Joven Moven $170 Aircon (p/n) YHA Discount
Watchout for BED BUGS HERE!!
Today jimmy flew home to New Zealand so we were a bit sad to loose our third amigo, but we headed off on our way to Cancun. Here we stayed at a pretty new hostel that was quite well designed. It had a big outside area upstairs with a huge kitchen and outdoor area. It also had heaps of hammocks. Here we had a really lazy day (as my tummy was a bit sore and I was getting a cold) and watched a bit of Entourage, we also went to the supermarket and made some amazing Spag Bol (although there was wayyyy to much) and put in lots of veges so it made me feel a bit better. The only bad thing was the air-conditioning was pretty cold in the door and the following day I woke up with bed bugs! YUCK!
Monday 5th Sept – Wednesday 7th September
Pocna, Isla Mujeres $125 pesos (p/n) 5/10
Watchout for BED BUGS HERE!!
Today jimmy flew home to New Zealand so we were a bit sad to loose our third amigo, but we headed off on our way to Cancun. Here we stayed at a pretty new hostel that was quite well designed. It had a big outside area upstairs with a huge kitchen and outdoor area. It also had heaps of hammocks. Here we had a really lazy day (as my tummy was a bit sore and I was getting a cold) and watched a bit of Entourage, we also went to the supermarket and made some amazing Spag Bol (although there was wayyyy to much) and put in lots of veges so it made me feel a bit better. The only bad thing was the air-conditioning was pretty cold in the door and the following day I woke up with bed bugs! YUCK!
Monday 5th Sept – Wednesday 7th September
Pocna, Isla Mujeres $125 pesos (p/n) 5/10
From here we bussed to Cancun where we had to catch the ferry from Port Jarez for about $70 pesos to Isla Mujeres (island of women) here we stayed at a highly recommended hostel. The rooms were pretty gross and small kinda like a bat cave but the atmosphere and external areas were really good. Over the next few days we booked in to swim with the whale sharks but unfortunately due to the weather the harbour was closed and we weren’t able to do it L Apart from that we spent a few says tanning ourselves at the beach and going in the beautiful clear Caribbean water… 
we also had a big night out together at the Pocna beach bar where they had local salsa music and a bit of Rastafarian. Cocktails were cheap and the weather was good so we had a pretty good night.
On our last day I decided to give my body a break and just about killed myself going for a run in the heat haha later that day we headed out to the Tortuganja turtle farm! Here there were hundreds of baby turtles and a heap of older ones they kept for breeding. We got to feed some of the older ones which as awesome and were a bit naughty and picked up the little ones… they were just sooooooo cute :)
Thursday 1st September – Monday 5th September
Rio Player, Playa Del Carmen $150 pesos (p/n) 9/10 14 person dorm w/ Air-conditioning
After catching a awesome aircon bus for about $3 we organised another dive to Cozumel an island just off the coast of Playa Del Carmen. We had to be at the Padi Dive shop around 7am and from here we caught a ferry out to Cozumel. Here we met Sergio from Auqatic Sports Cozumel. http://www.scubacozumel.com/. For $100 we got to go out in a beautiful boat, have two deep water dives and even got lunch and drinks included. Pretty cheap. 
Our dive instructor was also awesome… He was a man close to 70 that is one of the most amazing people we have met. He is into every aspect of social media like facebook and utube. He designs his own movies and even made a waterproof camera casing to go to 40 metres out of a dive bottle. Needless to say our dive with him was amazing! The water was clear and warm and we saw sooo much wildlife and coral. It was one of the most beautiful dives I have ever been on. We even got to go through little caves! Overall it was a good day!
That afternoon our mate Jimmy arrived and the next few days were spent blindly drinking, going to clubs and hanging out at the beach! Playa has this pretty awesome deal that girls drink EVERYWHERE for free its quite crazy but actually not many girls were very drunk. The boys on the otherhand payed $30 for all you can drink and got so drunk I had to walk them both home from the club haha! We did have a lot of fun through and met some amazing people. The Hostel Rio Player is really well set up with a bar and pool on the terrace… I found it a really nice place to meet people!
Monday 29th – Thursday 1st September
Zazilkin, Tullum $500 pesos (p/n for 2) 8/10
Today we flew from Guadalajara to Cancun. We flew through continental airlines and they were awesome!!! From here we caught a bus straight from the airport down to Tullum. Over the next few days we spent our time at the most amazing beach, the water was so clear and clean it was like paradise.
