Pollie Ponders...Again

Hello all from beautiful sunny Puerto Vallarta:
I am taking a few minutes in a little internet cafe...price is 15 pesos for one hour...that translates to $1.50 Canadian....so pretty cheap.

Our flight here was great...only took four hours instead of the four and a half scheduled...we even got a rum cocktail at 10 am on the plane to start our vacation (free on flight...we did not just randomly order in case anyone things we have turned into lushes like one or two of our daughters wink wink).

Anyway, first experience cost us $10 at airport but not so if you consider we got a great taxi ride right to our hotel for free and avoided the shuttle...but long story....Gerry says to tell you there are so many people here trying to take your money....scammers everywhere! You end up not sure who to trust.

It is also very weird to be in a country where you are not in control of the language...being in the minority is a different position for us to be in. But people are very, very friendly and nice. We met cute little Fernando (or David as he introduced himself) and his aunt and uncle. They are very nice. They all hug and kiss when they greet you and that is very nice...something I think we Canadians could learn from. Adrian  sings beautifully and the concert was nice. We also saw Fernandos friend, a clown (sorry haven{t mastered apostrophes on here yet) who put us into his act a couple of times too because he knew we were Fernandos friends...he yelled at Gerry, where are you from and when he said Canada, he said we are his compatriots. We hope to get back to see his whole show one night. he performs nightly on the malecon which is the beautiful boardwalk along the Pacific Ocean. We will try to get pictures later on that.

Anyway, the ocean is right outside our hotel. You can see it from the diningroom. The hotel is not one of the most lavish resorts but it is nice for our purposes and is right in town among the stores and the malecon and its all very exciting.

Gerry wants to mention the clean cobblestone streets (very cool), the well maintained stucco buildings, old wooden tile roofs. Its all very movieish. There are palm trees everywhere and lots of flowers, hanging from buildings.

Along the beach, there is much aroma of meat being barbecued on pits for you to buy. There are huge mansions and buildings on the side of the hillside overlooking the city and in the distance we can see the Sierra Madre mountains.

The reddest sunset you ever saw....whew so much to say.... and that was our first day.

We will try to get pictures later. Corina is meeting us soon so we must go now.

We will tell more later....for now...

We love Vallarta!!!

Pauline and Gerry