I like flying.
A view of our hotel from the beach. We stayed at the Holiday Inn and it was all-inclusive, meaning everything was paid for (food, drinks, activities, etc).
A view from the pool-area. The hotel got more packed as it grew closer to Christmas and it became hard to find empty seats like the ones here.
My brother Alex, his gf Tegan and my mom at the Isla Bar. It was located in the middle of the pool. The drinks tended to be a little weak most of the time so we just had to drink a lot haha
This is the seating area of Guacamaya, the buffet-style restaurant that was open most of the time. The food was okay, but it couldn't compare to the two fancy places inside that we had to make reservations for.
On the right side under the covered area is the swim up bar. I swam my 4-year-old neice Bella over there often so she could get a Sprite heh
Bella hanging out in the kids pool. She was there every day for a few hours at least.
This was one of the only bummers of the trip. They started construction outside of our window at 9 a.m. every morning (except for Christmas I believe) with jackhammers going. We got on a waiting list to switch rooms, but no luck. I think we got used to it though.
More construction.
Tegan, Alex, my sister Amy and Mom waiting for our reservation at the Mexican place.
Bella and I waiting to get our grub on. We usually tried to dress up when we had dinner because the fancy places had a dress code that they didn't enforce too much hehe.
The food was amazing!!! I honestly didn't have a meal in the two fancier restaurants that I didn't enjoy.
Dessert!
Tegan in the lobby bar at the hotel. This was a pretty popular hang out spot for those who didn't go into town to experience the nightlife.
The kid's pool from our balcony. If you look close you can see Bella in the water and Amy and Mom in the shade.
Bella loves getting her picture taken. And I think that was the first time I ever wore a sleeveless tee haha. I ended up coming home with two of them - one was a corona shirt and the other from Senor Frogs.
I liked this photo in the elevator. Alex's Anacortes shirt actually helped us to meet some people from Arlington staying at our hotel and one of the kids plays baseball on UPS's team. What a small world.
This is a shot from the taxi of the main highway connecting the "hotel district" and downtown.
The boardwalk. This area was really touristy with a ton of shopping.
It's so weird to think that in less than a week age we were putting on sunscreen and wearing shorts and sunglasses...
Those sails were really cool looking. This is the south end of the boardwalk.
A beach in south Puerto Vallarta. This is one area we didn't explore too much unfortunately. Oh well, maybe I'll have to come back again sometime?
Sometimes I get artsy-fartsy.
Probably one of the most photographed places in Puerto Vallarta.
Inside.
Tegan and I outside of the church.
Our waiter making Mexican coffee. It was rad to see him make this. It has alcohol in it so he ignites it when preparing it (can't see it because of the flash). It was damn tasty.
Lizard!!!
Is that pot huge or is my mom just tiny?
What happens in Mexico stays in Mexico!
A shot of the hotel district from the boat we went on.
This one's pretty self-explanitary.
Bella had a lot of fun on the boat. She freaked out when we saw dolphins and she loved to dance when they were playing music.
It was pretty awesome that we lucked out and saw the whales. I wish I had taken better shots.
Whale part 2.
The fish we got to snorkel with. It was pretty awesome... that is until I almost touched a jellyfish. Then I freaked out and got out of the water haha.
The village of Yelapa. 400 families live in the beautiful place and they've only had electricity for 4 years.
Us white folks had to put on sunscreen quite often.
The Yelapa mascot maybe?
Walking through the town with a huge group of wealthy white people was a little odd... I can't imagine what it would be like to live somewhere that huge groups of more priveleged people came in to view the way of life. I dunno.
There were pretty much huge spiders everywhere so that sucked. But I think they keep to themselves for the most part. We walked on a path up to a waterfall and they were everywhere above our heads the entire way.
Some of their webs we had to walk beneath.
Barf.
One of the houses on the trail.
The waterfall. There was a little restaurant on the right.
Tourist group again.
A few houses.
They were working on getting electricity to more buildings while we were there.
A church.
I don't think Gloria's was still open...More of Yelapa:
Yelapa gets their income completely from fishing and tourism.
Haha, this shot was really posed. I just remember some commercial that was like this.
Getting back on the boat.
Alex coming down after parasailing.
It was amazing how not-scary parasailing was. It was actually really relaxing.
Haha, this is gross. My camera was strapped to my lifejacket so this was as far away as I could get the camera.More parasailing shots:
Our hotel on the left.
We swam a lot every day. Bella is an excellent swimmer for her age too and not afraid of the water at all!
She'd even let Alex throw her up way high!
Mom at the buffet restaurant. I like restaurants without walls.
A mariachi band played on night during the fiesta. It was really awesome. I decided I wanna play bass in a mariachi band.
Bella loves to get her groove on.
This was taken during the fiesta. Alex and Tegan went to the Outback Steakhouse that night.
Dancers during the fiesta.
My mom and I went on a bus tour of the city and we stopped here first.
That is a 2-ton Jesus statue made of wood. It's eyes supposedly follow you when you walk around the church.
Next stop was a tequila factory. It was weird tasting that stuff at like 11 a.m. They had flavored stuff that I bought that was freaking good.
We took the bus up to the hills where all the rich Americans and Canadians live.
Maybe someday I'll have a house up here haha
View from the hill.
I think I'll have Victor translate this.
Some more hotels in South Puerto Vallarta.
This restaurant we stopped at didn't have a paper menu. You picked what you wanted by looking at it. Best seafood EVER.
My mom got the seafood platter. It included a red snapper, mahi-mahi filet, 4 shrimp, crab, lobster. I had the special shrimp which was stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon. yummy!
That's what was left of her food.
On Christmas they had a party for all the kids. This shot is from our balcony on the 8th floor.
I lucked out and saw Bella hitting the pinata!
Since it was Christmas we all got Bella a few things so she'd have stuff to open.
Bella in her new 'Rosito Frosito' shirt. AKA Strawberry Shortcake.
Bella and I love taking pictures of each other.
Can you tell that's her dad?
Hahaha, I don't know why I love this picture so much!
Playing in the waves is awesome but sand in the shorts really isn't.
Sunset behind the boardwalk bridge. This was taken while at our dinner table on Christmas. We went downtown to an outdoor restaurant called Oscar's. The food was unbelievable!
Quite different than the X-mas dinners of my past.
I love the fireworks setting on my digital camera. This was outside of our hotel on the last night.
I was so stoked that they were playing marimbas! I haven't seen or heard those things in ages. This was our last breakfast :(Some more shots around the pool area at the hotel:
Okay, this shot is amazing! I want to enter this into contests or something.
We went to the mall after we checked out of the hotel and before our flight. We found an arcade so I played Pump It Up for awhile. When I was done I turned around and there were at least 20 people stopped in the mall watching! I don't ever get crowds like that in the states anymore!!!
Alex and I out by the road. We didn't want to come home.
Goodbye Mexico!!!