Late March 2011:
We wake up at the literal crack of dawn and get dressed in a haze. Somehow all 4 of us make it to the airport and, sleepily, to our gate. Fast forward to that afternoon with the 4 of us, now joined with the other half of our group (my dad's brother and his family), sitting by the pool dining on nachos. We have reached our tropical destination on the coast of Mexico: Puerto Vallarta, a bay town surrounded by Pacific Ocean on one side and mountains on the other. Now we are all just excited about the week to come. We spend the first few days, mostly just laying on the beach or by the pool, but we do head to town on Tuesday to do a little shopping and sightseeing.
The main street of the city of PV is the Malecon, a road made entirely out of river rocks(as all are here), and with one side facing the beach and the other being intersected by other streets, all heading straight into the mountains. On the beach side, artists have created metal sculptures, lined up on the sidewalk like soldiers, while other, different, artists in the area spend their days ON the beach making beautiful and elaborate sand sculptures. We do `some shopping and try to find a restaurant with a balcony, but end up heading back to The Marival (our resort) early instead.
So here's the thing about our resort; it was amazing. It contained 4.5 pools, something like 6 restaurants, thousands of chairs for general lounging about, and just about the prettiest beach you can imagine. We all adored it of course, and could have lived there forever. Sometime each day a group of us would walk along the beach, seeing the world at different times of the day. The ocean at sunrise, the waves at sunset, the stars at midnight. One night we had sunset pictures taken, on others we ate at some of the fancier restaurants and then spent the rest of the night sitting at the snack bar, playing games or telling stories.
The highlight of the trip for my family was, without a doubt Friday, also known as Zipline Day. My aunt, uncle and cousins went to swim with dolphins instead so it was just us(my immediate family). Our adventure lasted all day and began with a gorgeous (open-air) bus ride through the mountains, passing stretches of amazing ocean views or tiny rundown towns deep in the hill areas. We arrived at the zip line company excited and ready for fun! All morning and afternoon we went from one line to another, each more thrilling than the last. We were accompanied by a small group of other tourists and maybe a dozen hilarious tour guides. Some zip lines required a hike through rain forests to reach, while others were right next to each other. Many of the lines traveled over thrilling scenic views of a river or rain forest canopy. The last line was a race to the finish. I raced Caroline and won(of course) and we were done.
But there was more to do at Canopy Los Veranos. A restaurant, monkeys, a lizard and a beautiful, cool river all awaited us AFTER we got of the zip lines. We each took our turns feeding monkeys and holding iguanas on our shoulders as well as enjoying some refreshments at their outdoor restaurant and bar and wading in their river(which also had a water slide built into the rocks). We left, sad to go, but excited by our amazing experience, one we all agreed was the best we ever had.
