Twisp of Fate

Breaking silence at last, having been home for a week from our vacation, I bring you some pictures of our lovely vacation north of Puerto Vallarta.  We were invited as guests, along with another couple from the Methow, by mutual friends who have a time share at a very nice resort:  Villa del Palmar Flamingos.  This was our first trip to Mexico, and we definitely landed in the lap of luxury!

We shared a suite on the third floor with our Methow friends.  This included a living room and kitchen with a deck that had a dining table and lounge chairs.  We had the master bedroom which included a jacuzzi tub and separate shower, and our friends had the connecting studio which included 2 queen beds and their own kitchenette and bathroom.  Our view from the deck:

from our room at Villa del Palmar

Our hosts had another 1-bedroom suite on the top (8th) floor that looked out toward the ocean:

ocean view from 8th floor

The resort had a nice restaurant, an outdoor cafe and an on-site market where you could buy basic groceries, but we three women made one trip to a huge supermarket called Mega to buy groceries for the week.  That turned out to be an adventure, as we were assured it was a half-hour walk, but we took the wrong way at a round about and walked and walked before realizing our error.  Fortunately, we were able to catch a bus that dropped us near the Mega (although it turned out we had to cross a 4-lane highway to get there…oops).  We took a taxi back to the resort with our bags and bags of stuff.  Cheryl had spent a month down at Barra de Navidad and spoke pretty good Spanish, plus had the routine for soaking the veggies in iodine solution etc. down pat.  So we cooked some of our own meals and ate on the outside patio:

a windswept dinner on the patio

The beach there was absolutely lovely.  You could walk miles in each direction, especially when the tide was out a bit and the beach was flat.  We walked every day.  The ocean was warm with just enough wave action to body surf a little, and the water was clean and clear.  We spent a lot of time in lounge chairs on the beach (under umbrellas and with SPF 45 lathered all over our white bodies), going for walks and swimming in the ocean.  Never did go into the pool.

The town of Bucerias was about a half-hour walk up the beach to the north of the resort.  Rick and I walked up there several times, and all six of us walked up one evening to have dinner at a wonderful seafood restaurant, open-air right above the beach (Adauto’s Beach Club).  Fabulous seafood, very inexpensive.

Bucerias, from the beach

One day we rented a mini van and drove north up along the coast to explore some of the other little towns.  We spent several hours in Sayulita, and had another wonderful meal at a beach front restaurant there:

lunch at Sayulita

Rick and Gair at the new marina at La Cruz de Huanacaxtle:

at La Cruz de Huanacaxtle

Our last evening there we went back up to Adauto’s at Bucerias for a last-night dinner.  At sunset, they were setting nets out to catch fish:

sunset at Bucerias

A few shots of our happy group:

Hannchen and Richard

Richard and Gair

Cheryl and Rick

six gringos

This was truly a relaxing, Real Vacation.  It was wierd to be swimming in the ocean on the morning before we left, and then freezing our buns off at Sea-Tac airport later that night.  Oh well.  More tomorrow about resuming the reins of life in the Methow!