We decided not to leave our Cabanas the first few days and went the bar and restaurant on the property which was actually pretty yum. We then found a really good place to go diving in the Centotes. There are quite a few different types but we dived an area called De Ojos. Here we did two different dives, one was the Barbie line and the other was the bat cave. It cost around $110 each and this included transport out there, which was pretty good. It was amazing in the caverns there was so much to see and when you went quite deep in through the caves you could see out the top through the holes in the rock the jungle…it glistened through the water and made a rainbow it was super beautiful and something we would both highly recommend doing!That night we headed to Comers a traditional Mexican restaurant our dive guide had recommended! The food here was INCREDIBLE and pretty cheap too. Here we got fresh cooked Venezuela – which is like a tomato salsa type sauce and also a seafood soup, with prawns, calamari, fish, crab and octopus… there was so much we had to leave a bit at the bottom.
The next day we headed out to the Tullum ruins which is the site of a Pre-Columbian Maya walled city serving as a major port for Coba. The ruins are situated on 12-meter (39 ft) tall cliffs, along the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula on the Caribbean Sea. Tulum was one of the last cities inhabited and built by the Mayans, it was at its height between the 13th and 15th centuries and managed to survive about 70 years after the Spanish began occupying Mexico. It was amazing learning about all the history in the area and we got a few awesome pictures!
Saturday 27th – Monday 29th August
Downtown Hostel Guadalajara
YHA discount $160pesos (p/n) 7/10
On Saturday we got up early and headed to Wall mart where the bus to san Sebastian left from. Here they told us to go to the bus terminal… once we got here we were told that no busses left to san Sebastian from here so we had to get a taxi to another bus terminal… by this time it was about 11.00 not ideal but we could still make it to san Sebastian which was 4 hours away. When we got to the terminal they told us that the bus didn’t leave until 2.30pm… and it was more like a carpark then a bus terminal… after talking to a few taxi drivers about the cost to get there (400 pesos) we decided we might have to give it a miss and decided to head to Guadalajara for two nights (this is where we had to be on Monday to get our flight to Cancun)
The bus we caught was about 315 pecos but it had movies, we got sandwiches’ and drinks and was SUPER comfortable. 4.5 hours later we arrived in Guadalajara and caught the subway to Hostel Downtown. Form here we went and walked around the square and realised there was a love festival on in town. There was a band competition, heaps of street performers doing love skits (which one of them got Jordan involved in it was hilarious as he couldn’t understand what the guy was saying) and roses everywhere. It was a pretty cool time to visit. The next morning we went on our tequila tour, this took us to tres mujeres (three women). Here we heart all about how tequila is made and the processes that it takes, we also got to taste it at each stage! YUM We also learnt that there are 4 types of tequila blanco (the cheapest resposedo, ahejo and the extre ahejo (the best). After this we went into the town of tequila and visited the Jose Cuerve tequila factort and then went to the museum of one of the oldest brands Los Abuelos.
This was really cool and it was in English so we learnt a lot of the history. We also learnt to look for something important on tequila bottles. If it says 100% Algave (that’s the plant) then it means that the tequila is natural and completely organic, but if it says something like 100% tequila it means that it is brued by one of the big companies and they have mixed it with other things soso it will give you a terrible headache in the morning… Another thing we learnt is there are four stages of tequila and you must be very careful about how much you drink - Happy
- Sad
- Loss of inhibition
- Unconscious
After some Mexican food at El Mar II we headed home. That night we headed to a macho Libre Mexican wrestling match. It was pretty crazy but we had a good time and it was good to experience a bit more of the culture.
Friday 26th August
Oasis Hostel Puerto Vallarta
$150 pecos per night 10/10
Today we had a cruisy day and looked up some places to go in San Sebastian the next day. We then went into town to do a few errands. Here we:
- Had a massage for an hour for $35 which was amazing Met some girls from our Spanish course for drinks
- Looked at some tour options
- Got some presents
- Had burgers and beer for dinner
Thursday 25th August
Last night we all had an ok sleep considering and we set sail about7am. On our way back we were told that we would not be able to port in Puerta Vallarta and instead we would have to go back to La Cruz where we had started. This was another drawback on our agreement but oh well. Around 10.30 we got into port and we bussed with the boys to the airport said goodbye and then headed back to Oasis.
Wednesday 24th August
Today Darrin picked us up in a taxi around 9am as he had lost the keys to the car. We drove out to La Cruz where the boat was kept and stopped and got tacos for breakfast. From here we got on the boat and were on our way… we stopped off at the end of the marina and this was the beginning of the changes to our agreement. Here we had to buy our own food and water for the trip – which we didn’t mind but then we were requested to give $40 instead for fuel. Now it is not uncommon to pay for gas on these types of trips but the annoying thing was that we had talked about it all the previous day and agreed upon $20… He also guilted us into giving him the money saying that we were getting a really good deal and we shouldn’t complain! it is stuff like this that makes me super annoyed and it really showed the professionalism of the boat company.
