Holidays! (Part 1)

---

---

Hello All!

So finally I'm starting to write my blog for Easter holidays...could end up being a long one...then again I may get bored and do it really quickly...either way I hope you bear with me and enjoy reading about us doing something a bit different from normal Hogar life!!! so here goes!

Day 1 - Guadalaraja to Barra de Navidad

Last minute morning packing...deciding what clothes to take (as few as possible), whether the tent should go inside or outside of the rucksack...last minute cleaning of the room, getting rid of all traces of food so that our room wouldnt be infested with cockroaches when we get back...a quick breakfast and then off to the bus station to start our adventure!!

It takes about 5 or 6 hours to get from Guadalajara to Barra de Navidad - a beautiful little town with a long, clean beach and a really nice atmosphere on the Pacific coast. Luckily Mexicans travel everywhere by bus so the services are pretty good - fully equiped with movies and even friends episodes!! Unfortunately I was forced to sit through 'Made of Honour'...a film that would have been watchable apart from the fact that rather a lot of it was set in a cringingly unrealistic scotland (The Eileen Donan Castle was someones summer house from which they went on a night out in what looked suspiciously like Tobermory...I dont think so!!!) I was very tempted for a long time to get up and introduce myself to the whole bus and explain to them that life REALLY isnt like that and the weather really isnt THAT bad ALL the time!!

Anyways so arrive in Barra we did, and off we went to look for the hotel which we had called the day before. It was a very nice place...our bedroom was bright pink buuuuut who cares when you're hardly paying anything and all you want is a bed and a shower that gives out hot water some of the time!!

We had a rather entertaining heckling incident as we were walking past a car in the street. The man in the front seat said in a horribly sleazy voice - adelante reinitas - or 'on you go little queens' which was closely followed by a girls voice from the back seat saying - papaaaaaaa!!! - very entertaining! I felt sorry for the poor girl!!

Barra is a beautifultown which has kept its mexican charm despite the number of tourists who seem to flock there...first time ive seent that many americans in quite a while!! I watched my first ever Pacific sunset which was absolutely beautiful...sitting on the beach in shorts and t-shirt watching the passers by!

The evening was a rather eventful affair too!!
After a traditional mexican dinner of quesadillas con chorizo and, in Alix's case, half a jalapeño pepper just to see if she could handle it, we headed off to a bar. We found a really nice one, upstairs with a roof made of palm fronds (these buildings are called palapas) and I treated myself to my very first Margarita - I cant say I really liked it but by the time I was half way through I was already happily talking absolute nonsense with Alix so all was good fun! As we were getting up to go some guys at a table we were walking past asked us if we wanted some drinks...well I didnt particularly but they all seemed very nice so we sat down...also we didnt just want to go straight back to the hotel - it was the first day of the holidays after all! All four of the guys turned out to be really nice, and not at all sleazy which makes a refreshing difference from most Mexican guys!!! It turned out that three of them actually live in Guadalajara and the other (a professional wake boarder) was from Barra.
After a while they asked us if we wanted to go back to where they were staying for the weekend. Yes I am awareof how dodgy that sounds, and I hope you all trust me not to have said yes without thinking carefully about it...but we both felt really comfortable around them, as though we were just two extra members of their group of friends so off we went!
We had to get a boat accros ss to Isla Navidad - a very fancy resort place with a crazy big hotel, golf course..... and as we came round the cornerwe came to a marina that was jam packed with massive fancy yaughts!! Absolute madness!! It turned out that one of the guy's parents own one of the club houses on the golf course which was absolutely beautiful with a huge living area, pool, bar, kitchen, fancy bedrooms ...!! Alix and I (after two months at the Hogar) were just looking around going WOW!!!
I even saw my first gecko while we were there...AND it's tail came off! So its true!!! A bizzare evening followed - swimming in the pool, emailing mum a happy birthday message at 5am, burying sleeping people with cushions etc etc before finally going to a VERY comfortable bed in a room that Alix and I had to ourselves at 6am!!

Day 2
I suppose was not quite so eventful as day one - chilled out on the beach feeling like we were made of paper because we were the only ones who were whiter than the sand! Also had AMAZING shrimp fajitas which was massive and only cost me a fiver so i was rather impressed and didnt have to buy any more food for the rest of the day! We went back to the same bar in the evening, played an AWFUL game of pool. Met a really nice girl who worked there and spent quite a while talking to her. Alix meant to go out dancing with her when the bar closed but after coming back to the hotel with me we both conked out pretty quick so she completely missed it!!

Day 3 - Barra to La Mazanilla

Today we decided to start moving on up the coast and get going on up to Puerto Vallarta - our final destination.
Before we left Barra though we went to a place called Beer Bob's Book Exchange, which was just a room FULL of english language books that you can just go in, leave one of your books and take one that you want away. Apparently the place was set up more than 20 years ago,althouhg the guy who started it died last year. I swapped A Thousand Splendid Suns for Charlotte Gray, and Alix swapped hers for New Moon - the second in the Twilight series.
So next stop was La Manzanilla - a small town which was supposed to have a lovely beach and a great atmosphere. When we arrived not only did we realise that we had forgotten to take money out so were very short of cash, it took us ages to find somewhere to camp and the place was just packed with Americans! The town was a bit strange in that all that was really there was the beach, which would have been fine except that they seemed to think there was much more...lots of shops, fancy summer houses and all sort just made the place way more busy than it was worth! In short we decided that we didnt really like it, we had to leave anyway because we didnt have any money, and that we only wanted to stay for one night. We went to bed (in our tent) at the highly exciting hour of about 9pm becasue we had hardly any light, and were gone by 9am the next day!

