Hola, Puerto Vallarta! Part 1

As you know from reading the blog over the past year, Chris and I still traveled fairly consistently during the pandemic, albeit in a different, safer way - namely, by taking our own tiny home, complete with kitchen and bathroom, with us everywhere we went.  While we loved trucking around the western United States with Arlene (and we'll continue to do so), once we got our vaccines, we were ready to start researching other travel options, including what deals were currently being offered to locations far and wide.  Since the travel industry (and its associated subsets, such as airlines, hotels, and the like) was truly hit hard in 2020, we found all sorts of great prices on vacations, and figuring we'd want to stay relatively close on our first, post-vaccine excursion, we booked a four-night stay at the Marriott in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (it helped that Southwest now offers direct flights from Phoenix to PV).  Over Labor Day weekend, we took our trip!

Masked up and in Mexico!

We've been to PV once before; a few years after we moved to Arizona in 2004, we booked a Princess Cruise to Mexico for Chris' spring break, and PV was one of the ports we hit.  It was our first port, so we excitedly signed up for an excursion through the ship - to go ziplining nearby - while we had a good time, we never really got a chance to learn about the city itself, and we hoped this trip would let us remedy that.

We flew out on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, and although we weren't sure what the backup at Sky Harbor might be, it was smooth sailing - having arrived the recommended three hours ahead of time for an international flight and using almost none of it to check in our bags and go through security, we had ample opportunity to wander around the airport, fill our water bottles, and have a disappointing breakfast at the Barrio Cafe in Concourse D (man, so bummed about that - we've eaten in the Barrio Cafe in the airport many times - and the original location once - and it was always outstanding - whatever COVID protocols they're having to use are really impacting things over there).  

The flight down was also uneventful; it took about two and a half hours, and our flight attendants were great when it came to keeping an eye on everyone, ensuring they were 1) wearing their masks and 2) wearing them correctly.  We collected our luggage, did all of the customs business, and met the TPV (Transportes Puerto Vallarta) coordinator outside to drive us to our hotel; the concierge at the Marriott had arranged the ride with TPV for us, and when I asked him for more information on where to find these folks, he sent me the map below:

Can you guess my favorite item on this map?

If you said the part reading,

"TIMESHARED REPS. DON'T STOP HERE,"

you win a prize, friend.

Here at the Marriott, we'd prefer you not buy timeshares

from anyone else - we'll be happy to sell you some of ours, thank you.

Our hotel was in the marina area of PV, which was right next to the airport, so the car ride was pretty short; before too long, the bellman was hauling our bags out of the car while we headed inside to start the check-in process.  We accepted the front desk's offer to pay an additional, whopping $10 per night to upgrade to the full ocean view room, and we were more than pleased we did:

That's the Pacific Ocean back there!

This was the wall treatment in our room,

directly across from the bed.

Isn't it neat?

It's a houndstooth print, with an image of agave.

Please ignore the trash can.

Since we'd arrived around 3pm PV Time (they're in the same time zone as our Central folks, like most of Texas), we planned to stay put and explore our hotel for the remainder of the day, eating dinner somewhere on site.  After changing into our swimsuits, we headed down to the main pool and swim-up bar for our complimentary welcome margaritas.

And chips and guac

We relaxed on the pool chairs for a bit, but knowing we'd get plenty of pool time the next day, we started our wander around the hotel, finding the workout areas, the spa, the room where they do rapid COVID testing (we'd get to visit there during our stay), and this, which was most exciting to me:

I realize this may look like some sort of graveyard, but it's the exact opposite - it's a sea turtle hatchery!  The beach in front of the hotel has all sorts of visitors each year, and several of them are lady sea turtles, ready to lay their eggs.  The staff keeps an eye out every night, and when they find a clutch of eggs, they bring them here, into a quiet corner of the hotel, so the babies can safely finish their development without being trampled on by a bunch of tourists.  If you're there on a night when a clutch is hatching, the staff will let you help move the babies back out onto the beach and release them into the water.

Tags identifying where the clutch was found,

and on what day

Despite my most fervent wishes, no babies decided to emerge while we were there, so we didn't get a chance to take part in releasing any back into the ocean.  However, that doesn't mean I didn't ask the activities staff every day, perhaps multiple times a day, about the possibility of any tortugas appearing that evening.  Also, rest assured that I was not the only person of a certain age who I routinely saw bothering the staff about this.  Our love for tiny turtles knows no bounds, folks.

We were a bit peckish after our wander (ah, vacation eating!), so we settled down in the on site Ceviche and Tequila Bar and planned to enjoy some local cervezas.  I even took a picture of the tap handles, so we could easily decide what we wanted from our seats (there wasn't really a beer menu).

Me, to the bartender:  "...and what's that handle?"

The bartender: "Senora, none of those handles are connected."

Gotcha, okay.

How about a Dos Equis and a Pacifico, then?

These might not be local, 

but at least they are Mexican.

We hung out on the patio of the bar for a little bit, enjoying watching the rain come down, and eventually, we moved into the restaurant area proper.  We tried a few of their namesake ceviche options for dinner, which were great, and rather larger than we anticipated.  Don't worry, though - we still made room for some fancy tres leches cake for dessert!

Retiring to our room for the rest of the night, we read for a bit, watched some tv (I think we caught up on that week's Ted Lasso, courtesy of the Amazon Fire Stick we travel with), and chilled on our patio.  Although we were on the fourth floor, it wasn't too high up to have visitors:

Spoiler alert - we will have interactions

with a whole lot of lizards on this trip.

In future blogs, we spend some time exploring PV, eating lots of food (so.much.food), relaxing at the pool, and getting pooped on by iguanas (yes, really)!

Later!

Amy

P.S. - As a reward for hanging around and reading these blogs all the way to the bitter end, you also get to see what Zoe and August got up to on their vacation from Mom and Dad.  Their doggie daycare spot, JetPet AZ, also does boarding, and these maniacs love it there.  The daycare staff posts pictures each day, so we can keep an eye on them.  On Sunday, the first day of our trip, we noticed this shot:

How about we zoom in/crop this just a bit?

Apologies for this being a bit blurry, but those are clearly our two girls, dominating the doggie pool, and having an amazing time doing so.  Zoe is quite obviously drinking the water straight from the pool (in which all of the other dogs have stomped and gone to the bathroom and whatnot), and August is thrilled just to be hanging out with her big sister.  Holy crap, I love these two nutcases.