April 28 | London

We arrived in London last night and after checking into our hotel, met Bill’s sister in law at her house in Chelsea. Cute neighborhood. Full of book stores, fromageries, old hardware stores, florists, pubs and restaurants. Everything you could ask for.

We ended up hitting several pubs and restaurants and ended up in a Scottish bar that Bill likes called Doon.

So throughout the day we’d been to Tsum, Gum, and Doon.

We vow to get up early tomorrow and head to Knotting Hill and have a walk down Prospect Road. If you ever saw the movie with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, this is the area where he walks around. Lots of shops and stands.

We got up a little late, but were up nonetheless. We walked towards Parliament and caught the Tube near Westminster. It was a beautiful, sunny, warm day so of course everyone and their mother were out.


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London is like New York in that it can be hard to find people who actually speak as if they’re from there. You can spend a lot of time in New York and not hear a New York accent. Same holds true for London. Much of the service staff at hotels and restaurants are immigrants. The black taxi’s are all native Londoners, but otherwise, it’s anybody’s guess.


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Walking down Portobello Road from the Tube station was a bit of a nightmare. It was simply wall-to-wall people. We shuffled down the street en masse which seemed pointless. I couldn’t see anything to the left or right of me and I hate crowds. It was like being in the airport. We finally broke free after several blocks and found a pub on the corner. There were outdoor tables in the sun, but what our chances of getting one might be was anyone’s guess.


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The pub was called The Duke of Wellington, and the table farthest from the crowds and nearest the door was occupied by two British gentleman. Two people who had been sitting at the table with them got up and left. I asked if they minded if we joined them and they welcomed us with open arms. It was the best move of the trip. That was the last we saw of London, because until we had to leave for the airport, that’s where we sat.


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First, there was Joe, a likable fellow in his fifties. He was, as it turned out, also in advertising, but more of a director. He lived around the corner. Joe was nonstop laughs. Not just that he was funny, but he wore a perpetual grin. A little devious maybe.


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Next was Jim. Also in his fifties. Also lived nearby. And he was also in advertising, but as an art director. Jim and Joe had been friends for years and appeared to get on very well with one another. As the day grew on, Jim became harder and harder for me to understand. I always got the gist of what he was saying, but he used so much slang, that he could talk for 20-30 seconds without me understanding a word he was saying. It was brilliant.


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Joe informed us that this table was the Pole Position, a racing term to signify the best position. He was absolutely right. We sat in the sun, drank cold cider, smoked hand-rolled cigarettes and watched the world go by. It was one of the best days I’ve ever had. The guys were funny as hell, and we laughed and talked and drank.


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Before we left, we exchanged email addresses and vowed to keep in touch, and ring them next time we were going to be in London. I can’t imagine a better plan.

So, Joe and Jim? Thanks for a great day. You made my trip.

April 27 | Moscow

We’re going around to see the competition today. There are four main competitors in addition to street level retail. Tsum (Tsentralniy Universalniy Magazin), pronounced “zoom”, which we saw yesterday. Gum, (Gosudarstvenny Universalny Magazin) pronounced “goom”, which is directly off Red Square. Crocus City Mall, a little farther outside the city center. And Luxury Village, an open-air center on the outskirts of the city.

We start at Gum, which is on Red Square, so we stop at the square and take a few pictures. We can’t actually get into the square so we miss the opportunity to get inside Lenin’s Tomb, or any of the other attractions.


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There were lots of soldiers and police, mostly standing around. The square itself is enormous. In fact, the main road through town is no less than 16 lanes wide. It’s incredible.

But because today is a holiday, there are almost no cars on the street.


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Gum was originally one, state-owned store housing over 1,000 shops. Today it’s several million square feet of luxury and bridge retail featuring about 150 shops. It’s three levels with a glass roof that runs the entire length of the building.


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One very interesting store was on the first level. It was a long, skinny gourmet grocery store called Gastronom No. 1. It’s called this because back in the Soviet days, the groceries were all state owned and they were numbered. This being the closest grocery to the Kremlin, it was number one.


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The name of the company that owns GUM is Bosco di Ciliegi, which basically means Cherry Wood, hence the cherry trees in full blossom throughout the center.


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Our next stop was Crocus City Mall, a contemporary center close to what you’d expect to find in North America. Same luxury brands. Immaculately clean. A little boring if not beautiful. We had lunch there in an Italian restaurant that was quite good. They sure know how to do retail and dining in this city.