Last night we all had an ok sleep considering and we set sail about7am. On our way back we were told that we would not be able to port in Puerta Vallarta and instead we would have to go back to La Cruz where we had started. This was another drawback on our agreement but oh well. Around 10.30 we got into port and we bussed with the boys to the airport said goodbye and then headed back to Oasis.
Wednesday 24th August
Today Darrin picked us up in a taxi around 9am as he had lost the keys to the car. We drove out to La Cruz where the boat was kept and stopped and got tacos for breakfast. From here we got on the boat and were on our way… we stopped off at the end of the marina and this was the beginning of the changes to our agreement. Here we had to buy our own food and water for the trip – which we didn’t mind but then we were requested to give $40 instead for fuel. Now it is not uncommon to pay for gas on these types of trips but the annoying thing was that we had talked about it all the previous day and agreed upon $20… He also guilted us into giving him the money saying that we were getting a really good deal and we shouldn’t complain! it is stuff like this that makes me super annoyed and it really showed the professionalism of the boat company.
We then sailed over to some islands just outside Yalapa the water wasn’t perfect here but there was some fish and we really enjoyed it. I even found a little fish friend whom I called Charlie and he followed my around for the full hour I was in the water even when we swam to a completely different bay. From here we sailed into Yalapa. It was quite a beautiful looking place, even though the water was a bit dirty from the rain. Here we had to pay another $20US to moor the boat. This was another little annoying thing that Darrin would have known about as he had done the trip many times before but neglected to mention.
From here we caught a boat taxi into the beach and ended up at a hotel pool overlooking the beach. It was pretty nice, we then had lunch at one of the beach resorts and finally walked about 25 minutes to a huge waterfall we had seen when we had come into the bay. There were heaps of little boys jumping into the pool under the waterfall and we got some really cool photos! One thing about Yalapa that is so beautiful is that it is pretty much a rainforest all around the beach and even in the photos we could not capture how beautiful it was when the forest met the water! After that it was quite late so we headed back to the boat for a few more beers and then headed to bed. Darrin ended up going out and had a big night in Yalapa with the locals so once again we were glad that we had another captain to get us home safely as we were due to leave the island at 7am the next day!!! haha.
Tuesday 23rd August
We woke up to our alarm and realised our mistake straight away at booking a sailing trip the day after a big night. Sarah and I felt ok as we had not had as much Rum as the boys and because of my previous night out I had stayed away from all the shots but the boys were in bad shape. Jesse and Tory were not going anywhere but the other boys were ok so Jordan and Jake went to see if we could still go out with just the four of us. The guy who we organised this through said it should be fine so we got ready to go. A taxi turned up outside our hostel and after paying a deposit of $550 pacos to the local that had helped organise everything we were on our way.
Tuesday 23rd August
We woke up to our alarm and realised our mistake straight away at booking a sailing trip the day after a big night. Sarah and I felt ok as we had not had as much Rum as the boys and because of my previous night out I had stayed away from all the shots but the boys were in bad shape. Jesse and Tory were not going anywhere but the other boys were ok so Jordan and Jake went to see if we could still go out with just the four of us. The guy who we organised this through said it should be fine so we got ready to go. A taxi turned up outside our hostel and after paying a deposit of $550 pacos to the local that had helped organise everything we were on our way.
When we got to the boat the captain Darrin was devastated that there was only 4 of us and it was at this point we realised that he must not have been told. He also said oh well just as long as you didn’t give his mate any money… we reluctantly told him we had and gave him the receipt. The rest of the morning Darrin was pretty sombre and we slept out the front of the boat all the way to the Island of Majura. By the time we got there he seemed to be in a bit better of a mood and made us lunch. We then went snorkelling with a billion fish and Darrin showed us a little hole under the rock of the island we could go into to find a secluded beach. I have to say this was pretty awesome, the water was crystal clear and cool and we swam around for ages.
By the time we got back to the boat Darrin was in a way better mood (I suspect due to all the rum he had been drinking – luckily though there was someone else actually driving the boat he just owned it) on the way home we saw dolphins, swam behind the boat and even got to put up the sails which was pretty fun. By the time we got back to the port we had had a really amazing day and Darrin suggested that we go with him the next day to Yalapa and Island everyone had been recommending.
