Blogs from Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, North America

We hit the road for our first solo trip without much sleep. Ed was snarfleing all night and I think we were both a little anxious. Ed went to sleep after 1am and me after 2am. We did okay. The Garmin said the trip should take 5 hours and it took us 6. Lots of steep windy roads and we were often stuck behind double trailer trucks that were crawling along. The Highway climbed over the Sierra Madre mountain range and we where over 6,000 ft. elevation. The views were really incredible, but hard to enjoy because you both have to watch the road every minute. The small towns in Mexico have speed bumps called “Topes”. You encounter Topes as you enter each town, at school crossings and often, for no reason at all. Often they ... read more

My first trip to Mexico, alone. As I waited for my plane to arrive at Toronto Person Airport, I was surrounded by no-one. I am not being drastic, there was not one person in site waiting to board a flight to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I had been to Puerto Vallarta twice before, for some fun in the sun winter vacationing so it was quite surprising to see not one person in the waiting area, knowing full well it is a tourist destination. At first i thought I was in the wrong waiting area, and after compulsively re-checking the flight boards over 3 times I was at peace. It was a Sunday afternoon, and raining calmly. I had time to simply think, think about my trip, think about the bad relationship I was in at the time. ... read more

Cruising the night we arrived in Puerto Vallarta the following morning and it was ashore again to visit the hot and humid town. Hot man it must be 40 and humid as all get out, wandering around the port we chose a short guided tour taking in a small village, a Tequila tasting (of course it is Mexico after all) shopping and the old town. Mexico is a dangerous place and all the advice we had was do not leave town without a guide and stay in groups so we did this. We were driven around the coast past the expensive houses to a stop with fantastic views over the bay. Leaving there we were taken inland to a small village that made tequila and were shown a great time, drank tequila and bought tequila. The ... read more

Today is going to be awesome. I already know. I know because I went to Rancho Capomo last year and really enjoyed riding the horses and ATVs through the Mexican countryside. Karolina and I woke up and got ready for the dirt and grime we were expecting to get covered in. The jeans I wore on this adventure last year still have dirt embedded into them. Luckily I brought along that same pair to avoid unnecessarily depleting my jean collection. I also wore my bathing suit hoping to get some time to swim under the waterfall. After our ritual breakfast at Paradise, we hailed a cab to the Club Collage - a run down club next to gentlemen clubs where we were expecting to be picked up by our tour guide. I'm thoroughly convinced we were ... read more

Today is Ash Wednesday. Conveniently Fred, Karolina and myself are all Catholic so we made plans to head to the Cathedral in downtown Puerto Vallarta to give penance and receive our ashes. I called the front desk at the resort and was informed that services were offered every hour. After breakfast, at about 10:00 we hailed a cab downtown. Fred's friend Harriet joined us since she was traveling alone and wanted to participate in Ash Wednesday services as well. We arrived at the front steps of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadapupe. The church is rather new, as far as Cathedrals go and was built in the 1930s, but you wouldn't really know it from the structure. From my last visit, I knew the building was damaged by an earthquake and the crowns were never ... read more