I'm back, baby!!

That's right, after seven days of 30+ degree (that's Celsius, I don't know what it is in Fahrenheit) weather, an all night plane ride home, two days of decompression and a hectic shift at the shop, it's back to reality. I've discovered that no vacation is truly a relaxing one - the only way to really unwind and catch up on your rest is to stay at home, lock the door and unhook the phone. But seriously, there's no way I would pass up my week in Mexico for that. I can sleep when I'm dead.

After leaving home at 11am on Saturday, Feb 7th, we finally arrived at our new home for the week at nearly 1am on Sunday. Departing the plane in Puerto Vallarta means climbing down a giant set of swaying stairs into a wall of heat, and crossing the baking tarmac into the terminal. Thank god it was late at night, a mid afternoon arrival and I might have keeled over from the shock of it. A short bus ride took us into the heart of resort town, somewhere between the Aeropeurto de Puerto Vallarta and downtown. Despite the exhaustion from travelling all day, the excitement of finally being at our destination kept us up into the wee hours of the night (morning?), and how can you not take a dip in the crashing waves under a near full moon on your first night in Mexico?



As I was an all-inclusive virgin, the ease of simply having the food and drink you want available when you want struck me as pure luxury. It eliminates the need to decide where you want to eat, how much you want to pay, stocking up on snacks and liquids...it makes life easy, although the lack of variety in the meal options had us searching out alternatives relatively quickly. The first day consisted of dips in the pool and ocean broken up with some reclining on the lounge chairs, and a short walk down the street to check things out. Puerto Vallarta has a very active night scene, with clubs, bars and restaurants open late to cater to frolicking vacationers and die hard locals. The main strip is a boardwalk on the beach on one side of the street and a plethora of shops, restaurants, clubs, etc. on the other. So of course after dinner we had to check it out. Most places are open to the street, so you can see what's going on inside, and those inside can watch you stroll down the Malecon (boardwalk). The temperature in the evenings is positively perfect: just warm enough to dress light but still cool enough not to overheat. Its easy to dance the night away under those conditions.

After a bit of a sleep in, day two started off similar to the first, with some lounging and swimming, and a rousing game of pool volleyball (not that easy!). In the afternoon Curtis and I decided to take our rods and try fishing off one of the rock jetties on the beach in front of our hotel. This was exactly the wrong time to give it a shot, as the wind picks up heavy in the afternoon and so do the waves, but we decided to try it anyway. On our investigatory journey onto the jetty we discovered it was covered in these crazy little crabs, that not only move like stink and stick to the rocks, but they can jump! Creepier than I can tell you, but they are beautiful little creatures. Mottled dark brown and olive, with red and yellow, and hints of blue and black, they had no front pinchers and reminded me somewhat of spiders, although my skin didn't crawl quite as much from them.
How many crabs can you see in this picture?

Our first fishing attempt resulted in Curtis hooking into one of these little beauties - he discovered they would attack a clouser with reckless abandon and managed to hook himself a trophy!


After a while we decided that perhaps we had not chosen the greatest time to try to toss a fly and headed back up to the resort. On the beach we were met by a local nicknamed Tricio who talked to us about fishing, and told us about a unique fishing destination that he thought we would like... which leads me into a very long tale that will have to wait until tomorrow...