He said he would take care of alcohol, food and we could stay on the boat over night and get dropped back to Puerto Vallarta the following day where the guys were to fly out from. It would be $60 US per person plus $20US between us all for fuel. IT sounded to good to be true… and realistically it was. That night we headed back to the hostel to talk to the boys to see if they were keen… it was all go. We met Darrin at this amazing Mexican restaurant called Carlamitas and talked tactics. We were to be picked up by him the following day at around 8.30am and spend the next two days on the boat… We were super excited…
Monday 22nd August
Today we got up early and on recommendation of the hostel we headed to a waterfall about 1 hour from the hostel. The base of the waterfall was small so we had to end up climbing shitloads of rocks to get to where the main waterfall was and ‘swimming bit’ this took a bit of effort and we slipped a bit but we made it in the end and got some beautiful photos. After heading back to the hostel we checked out and said our sad goodbyes to Guillermo promising to keep in touch. We then caught the bus to Sayulita. The bus trip this time was much more enjoyable and I have to say the busses in central America are pretty awesome much more comfortable then planes. By the time we got there it was late afternoon and we checked into our hostel fumbling through our Spanish words to finalise our booking and then headed to the beach where the miller boys were hoping for surf. Unfortunately they were shit out of luck and the waves were small but they decided to go out and have a play anyways. Jordan ended up renting a board and we all had a go, which was pretty fun.
Monday 22nd August
Today we got up early and on recommendation of the hostel we headed to a waterfall about 1 hour from the hostel. The base of the waterfall was small so we had to end up climbing shitloads of rocks to get to where the main waterfall was and ‘swimming bit’ this took a bit of effort and we slipped a bit but we made it in the end and got some beautiful photos. After heading back to the hostel we checked out and said our sad goodbyes to Guillermo promising to keep in touch. We then caught the bus to Sayulita. The bus trip this time was much more enjoyable and I have to say the busses in central America are pretty awesome much more comfortable then planes. By the time we got there it was late afternoon and we checked into our hostel fumbling through our Spanish words to finalise our booking and then headed to the beach where the miller boys were hoping for surf. Unfortunately they were shit out of luck and the waves were small but they decided to go out and have a play anyways. Jordan ended up renting a board and we all had a go, which was pretty fun.
That evening we headed to Munchies for dinner, which had 420 burgers that were huge, they also came with Margarita beers, a strange but surprisingly good concept… Steph I think you would have loved these… I will put up photos soon J they also had happy hour all day with two for one cocktails so we drank them out of mojitos, and moved on to mango margaritas which were like super yum slushies. We also had these other mojitos that were pink and were made with basil instead of lime. They were again surprisingly good.
Over dinner some locals came up to us and Jordan & I ended up buying this cool black and white painting done with his fingernails. We also organised a boat trip through a local out the following day on a catamaran to some of the islands for $50US each. (not sure if this was a great idea on his behalf considering all the cocktails we had had but that’s how things work in mexico) After about 50 cocktails some gratis (free shots) and food our bill came to 1900 pacos (around $170 AUS) between 7. We each chucked in $300 pacos which included a sizable tip costing us around $28… what an expensive night.
From here we ended up getting a $5 bottle of rum and drank it in one of the local bars. Here there were kids as young as 10 out drinks and causing a ruckus even offering sex to some of the boys... On a MONDAY!?? (Mexicans don’t seem to have a night to drink.) To be honest it was a horrible eye opening and sobering moment some locals told us the kids were from the ‘black sheep’ family in town and it was not the norm. We then headed to an Australian party with our waitress who was Canadian. Troy, Jesse and Jimmy stayed out but the rest of us decided to call it a night especially as we had to get up early the next day to go sailing.
Sunday 21st August - 27 months
Today was a chilled-out day had by all. We got up late and headed down to the beach for a swim. The boys ended up wave surfing for a bit while Sarah and I sunbathed. We then headed to the Sea Monkey on recommendation of its $1 beers and margaritas and $2 cocktails. From here we headed back to the hostel to sunbath on the top deck and read for a while. That night we didn’t get up to much… we got tacos from a local stand and booked some flights for our next leg of the trip.
Saturday 20th August
Today Jordan and I woke up with pretty sore heads. Jimmy had also had a bit night out and ended up staying somewhere else, but the other guys had called it a night quite early so they were rearing to go. We ended up going to a town called Sayulita, to see if we could source some accommodation for later in the week. Sayulita is about 1 hour 20min from PV although I swear it felt A LOT longer that day. When we got there we had a swim at the beach, then troy and I got an amazing fruit bowl with fresh yogurt and muesli on top… my god did that cure my hangover... I have never had anything so good!
Sunday 21st August - 27 months
Today was a chilled-out day had by all. We got up late and headed down to the beach for a swim. The boys ended up wave surfing for a bit while Sarah and I sunbathed. We then headed to the Sea Monkey on recommendation of its $1 beers and margaritas and $2 cocktails. From here we headed back to the hostel to sunbath on the top deck and read for a while. That night we didn’t get up to much… we got tacos from a local stand and booked some flights for our next leg of the trip.
