In January 2004, we joined my Mom and Dad, my brothers and their wives (Paul & Deb and Bob & Marcy,) and my mother's sister and her husband (my Aunt Jeanie and Uncle Lew) for a week in sunny Puerto Vallarta, Estado de Jalisco, Mexico. Well, actually, our hotel was in Nuevo Vallarta, Estado de Nayarit.
We stayed at a
really nice resort, the Riu Jalisco Resort, which is located about 15 miles north of downtown Puerto
Vallarta. A $15.00 taxi got us into town each day. Our room was on the far end of one of the
wings, with a beautiful view of the ocean and the sunsets.
This hotel is almost like an ocean liner on land. The room rate covers everything, including bar and 3 meals a day. Food is of reasonably good quality, though certainly not haute cuisine! There's nightly entertainment (which mostly served to keep us awake longer than we'd have liked!)
One of the things we decided was that downtown Puerto Vallarta was a better place to stay. It's a beautiful city (several hundred thousand, whereas just 40 years ago it was a hamlet of only 2000 or so... the movie Night of the Iguana changed all that!)
The short, hour long water taxi ride across the Bay of Banderas to the little village of Yelapa was great. If I ever return, that will be high on my priorities of places to see again... who knows, maybe I'll try to stay over there!
But more important than the sites, or the rooms at the hotel or the food, drink, entertainment or anything else, the time of relaxing with my family made the trip one of the nicest I've ever been on. Reconnecting with my brothers in a way that I had never dreamed would be possible made 2004 the greatest year in ages... and certainly one of the 5 top, ever! Paul and Bob are about the best brothers a guy could have!
