Our Puerto Vallarta Trip!

Feb 27^th – Mar 7^th...We arrived at Dad & Elaine's around noon on Tue. The 26^thand parked along the left side of Elaine's house. It was bit unlevel but it worked. Wednesday we headed to Las Vegas with Doug & Fran for our Mexico adventure. We drove into the Northshore RV park in Needles to check it out as we have reservations to stay there in Apr. From there we detoured and drove to Bullhead City/Laughlin. We arrived in the afternoon at the Las Vegas Super 8 where we overnighted and left the pickup. We went to Hooters for dinner and then drove around the strip and downtown before making it an early night.

On Thursday we caught the 4am bus to the airport. Unfortunately the flight filled up overnight and we didn't get on. We got on the the next flight to SFO, however it arrived just after our Puerto Vallarta flight left. Even if we would have gotten there we all wouldn't have made it on. Danny did get on and made it to PVR. We booked a room at the Best Western and rented a car for the day in SFO. Doug drove us to a nearby mall where we ate, shopped a bit and then drove into downtown San Fran.

Friday's flight departed at 946a and we were all on it! Once arriving in PVR we got a van to the hotel. The driver made a pit stop where we picked up a six pack which got us through the 45 minute ride to the Costa Sur Hotel (Danny's condo). We found Danny and got checked in. That evening we had happy hour at the hotel and then took the bus into town. We ate at Espresso's  an Italian Restaurant recommended by the van driver. We walked around and then took a cab back.

Saturday we spent the day at the beach and snorkeled some. We stayed at the hotel for dinner that evening...they were some strong Margaritas at happy hour!

Sunday we left in the morning on a bus to El Tuito, a mountain town of around 4,000. The ride was a bit curvy. Alahandra (a friend that Danny, Doug & Fran met on their first trip – she booked their tours) and her 6 yr old daughter Mya were there doing a garage sale in the square for her parents. She walked us around town and took us to her parents house. Also there were her uncle and sister. We spent an hour or so there where we enjoyed visiting and seeing their way of life. There house was quite simple with the living room area outside. From there we had a Mexican lunch at Rosita's. Around 4p we made the hour long bus ride back. It was fun day, seeing how the local people live. We even saw one of our waiters from the hotel in Tuito (he lived there).

Monday was the start of our 24 hour stomach bug. Doug was sick overnight and stayed in bed all of Monday. Danny hadn't been feeling well either. We hung out at the beach and had lunch around 2p. After that I started feeling nauseated and shortly after Fran got it. We hit the bed (& bathroom) then. Danny and Mike were the only ones still standing so they went down to happy hour and had dinner. In the afternoon Alahandra brought Doug some Guava juice and Pedilite.

Tuesday was a so so day health wise. We just hung out at the pool. Doug started feeling better and I was some better than before. Everyone but Fran took the bus down to the boardwalk. We wondered around and made a couple of stops. Dinner was not great but of course we still weren't well. It was an early night! Mike was the only one that didn't feel sick during our stay.

Wednesday we spent at the beach again. That evening we took the bus to an area near the airport where we met Alahandra, Simon, Rocko and Mya. They live near this area. We stopped at a place to try 'Pozole', a chicken soup with hominy and radishes and raw cabbage on top. From there we had a 'street taco' where they carved the pork off the spit. Next to it was a man making fresh Churros (delicious). We wandered around the square where we were the only people of non Mexican decent. Again it was interesting to see how the locals live. We then caught a bus back to the boardwalk area and made a connection to a bus to our hotel.

Thursday was departure day! We left the hotel about 930a. Once we got checked into the airport we had a nice lunch at Wings. We ended up paying $72 in departure tax per person ($48 in our ticket and $23 at the airport). Makes you not want to go to Mexico!

We got on our flight to IAH and Danny had to wait another 4 hours for his flight to SFO. We arrived in IAH on time however the lines in customs were loooooong! We had 1hr and 15 minutes to connect to our flight to LAS. Well it took us over an hour and a half to clear customs and security so we didn't make the flight. We headed to the Presidents Club! The next flight was full so we returned to the club. We finally made the flight that departed at 815p which didn't get us into LAS until 930a pacific time. Luckily our bags were already there and we didn't have to wait for the van to the hotel. We were in the pickup and after a short stop at McDonald's we were on our way at midnight mountain time. We pulled into Lake Havasu City shortly after 2am....it was a long day! We had a fun trip but it would have been much better had we all felt better.