Saturday 20th August
Today Jordan and I woke up with pretty sore heads. Jimmy had also had a bit night out and ended up staying somewhere else, but the other guys had called it a night quite early so they were rearing to go. We ended up going to a town called Sayulita, to see if we could source some accommodation for later in the week. Sayulita is about 1 hour 20min from PV although I swear it felt A LOT longer that day. When we got there we had a swim at the beach, then troy and I got an amazing fruit bowl with fresh yogurt and muesli on top… my god did that cure my hangover... I have never had anything so good!
We then ended up getting some tacos for lunch and looked around for a place to stay when we came back on Monday. We found a place called Las Gridas and tried to organise a room which was slightly difficult as our Spanish was still poco (small amounts) and she spoke no English haha but we got there in the end. By the time we got back to PV it was around 5pm we ran into Guillermo at the door and heard that he had organised a big bbq for the hostel that night. (he did mention that he told us the night before but we didn’t remember haha)
The boys ended up going upstairs and started the fire under the bbq and the Sarah, Troy and I helped in the kitchen where we got cooking lessons on how to make good guacamole, and two different salsas, one a traditional Mexican one and one that was rather spicey and made out of green tomatoes. Guillermo had also managed to organised 5kg of amazing sirloin steak… a hard task in Mexico. The food took a while to cook but noone is in a rush to eat early in mexico, when it was ready everyone sat down together to eat. It was one of the nicest experiences I have ever had at a hostel and it really felt like I had a little home there. Guillermo has done an amazing job there, the staff are knowledgable, friendly and you get a free welcome beer on arrival, what more could you ask for! I totally recommend staying at this hostel if you stay in Mexico you won’t be disappointed and I can honestly say regardless of all the stuff on the news and warnings Mexico is one of the safest places and there wasn’t a point where I felt uncomfortable or unsafe. Obviously you need to be care full at night like in any city but it is a beautiful place like no other… N.B www.oasishostels.com
Friday 19th August
Today we had our last Spanish lesson at Solexico Spanish school. We both graduated with A- and got little certificates and even managed to get student cards, which was helpful on all our upcoming bus trips taking 50% off most rides. That afternoon we headed back to our host familias la casa (house) and packed up all our stuff. We then headed back to the school for salsa dancing lessons. This was rather entertaining and I honestly can’t say we were very good at it but we had fun nonetheless…
Friday 19th August
Today we had our last Spanish lesson at Solexico Spanish school. We both graduated with A- and got little certificates and even managed to get student cards, which was helpful on all our upcoming bus trips taking 50% off most rides. That afternoon we headed back to our host familias la casa (house) and packed up all our stuff. We then headed back to the school for salsa dancing lessons. This was rather entertaining and I honestly can’t say we were very good at it but we had fun nonetheless…
After that we headed home and said our sad goodbyes to the host family. The girls gave Jordan and I little bracelets, which was cute. We then caught the bus up to our hostel Oasis we decided to stay at the original one this time which was a bit further out of town but it was the first hostel ever in Puerto Vallarta. Built off a family home around 6 or 7 years ago byt Guillermo and amazing Mexican that has travelled the world and truly understands what you need from a hostel when you are a million miles from home and have possibly been travelling for months. Here we met Jimmy, Troy Jesse, Jake and Sarah. That night we ended up getting a pub meal from Que pasa (which means ‘whats up’) it was pretty good but a much more Americanised place with burgers and English. After heading back to the hostels we started having a few beers down in the common room / kitchen. Beers here were $15 pacos so just under $1.40 AUS.
A few more people from the hostel joined us downstairs including a couple of Frenchies, some English people and a few Mexicans. Guillermo our host was the instigator of us all getting boozed, when he taught us how to play the Mexican version of Kings. (not that we needed much encouragement) This was pretty similar to AUS/NZ and in no time we were well on our way. We then had a few shots of cheap tequila and we escorted in the Oasis van by Guillermo to one of the local night clubs. Here we dances on the bar (which was completely acceptable) got dirty danced on by this lady with a whistle making people do shots (little did we realise you had to pay her afterwards haha) and paid a $$ for drinks. Some of the English guys ended up getting kicked out and Jordan and I decided to call it a night. I was way to drunk and realised that cheap tequila is not my best drink haha but overall we had a good night out!
Thursday 18th August
Today we had our Spanish course again. This time we played bingo to get to know the names of things and string basic sentences together. Until now we had had only had one person in our class a girl called Shelly a girl from Wales who had been in the course for two weeks now and was staying in Puerto Vallarta to help out at the orphanage and teach English. Today we had another lady join our class from Germany! I have to say that the Germans are invading Puerto Vallarta and they seem to be everywhere. We kept saying to them why didn’t you learn Spanish in Spain but they said it was way cheaper here once you had paid for flights and more cultural. After class we did a Spanish cooking class at the school with our host muma Sara (she worked here).
