Christmas In Puerto Vallarta

I have been seriously lazy about adding this blog, yes I know Christmas was a while ago but I have been busy, a little thing called the Olympics came through town.

Puerto Vallarta is a great place to spend the holidays. This is the first time I have been in a tropical place for the holidays and I highly recommend it. It was a little weird hearing Xmas carols while sweating on the beach, especially white Christmas.

This trip I opted to stay at a new hostel that just opened up. It is part of the Vallata Sun Hotel. The location is great, it is in old town, a block from the beach just up from Olas Altas. The hostel is run by a couple of Mexican nationals who are both backpackers themselves. In their off season they hit the road on their own adventures, they have been to 40+ countries and are a wealth of information. Due to this they know what it is backpackers want and need in a hostel. They are great people, due to the holidays and most people being away from home on Christmas eve they cooked a whole Turkey diner with all the trimmings for the hostel guests (at no extra charge to them). They also put candy canes and Santa candies on all of our bunks. A very unexpected and thoughtful touch and one that everyone there appreciated. Cost of a bunk is $17.00 a night and includes a breakfast of toast/bread, cereal and fruit. An excellent value.

Christmas in Mexico is celebrated on Xmas eve, that is when the big masses are and when the families get together. My mom and her husband live 6 months out of the year in PV so for Xmas eve we went to a restaurant called Que Pasa. As part of the payment for diner, people had to bring a toy for the local kids. One of the owners dressed up as Santa and there was an elf. Pinada's are big in Mexican celebrations so they had 3 of them for the kids, a reindeer, a santa and a Christmas tree. We all had a great time celebrating with the local kids and their parents and it was great to see them whacking away at the pinata.

On Christmas eve a lot of the streets in the local hood are closed to cars and families pull out BBQ's and there is dancing and partying. All in all a good time was had by all. Because PV is a tourist town most shops, restaurants and bars are open during both Xmas eve and Xmas day.

I am currently on another adventure. I started in Costa Rica and in 3 months I fly home out of Lima Peru via New York. If you want to come along the link to the new blog is http://backpackingcentralandsouthamerica.blogspot.com

Hasta Luego Puerto Vallarta

I just left Puerto Vallarta yesterday. Had a great time (what I remember of it, blackouts are a bitch :-) A big shout out to my fellow alki's at the Roxy, the bus ride the next day was a little rough not sure whether to thank you or hate you. I never did get any pictures in there, I'm not the sharpest stick in the pile sometimes. A big thank you to Luis and the rest of the staff for keeping me for the most part out of trouble you rock! And Rick you will be in Costa Rica before I am so would appreciate any travel tips you would care to part with. Email me at webmaster@losttrekkers.com.

I did manage to loose about 10 lbs out of my pack, along with some cloths; my blow dryer and I have parted ways. So I'm down to about 30 lbs now which is way easier to manage.

On the Saturday before I left I was in a restaurant / Bar called Cafe Roma which is down by the river and markets . Every Saturday they invite a bus load of kids down who live by the dump and feed them pizza and juice. The official organization is Children of the Dump. They do some great work with the kids, please check out their Web Site for more information on what they do. I had the opportunity to chat with Art the gentleman who runs the programs and was amazed at what they have been able to do and how far things have come since they started. As well as feeding the kids Fox and the gang at Cafe Roma collect donations that they give to the organization once a week. They have live music and karaoke and all tips generated are given to the kids, you can of course just donate while you are in there for a cerveza when there is no entertainment. The week I was there they had collected $10,000 pesos. If you are in Puerto Vallarta I highly recommend that you either take a tour of the Children of the Dump facilities; they have info on their Web Site or stop by Cafe Roma and make a donation.

While I was in Vallarta I stayed at the Posada Lily A low budget accommodation located in Old Town about 1/2 a block up from Los Murtos beach. Had a great room with a balcony and a view of the ocean. They didn't have anything smaller available when I checked in so I got a room with 3 double beds for the price of a singe (about $35 US) so score for me! They don't have a Web Site so I have posted a couple of pic's here. I have also stayed at the Posada Roger just down the street, also a good place, they have a pool and are a little more expensive at about $55.00 US. If budget accommodations aren't your thing, I have heard that Los Arcos is very nice.

I do prefer the Old Town part of town, I can walk almost everywhere in about 10 minutes including downtown so in 5 years I have never taken a cab which saves on money. If I do need to go anywhere else I take the local buses, at .55 pesos you can't beat it and they very often have entertainment on them including musicians and clowns. A great way to spend some time with the locals. I also eat at a lot of road side stands average cost of a meal is 20 peso's, look for where the locals are eating it's usually a sign that the food is good.

I had a great time in Puerto Vallarta and am looking forward to returning next year... Now on to Barra De Navidad.

