Puerto Vallarta ~ land of the two legged lobsters.

Arrived in PVR. Had a nice few days here...really needed the getaway. I told Tran about the famous Thai custom orange dress (photo above). He loved that I had the police go and visit those crooks! See previous blog post on Thailand for story.

When I say two legged lobsters, I mean all the tourists who seems to be unable to use sunblock so they all have these angry red chests, backs, necks and thighs. Attractive.

Tran found this amazing condo....we each had our own room too.

Now the 'helpful directions' given to us by the owners of the aforementioned bad ass condo said, at the airport, skip all the counters, twice, skip all the counters, proceed to the end and at the exit is the offical taxi stand. What did Nancy do? She got confused and didn't follow the instructions. That's right, un hun, Nancy got roped into the dreaded timeshare sales pitch.

After wasting about 5 minutes, and let me assure you, with these fast talkers, that felt like an eternity...I finally broke loose from their clutches and found the only taxi driver in all of PV that didn't know where the famous "Juniors" that the condo is located next to. Figures.

Here is the conversation at the airport. Do you know where 591 Suarez is? Si. Bag in trunk, clunk! Door open, door close, seat belt, "click" roll down window and off we go.

Here is the rest of the drive. Round and round and round and bleep, bleep, "head office...where is 591 Suares? bleep bleep. go here. OK" Round and round and round. You get the idea.

30 minutes later, the time I thought I saved getting through customs so quickly, arrived at the palace. Now let's comment on the uniqueness of Mexico because it's so different here.

Wire holding street signs on the posts.

Super mega yacht with helicopter on the back $15,000 per day.

Viewed simultanenous from the same vantage point. What a wonderful paradox.

Headed out to find ourselves a great dinner and arm wrestled over who paid the check.

Tran, who incidentally can "hang" so to speak with Nancy. He doesn't say, I'm tired at 1am and he's bottomless. See below....

Well er, actually he thinks his butt has gotten tighter just coming up the stairs from hell to the super swanky condo he found on VRBO.
The stairs.

Sorry no picture of the butt....

Now the place is ultra chic, decorated by Mr. and Mr. from New York City. The only infuriating part of it is the dozens of remote controls. They use remote controls for near everything, the music, the A/C units, the lights and the ceilings fans and lord help you if you switch them by mistake because "one size does not fit all".

Decided to go diving. Now PVR is not known for diving but it's been almost a year since my last one and it's important to keep up....if you don't they won't take you out to the more difficult dives and then your vacation is ruined. Now as usual, I got the hot young divemaster. Meet Fernando

He showed us two male pregnant seahorses! I finally got to see one, well two that is.

Now I found out on this trip that it was Tran's birthday so we stopped off at a local's cafe (no tourists) and when I asked him what he wanted he said surprise me. So I did.

That thing he's trying to suck down the straw is a cold caramel cappuccino. We, that is myself and the whole group of people at the cafe, were giggling watching him try to drink, er suck this thing down. The bottom had what looked like pre-historic amber so we tried to find a mosquito to preserve it in.

And then there was these guys who came in like the cartoon of "3 blind mice" except the first one could see. They played guitar and sang wonderful Mexican songs...thank God there was no more covers of the Carpenters.


Did some walking around the downtown area at night and almost got run over by a domino's pizza delivery guy on a motorcycle. His helmet wasn't even on yet. Who said things are slow in Mexico???


I found an adorable little cub by the name of Santiago. Absolutely cute! He lived in San Jose for a while with his family. Went to high school there. He said he loves the heat and hates the cold. Then he said you get used to it, to which I replied, I'll be the judge of that. I also told him that I would add him to my collection...he looked nervous after that. :)


Headed back to the condo, Tran was nice enough to walk me and I sank down gratefully into my gay decorated room with king size bed and enough down to insure that a whole legion of ducks are now cold (or dead).



The next morning we finally found a decent breakfast place. Kudos to Tran for finding it...I was so pleased that I tipped the cook in the kitchen 50 pesos.

The table had a sugar box on it with these incredibly large sugar drops.


Did some walking around and found this cool mural.


Came back to the condo sweaty and tired to take a nice shower. Now Tran is obsessed with the crank windows in the bathrooms, his and mine. So I was about there for a minute before I realized that he'd found his way into my shower and opened my windows....hello neighbors!!!

When I first arrived Tran called me and said "ggiirrrllll I hope you've got flats" well I am proud to say that it took 3 days to break me. By this photo you'll see I'm wearing my cute little white sandels.


Headed to the beach for another dinner on the sand.


So last day I took him to Conchas Chinas. Which fortunately for us, is not far from where we are staying. The standard measure of unit here is 50 pesos and 2 block- 2 blocks. So 50 pesos later we are deposited at the Hotel Playa Conchas Chinas.

With sheltered coves and pristine white sand it's the spot for those in the "know".
Found a weird staircase....lots of stairs here in PVR. pant pant pant


And wrapped up the weekend with snoring Tran. But give him a break he's been up till dawn all 3 nights!



Ah well there is one more honorable mention...one other cute cub. :)