Puerto Vallarta April 2023

Well that's funny that I posted this "paritally completed blog" two weeks ago and didn't realize I had. haha

Oops!

Here we are half way through summer and I'm still back catching up from spring break!

 We left the morning of Wednesday April 5th on a direct flight to Puerto Vallarta with the six of us.

Shane, me, Kenna, Jadyn, Lydia and our soon to be son-in-law Quincy.

We had an airbnb @ the Penninsula Condiminiums right on the beach.  It was a perfect location with amazing views and plenty of room for all of us to spread out.  We loved the pool and facilities, an overall great choice!

That night we ate our first of many , many tacos + a large helping chips and guac.

The next morning we drove to Boca De Tomatlan to start our walk/hike along the coast to Colomitos Beach.  It was beautiful!

We were all ready for a dip in the ocean by the time we finally made it there though! haha

Fruity margaritas + chips/salsa were a must on our way back!

Followed by more tacos for dinner that night and a swim in the pool.

Friday we spent hanging out at our resort.

Time at the pool and beach.

Just plain enjoying laying in the sun after our LONG cold, wet winter back in Utah... that was still not ready to leave us.  

We left home on April 5th with a big snowstorm and were greeted April 12th on our arrival with another.  It was the winter that we thought might never end. :(

Later that day we did some exploring of Puerto Vallarta.

I'm sure we must have ate more al pastor tacos and guac somewhere that night.

Had our favorite popsicles.

And played games.

Saturday was our day @ the Zoo.

We weren't expecting too much from this zoo but we had a fun time!

There were quite a few animals that we could feed.

Although it was a little hard to know how to pace ourselves on the food, since we didn't actually know how many animals there were to feed.

The giraffe was the highlight of the zoo... man that giraffe had some seriously stinky breath, and his yellow saliva and mouth were disgusting... but it was still cool to feed him. haha

Some of the cage enclosures weren't the best... but for the most part it was a pretty nice zoo with a good layout and we enjoyed it!

After the zoo we stopped by the beach to make arrangements for our excursion the next day.

This was a tasty treat.

This night we had pizza at Zeferino's pizza.

Considering that we were in Mexico where I wouldn't be thinking of great pizza... we were pleasantly surprised!!

The next morning was Sunday... Easter Sunday.

What a beautiful morning.

The Easter Bunny found these four in Puerto Vallarta.

We made it to church, and were grateful that we snagged the last few headsets in the room.

Or we wouldn't have understood much that was going on in that Spanish Branch on Easter morning!!

After church we headed to Mismaloya Beach and hired a guide to take us out to Los Arcos to do some snorkeling.
When we were here with Carlsen's and Astle's back in October, we stopped here on the way back from our zip-lining adventure and it looked like an amazing place to snorkel.

So, I did the research on the best way to get there, how we could do it for the least amount of money etc.

So we end up hiring this guy, (while everyone else is trying to get us to go on their boats), but we head out on his. 

We had brought our own snorkel gear and were getting ready to jump in the water.

When our guide pulls out this loaf of bimbo bread and starts throwing pieces in, loads of fish come to the surface and we're all ohhh and ahhing over them.

Then within a minute, some sort of a patrol boat is at our boat talking in Spanish, apparantly telling our guide that we aren't allowed to snorkel in Los Arcos today because we had broken the rules and fed the fish.

Now here is a good example of two sides to the story... cuz our guide is acting like these guys are never here, they never patrol this.  They don't know what they're talking about etc. etc.  But when I look at the website for Los Arcos it 's pretty clearly stated about lots of rules and one is DEFINITELY don't feed the fish.  So if he's a guide everyday... he CLEARLY also knows that and is being an idiot.

But, basically he takes us over to this other area.  It seemed pretty choppy to me... and I didn't see ANYTHING over there. Lydia was struggling and I was helping her so maybe that's why I din't see anything? But, anyway I didn't.  The whole time he is telling us, don't worry they don't know what they're talking about, they should be embarrassed.  They are too scared to give me a ticket.  If I did something wrong they would give me a ticket. We'll just come over here for a minute and then we'll go back over there.