The Malecon Puerto Vallarta

I made it to Puerto Vallarta and did manage to get some sleep on the plane. I got a posada (hotel) a 1/2 block up from the beach, with a balcony so I can hear the waves crashing the room is huge. There are 3 double beds but I got it for the same price as a single so score for me.. I'm thinking I should sublet to supplement my beer budget. The first night was a few drinks, food and bed. Nights 2 & 3 involved some quality time spent bending my elbow at Andales (their website seems to be a bit messed up) and The Roxy, I will get some pic's before I go and post them. Day's 2 & 3 where spent on the beach and siesta's recovering from nights 2 & 3. So tonight
I went for some good wholesome family fun.


Sunday's in Puerto Vallarta are family days. Everyone gathers the clan together and heads down to the malecon, a stretch of very wide sidewalk that runs along the sea side. When in Mexico... My Mom resides here for 6 months a year so we met up and went for a stroll. There is live entertainment, concession stands that sell everything from taco's and crepes to pies and corn on the cob. You can also find vendors and artists selling their wares and in a lot of cases making the products while you watch. They also have a sand castle building exhibition with some great sculptors. There are a ton of people and vehicle traffic pretty much comes to a complete stand still. I have been eating taco's and quesadilla's off road side stands for the last couple of days so tonight I opted for crepes, they were very tasty mushroom & cheese for the main meal and chocolate for desert.


After a few passes on the malecon we stopped in at a lovely establishment called the Cheeky Monkey for a $1.00 Margarita. Turns out that was only for the regular lime which I'm not a fan of so we splurged and got the $2.00 fuzzy navel ones, very tasty. Great view of the malecon so good people watching.


Going to pass on the bar's tonight and head across the street to the Oxxo (Mexican version of 7-11) and pick up a beer then walk down to the beach and watch the waves for awhile.

The Adventure

Welcome to my adventure or as some may call it my mid-life crisis. Traveling is something I very much enjoy. Up until this point I have only had the opportunity to do it on a very limited basis, a couple of weeks a year during my annual vacation kind of thing.

I have always had travel envy towards people who can take a couple of months off and hit the road and vowed that if I ever had the opportunity I would take it. Well now it is either follow the dream or let it die so after much plotting and scheming I found a way to do it.

I have never been a "normal" person, the dream of the house in the burbs, the 2.5 kids and driving a mini van makes me cringe and want to run far far away. I have done the career thing making it as far as Marketing Manager for a software company however I found that the corporate world was also not for me. So about 4 years ago I started building a website after a couple of years of total frustration from trying to learn ASP programing and a few billion cups of coffee I finally got it finished and launched it. It is a free site so it doesn't make much money but it does bring in enough that it should cover the food costs for my trip. The site is an international people search site called Lost Trekkers, if you are looking for someone feel free to drop by my stomach thanks you. I have been lucky enough to find a job working for the City as an auxiliary employee that allows me to pick up work when I need it which is the money I have been able to put away to pay for my adventure and something I will be able to go back to when I return... until itchy feet syndrome strikes again.

The adventure begins in Puerto Vallarta Mexico and ends in Costa Rica. I am going on the trip by myself and will be backpacking it and busing it. I have my footprint guide to Mexico/Central America and have been doing a whole lot of research on the Internet. Being a single female traveler has a few draw backs but I have found the forums and other peoples blogs a great resource for information. I plan on visiting Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, I have 3 1/2 months and from the research I have done I'm thinking I will spend a large part of the time in Guatemala. It seems to be the least expensive country and I want to take Spanish classes for about a month so I think it will be a great place to live for awhile.

In preparation for the trip I have been doing a lot of shopping. The backpack was the hardest item to get and involved trying on many different kinds in all shapes and sizes. This being my first time doing this I'm sure I'm going to find that I don't need one this large but I'd rather have extra room than not enough. The trouble being if I actually do fill it up I won't be able to pack it around without the aide of a Sherpa :-) I have visions of falling over backwards and doing the turtle... The pack does have a detachable day pack which I think I will find very useful. I'm not sure if I'll need it but I also got a "pack protector" which is a steel mesh that can go over the pack to prevent anyone from slicing it open and getting at the stuff in it. I actually got it more because it has a tether on it so if I need to I can lock the pack to a stationary object for short periods of time. The info on the Internet from folks went both ways on the need for it so I'll see how it goes. All in all I dropped about $300.00 in Mountain Equipment Coop including purchasing a water proof case for my laptop, re-chargeable battery's and charger and the Canadian flag patches to attach to the backpack.

I am very much looking forward to the start of the trip.. For those of you who don't live in Vancouver..... We don't normally get snow however this year has been some very freaky weather, it started on Dec 15th and has not let up. Vancouver people don't know what to do in the snow, we get rain in the winter and maybe a couple of days of the white stuff, most folks can't drive in it, no one has snow tires, the city's don't have the plowing/sanding/salting equipment to get rid of it so all in all it has pretty much shut down all of southern British Columbia as well as a large part of Washington State. My dreams are filled with sun, sand and warmth. I am pretty sure that it is the only thing keeping me sane at this point. Someone turn up the heat!