. As always we felt showered with love.
It may look like Douglas is eating a cookie, however, upon closer inspection, you might realize this child is eating a cold leftover baked potato. He likes them- he ate 2 of them as the rest of us watched in wonderment.
A couple of days ago Rachel and I took the kids down to Provo to go to the University Mall (and Costco!) in search of Easter outfits for the kids. I also found my favorite store Christopher and Banks and had to peek inside.
While at the mall we found they have a great play space for kids. With a huge tree house and slide as well as a large dinosaur skeleton the kids can walk through and climb on.
Wednesday night Rachel took the kiddos, along with her 2 sister-in-laws and the cousins down to Salt Lake to go to "Disney on Ice". The kids were mesmerized. Rachel has some really cute pictures and video on her blog "naterandrach.blogspot.com"- check it out !!
I am visiting Rachel, Nate and the kids for 12 days. Originally, the plan was for me to come help out Rachel with the kiddos while Nate was in California on a work assignment for 2 weeks. Then Nate's trip got postponed, but I already had my plane tickets and I was missing my grandbabies, so here I am.
We have been having fun. The first few days were windy, but relatively warm (55-60 degrees). So the kids wanted to fly kites, which we tried to do in their backyard with mixed results. Their backyard has a high fence all around it, so it was hard to get the kites high enough to really catch the breeze. Nate was successful having spent some time on his mission in Brazil flying kites, or at least watching them be flown. Apparently they are into kite fighting down there, where you fly your kite into an opponents and try to cut his string. Rachel and I had a little harder time getting our kites to take flight.
Before I came to Utah, Becca and I had just started attending a spin class at our local community center. I had only gone 2 days before I left and I didn't want to lose momentum, so I asked Rachel if we could exercise while I was here (big mistake!!). She pulled out the "Insanity" videos that she and Nate use to stay in shape. They are 45 minutes of pure cardio. There was no way I could keep up with all the jumping, suicide drills, etc., so while Rachel kept up with the video I basically marched in place for 45 minutes, adding in the stretches whenever they came along. Let me REPEAT.... all I did was march in place for 45 minutes and I THREW UP. Unbelievable. Luckily, the next day Rachel was too sore to do Insanity again, so we did yoga instead to stretch out all those sore muscles. Today, though we are back to the hard stuff. At least I didn't throw up. So I think I am moving in the right direction, even though I still didn't do much more than march in place.
Because yesterday was a yoga day, I decided I also needed to go for a walk. So I headed out the door with their black lab Odie, only to have it start raining on me a couple of blocks away from the house. Soon the rain had turned to snow, and we kept walking, the colder it got, the faster we walked. However, the snow turned to sleet and the wind was blowing these little ice particles into my face and they stung! My face was getting pelted mercilessly and we started to jog for home. So I got my cardio workout after all.
