Puerto Vallarta - Day 4

Tuesday, May 30

Started the day off bright and early with some kayaking - a double-seater. I had never tried kayaking before, but my impression of it is, well, relaxing and paddling at a gentle, moderate pace. However, that was not what MK had in mind. We ended up having a mini dragonboat-thing going on: synchronized power-paddling with/against the waves. Since I used to paddle left for dragonboat, we kept turning towards the right. So, of course, MK kept yelling "Keep it straight! Keep it straight!" as we battled the waves. There was one big wave that we rode, when the both of us thought that the kayak was going to flip. Good thing we didn't end up wet like Amy and Jerry.

Got a bunny today!

After lunch, we headed to the gym to sign up for archery, where the guys decided to do some chin-ups. Before the trip, Jerry bet that MK wouldn't be able to do 10 chin-ups, so MK had to prove him wrong. Boy, Jerry sure didn't like losing the bet!

To kill time and to cool off, we went to the sports lounge to shoot some pool, where Jerry was forced to lose some more before heading over for archery.

Look at that arm

Bull's-eye!

Don't I look professional?

Only 2 fingers, Amy!

A bit more lounging around, then we got ready to go to Viva Mexico, and were there just in time to catch the last glimpse of the sunset. Together with a good margarita: It was the perfect evening.

The little devil in me

Miguel, our coffee guy

Flaming alcohol

Yummy Spanish coffee!

At the end of dinner, we decided to catch the last bit of the show, and met the resort mascot for the first time. (We had to line up behind the little kids)

Puerto Vallarta - Day 3

Monday, May 29

We were off on a mission to explore the nearby town - Bucerias. But first, it was a stop at the 7-11 lookalike - Super 7 - liquor/corner store across the road from the resort. After a 15 minute ride of terror on a local transit bus, we were dropped off at a place where the side streets were cobblestoned, and the surroundings appeared to have been away from the town.

After walking for about 10-15 minutes (or what seemed like an hour!) under the hot sun, we found our first stop - HSBC. As we approached the bank, we noticed a security guy guarding by the door, with a semi-automatic rifle in his hands. Our attempt of getting into the bank was probably viewed as idiotic by the locals, as we didn't know that there was a security feature on the doors where the outer door had to be shut before the inner one could be opened. The rifle guy had to come show us in. It was a nice break being in air conditioning, but we had to move on to find the market. We found ourselves lost, and had to practice our newly-learned Spanish to ask for directions. Turned out that the market was only 2 blocks from where the bus driver dropped us off; we just took a huge detour to get to it.

Had a short sunscreen break, and bumped into a guy selling horseride tours. The boys bargained for a while, and we finally decided to go for it. We thought we got a good deal with a 45-minute ride instead of the normal 30-, but later learned to not believe what the sales person says about extending the time. The middleman didn't actually communicate the sales information with the horseowner, so the kid who followed us around told us to turn around after only about 12 minutes.

Did some more shopping around the market, heard some ridiculous starting prices, and haggled lots. After some dinner back at the resort and live Mexican music by the lobby, it was time to check out the disco. Funny thing was, everytime we went onto the dance floor, the Mexicans got off. Guess they were intimidated by our superior dance moves.

Me with Faye and Kiquen

Puerto Vallarta - Day 2

Sunday, May 28

The resort offered Spanish lessons at 11am everyday, so we figured that we may as well attend at least one of them. Our instructor - Alex(andro) - wasn't that great at teaching, but Jerry learned to say baño quite well.

After the lesson, we were off to the beach for a brief game of volleyball, and then the orientation at noon, through which we all were falling asleep except for Jerry. Had lunch, and went to the beach for some bodyboarding. After only a few tries, I got pushed down by a big wave and got a nice slash, from the rocks, on the bottom of my toe. Amy also got scraped on her knee, so these early injuries kind of restricted some of our activities. Still managed to walk along the beach and off the resort's property, though, and found a sea urchin (aka uni at all-you-can-eat sushi), some mangoe-like fruit, and Jerry's new-found love: hermit crabs.

Went for dinner at Porto Fino's, and, thanks to Jerry practicing Spanish on the waiter, we had over-cooked food, didn't get our welcome drinks, and were ignored by the staff for the last hour that we were there. Played some pool at the sports bar with Faye and Kiquen, and found that tequila shots were the way to go if we wanted to get drunk.

Jerry caught with his eyes closed!

Boys: drunk

Girls: still lookn' pretty

Puerto Vallarta - Day 1

Saturday, May 27

Amy and Jerry showed up at my place a few minutes after 7am, and I was exhausted after a busy week and an all-nighter, but it was all good because we were off to Mexico!

Mom drove us to the airport, and sheesh, she drove slowly... The brakes of the van were making weird noises, that's why she didn't want to drive fast enough to brake much. However, that didn't stop the boys from analysing what could be wrong with the brakes. Check-in was quite smooth, though our attendant was the least friendly any of us had met! It was a bad note on WestJet and affected my mood a bit... It was soon forgotten though, as I was more focused on my first trip to Mexico.

Ran into a bit of a problem at the security gate - turns out that MK had a mini multi-tool on his keychain, and there was no way that they were going to let him bring it onto the plane. Damn 9-11 caused this... Well, definitely couldn't just toss it, since it was a birthday present from Lena, so we had to fill out these forms just so that the airport could overcharge us to mail the thing home. As we were lining up to board the plane, Amy told us that she and Jerry had gotten engaged just 2 days before! Don't know what Jerry was thinking, but it definitely would've been better if he had proposed in Mexico.

The peacock that we get each day

We were very surprised to find that there was a meal provided on the flight, as in the information that we found before, there wasn't going to be anything provided except for some drinks and cookies. So together with the food that we packed ourselves (including fruit and meat!), we were stuffed... The flight attendants were quite fun - we even played a toilet-paper game as the plane was moving towards the gate. It was such a huge temperature change when we got there; felt a heat wave as we were getting off the plane, and started shedding some clothing as soon as we got onto the airport shuttle bus. Silly Jerry wore a sweatshirt and not even a t-shirt underneath...

After going through customs and retrieving our luggages, everyone had to press a button to determine if a luggage search was required. We all got a green light except for Amy, and apparently the guy who did the search quickly closed her suitcase once he saw the bras laid on top. :D Then it was meeting Carlos (our rep) for the first time, and taking a taxi to our resort - Palladium. It was interesting seeing the different architecture and lots of garbage along the way.

Once we checked in at the resort, we went towards our rooms and found it a hot and tiring walk, but once we got into the rooms, we couldn't have been happier with the view. It was amazing! We had view of the adult pool and a big chunk of the beach and ocean; it was more than we had anticipated. It was close to 8pm, so once we settled in and changed, it was time to grab a drink and look for the buffet restaurant - La Bosque. Went to the show at 9pm and ended up watching a bunch of kids playing a silly game, so we took off and explored the resort some more. We found some hammocks and relaxed in them for a while; took some pictures while in them and realized that Jerry has a big ass. >:D

Off to some more drinking, dancing at the beach party, and running into the ocean in the dark!! Amy and I were grossed out by the seaweed, but it didn't seem to bother MK one bit.