Thursday 18th August
Today we had our Spanish course again. This time we played bingo to get to know the names of things and string basic sentences together. Until now we had had only had one person in our class a girl called Shelly a girl from Wales who had been in the course for two weeks now and was staying in Puerto Vallarta to help out at the orphanage and teach English. Today we had another lady join our class from Germany! I have to say that the Germans are invading Puerto Vallarta and they seem to be everywhere. We kept saying to them why didn’t you learn Spanish in Spain but they said it was way cheaper here once you had paid for flights and more cultural. After class we did a Spanish cooking class at the school with our host muma Sara (she worked here).
This was heaps of fun and we learnt about how to make salsa and ended up with a dish called (we think) chicken tika. Which is tomato, onion, garlic, and chicken with a sauce and they eat it on a bit corn chip (tortillas)! IT was super YUM! That afternoon we decided to do something different and went to the beach haha. From here we ended up getting a deck chair and practiced our Spanish with a bucket of 5 coronas for $100 pacos ($8 AUS) We then decided to have dinner here which was amazing we got calamari to start with a thai crumb, and then Jordan got a hot plate of chicken fajitas and I got a chicken asparagus salad. It was by far the nicest meal we had had so far in mexico even though it wasn’t super traditional. We ended up getting another beer bucket and from here Jordan started to get a bit generous. Over the last few days we had seen this little family go up and down the beach selling things ( as all the locals did) but we noticed them because she had three boys, one who was little and she carried, one who carried her money for her and another that seemed to cry and run off all the time. While we were eating dinner the lady came over and tried to sell some string bracelets. I started to say no but Jordan ended up buying one. We got a really cute photo with the naughtly little boy and he was obsessed with the camera and the photos we had taken on him. We ended up giving them 50 pacos for this tiny string bracelet but Jordan couldn’t ask for change and we did get photos of them so oh well. After that another guy came past selling silver bracelets and paua bottle openers. At first we said no but then we actually liked them so we ended up getting two. Dad you would have been proud I am getting pretty good at bartering and he offered them to us for $350 pacos each and we ended up getting 2 for $300! Score! We then ended up giving him one of our beers in the hopes that he would sit down and we could practice his Spanish but he said no he wouldn’t sit with us and sat at another table with his back to us haha Jordan was devastated. Overall we had a really good day!
Wednesday 17th August
Today we had another Spanish class from 9 – 12pm where we learnt a few more verbs and struggled our way through the class. I honestly never realised how difficult it is to learn another language and I think it has given me more patience for those who try and learn English. The biggest thing we have learned it just to try. You may not always get things right but with hand movements and pointing you can get your message across. That afternoon we were pretty exhausted so we decided to have a quite afternoon at home. We watched a movie with Spanish subtitles and did a bit of homework from our exercise books.
Wednesday 17th August
Today we had another Spanish class from 9 – 12pm where we learnt a few more verbs and struggled our way through the class. I honestly never realised how difficult it is to learn another language and I think it has given me more patience for those who try and learn English. The biggest thing we have learned it just to try. You may not always get things right but with hand movements and pointing you can get your message across. That afternoon we were pretty exhausted so we decided to have a quite afternoon at home. We watched a movie with Spanish subtitles and did a bit of homework from our exercise books.
Later that afternoon I decided to go for a run. Just as I left it started to rain and when it rains in mexico it POURS! Most of where I was running had some shelter so I carried on down the road and around. Once I got to the road following the beach I ran to the end of it and realised I had come to far. From here I headed up the street hoping to find my road again… after about 20 minutes, 3 dead ends, millions of houses and lots of locals staring I gave up and decided to go back the way I came. I finally found my road but by this stage I was soaking wet and my little shorts had given my terrible chaffing BUT I was glad to be home!
That evening we played with the girls a little bit and then went for tea at a taco place just around the corner from our house, with Alisha a Canadian girl that had come to stay with the hostel family for two weeks to practice her Spanish for school.
Tuesday 16th August
Today we had Spanish at the school for 2 hours where we learnt a lot more verbs and I started to understand how little Spanish I really knew haha Later on that day we watched a Spanish movie at the school with a few other students. This was one of the strangest movies I had ever seen and there was no way we could follow what was going on haha We ended up giving up half way through and headed to the beach again for some real study. On the way to the beach we were hounded by a guy (who we saw everyday) to come eat, so we decided that we would have dinner there later on. This turned out to be a pretty good meal, Jordan had enchiladas and I got fresh fish. Around 7pm we headed back home and ended up playing shops with the girls for a few hours. This was pretty good to practice our Spanish vocabulary and numbers. We also gave the girls some Australian money, which they loved and they gave us some Mexican pasos… I think they came out on top haha
Monday 15th August
Today we started our Spanish class with Claudia. There was one other girl in our class called Shelly. We were put into the beginners class from 9 -12 (probably had something to do with the fact that we couldn’t complete the first page of the 8 page test haha) In class we are not allowed to speak any English and Claudia explains the word by drawing little pictures… its pretty funny. Our first day was pretty overwhelming but we enjoyed it and learnt a lot. That afternoon we went to find the internet and then went down to the beach (luckily our sunburn had gone down) to do our tarea (homework) which was learning about a billion verbs – to walk, to talk, to buy, to dance etc. Down at the beach we headed to one of the beach resort restaurants and shared a club sandwich. After a bit more swimming we decided to go to one of the beach bars and get a few beers and study on their deck chairs… this was pretty awesome and we decided that studying and getting a bit barracho (drunk) was a great way to learn. That night we went to Pinocchio’s for tea a pizza place and shared a really good pizza. This cost around $200 pacos (US $20) for both of us!