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Our final stop of the day was Luxury Village, a super contemporary center that looked like something you’d find in the Hamptons, which is basically what the area was like, minus the ocean. It’s where all the rich people have their dachas, or country homes. In addition to the Gucci’s and Prada’s, there were dealers selling Ferrari’s, Bentley’s, Porches, and Harley’s.


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All in all, Moscow was what you’d expect from a country with new found wealth. A mix of traditional culture and conspicuous consumption. The wealthy here flaunt their wealth and bigger, better, faster, cooler is the name of the game.

We headed to the airport and waited in an Irish Pub. I’ve been to 15 countries just in the past 10 years and there’s been an Irish pub in every one of them.

April 26 | Moscow

Today we are meeting at our client’s, Vremena Goda, which means Four Seasons. It is an upscale shopping center a bit outside the city center. We’re told it is a good location because it is on the major road that links the city to the western suburbs where all the rich and powerful live.


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The center itself is immaculate and very modern looking. It’s six or seven levels, with the first level being the very high-end luxury and then for the most part it gets more approachable the higher you go. They have most of the big luxury brands including a Porshe dealer on the second floor.


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One of the most interesting things to me was the quality and number of restaurants on the premises. They were stunning in design, totally unique, with the highest standards in service and food quality. It was really quite impressive.


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One of the restaurants was situated on the highest floor and offered an open air lounge in addition to the indoor dining area. They had a DJ and it appeared to be set up more as a nightclub than a restaurant. The windows opened in warmer weather for a great view of the city in the distance.


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We finished a long day and drove back to the hotel, but we weren’t quite done. We walked across the street to see one of the main competitors, a department store called Tsum. It was possibly the nicest department store I’d ever been in. Every designer brand you’ve ever heard of was represented. The design of the store was spectacular and their brand was both integrated and completely pervasive, from the signage to the clothes hangers.

We finished up with a drink with Sergey on the rooftop lounge of the hotel, looking out over Red Square. This is when we saw the tanks rolling through the streets below.

After Sergey went home, Bill and I walked down the street to a place called Vogue Cafe and had a few drinks. We had two drinks each (although I think Bill’s were doubles) and Bill had a cigar. It cost us $200USD.

That’s the thing about Moscow. It’s major league expensive. There are 40% tariffs on all imports so while you can find anything, it’s already more expensive to begin with. Alcohol being one of the main things.

April 25 | Moscow

We left Newark yesterday on a 9pm flight. The good news was that we were flying Upper Class on Virgin Airlines. The bad news was that it was going to take us about 14 hours to get to Moscow, and it would be an eight hour time change.

Sergey, our new client, was there to meet us at the airport, along with his driver. This surprised us. The drive from the airport to the hotel took about an hour and we got to see some major tourist points such as Gorky Park, The Kremlin, and Victory Park.

Our hotel, The Park Hyatt, is situated about a block from Red Square, which means it’s in the middle of everything. There is a point in Red Square, which is known as the zero point, because all roads in Russia lead to this point.


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The staff at the hotel was great. Better service than I would have expected, though we came to learn that Russians are known for their hospitality. At least at high-end establishments.


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Unfortunately, we arrived just days before Victory Day, a major Russian holiday to celebrate the end of World War II. Red Square was closed to the public as they prepared for a major parade. There were something like 15,000 soldiers in town, mostly national guard reservists, and they were practicing with tanks, missile trucks, and troop carriers; the whole shooting match, just like the old footage we used to see of the old Soviet leaders standing on the bleachers as the military rode by.

New Septic

From front yard.

Our timing was wonderful. I'm leaving for Moscow tonight. Meanwhile, they're digging up my front yard to replace our old cess pool with a new septic system. Ain't life grand?

Puerto Vallarta | April 24 | Day Eleven

Somewhere around 3am, I fell asleep and slept more or less normally until 5am, when we woke to the alarm. Earlier in the morning, I’d tried to put a glass of water back on the side table and missed completely, so now there was broken glass scattered around the floor.

Thankfully, I was no longer shivering like a crack addict and made it up, showered, and got dressed. We’d packed the night before, so there was no real work to be done. Only now, I couldn’t get anyone on the phone to help us with our bags. After a good ten minutes someone finally answered and agreed to help us.

Oh, I forgot. I’d liked some of the rings I’d seen with the vendors on the beach even better than the stuff I’d seen in the shops, so I spent the last of our pesos on rings on the beach. I needed at least 100 pesos for the cab driver.

