Mexico 2019, Day #1 - La Penita

March 2 & 3, Saturday and Sunday

Well, I've been home for a week and I've had plenty of naps so I guess it's time to blog about my trip. For some reason I was absolutely exhausted after getting home from this trip. I don't think I was this tired after travelling from New Zealand and that was an even longer travel time lol.

I missed out on this trip with the ladies last year because I was in New Zealand. Now, I know how amazing it was that I was in New Zealand but it was really hard not to feel like I was missing out because these ladies are THAT fun.

They actually took a cardboard cut-out of me last year and showed me a good time. Here are the pictures from that.

Calgary airport has doggos that you can pet and cuddle with. This was Clifford and he was the goodest good boy, 13/10.

Mom and I booked our flight a few months after the other ladies so we ended up on a different flight with a layover in Calgary. The weekend before we left we were looking at flights and there were seats available again on their flight. When I had booked in October this was the best I could find with the least stops and travel time. We called redtag.ca to ask about cancelling and rebooking but there would be a $200 cancellation fee and the other flight was $200+ more than the one we booked. It's a good thing we didn't change it because their flight ended up getting delayed by 6 hours!!! and we ended up beating them there.

That was a bit of a snag since we didn't have the airbnb owner's info since they were supposed to be there already lol. My aunt messaged the contact to let her know that we were going to beat her group there but there was no intercom or anything at the front so we ended up just shouting her name haha. The cab drive was awesome and waited until we got in. We were getting a bit panicked when we were pulling up and realizing we may not be able to get in right away. But he pulled up and turned off the car right away which was really comforting.

So mom and I dropped our stuff off and headed to the main street to venture a bit and pick up some groceries and necessities for breakfast. The girls got there about 2 hours after us.

A store in the Calgary airport - I just liked the ceiling.

Adios snow!

Flying over the Rocky Mountain range.

Finally the ocean.

The west coast of Mexico. We flew into Puerto Vallarta.

The view from our rooftop patio.

This year we rented an air BnB instead of staying at the resort. I have to admit that the first night there I was thinking I was going to regret it because it was a pain to have to go grocery shopping before being able to relax and settle in. However, by the second day I was enjoying it and my total trip was $300 less than when we stayed in the resort.

We also did a 3 day, 2 night excursion, and had we been staying in the resort I probably wouldn't have wanted to go because then you're wasting your $100+ a night room. Groceries were dirt cheap, like $30 a trip for 5 people and we did this 3 times I think. We also ate out at least once a day but even then it was about $30 CAD for the 5 of us... with the other ladies having a beer or two.

The view from our rooftop patio looking in-land.

The view from our rooftop patio looking over the ocean.

We had a laid back morning after sleeping in a bit. We had a cup of coffee in our jammies on the roof and then I made the chicas breakfast of scrambled eggs with veggies, refried beans, and tortillas. After breakfast we got dressed and headed into Guayabitos for the Monday market.

The view from our rooftop patio looking in-land.

A virgin pina colada (pinada) was my drink of choice this trip. Could only handle one at a time though because milk is not a great choice in the heat haha. (Insert Ron Burgundy meme here)

The view from our lunch spot.

Their doggo.

Christine: "Lorna has a drinking problem!" as she's double fisting! haha

Sunday night we went to our friend's restaurant for dinner. We were greeted at the entrance with a big kiss on the lips and bear hug from him. He then led us to our private table that was set up especially for us.

He automatically brought us 2 drinks each lol.

Me and Mama Bear <3

I brought way too much makeup so I wanted to make sure I actually used it lol. That highlight was poppin'.

There was a carnival down the street from our condo. It went from Friday to Tuesday night.

The ladies had quite a bit to drink at Salvador's so the walk around the fair was fun. Christine tried her hand at darts and also the paintball shooting. The guys running the stands were having a good time too and were laughing at us.

We sat on the rooftop for a bit that evening and headed to bed since we were all exhausted from travelling the day before.

Next up - shopping at the market Day 2.