Sunday 14th August
Today we woke up and had breakfast with sara and the girls – watermelon, pineapple and scrambled eggs. We then went off to practice some Spanish at the beach. On the way we headed to the supermarket and got some sandwich stuff (bread, ham, lettuce, cheese and chips) for lunch. This costed around $70 pacos (around $5.00 American). Even though it is a really touristy town its still pretty cheap to live. In Puerto Vallarta all along the beach the locals are selling stuff, snorkling trips, bracelets, sorongs, fruit, chips, tattoos, massages, weed and a heap of other random shit you wouldn’t want like puppets. They are around 24/7 and you get super sick of saying ‘no gracias!’ After sunbathing and swimming for a few hours we decided to head to a taco place for tea and had a few beers. This cost around $240 pacos (US $25) for both of us with an awesome tip! By the time we headed back to our home stay our sunburn had come out and we both looked like lobsters.
Saturday 13th August
Today after a bit of a sleep in, Sara and Jorge Alonso picked us up who are the host family we are going to be staying with for the next week. They don’t speak a word of English, which has been hilarious and our stay with them has been a massive game of charades. Sara and Jorge also have two daughters Michel (11) and Ximena (6). It was Ximenas birthday the day we got there so there was a party with Spanish food, cake and fresco (cold fizzy drink) There they have the tradition that after you blow out the candles you bite into the cake and usually someone pushes your head into it so Ximena ended up with cake all over her face! Pretty funny.
Friday 12th August: Mexico!!
We set the alarm on our computer for 6am for a 6.15 departure… unfortunately in the night the battery cord came out so we didn’t wake up till 6.45 shit!! We rushed to the airport but luckily made it in plenty of time. On the way I was given an awesome present that Troy had got in Daytona. A guys singlet that I could wear as a dress ( I friken love them travelling). It’s awesome THANKS TROY!!! Anyways we got on our plane with Continental airlines to Mexico with a stop over in Dallas Texas. It was an awesome flight and we slept most of the way.
At around2 2pm we arrived in Puerta Vallarta. We had been given directions on how to bus to the hostel and it seemed pretty easy so we thought why not… After around 20 minutes of trying to figure our what bus to catch and where we were on our way into the centre of town. It was soooo hot here and our bags seemed a lot heaver then when we left Tasmania but it was an awesome ride, there were hotels everywhere and they even had wallmart. There was only locals on our bus and one by one they all got off until we were the only ones left. We had been told to go to the centre of town and look for the dolphin fountain… f*cked if I could see it haha in the end I asked the bus driver where we needed to go… Oasis Downtown Vallarta Hostel: Juarez #386 col. Centro and he was able to point us in the right direction. Once at the hostel we were given a free Carona on arrival; which was amazing and then we decided to go and explore. The beach was like a 2 minute walk from the hostel but because of construction along the whole of the waterfront we had to walk a bit further down to swim. The water was pretty dirty and we were told that it was because of all the storms they had been having, we also got pointed in the direction of a nicer area to swim just another 10minute walk further down the beach.
Later that afternoon we met some Austrian students on an exchange in Guadalajara (a city about 4 hours away) they were staying in Puerta Vallarta for the weekend. They invited us to go to dinner where Jordan and I got amazing steaks and we ended up having a few beers at the hostel with them later that night, after which we headed to a Rastafarian Bar. Overall it was an awesome first day.
That evening we played with the girls a little bit and then went for tea at a taco place just around the corner from our house, with Alisha a Canadian girl that had come to stay with the hostel family for two weeks to practice her Spanish for school.