Of course the hotel would have an ATM. Or so you would think.



I had to tip the bellman who helped us in change, apologizing in Spanglish as I went along. Like most people, my language skills deteriorate if I’m drunk, hungover, tired or all around sick. My Spanish doesn’t improve either.

The cab driver stopped at the Mexican 7-11 and withdrew $200 pesos which is about $14. Had to be the smallest amount of money I’ve taken out of an ATM since I was in college. It was perfect. Enough to pay the cab, tip the skycap at the airport, plus tip the baggage handler who crawled into the luggage bay to withdrawal my bag so I could check the lethal knife that I’d forgotten was hanging off my carry-on.



Our flight home was uneventful and I made it home in one piece.

P.S. It wasn't until the day after we got home that the news broke about the Swine Flu outbreak. We didn't know anything about it. Actually, I'm not sure anyone did until we got back. But as of this writing, most of the cases came from Cancun and Mexico City. I'm sure I would have assumed I had Swine Flu and who knows what they would have done. I'd have probably had to be quarantined in a Mexican hospital. I was also worried that other countries weren't going to let me in because I had a recent Mexican stamp on my passport, but I guess they really don't look that closely at things.

P.P.S. I was contacted by a couple who saw my photos of La Estancia. They own one of the units, actually as close as you can get to ocean in a two bedroom unit. They can offer better prices than anything you can find. Their website is http://www.villalaestanciaoceanfront.com

Their names are Brad & Joey Aronson. Tell them I sent you.

Puerto Vallarta | April 23 | Day Ten

We waited until the last day of our vacation to buy gifts for everyone. Truth be told, other than food and drinks, we haven’t bought anything, for ourselves or anyone else. So now we have to pay the piper. I don’t know what we were thinking. Why didn’t we go earlier so we could just lay around in the sun?



What are you going to do? We got dressed and headed into town. We started at the head of the Malécon and worked our way down the street. Mostly a bunch of junk no one wants or high priced art and jewelry we’re not interested in.

Jane did find a sink she loved, and I have to admit that if A) we needed a sink somewhere in the house, or B) we could get it home, it would have been cool.



We finally got hot and tired (not to mention that I was a little hungover...go figure) so decided we needed to get something to eat before we could make decisions on major purchases like keychains, cheap pottery and old Mexican license plates. I didn’t even have the resolve to find someplace nice to eat, so ended up at a little outdoor cafe at the end of the Malécon.

We drank instead.

You wouldn’t believe the amount of people using three and four year old kids to sell trinkets. Or maybe you would. Other than this, it’s a most civilized country. Well that whole business about severed heads being found in ice chests is a little disturbing, but as far as I know, we never met any cartel members. In fact, the whole time we were there not one person offered us drugs. Incredible.

When I finally got my strength back, we made our way down the street. We finally found a couple of jewelry shops and bought a couple of gifts for the kids. We ended with what they called a flea market, which was just a collection of shops selling curios. We bought a few.

We finally got a cab back to hotel, changed into our suits and headed to the beach. Thank God.



After a few hours in the sun, reading and drinking (anyone see a pattern here?), we met up with another couple. A guy from a small town in Illinois and a girl from Scheskateuan (sp). Turns out he was a orthopedist and she was a nurse. They were very low key and Midwest. But funny. Jane used this opportunity to ask them about every strange illness she’d ever heard of. Mostly they were no help, so Jane took the opportunity to tell them about every strange illness she’d ever heard of. On top of it all, they live outside San Francisco and she worked part time at an outpatient recovery center for plastic surgery that just so happens to host post-op transgender patients. For Jane, this was the mother lode.

Now as an aside, earlier I’d felt a rumbling in my tummy-tum-tum and made a mad dash for local facilities. Barely made it time, I swear.

By the time Jane and I made it upstairs, I had a fever and crawled in bed shivering. No shower. I just lay in bed alternating between cold shivers and hot sweats. It was lovely. Honestly, I wasn’t sure how I was going to be able to get up, get dressed and make it to the plane. After a fitful night of sleep, where I swear I woke every fifteen minutes, I woke up and looked at the clock. It was 12:30am.

Puerto Vallarta | April 22 | Day Nine

Not a big day here in Puerto Vallarta. Just fun in the sun. We laid around and read. It was great.

