Te quiero para siempre México! (I love you forever Mexico)

I will forever be in love with Mexico! What an amazing trip. It was our first "real" vacation that did not involve going somewhere to visit family or for weddings etc. Just Grant and I on our own schedule doing whatever we wanted to do in such a gorgeous place! I had kept a point form journal while we were in Mexico so I could remember it. So I thought I would write it out here.
Day 1:
~A very good flight, we had an awesome pilot.
~ Was a bit baffled by the whole airport process, as I've never gone this foreign ever. We were warned about time share sharks, but in our confusion got swept into a conversation with one. They had directed us towards her, saying if we were with sunwing we were to go see her. After a bit of conversation I realized who she was and started looking away to look for our bus (she got much more aggressive about keeping my attention when she realized this). Off we went to our bus without a timeshare and a little bit wiser, haha!
~The bus trip was insane, but exciting. There seemed to be no rules when it came to the road. Every vehicle and pedestrian had to fend for themselves, never assume you have the right of way. Whoever is quicker, gets to go.We off roaded in this bus multiple times.
~We checked in to the Palladium Vallarta Resort and our stuff got sent to our room. We took some time to walk the grounds and investigate the resort. It was gorgeous!
~We were starving and headed to the buffet for dinner, and were so pleased with the selection and service.
~There were vendors in the walkways for a special night, I loved the dresses.
Here is a picture I found off the internet of the resort at night. It was a great place to stay:

Grant bought some lucidore masks for the boys from one of the vendors. Here is one of them:

We had a quick nap (we were exhausted) and then we headed off to the live show to watch the dancing. It was such fun, lots of energy!

Day 2:

~Woke up and went to the buffet for breakfast.

~Went to our sunwing meeting and then purchased 2 excursions.

~took the bus to a town called "Bucerias". I called the town bus the "Nascar" bus. It was crazy fast, especially on the corners. They even had the doors open while they were driving, so crazy!

~we went to the outdoor market there, bought some dresses for the girls.

Grant at the market in Bucerias.

~it was fun looking at the shops.

~went back to the resort for lunch (did I say I LOVE not cooking)

~we went to the lobby to access the wifi so we could contact my Mom to let her know we were here safely.

~we had a small nap in the room with our a/c

~afterwards we headed to archery. I got the best mark of the group.

~afterwards we headed to the beach. Grant braved the extreme waves of the ocean and also discovered the effect of salt water in the eyes. I enjoyed lounging on the beach with my book and pina colada.

~went to dinner. Love the buffet. every night is a different theme, so the food doesn't get boring. We sat on the open side to feel the breeze and enjoy the view.

~Watched a performance about mexican history. All of it was in spanish, so I couldn't understand it, but I love going to live shows anyways.

Day 3:

~Breakfast buffet. I just LOVE their cream sauce that they put on pancakes. No maple syrup. 

~We went to the mini zoo to see our animal friends

 We LOVE the baby monkey. What a fun little guy. There were also deer, ostriches, rabbits, peacocks, turkeys, kawatis, parrots and some other randoms. In a seperate area there are some crocodiles and a boa.

We signed up for archery for the morning and afternoon session. Grant really loves it. He got a bullseye this time. After his bullseye, the instructor challenged us to a match. He won of course, but it made it more fun.

Afterwards we headed to the pool to cool off.

Grant played some more water polo and volleyball and ping pong.

Lovin' this resort! The service was wonderful. They kept it so clean. You always see people sweeping, wiping things down, collecting dishes as soon as you're done, your glass is never empty.

We used one of our a la cartes to go to the Bambu restaurant there (you have to dress up for it). It was really nice and it was air conditioned, but to be honest I was just fine with the buffet.

Day 4:

~We got our wake up call at 6am.

~a bunch of us left in a cab for our excursion. The cab was surprisingly slower than the buses.

~ When we arrived at the "Vallarta Adventures" building, we were taken to a dock where a speed boat took us on a 25 minute ride through the Banderas Bay to get to our destination. That in itself was awesome! I've never been on a speedboat.

~Next we were met by a big yellow open air off road vehicle called a Unimog to drive us into the heart of the Sierra Madre Mountains.

We got geared up and the guides gave us a briefing. Then we headed over to the mules. I must say that I was a little nervous about this part the most. It was quite the experience.

It was pretty exciting. The guides sometimes would find it funny to yell "andale" to get the mules going much faster, which made me so nervous.

When we got off the mules, we had to hike the rest of the way up to the first zip line.

Grant was the first one to head out on the zip line. It was long and very high up.

What an amazing experience that was.Unforgettable! We did 10 different zip lines throughout the trip. There were hanging bridges and waterfall rappells.