Day 4 - La Mazanilla to Tenacatita

A really great day! We went back to the closest town with a cash machine and bus terminal - took out enough to keep us going for a while and took another bus up to Tenacatita. As we got off the bus (at a road junction 7km for Tenacatita itself) two other girls got off too so of course we started talking. We ended up taking a lift down to the town all together and pitched our tents side by side. Their names are Anna and Ara, same age as us, and had a five day holiday which they'd planned to spend in Tenacatita. It was great to meet people who were doing the same kind of thing as us..and 4 girls alone feels a lot more secure than just 2 white girls on their own so we made a party of it and we all get on great! Some luck going on there and no mistake!!
In the end Alix and I decided to stay with them for the whole 5 days rather than moving on after two nights because we were having such and good time and it just didnt make sense to be moving on alone when we had friends there!!!

Tenacatita

Tenacatita is basically just a beach - a beautiful beach which is fairly sheltered as it is south facing in a big bay, there are a few bit rocks sticking out the sea and lovely hills behind! The town is little but a few restaurants and a hotel, one club place and few shops - not that we spent any time in the town. We lived between the tents, the sea and one little shop 30seconds down the road! It was a bit of a shock to have to pay 5 pesos for the toilet and 15 pesos (75p) for a cold shower in the evenings, but then again, it was probably the best 75p Ive ever spent!!!
The people we met in Tenacatita were amazing!! Ana and Ara became like childhood friends almost immediately - everyone we met assumed we'd known each other for ages. The shop keeper lady was lovely to us, giving us discounts etc. We managed to get ourselves a free Banana boat ride once too which would normally have cost 2 pounds - hardly breaking the bank I know but why pay when you can get it for free!?
We met loads of other people who were there on holiday too. I found myself having some reallyinteresting conversations about things that I normally dont talk to anyone about! Interesting how being in a different place with completely different people can make you talk about things you never expected to! It was a really great experience!
Of course it wasnt all completely innocent, relaxing on the beach! There was rather a lot of alcohol involved at times - what can I say, we're in tequila country! I went through some rather contrasting feelings about alcohol, and how people act when they're drunk. I want to copy out what I wrote in my diary while I was there -

'Good morning Tenacatita'
I think I'm learning what holidays with friends are normally about. We've been away for four nights and three of those I've got drunk! I'm feeling pretty exhausted to be honest but the waves break really loudly and theres a parrot next door to where we're camping who keeps singing at us!
Now I'm just sitting in the tent, looking out to the ocean, watching two little kids playing in the sand and the occasional early riser walking along enjoying the views! I love watching the pelicans as they dive bomb fish!

'Same day - different time'
A voyage of self discovery - thats what gap years are about no? Finding out who you are, what you love, what you hate and accepting yourself? Perhaps help out a little in the world too? Well I think thats what mines about anyway.

EUGH I am who I am, and thats fine by me! Its been an interesting evening.
The other girls all wanted to go dance,drink, meet people, smoke...I really wasnt in the mood today so I decided to stay in the tent. Its a beautiful evening (as always here) and I was perfectly happy to be on my own, look out at the moon, think about stuff - thats when I started writing just now. I cant remember what I was going to say now though!
Right now I wish I fitted in more - that I was more like all the rest of the world - but I've lived my life in my way so far and its worked out pretty well, although no I wish I could be with other people like me!
I stopped wrting before because the guys who were with us last night came over...turns out that one of them is more like me, the others didnt say anything! They'd seen that I wasnt with all the others so came to see if I was alright and we chatted for about half an hour which was really nice. A much nicer way of getting to know someone in my opinion! We talking about song writing and travelling and all sorts! He says he wants to go to Ireland and he loves the Pogues!
Then just as they were getting up to go the girls got back with a bunch of guys (who're all really tall incidently) who're drunk. Alix is a confident drunk. I on the other hand, am neither drunk nor confident so her I am, lying in a tent, listening to some conversation about dancing or whatever that theyre having outside and therefore I cant escape from it! I dont like the way that alcohol changes people.
I dont want to be lame and boring and stay in a tent allnight, but I dont want to be out there either oretending to be someone I'm not. Because that's just not who I am, nor do I want to be. But why dont people understand who I am? Always the odd one out, fed up with having to explain about college and not going out - basically explaining my entire life just so they dont think Im a total freak for not wanting to drink.
Bored of justifying myself.
....

So that was that diary entry! Fortunatly that was the only time I got really pissed off about it...incidentally the very next day I got more drunk than I've ever been in my life and had a really great time! I guess it depends completely on the atmosphere in which you're doing it!!!

Unfortunately as much as I would like to continue writing right now I have to stop cos the kids will get back from school soon - Ive been here for quite a while!!!!
Will finish the blog as soon as posisble!

Love and hugs to all
Jenxxxx

---