So when we finally get back in the boat from snorkeling in this other area we then head back to Los Arcos.  Kenna,  and Quincy jump right out and Shane isn't too far after them.  I'm sitting on the edge of the boat waiting for Lydia and Jadyn to get ready and then we'll get in together, when that patrol boat is back.  This time there is a lot of yelling going on between our guide and these two guys in the other boat.  The other boat is telling me not to get out of the boat (as I'm sitting on the edge of the boat about to jump in) and my guide is yelling at me to jump in.  I'm like... UHHHHH.  So I start telling the guys in the other boat that it isn't fair to us, why not give him a ticket and let us continue snorkeling?  Then those guys are like let me explain what is happening.  This guy is lying to you.  He knows the rules and this is not the first time he's been caught for violating the rules.  You shouldn't pay him, he should give you all your money back. I'm still trying to explain that it seems like the punishment is on us not him if they won't ticket him.  Then our guide is calling Quincy and Kenna back to the boat and all the suddenly he isn't such a tough guy anymore and we are heading back to the beach

We ended up paying him l60 pesos instead of 180 or 200 but it wasn't a substantial deal.  + we lost out on snorkeling there.  Although Kenna and Quincy both said that it was SO murky that they couldn't see anything anyway. haha

I loved a couple nights I got to take a walk on the beach with Jady.

She's growing up so fast!!

Monday was our most adventurous day!

We were off with Vallarta Adventures on the Outdoor Adventure Tour.

This was the same tour we did with Astle's and Carlsen's in October we loved it and knew that these guys would love doing it with us too!

Zip-lining, Rappeling, a crazy zip-line roller coaster, Surf board zip lines, a mule ride up the hill, a boat ride, water slides this tour has it all!!

I fell running across the "pontoon bridge"... no handed like they told me I needed to do it.  I was in the very back of my family so no one saw me... So it wouldn't have made any difference if I had grabbed the handrail when I made the jump off, since I knew better that I should because I'm old. Grrr  So I had a bloodied up knee from the start that throbbed the entire time, that I acted super brave about + scar to show from this adventure for the rest of my life now. :(

What an awesome adventure this day was!

I hope they all had a blast!

One of Shane's favorite memories of the trip MIGHT have been finding a churro stand...

they were mighty tasty!!

Our last full day was "Swimming with Dolphins" in the WILD!

Honestly, it sounds more amazing than it ended up being.

Cuz I was REALLY excited about this one.

But really, think about it...

Dolphins don't actually perform in the wild like they do in captivity.

So they aren't actualllly TRYING to swim with us.

They're trying to get AWAY from us.

Or basically just live their lives.

So trying to "swim with dolphins" all depends on if the dolphins want to swim with you...

And apparently they didn't really want to swim with us. ;););)

Our guide was super nice and informative, we had a "class" with a powerpoint before. To be completely honest I don't really get how or why they allow this excursion, but this lady who is a bioligist is the only tour guide they allow to do in Puerto Vallarta.  She was super nice and really wanted us to be able to get close to them.  I also think she thought we should have super human swimming abilities or something but...

 we tried our hardest, she drove that boat all around following pods of dolphins, we jumped in when our guide told us too in groups of two, and swam our hearts out to try to catch up to them or to cut them off.  But alas, none us of us got very close to them. 

We did see mating turtles...

It was definitely an adventure!!

Spring Break 2023 was a great one.

I hope that everyone remembers it with fond memories.

It was different having Quincy there, but fun to get to know him better.

It was definitely a reality check that Kenna is ACTUALLY  getting married, so it was sad for me knowing that we won't ever have another trip with just our little Kenna... but I know that Kenna would not have had as much fun without him there. And I'm so happy that they've found each other!

Coming home to another winter storm was not the best... but contrary to my doubts "Spring" DID eventually come!! ;)