Viva Vallarta (now with pictures)

Week one down, at least 51 to go !!!

Well our amazing travels kicked off with an all inclusive week in Puerta Vallarta at the beautiful Palladium Vallarta. For months leading up to our wedding, Lyds had been hinting that she would love to start off our ´honeymoon´ with some sort of all inclusive trip. I had to be the voice of reason and let her know that it didn´t quite fit into our travellers budget, and we had to start off in Mexico city....all the while secretly booking the trip on the sly. Thankfully my trusting wife never put up an argument and let me book the flight without question.

To Lyds surprise, initial confusion but soon joy, when we rocked up to Vancouver airport, the 10am flight to Mexico City was actually the 10am flight to Puerta Vallarta.

Our week there was amazing. The hotel we booked was quite secluded and a fair way out of town. After a few hectic weeks of minimal sleep leading up to the wedding, it was nice to have a day that typically went like this...

10am (after at least 10 good hours of sleep)...cruise down to breakfast.
11am - hit the pool.
12pm - make the first venture over to the bar.
12-6pm, make some hard decisions such as...should I snooze (always a yes at least twice per afternoon)...should I hit the pool...should I do some reading....should I grant the waiters request to get me another drink?...it was really, really tough !!
7pm - onwards included dinner, a low grade musical show by the hotels local performers and/or yet another in the continuing Lydia v Doug classic pool competitions.


Looking out to sea

The resort itself was stunning, set in amongst a tropical rainforest right on the beach. They even had a little zoo with monkeys, turtles, parrots, peacocks, deer (!! go figure), and a crocodile. I was going to wrestle it, but I left my huge hunting knife at home....

They had 3 pools, half a dozen bars, and the usual buffet. They also had 3 specialty restaurants that we got to dine at to break up the buffet monotony. The Mexican restaurant was built into a cliff with stunning views of the ocean. The day we went there, it was about 35 degrees outside, but we refused to sit inside and soon set a trend with incoming diners who took our lead and braved the heat to enjoy the view. The Italian restaurant was a highlight, with the wonderful service complimented by a crab who broke free from his tank and seemed determined to join us for dinner. He even managed to stop Lydia amid one of her usual ´short´ stories as we watched him race across the floor towards us, waiters in close pursuit.


The view from dinner

For the first couple of days, the surf at the beach was almost passable. I got to body surf a few waves, and Lyds even got her first taste at boogie-boarding, which she loved and even managed to catch a couple of nice waves in her first few tries !!

We did trek into a couple of the local towns including Bucerias and Puerta Vallarta. We fast became experts at avoiding time share reps who were desperate to throw us money (i.e.- coupons) for a ´short´ presentation (which we had heard were a good 7 hours long).


One of the biggest magaritas you´re ever likely to see

As we sadly departed, after a week of leisure, we quickly realised we had stayed not a week too late as Mexican school holidays were kicking in, and I swear about 300 young kids showed up the day we left...phew !!

We are now in Mexico City having just taken the most luxurious bus ride that either of us have ever experienced. The seats were so big, that there was only 3 seats per row, instead of the usual 4. They also reclined so far, that it was like being in business class on a plane. The only unfortunate part of the journey was that Lyds had a rather portly women sitting behind her whose meal from the night before was apparently not sitting too well, producing a rather gaseous situation.

Here is a gallery of our time in Puerta Vallarta...



If you can't see this album, click on this link - Puerta Vallarta Pics

Adios for now.