Puerto Vallarta | April 21 | Day Eight

It was another banner day in the land of honey. We got to the marina about 9:40am for our 10am launch. I bought beer in the little convenience store and we waited for the boat to arrive. We’d stopped by yesterday to look at the boat, but apparently they don’t actually keep the boat there so there was nothing to see.

So we waited. It was already sweltering and looking to be a cooker. Finally a boat arrived, that I simply assumed could not be ours, since it was over 40 feet and much nicer than the picture of the one we were shown. This was a boat that was priced at $600 for four hours. We were paying $280.


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Sure enough, a young kid hopped off the boat and approached us. He asked if we were waiting for a boat and I said yes, the Barbara. “Si. Barbara,” he said. “You ready? We leave.”

We loaded up and off we went.

We weren’t even out of the marina when I realized my first mistake. I had bought a twelve pack of Sol beer for Jane, and a twelve pack of what I thought was that new lime beer everyone is selling. What I got was beer with lime and salt in it. It was like drinking tart salt water. It was truly undrinkable.


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The boat had barely gotten out of the marina and into the harbor, when Chico, the captain pointed to schools of sardines jumping out of the water. Something was feeding, so Willie, the first mate, jumped down, tied on lures and before we knew it had dropped four lines into the water. Soon after, Jane caught her first fish: a Bonita.


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We fished for four hours, never getting much further than Neuvo Vallarta, which is where we’d been staying before. Jane caught 5 Bonita, 2 Spanish Mackerel, 4 Toro, and a small Barracuda. Plus a couple that were too small to keep.
The weather was perfect, which means it was hot enough that when you were moving, which was always, it was just the right temperature.

Before we knew it, our four hours were up and we were headed in. Puerto Vallarta sits in the middle of Banderas Bay and the mountains rise up in sharp peaks behind the town. It makes for a beautiful sight.

I should also say a word about our big argument on the boat. From what I saw from all the other people hawking boats, including the concierge at the hotel, we hit the mother lode. It was a 41' beauty with a full cabin, great crew and state of the art equipment. What a steal. I stand corrected.


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We got back to the hotel and headed straight for the beach, but I think we both felt we'd had enough sun, so I sat under the shade of the tiki bar and Jane feel asleep on a lounge nearby. After a few hours, we went back to our room, showered, dressed and headed out to a restaurant we'd heard about. Barcelona. Spanish Tapas.

Barcelona is on the fourth floor of a tall skinny hotel which itself sits high on a hill overlooking the city. It's quite the view. The entire place is open air and we had a table for two right at the edge overlooking the bay. The food was all fresh and grilled to perfection. Jane thought it was easily the best meal we'd had since we got here.

And so endeth the evening.

Puerto Vallarta | April 20 | Day Seven

I have to admit, I’ve fallen a little behind. I spent this morning recapping yesterday as I simply had not enough time to write last night. The truth is, it takes awhile to process the photography and it’s the pictures, not the writing, that slows me up. Normally, I take a lot more time with the images, and as it stands, I’m rushing through things…


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To cut to the chase, today was back to normal. Jane and I had a lovely time, back to making fun of everyone else and feeling good about each other. We laid in the sun for most of the day, had a wonderful lunch, took an unproductive walk over to the pier, bought some supplies, and are now back in our room with Jane sleeping and me writing. Soon, we’re going to shower, dress and head into town to eat dinner at Trio, the restaurant we “found.” I hope it’s good, because I feel like we stumbled upon it rather than reading about it in a guide book, or finding out about it from the concierge.

We has a great time on the beach today. The hotel isn’t much, at least by our standards, and the service is not what we’d become accustomed to at the last place, but it was friendly and decent.

The pool you can have, but the beach area was much more European, even Greek in its simplicity and elegance. It was more rustic in a way than La Estancia, and a little less removed from the world. Mind you, there was no one to dress your chair, but they did come around once in awhile to offer you a drink. One of the upsides of having a little less attentive service is that you don’t drink as much which Jane and I agreed was a positive thing.


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Lunch was good, but not great. We’ve come to grips with the fact that while you may be able to get really good food in PV, it’s not likely going to come from your hotel. That said, lunch was decent.

Our favorite pastime, as it turns out, is cutting other people down. But we’re not prejudiced in the least. We hate everyone equally. Hate is maybe too strong a word. We just don’t like anybody else. Which is a good thing we’re together and for the most part like each other.


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Well, I need to get out of my suit and into some linen. Time to go to dinner.

