Vallarta Day 1

Vallarta Vacation Day 1

My dad picked us up at out apartment at 7:30 AM and drove us to LAX. Our flight left at around 10:30 and I am paranoid about making it to the airport on time (and let’s admit it it, this is LAX). So we got to the airport, had an overpriced Burger King breakfast and waited for the boarding call. We flew with Alaska Airlines and ended up right on the wings–in front of the emergency exits. This meant that we couldn’t recline. Ugh. At least we weren’t dealt the lethal blow and the third person in our row was either never sold or never showed.

I hate how we don’t get peanuts in flights anymore. Stupid people with stupid peanut allergies. :p lol Yeah I know, it sucks more for the people with the actual allergy, but man, the pretzel mixes suck. lol Even if they do try to make it more interesting by calling it a “Party Mix“. Fortunately, we arrived in Puerto Vallarta 20 minutes ahead of schedule! How does that happen?

Well, we lost that headway really quickly. We grabbed our luggage and as we made our way towards the exit we walked through our first Mexican gauntlet. We were hoodwinked because as we walked through, we were asked what resort we were with and when we said “The Mayan Palace”, they sent us to a desk telling us that they have free taxis to the resort. They made it seem like they were with the resort, but thinking back, they didn’t really say it. It was the first timeshare trap. We said we’d go to the short 45 minute presentation the next morning and in return, they paid for the taxis and we could get 2 for 1 on any of the tours we wanted. “Sure, why not?”, we thought. We wanted to try some stuff out, so we bought tickets to a “Fiesta Mexicana” and a boat tour.

When we finally got to the resort, we were very impressed by the massive carved columns in the entrance. There was a beautiful pond and an open lounge. We checked in and were sent to another desk to get a wristband. Another timeshare invitation trap. Freakin ey! Puerto Vallarta is all about the tourism, but even more so, all about the timeshares! So within the resort, the girl says that she can match whatever the airport dude offered (oh yeah, there was also a bottle of Kahlua thrown in) and she would give us two free tickets to whatever tour we wanted, a full breakfast (instead of continental style like the first guys) $100 off our bill at the end, as well as 10% off. And we wouldn’t have to leave the resort for the spiel, it would be right here. Sounds better. We took her on her offer and finally went upstairs to our suite.

It was very nice and cold after being out in the open warm humid air. The suite had a fully furnished kitchenette, dining table, living room with two pull out beds, large bathroom, and a spacious bedroom. My only complaint was that neither the sofas or bed were very soft. But the view we got from our fourth floor balcony was very nice indeed. We loved to sit out on the balcony at night, especially when it rained (which it did every night until Thursday). We had dinner at Bakal, the restaurant at the resort. It was a seafood buffet, pretty good one too.

It was around sunset and we made our way down to the beach which the resort was located on. It was beautiful and warm. We took photos and enjoyed the sun setting. We couldn’t believe that we made it this far and that we were actually on a beautiful beach in Mexico! We smiled at each other and enjoyed the last rays of the sun.

 Later that evening, we checked out Tabu, the club at the resort. It was dead (off season), but it had music and a couple of pool tables so Juan and I played there that evening for about an hour or so. We made it back a few more times. It was nice to watch Juan play again, I hadn’t seen him do that in such a long time. I sucked, but that’s normal.

Stay tuned for the rest of the vacation!

To see all the photos, click here.

You can also try the slideshow.