This week’s Polaroid comes to you from Mexico! Yes, I made an on-a-whim flight purchase a couple of weeks ago and changed my plans rather unexpected… more on the reason behind that in my monthly round-up, but in short, I had the opportunity to meet up wit several friends here which was more enticing than continuing my travels through Colombia solo, and I’m not one to say no to the prospect of Mexican food!
So here I am again, my fourth time in Mexico, a country I love very much and can visit over and over again. Plus: there are still so many places I haven’t been to yet – anything north of Mexico City, for example. And so after a few days in Mexico City, where I felt right at home again, my travel companion and I set off to explore some of the smaller, lesser known archaeological sites in Veracruz and Puebla, two states that are not far from Mexico City.
Considering that Latin America is celebrating Semana Santa (Holy Week) at the moment, which is the busiest travel week of the year, I have to admit that these weren’t our first choices for a week of traveling, but beggars can’t be choosers when not planning in advance for such a busy period of travel (no worries, you’ll hear me whine about that in more detail in my March round-up later this week).
By Dani – Full Story at Globetrotter Girls
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Our friend Dolly is on the go again, this time in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico:
Buenas Tardes,
Now I must switch to English. I have exhausted my Spanish vocabulary.
Frank and I decided we needed another vacation; therefore, we flew down to Puerto Vallarta on Friday.
We arrived at our hotel around 6:00 p.m., after spending almost 2 hours going through Immigration and Customs. The lines were long, but progressed smoothly. No one seemed to be upset or angry. Eventually, we retrieved our bags, ran the gauntlet through time share salesmen and found our taxi. We arrived here, at Club Regina, in time for Happy Hour. Our timing is impeccable.
The hotel sits among lush green gardens, palm trees and swimming pools. At the western edge of the property is the Pacific Ocean. The setting is so peaceful and relaxing, although the buildings are painted white with bubble-gum pink accents, interspersed with bright yellow accents. I think that design is to keep the guests from getting too bored.
After we got settle into our room, Frank and I walked down to a bar to have an evening cocktail. Frank could not get a martini, as the bar did not stock vermouth. We settled for a glass of Chardonnay each, as the bar did not have Pinot Grigio, either. Hmm. This could be a long week. We did have a delicious seafood dinner, though, and as we were both tired, we turned in early for a good night’s sleep.
Yesterday, we went into town. The concierge told us we could get a taxi to town for about 100 pesos, which is a bit under $6.00 US. I asked if there wasn’t a bus that went to town. Yes, there was. We found the bus, paid our 7.50 pesos. ( 45 cents US). Not that we are cheap, but I thought the experience of taking local transport would be interesting. That it was.
The buses run every 15 minutes, and are an efficient mode of transport, but we had to hang on tight, as the young driver weaved his way through traffic. Oh, to be young and fearless. We made it to our destination, though, safe and almost sound.
Our destination was the Malecon, which is a one mile, 12 block promenade that borders the sea.
This esplanade is traffic free, flowers and trees planted in a median all along the route. There are many sculptures in this area, as well as some innovative sand sculptures.
Eventually, we reached the southern end of the Malecon. We knew there was an excellent restaurant nearby, and we found it.
We went into an almost empty restaurant, as it was about 4:00 p.m by then. The waiter was very gracious. We told him we had been there before, several years ago. He was pleased that we remembered his restaurant and that we came back.
After our late lunch, we then caught a bus going back toward our hotel. Another adventure. We got off the bus this time at Walmart. We wanted to buy some groceries, so we didn’t have to eat out every meal. Of course, our grocery bags were so heavy when we left, we got a taxi back to the hotel, for a cost of less than $4 US.
We bought a papaya, a pineapple, some little limes, a couple of pastries, to make our breakfast this morning. The fruit was so delicious…we have enough papaya to last the rest of the week.
The rest of our day was spent just being lazy..we watched football…(.hey, did the Seahawks get lucky, or what?) later, I went down to one of the pools. Nothing like floating on my back, looking up at palm trees and wispy clouds to relax the mind.
We are having Happy Hour in our condo, then we will go down to a restaurant for dinner. Maybe. We have fruit, bread, cheese and wine here. Who could ask for anything more.
So I will say, Adios, till next time. More adventures to come, I am sure.
Your traveling blog writer,
Dolly