One Week in Paradise, Last Days

Day 6
This day was used to explore more of the resort. My family and I ventured out into the outer parts of the resort. We took a shuttle to the outermost stop and walked along the El Tigre golf course to the edge of the resort where their other tigers were.

Afterwards, we went to the beach and then to the pool. Finally, my brother got over his fear of going on the slide and the deep end of the pool. That took a while.

Day 7
Started out the morning by going kayaking at 9 am. I was in a double kayak with my mom while my brother was with my stepdad. The kayaking experience at the resort was much better than the one at Las Caletas because they really let you out far into the ocean. You really get a workout by paddling through the strong waves. The view out there was really nice.

At noon, my mom and I went to a water aerobics class in the main pool. The instructor was the same as our guide during the kayaking tour. Then afterwards, we went biking for about an hour and we really went far down the road, passing a lot of other beachfront resorts. The whole day was very active and tiring.

Then we went to go eat at Il Pescatore for dinner which is located near the Paradise Village Yacht Club. My brother and I split the lobster with pasta. I also had a very fancy looking Pepsi. I then had some cheese flan and it was so delicious. The restaurant was pretty expensive but the food was well worth it and the servings are really large.

Departure Day
United manages to screw up our travels again with our plane being late by an hour and a half for no explanation, which would then have caused us to miss our connecting flight. The next available flight would have been 7 am the next day. Although we were offered a hotel and food vouchers, the extended stay is still inconvenient since we had plans for Sunday. So we were moved to an American Airlines flight that was only 15 minutes late.

Instead of having a layover through Houston, we went through Dallas/Ft.Worth. The airport there is super nice. Not to mention, their customs and immigration is so high tech now, using only machines for those with a USA passport, thus speeding up the process since one lane can have up to 4 machines each. The airport was huge and had this weird sculpture thingy that looked like a metal rock formation. There were so many restaurants and shops. They also had this maze thing that echoes sounds and stuff. I didn't really quite understand how it worked.

I got lucky in that no one sat next to me on the next flight. I got to have a bit of sleep. I didn't sleep much on the last flight since my brother WOULD NOT let me sleep. I finally arrived and it was already 12:30 am. Baggage claim took so long that I didn't arrive home until 1:30 am but it was nice to finally sleep in my own bed.

One Week in Paradise, Day 5

The day started early as we had to meet at the Vallarta Adventures place at 7:30 am. We had a free breakfast to catch a boat at 8 am. Our boat ride lasted about an hour. We stopped at a dock with some dolphins and seals. We even passed our resort. At the Puerto Vallarta dock, there was a pirate ship that blasted rock music. The DJ and MC kept the ride interesting for us. The weather was cloudy and a bit misty but it did clear up once we got to our destination: Las Caletas.

It is a small and isolated destination but what impressed me were the clear waters and calm waves. I spent most of the day snorkeling and swimming. There are some rocks where there is an abundance of colorful fish. Even standing in the shallow water, the fish were brushing up against my feet. The calm waves made it easy to swim to the deep water. In the deeper ends, they had a platform with some lounge chairs as well as a boat with lounge chairs and a diving board.

My fail moment of the day. I was intimidated by the diving board so I tried to jump off the lowest part of the ship. However, that part had water and I accidentally slipped at the last minute and belly flopped on the water. Yeah, that hurt.

Lunch was a very delicious buffet and was also free. Then afterwards, I just lounged on a hammock until the boat had to leave. I always get so sleepy after I eat.

The crew made the ride back quite interesting by putting up a show. They performed a song and then one of the crew members, Hector, is actually an amazing break dancer! Also, the open bar continued in the boat! Their rum punch was very delicious.

We just ate in the resort again at restaurant Mayapon. I was super exhausted after the excursion. I slept pretty early that day.

One Week in Paradise, Day 4

The day started out quite rainy. However, we still decided to go out to the downtown area of Puerto Vallarta called El Malecon. It was a boardwalk type place with lots of weird statues and lots of shops and restaurants. It does seem to be very tourist oriented and much of the places do speak some English. We walked quite a bit since we got a little lost trying to look for the restaurant.

For lunch, we ate at this place called Pipis Tacos or Tacos El Pipis. We had some guacamole and another appetizer that was on the house. My brother got this shrimp dish and the shrimp was huge. It was the biggest shrimp I had ever seen. I had their steak fajitas. Then for dessert we had this huge fried ice cream.

Afterwards, we did a little more walking down the boardwalk. Our final destination was to visit a historical church. After that, we were so tired so we just went home.

Since I had to sleep early that night, I decided to spend some time by exploring more of the resort. I walked around the marina and made my way to the beach. I walked on the long path to the little outlook into the ocean. The waves were really strong by the rocks. Then I explored the other building of the resort. Then I explored that mini aztec pyramid where you can climb to the top. I spent about an hour and a half exploring so I now have a pretty good sense of what was around my resort.

Took an end of the day selfie in my room. It is kind of creepy to me that there is a mirror facing the bed. We just had leftovers for dinner and slept early in anticipation for a very tiring and exciting tomorrow.