Saturday, March 22, 2014

Puerto Vallarta, Mexico! Or, the Start of Our Year of Traveling!

Our first adventure of many to come; Puerto Vallarta. Not my first choice, but the man behind the scenes (aka Connor) insisted on taking me for my birthday.

Unfortunately, this wonderful book has been the highlight of this trip. Okay, maybe the trip didn’t completely suck. The fruit and the orange juice were pretty damn good.

Let’s skip the beginning of our arrival and jump right into walking into the hotel. Yeah, that’s a pretty good place to start. Okay, so we walk into the HOTEL NAME. To say it was full of spring breakers is an understatement. It wasn’t just full, but crammed, like trying to squeeze 12 colored pencils into a case that can only hold 10. It’s just uncomfortable and it doesn’t look good. After about 30 minutes of waiting patiently to reach the desk, we get up there only to be told our room wasn’t ready yet and that it would take 20 minutes or so. Magically, within 5 minutes our room was ready. No complaints here though, we were excited to put our bags into the room and head to the pool!

Except, when we got to the room it was a complete mess. It looked like all they did was change the sheets…. Well when in Mexico I guess? We decided to embrace it, holding onto the moment with white finger tips. We were here to have a good time, and by golly (yes I did just say that), we were going to enjoy ourselves! Right after we got some food though.

The plan was simple: Food, pool, ocean.

We made sure to pay extra for all inclusive wrist bands so that we could eat and drink as much to our hearts content. Unfortunately, the main restaurant was closed for the weekend due to the spring breakers. The other two cafes were closed for the evening and all that was open was the buffet by the pool. Fine by us! Yet, the food was cold. And there were flys and all sorts of winged bugs on the food because nothing was covered. My stomach grumbled. My mouth watered. I forced down a comple bites of potato, but when a fly buzzed away from beneath my food, I couldnt stomach any more. I packed some granola bars; those would be dinner.

By this point, I was getting agitated. I needed a drink. I asked the bartender to make me something fruity (we are in mexico right?). He gave me waterd down vodka and pineapple juice. Or maybe it was just water and pineapple juice because I couldnt taste the alcohol.

Happy Birthday to me! By this point, it was pretty evident our stay wasn’t about to be as wonderful as originally discussed. We decided to forgo the pool and take a nap instead.

Upon waking up (an hour later) the entire hotel was pretty much abandoned. Not a soul in sight.. well there was one drunk guy… We walked to the beach. It was beautiful. The water was cold. But peaceful, nonetheless. We decided then and there not to spend another night in that hotel. We canceled the next 2 nights, and booked ourselves on the next flight home in the morning. When we got back to the hotel, Connor went out to find us dinner since the ‘resort’ only had the buffet open. The extra money we paid for all inclusive was laughable.Thankfully, the food that Connor brought back was mouthwatering delicious. The best Mexican food I had ever had. It was something local, from a hole in the wall. But it was perfect in such an imperfect moment.


The next morning we both agreed to get out of that crappy hotel and see what else Puerto Vallarta had to offer. We walked around the water, went to a mini farmers market like place. The second day was much better. It made me want to reconsider staying.

And the orange juice, fresh squeezed orange juice, the best I’ve ever had- scratch that the best we’ve ever had.

Will we come back to this hotel? Never. Will we go with an all-inclusive package again? Not until we see what the restaurants/food and drinks they offer look like. Will we come back to Puerto Vallarta? Maybe...

Would I recommend it to you? Depends on what you’re looking for in your vacation.


Until next month, happy travels!

EM

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