Tuesday 16th August
Today we had Spanish at the school for 2 hours where we learnt a lot more verbs and I started to understand how little Spanish I really knew haha Later on that day we watched a Spanish movie at the school with a few other students. This was one of the strangest movies I had ever seen and there was no way we could follow what was going on haha We ended up giving up half way through and headed to the beach again for some real study. On the way to the beach we were hounded by a guy (who we saw everyday) to come eat, so we decided that we would have dinner there later on. This turned out to be a pretty good meal, Jordan had enchiladas and I got fresh fish. Around 7pm we headed back home and ended up playing shops with the girls for a few hours. This was pretty good to practice our Spanish vocabulary and numbers. We also gave the girls some Australian money, which they loved and they gave us some Mexican pasos… I think they came out on top haha
Monday 15th August
Today we started our Spanish class with Claudia. There was one other girl in our class called Shelly. We were put into the beginners class from 9 -12 (probably had something to do with the fact that we couldn’t complete the first page of the 8 page test haha) In class we are not allowed to speak any English and Claudia explains the word by drawing little pictures… its pretty funny. Our first day was pretty overwhelming but we enjoyed it and learnt a lot. That afternoon we went to find the internet and then went down to the beach (luckily our sunburn had gone down) to do our tarea (homework) which was learning about a billion verbs – to walk, to talk, to buy, to dance etc. Down at the beach we headed to one of the beach resort restaurants and shared a club sandwich. After a bit more swimming we decided to go to one of the beach bars and get a few beers and study on their deck chairs… this was pretty awesome and we decided that studying and getting a bit barracho (drunk) was a great way to learn. That night we went to Pinocchio’s for tea a pizza place and shared a really good pizza. This cost around $200 pacos (US $20) for both of us!
Sunday 14th August
Today we woke up and had breakfast with sara and the girls – watermelon, pineapple and scrambled eggs. We then went off to practice some Spanish at the beach. On the way we headed to the supermarket and got some sandwich stuff (bread, ham, lettuce, cheese and chips) for lunch. This costed around $70 pacos (around $5.00 American). Even though it is a really touristy town its still pretty cheap to live. In Puerto Vallarta all along the beach the locals are selling stuff, snorkling trips, bracelets, sorongs, fruit, chips, tattoos, massages, weed and a heap of other random shit you wouldn’t want like puppets. They are around 24/7 and you get super sick of saying ‘no gracias!’ After sunbathing and swimming for a few hours we decided to head to a taco place for tea and had a few beers. This cost around $240 pacos (US $25) for both of us with an awesome tip! By the time we headed back to our home stay our sunburn had come out and we both looked like lobsters.
Saturday 13th August
Today after a bit of a sleep in, Sara and Jorge Alonso picked us up who are the host family we are going to be staying with for the next week. They don’t speak a word of English, which has been hilarious and our stay with them has been a massive game of charades. Sara and Jorge also have two daughters Michel (11) and Ximena (6). It was Ximenas birthday the day we got there so there was a party with Spanish food, cake and fresco (cold fizzy drink) There they have the tradition that after you blow out the candles you bite into the cake and usually someone pushes your head into it so Ximena ended up with cake all over her face! Pretty funny.
Friday 12th August: Mexico!!
We set the alarm on our computer for 6am for a 6.15 departure… unfortunately in the night the battery cord came out so we didn’t wake up till 6.45 shit!! We rushed to the airport but luckily made it in plenty of time. On the way I was given an awesome present that Troy had got in Daytona. A guys singlet that I could wear as a dress ( I friken love them travelling). It’s awesome THANKS TROY!!! Anyways we got on our plane with Continental airlines to Mexico with a stop over in Dallas Texas. It was an awesome flight and we slept most of the way.
At around2 2pm we arrived in Puerta Vallarta. We had been given directions on how to bus to the hostel and it seemed pretty easy so we thought why not… After around 20 minutes of trying to figure our what bus to catch and where we were on our way into the centre of town. It was soooo hot here and our bags seemed a lot heaver then when we left Tasmania but it was an awesome ride, there were hotels everywhere and they even had wallmart. There was only locals on our bus and one by one they all got off until we were the only ones left. We had been told to go to the centre of town and look for the dolphin fountain… f*cked if I could see it haha in the end I asked the bus driver where we needed to go… Oasis Downtown Vallarta Hostel: Juarez #386 col. Centro and he was able to point us in the right direction. Once at the hostel we were given a free Carona on arrival; which was amazing and then we decided to go and explore. The beach was like a 2 minute walk from the hostel but because of construction along the whole of the waterfront we had to walk a bit further down to swim. The water was pretty dirty and we were told that it was because of all the storms they had been having, we also got pointed in the direction of a nicer area to swim just another 10minute walk further down the beach.
Later that afternoon we met some Austrian students on an exchange in Guadalajara (a city about 4 hours away) they were staying in Puerta Vallarta for the weekend. They invited us to go to dinner where Jordan and I got amazing steaks and we ended up having a few beers at the hostel with them later that night, after which we headed to a Rastafarian Bar. Overall it was an awesome first day.
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