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Published: July 13th 2009
Another adventure awaited us in Puerto Vallarta (pwehr-toh vay-ahr'-tah). A girl in our group's mother works for a travel agency and found us a great deal.... US $34 per night/day in an all-inclusive resort on a southern beach in Puerto Vallarta. Meals, drinks, room, towels, entertainment, etc. were all included in the price. Most all-inclusive hotels in PV cost around US $200-300 per night.
We left Guadalajara on Thursday afternoon and took a six-hour bus ride again through windy bumpy roads across the mountains to the coast.
A few days earlier, I had read some online reviews about the place we stayed at, Club Meza del Mar, and the reviews made it sound like a disgusting truck stop! But I was pleasantly surprised by the place. We were the only "gringos" at the hotel, and there were 26 of us, so any time we went somewhere with only a few group members, people would ask us, "Hey are you guys part of that big group of Gringos from Guadalajara?" The hotel itself was very old, but it had over 170 rooms with clean sheets and towels and hot shower water every day, so I was satisfied! Not
Photo 2
emergency key...complete with a hammerto mention that the beach was gorgeous.
When we arrived, there was no check-in process...the front desk was just, "Come on in! Leave your bags here with us!"...the kitchen was closing and we scraped the absolute last scraps of food left at the buffet. I had crunchy rice (yes, crunchy) and some fruit...none of us were satisfied, but it was all good because we were finally in Puerto Vallarta!
We checked in to our rooms and hung out for a while and of course went down to the beach! By this time it was midnight, but swimming in the ocean at night is such a thrill.
Unfortunately, to get back inside the hotel at night you have to climb ten stories of dark, rocky stairs. But hey, we needed the exercise anyway.
It was UNBEARABLY hot...I cannot even describe exactly how hot and humid it was. Three minutes in the sun and you were absolutely drenched in sweat. According to the Mexicans there, this is why Gringos stay away during the summer...but not us!
Friday we spent sun-up to sun-down on the beach. We had all learned our lesson from Sayulita to reapply sunscreen whenever possible.
We went clubbing Friday night...again I only saw 5 or 6 other Americans the whole night. We went to this club called Zoo. It was neat, with a cage on the wall for dancing and leopard and zebra print on the benches and chairs.
Saturday we decided to join up with a boat tour. US $18 for the whole day included breakfast and lunch, drinks, snorkeling, and a trip to a waterfall. The snorkeling at Los Arcos was lame, as you had to swim down about 15 ft. to see anything on the bottom. I'm sure it would have been a great place to SCUBA, however. The waterfall trip was the best...you had the option to ride a horse or to walk, and I didn't bring enough Pesos with me to ride a horse (along with half of our group), so we took a nice hike in through the mountains to a waterfall. The river was freezing cold and felt amazing after an arduous hike in 100% humidity on rocky trails.
Sunday we left around 2PM, but not before shopping around a bit! I got several pieces of jewelry for gifts. We left and returned around 8:30P.
It's crazy that this is our LAST week in Guadalajara! I am very sad to leave this city, and our host padres have been so incredibly kind. We have final exams on Thursday (AHHHH!) and then we leave for Mexico City on Saturday.
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Dad
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Good luck on your finals. Dad