BIENVENIEDOS
a
Barcelo
la Jolla de Mismaloya
MONDAY
July 31, 2006
Mathew and I started our honeymoon off with a 6:00 am plane ride from DFW to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Of course we were exhausted, since we stayed up until 3:00 am packing for the trip...but we sucked it up and made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. The plane wasn't too full, so I stretched out across the seats with my head hanging over the isle and my legs up on Mathew's lap (i wish i had a picture of that.)
We arrived at the airport and were loaded up on buses taking us to different resorts. The map near the bottom will probably help give a visual image. The airport is on the North end of town. Our bus dropped off people at several resorts along the way. We on the other hand continued to stay on the bus and take it South of town towards the mountains and jungle to a little town called Mismaloya.
When we arrived at the Barcelo we checked in and were SO excited to finally be there. I was ready to jump in my swimsuit and hit the beach! Our room wasn't quite ready so Mathew and I putzed around checking everything out and decided we should probably get a bite to eat. This is were it all started. We made our way to one of the five restaurants on the resort, which happened to be a fabulous buffet. If you know me at all, you know I could eat Tex-Mex for every meal, every single day...I was in heaven.
and we made it....
the tired but happy couple finally made it...after a plane ride in the wee hours of the morning and a bus ride through the jungle...just a bit scary.
this is in the foyer. these gorgeous chandeliers were all over the place.
all of the hallways were open aired, it was lovely.
we did a whole lot of eating....most of our pictures are of us eating.
Mathew and I both became pretty big fans of the ice cream.
afternoon snack
I look like I have a green ear.
entertainment one night was this cute little Mariachia band, they were actually pretty good.
the same night as the band, part of the entertainment included a "display of a cock fight"
i am NOT even kidding! they seriously brought two mean old ugly birds (cocks) to fight each other. people seriously do this and call it entertainment....SICKOS!
We both wanted to get some kind of a souvenir, Mathew wanted one of these hand carved animals. The man thought he would rip off the american toursits, so Mathew decided to pass on the hand carved statue. In fact, we left without buying a thing. Actually, on Tuesday we had to buy Mathew some dress pants at Woolworth's so he could go to Don Quixote and eat dinner that night.
This is overlooking the beach and water. It was so beautiful. As you can tell from the other pictures we were surrounded by jungle.
and these my friends are the locals...we are all friends here. they are always saying, "hola amigo" and "hola amiga" ... gota love the laid back country folk.
this is where the locals parked their boats..... there are several pictures of this, because i thought it was great.
in the middle of the resort there are three grande pools, two hot tubs and a fatty swim up bar with about a million bees flying all over the place. don't worry...it didn't stop us from swimming up and ordering virgin daquires and any virgin frozen drink they offered!
I need one of these at home!
TUESDAY
August 1, 2006
On Tuesday, Mathew and I decided to take a trip into town. Instead of spending 100 pesos to take a cab, we thought we could save a few bucks and take the city bus for 10 pesos! What a steal. I guess if your life is only worth 10 pesos than it is a smoking deal. The bus driver was MAYBE 16. I particularly liked the sign above the door that said (in spanish of course) keep door closed while driving. I guess he was just tricking us, because the door was open the entire time! Despite the humidity, dirty streets and rain (near the end) it was pretty fun. To get back to the resort, which was a 20 minute bus ride back we found a bus heading our way who stopped in the middle of the street so we could hop on. We made it back to the resort, grabbed a quick bite to eat and then went to the pool.
This is a river that runs down from the jungle into the ocean. We took this picture early Tuesday morning right outside our door.
this shot is one of the thousand we took from our balcony
this is the church that was in town. i don't know the name of it, everyone just referred to it as the church with the crown on top.
this little seahorse statue is the symbol of Puerto Vallarta...not really sure why.
this picture makes me laugh. it kind of looks like Mathew has horns.
this is near the latter end of the day when Mathew and I were searching for a bus stop. almost every evening around 6:oo pm we would have a fabulous rain storm. on our shopping day in the city, the rain came a bit early. seriously we were in the jungle...isn't it gorgeous?
there is nothing like bottled water in a wine glass...yum yum
Tuesday night was our first night to eat at Don Quixote (Spanish restaurant.) Hence, the trip to town to buy Mathew some dress pants for 100 pesos at Woolworths.
i believe it was also that same night we left that restaurant and walked over to the buffet....like I said, we did a LOT of eating!
