I’m back! I’m going to be sharing some info, pictures, highlights and observances from my winter escape away to Puerto Vallarta. As per my usual, I’ll begin with ‘travel day’ – never one of my favorites.
What a trip! I left home in a blizzard and minus 30F with zero sleep because my plane was to leave at 6:30 am, which meant I had to leave home at 3am to allow for airport madness. It turns out that I was lucky to have that early flight because it was the early flights that were getting out of Dodge that day as I noticed most other flights on the board all listed as cancelled. It took us 45 minutes to de-ice the plane, and gratefully, I was off to the sunshine and warmth, leaving behind what has been consequently named ‘the worst winter in eighty years’.
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I took this photo from inside the plane as they were de-icing the plane.
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I’d learned from my previous year’s flight, to never fly in to Puerto Vallarta on a Saturday – the airport is just too busy in high season. I left on a Thursday, and after once again having to disembark on the tarmac to pick up bags and proceed through the antiquated customs system, I was asked to open a suitcase there for the first time ever. Most likely that was because the universe must have heard me bragging to a fellow passenger how I’d never caught ‘the red light’. Yes, Mexican customs agents have booths set up before where we exit to the outside. There is what looks like a stoplight at each booth that we must press the button – if the light is green, keeping walking, if it’s red, you must open up whatever bags they want to search. My bags were HEAVY, and one was soaking wet when it came off the carousel, undoubtedly, left out on the tarmac at Toronto airport during the blizzard until it was loaded on. With no sleep for almost 36 hours and the mile walk at Toronto airport to the gate, and no strength left to carry another bag, the agent asked me to lift my suitcase onto the three foot high table. I told him that if he wanted to see what’s in there, he’d have to lift it himself. And he did. The usual time suck and I was out in a cab to my rented condo.
Ten minutes later I arrived at security gates of the condo in the blazing hot sun and the cab driver proceeded up the quarter mile drive up to my tower and helped me put my bags on the luggage cart I’d borrowed from the lobby. I was to meet my condo manager upstairs, but when I finally finagled that heavy luggage cart in and out of the elevator and down the winding hall to the condo, nobody was there. The door was locked and my manager was a no-show. As I sweated in my travel clothes from the sun’s rays beaming directly on me from an open hallway window, my mind was rolling with how I was to get in, and how was I to try and phone him while my mobile was turned onto airplane mode and I hadn’t yet got my Mexican Sim card, not wanting to turn on my phone to track a missing manager and cost me $20 just to make that call from my Canadian Sim card. Then an idea sparked.
I remembered that the previous year, the manager had Whatsapped me the wifi password for the condo unit. I inched right up to the door, scrolled through his old messages, and found the password. I hitched onto the condo’s wifi from outside the door and messaged him. His reply told me that he was sorry he couldn’t be there but he left the key at the quarter mile away security gate and advised me to go get it. ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? I told him I was not leaving my luggage, nor was I walking that far pushing a luggage cart, and asked him to give me the digital combination to open the door. He told me the owner had changed the code, and I told him he’d better call the owner and GET IT! And so he did, and ten minutes later texted it to me. I was finally in.
Not ten more minutes had passed when my friend Shelley, who was already there for two weeks with hubby John, texted me to tell me she’s on her way over so she can walk with me to the grocery store and get me a Sim card. I opened my luggage, changed into shorts and a Tshirt, left it all and headed out for a hot walk to the supermarket. By the time I got back, finished unpacking, and had something to eat, it was evening and I still hadn’t slept. All I wanted was a hot shower and bed. I got in the shower and turned the dial to hot water, only to discover – there wasn’t any. I knew it! Once again my manager was ill-prepared and didn’t instruct maintenance to turn on the hot water tank. I literally thought I was going to freeze to death, but I needed a shower and bed, the hot water tank turn on was going to wait till the morning.
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This is a picture of me and Shelley, a.k.a. Shelster, on one of our later shopping expeditions with a Margarita pitstop.