Tomorrow we set sail. Jane wants me to take lots of pictures of her catching lots of fish, so that all her friends will be lots of jealous. We’re an evil pair, she and I.


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P.S. Dinner turned out to be wonderful. A place called Trio that specializes in Mediterranean food. We sat by the window, had good wine and great food. After dinner we walked to the Zona Romantica, which is basically, among other things, the gay neighborhood. Jane wanted to see a gay bar, so we found the only empty gay bar in town and had a few beers with the two young guys who owned the place. Turns out, they'd only been open a few weeks, and it was a slow night. Jane promised to return when it was more happening, and try and convert them.

Puerto Vallarta | April 19 | Day Six

Well if the past five days have been paradise, today was a little bit of hell.

First off, neither of us are very pleased with the Westin. It’s okay as a hotel, I guess. But as one taxi driver put it, “It’s a little rusty.” We’re in a renovated “junior suite” which I actually paid more to upgrade to, and it’s little more than a slightly larger room. It does however, have a jacuzzi on the terrace, which should be nice, but again, we’ve had a lot of trouble working it. I think it ran all night, in a low-grade sort of way. I finally got it turned completely off.

So, the hotel is just okay, and when we arrived we were too early to check in. After some back and forth, Jane agreed to go into town and see the sights. We started on the Malecon, Puerto Vallarta’s version of the Wildwood boardwalk. It’s mostly a collection of souvenir shops, restaurants catering to tourists (chains like Senior Frogs), and jewelry stores. Before you get to the river, there’s an old cathedral that is the pride and joy of the town. We walked up towards it, and since we both needed to use the bathroom, we climbed the stairs to a restaurant overlooking the church. We ordered drinks, since the sign clearly stated that the baños were for customers only, and watched the people go by. The most interesting thing was that most cars that drove by the intersection where the church was, the passengers would genuflect, crossing themselves before going on. It was quite fascinating.


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Mass was still going on, so we paid up and headed to church. I had read that the church had a dress code and that tourists should be courteous about their dress when entering the church. There’s even a sign at the door. No shorts, basically. As I was wearing shorts, and carrying a rather large camera, I hung back towards the door. Jane, not being the least bit shy, walked right in. Within seconds, she’d gotten in line and before I knew it had taken communion. Go girl. I looked around and noticed that several of the Mexican men around me were wearing shorts so I walked in and stood in the back.


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We left church, Jane feeling like at least she’d “gotten that out of the way” and we headed down the street. Somehow, here’s where it went wrong.

We stopped briefly in front of one of the hundreds of stores selling tequila, and struck up a conversation with the guy who worked there. It started friendly enough, and he asked what we’d been doing. We mentioned that we were thinking of renting a boat and going fishing. Of course, he had just the boat, blah, blah, blah. So he took us inside where he proceeded to have us taste his tequila while he tried to sell us on a boat. Before long, we were whipping through tiny shots of flavored tequilas, everything from vanilla and piña colada, to añejo and pomegranate. Most of these, the flavored tequilas, were only 19 proof, being little more than premixed drinks. But still. Francisco, as we learned his name was, explained that he was the manager of both this store, and the one across the street. So, then we went over there and tried more tequilas. By the second store, and another half dozen shots, he let the cat out of the bag.


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The thing you have to understand, is that in Puerto Vallarta, everything is about real estate. Most of the large resorts have at least one component that are privately owned condos, or time-shares. They employ a wide range of people, both on-site and off, that try to reel in the tourists, and turn them over to sales people who’s sole job is to show you how nice the place is, and if they think you might be interested, they turn you over to the master salesmen to close the deal. It all starts innocent enough. They can offer you discounts on food and alcohol at your hotel. That boat ride you wanted? You can have it for free. You want to go snorkeling? They’ll take care of it.

All you have to do is agree to come to breakfast where they work you for 90 minutes. First, for most of these places, they just want to show you how nice the hotel is, which presumably is a good way to convert repeat customers, but the real money is in selling you a condo or timeshare. The low level people, the men and women at the airport, the guy selling trinkets on the beach, and the tequila places, are all paid by one real estate company or another, to reel you in. For this they are paid a commission.

They’re very good at this. I’m by no means an easy sell and generally I have a good radar for bullshit. But I can feel sympathy for what they’re trying to do and sometimes that’s my downfall. The problem is, I’ll listen.