Love this picture of Grant. Seriously, he was so fearless the whole time.

We got soaked, and it was AWESOME!!! The last zip line was a race! Me against Grant....Grant won!

It was a blast, and I would recommend this excursion to everyone. I have never done anything like this before. If I can do it, anyone can.

At the end of the adventure we purchased these pictures of our adventure taken by the photographer of the excursion. (Well worth it). There was a lady selling authentic mexican quesadillas, and they were soooo yummy!

Went back to the speedboat in the Unimog. We had a great group that we went with. So fun!

~When we got back to the resort, Grant crashed while I relaxed and read my book.

~We went down to the buffet for dinner and then browsed the vendors that had their booths out.

~We got some of our usual virgin drinks from the bar (me- pina colada, Grant- lime marguerita) and listened to a live mexican band playing at the bar.

~Then it was time for the main resort performance. It eneded up being a sort of talent contest.  I got picked out of the audience to be the Canadian judge for the show.

 We were given paddles with numbers on them to rate each performance. All of them were awesome!

We had acts for Michael Jackson, Shakira, Jennifer Lopez, Daddy Yankee, Selena , Madonna...

It was so fun to be up close on stage to the performances. Afterwards we headed back to the room to sleep.

Day 5:

~Breakfast. Sat with a couple we met on our Outdoor Adventure excursion, named Jenn and Steve.

~Went to the pool. I finally got to go in.

~Grant joined the volleyball team. His team won one of the 2 games played.

~Grant joined in on the water aerobics and also played their "crazy game" (that's what they call it, because they are pretty random)

This game was a snadal flinging contest (who could fling the sandal the furthest with their foot) and they also had to do a sexy dance down a little runway. Grant won!

We spent most of the day hanging out with Jenn and Steve by the pool (well besides Grant doing the games)

~Later on we went to the ocean and Grant went boogie boarding

We went to the performance again that night. All of the awards are presented from the day on stage just before the performance. Grant got to go up and accept both of his awards (one was a medal and the other was a tshirt)

The performance was an interpretive dance of the elements.

Day 6:

~Woke up, got breakfast. Headed to the pool with our new friends (Jenn and Steve)

~Grant and I played a game of "21" in the pool.

~Grant played water polo with a bunch of people. He was the goal tender.

~Later on we grabbed some lunch and went back to the room to get ready for our 2nd excursion. Our Pirate adventure.

Jenn and Steve were also going on this adventure, so that was so awesome to have friends to go with. Makes it even more fun!

We were met at our resort by a pirate and driven to the marina.

Such a cool ship. Each grou got their own pirate to cheer for (and they would also be your waiter and bartender for the evening). Ours was Rico! We LOVED him. He was great!

The show was great, the food was amazing. There were fireworks, we got to dance a lot. It was such an awesome experience.

This is Jenn and Steve. Instant friends!

This excursion was a blast and I highly recommend it. Well worth the money.

Small world, somebody on the ship came up to me and said "Are you from Airdrie?" I was quite shocked since I was in mexico. I guess she has seen Grant and I around at the kids school.

Our friend Steve got chosen as the winner of the on board draw and our friend Jenn got chosen as Miss Canada. All of the girls had to dance at one point and I got to dance up on the stage with the pirates. I'm not sure why, but the pirates kept centering Grant out for some reason.

Day7:

~Slept in a bit and went down for breakfast

~spent the day at the poolside with friends

~Went back for a cool down and rest.

Had a late dinner @ 8pm.

~Met friends at the bar @9pm and watched the performance together. It was masquerade night.

What a fantastic performance. My favourite parts were the Phantom of the Opera parts.

~After the performance there was a beach party from 11pm-2am.

Day 8:

~Woke up and got our stuff ready to go.

~headed down to the buffet for our final breakfast, boo!

~Went straight to the pool to soak up some more water and sun. Jenn and Steve were there. We were so happy to have met them on this trip. It felt like we had known them forever.

~Later went back to our room and called a bell boy to come get our stuff.

~We still had some time to kill before we had to leave, so we roamed the resort saying our goodbyes.

This was one of our favourite resort guys, Miguel.

~We had a little lunch and then went to the lobby to catch our bus to the airport.

I was so sad to leave!

~The airport was impressive and had many shops. The baggage area was crap. Pretty sure we got scammed into paying for overweight luggage (which I am positive was not overweight at all). We ended up payign $180 in fees for that.

~When we got on the plane, the third seat in our row was not filled, so we got the whole row to ourselves. The flight went well. It was fun watching the sunset overtop of the clouds.

We just LOVED our vacation to Mexico, and are determined to go on vacation again. It took us way too long to go one one. I love you mexico!