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The next morning, I had hot water. Although I noticed the condo was missing face towels, face cloths and kitchen towels. The safe had the same corroded batteries that were there last year, so I once again replaced them with my own I’d brought from home, knowing what to expect. The wicker chairs on the balcony were in bad shape. some broken right through the seats, and the living room furniture looked like it was long overdue for a cleaning, so as I did last year, I covered one of the couches with a clean sheet so I had a place to park myself and my laptop without sitting on the unknown. I made a note to buy some towels on a Walmart walk with my friends Brenda and Saul, and remember to take the towels back home with me when it was time to leave.
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My friends, wild woman Brenda And her husband Saul
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I noticed how much the prices had gone up in the stores and restaurants. Quaint little PV is fast becoming a big Americanized tourist town. Condos are going up quick, and I know Covid has put a hit on costs globally, but I also know that Mexican local cost of living could never afford such prices. The tourist areas were catching up with prices back home. Alcoholic beverages used to cost $3-$4 Canadian pre-Covid that are now $10. A restaurant meal for $15 now with a tip was costing $30. Grocery prices have doubled too, and not to mention, our already crappy Canadian dollar was down from 16 to 13 Pesos to the Canadian dollar – costing more, and getting less at the bank machine. But still, it was cheaper for me to live there for two months than what I spend at home to live.
Most days were spent at the pool, except for a few shopping and Margarita trips downtown a few times for the day with my galpals, and another group trip north to La Cruz Sunday market and Punta Mita beach for lunch (which I’ll share later). My good friends, Shelley and John were staying next complex over, and Brenda and Saul were staying in my building. I’d get my exercise many days walking to groceries, Walmart, Costco, and/or the fish market where I got some delicious Sea Bass for about $3 a fillet, now that was a good deal. I don’t eat shrimp, but you could get a kilo, fresh, and hand cleaned while you wait for $14 Canadian dollars! There seemed to be a mysterious week or two where no store had any gluten-free bread – or coffee creamer.
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I took this short video clip of the Fish Market
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Fresh Catch of the Day – Mahi Mahi
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I saw a lot of familiar faces at the pool and spent the afternoons in the water gabbing to them all, as well as made a few new friends. My friends Patty and Jamie were there too, although Pat came a few weeks late because of a host of health issues. It didn’t help that a week after finally arriving, she got Shingles. Oye! Poor Pat. She had to stay in, out of the sun for two weeks, and even when the blisters healed, she was, and still is suffering lingering nerve damage on her back. I also made some new good friends to add to my roster, Lucie, Liz and Grant, and the last week, I met Liz’s sister, Chris. And my girlfriend from home here, Alyson, also came down and stayed with me for ten days – more girl time!
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Me and Alyson, Al, as I always call her, out on the town
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Pat a.k.a Patty Girl, and Jamie out at a fancy restaurant up in the hills
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Me and Lucie at Margarita Grill Bar (More about that to come)
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Me and Liz and my water float
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Grant and Liz – my new friends and chair savers
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Liz’s sister Chris took this selfie of us three. Clearly, she has been fired from selfie photography. LOL.
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Now that I have introduced you to some of my friends, you’ll be able to put the names to faces in my stories.
I also had good intentions to read a lot of books while away, but February was a write-off for that activity because the socializing took precedence. But I managed to get through ten books in March, despite my busy schedule, and a few of which were added into my reading roster when a friend offered me two books she finished at the beach, which sparked my fancy. I’ll be posting my reviews for those books on Goodreads and Amazon as I finish editing my reviews from rough written notes, and I’ll be sharing each book on my Sunday Book Reviews here, each week. A few great reads to mention were books by: Lauren Scott – More Than Coffee, The Winding Road: A Journey of Survival by Miriam Hurdle, and Frank Prem’s latest book (not sure if it’s out yet), a powerful interpretation of the war in Ukraine, From Volyn To Kherson.
For now, I’ll share a few more pictures below of some of my favorite scenic captures – from my balcony. I’ll be sharing more pictures, outings, happenings and mishaps here, weekly. Stay tuned!
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