WEDNESDAY
August 2, 2006
Wednesday was our excursion day. We did a high adventure excursion, I don't know the name of the place...I just know everyone called it THE BIG BROTHER TO THE CANOPY. We made sure we had a smoking breakfast, since it was going to take all day. We waited outside the resort for an jeep/ truck vehicle to pick up up. We hopped into the bed of the pick up and made our way up the mountain. Lucky for us, since we were already in the mountains, we were only in the car for 20 minutes or so.
We got to our little destination and met our guides, put on our safety gear (helmets, repelling gear, harness, gloves, etc.) took a 10 minute safety course and headed to the mules. Yes, I did just say mules. We rode MULES to the top of the mountain! It was SO much fun. I think I had the slowest, oldest, fattest mule of the pack. Some kid behind me was getting bugged that my mule was so slow, so he kept whipping my mule's bum. I was a little nervous that I was going to be the one bucked off! We made it to the tip top of the mountain where we strapped onto the first zip line. It was absolutely amazing. The view was incredible, we zipped from one peak to another and right through the trees! The weather was a perfect 70 degrees at the top of the mountain, so we weren't dying of heat exhaustion. We did about 7 zip lines and then we clipped in to repell down a waterfall! It was GORGEOUS. We are in the middle of the jungle was this huge waterfall that we are repelling down. At one point I hit a slippery part of the rock and had a one on one conversation with the wall. I had a little bruise on my left hip for about a week after that.
After several waterfalls, we walked across some tight rope bridges and did a few more zip lines, then hiked back down to the camp. We had such a wonderful time. We would have taken pictures, but we were soaking wet by the time we were done and decided we didn't want to ruin the camera.
After that we made our way back to the resort, cleaned up and went to eat dinner. That night after being all adventurous I decided I would eat a bit healthier than the normal tex-mex meal. I had a salad and some mahi-mahi, which proved to be a BIG mistake!
THURSDAY
August 3, 2006
I woke up Thursday morning around 6:00 am SICK AS A DOG! So much for eating healthy! My fabulous husband did such a great job of taking care of me. He sat there the whole time and rubbed my back, or even held my hair out of my face as I was becoming acquainted with the trash can.
I didn't want to keep Mathew from sitting in the room all day, since it was our last full day there. I mustered up enough energy to make it outside onto a beach chair and I crashed! Mathew went and boogie boarded and played in the water....I slept under an umbrella. My entire body was aching, so I decided I would try the hot tub. It was perfect! After a few minutes there we headed up to the room to chill and take a break. I still was not feeling well at all! Finally around 5 or 6 I started to feel a little bit better. We went and sat in the hot tub again and then decided we should try and eat. So we made reservations at Don Quixote and then got ready. Finally around 8:30 or 9 we went and ate some food. Well, I had food for the first time that day...my sickness didn't stop Mathew from eating that day :)
we took this picture thursday evening after the day from haites.
I had this wonderful little chicken dish (which I wasn't able to eat too much of, but it was delicious.)
and Mathew opted for a filet mignon
FRIDAY
August 4, 2006
We left on Friday, so we decided to wait until the last minute to pack and get things ready to go.
These are pictures of our room. We had our cute little living room, a kitchen, bathroom and our bedroom.
Before we left, we knew it was crucial that we ate breakfast. I opted for the scrambled eggs, a grapefruit and some kiwi. Mathew on the other hand had everything you see below! Also, they had a smoothie bar, you could go up and pick whatever fruit you wanted and they would make a smoothie for you. It was so nice.
These little birds were cracking me up while we were eating!
Mathew and I on Friday morning eating breakfast and the view from our table.
While Mathew was checking out I took a few random shots around the lobby. I also decided to take a picture of the map on the wall.
checking to make sure everything is right before we leave
The hotel called a cab to come pick us up. On our way zipping in and out of traffic through town I took a few pictures. Keep in mind most of these pictures were taken while we were going 50 miles an hour and my hand it sticking out the window with the camera.
I loved all of the random statues throughout town.
SAFETY FIRST is my motto. I felt pretty safe as we drove past the army truck with guys carrying machine guns. They felt like rock starts with all of the pictures I was taking. As you can tell from the picture on the left, my arm is hanging out the window.
and we made it to the airport with about three hours to spare. I don't know what I would have done during the honeymoon without my Nestle Puraz Vital and my Coca Lite. YUM!
We finally boarded our plane and made it back safetly. Mom, Britt and Shell picked us up from the airport! It was so fun to see my sisters, since I wasn't able to see them in Salt Lake City.
The End.
Jason and yours truly
cutting straight across......
entertainment one night was this cute little Mariachia band, they were actually pretty good.
the same night as the band, part of the entertainment included a "display of a cock fight"
These little birds were cracking me up while we were eating!
Mathew and I on Friday morning eating breakfast and the view from our table.