I told Francisco, in no uncertain terms, that I was not interested in taking the tour, listening to any sales pitch, or in any other way, doing anything but enjoying my vacation. I’ve seen hundreds, if not thousands, of hotels, and I don’t care how nice they are. I’m still not interested in buying anything. In fact, even though I think the area is very nice, I’m not sure I’ll be coming back soon, because there are still a lot of places in the world I haven’t seen, and before I start repeating myself, I’d like to see them.

But Francisco wasn’t giving up without a fight. The main pitch of these guys is, “You don’t want to save money?” And then they look at you incredulously, like: you stupid American with more money than brains. And you say, “No. I’m not interested in saving money.” And then they cock their head like the RCA dog.

Now meanwhile, he’s still pouring shots of tequila. This is his standby gesture.

So the boat we’re looking at is a 37’ fishing boat with a baño, which can be nice when you’re out on the water for four to eight hours. He wants $340 for the trip, but he’ll give it to us for $40 if we go on his little tour, which is at least two hours of our time between the supposed 90 minutes plus travel to and fro. I’m willing to just pay for the damn boat. But really, I want to think about it. I’d like to shop around, but he’s making phone calls, writing things down, trying to close the deal. Finally, he just wears me down and I give him a $60 deposit. I have to pay the remaining $280 to the boat captain. Which means, to me, that I should be able to get the boat for $280, because I’m sure he keeps the $60. But whatever.

So, finally, Jane and I leave and we begin fighting. I didn’t want her to interfere in the negotiations, she was just trying to have a good time. I overreacted. She got her feelings hurt. It wasn’t pretty. We proceed to fight all day, threatening to ruin the rest of the vacation.


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Oh, we walked down to Zona Romantica, actually ate the best lunch we’ve had since we got here, took a cab back to the hotel, where I argued with the hotel and looked at no less than three rooms, before deciding to pay more for the one I wanted, went to the bar by myself, went back to room, fought some more, went down the beach and had a beer, came back to the room, got Jane and went down the beach to watch the sunset (which was beautiful), went back to the room, fought some more, ordered Jane room service and finally went to sleep. Somewhere in there we made up.


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And that’s pretty much how we ended the day.

I’m still not sure what to do about the boat. I’m sure it’s wonderful and that we’ll like it fine, but that’s not the way to make a deal. I’m thinking of walking over to the marina, which is just behind the hotel, and taking a look at the boat. Possibly talk to the captain and get him to throw in beer and food. If he’s not interested, Francisco can keep the $60 and the captain will get nothing from me. I’ll go find another deal.

I’ve also thought about calling Cesar and seeing what he can come up with. I’m sure he knows somebody with a nice boat. Everybody does.

But mostly, we’ll lay in the sun today. They do have a nice beach area, with these large white beds. They’re maybe 15 feet square and made of white cushions about a foot off the sand. You take up the whole thing. It’s quite nice. Jane wants to swim in the Pacific. I’m generally happy with the pool. We’ll go back to what we’ve been doing, which is reading, drinking, eating, and getting a tan.

We did find what looked like a very cute little restaurant called TRIO: “Mediterranean Food Cooked with Love. A European garden Restaurant with a Colonial Touch.” [ Guerrero 264, Col. Centro, PTO Vallarta, Jalisco, México 322.222.2196 : http://www.triopv.com ]

Maybe we’ll try it out, or maybe we should just avoid town.

P.S. I just found out there may be a problem getting my Russian visa turned around in time, so the office might want me to FEDEX my passport to Washington, D.C., get my visa processed, then FEDEX it back to me. I'm not really comfortable with this, but I guess the worst thing that happens is I have to go to the consulate and get another passport. It would also mean we would be at least a day late getting back. I don't know what it would mean for our airline tickets. This is not what I need right now.

Nuevo Vallarta | April 19 | Day Six

Blue sky is back. Woke about an hour ago and started packing. It went quicker than I thought. There is nothing like having laundry facilities.


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We (and by this I mean me), had to say goodbye to Cesar and the rest of the staff. They’ve been great. Made me feel at home. I have both Cesar and Juan’s email and home addresses. I’m going to make some small prints of the pictures I took of them and send it to them. I need to do it quickly if possible, except I don’t know when I’ll be able to do it.

We have to check out by 11am, but I think both Jane and I were hoping to be out earlier. We want to get into our new hotel and get settled so we can enjoy the day. My original plan had been to drop our stuff off and go explore town, but I think Jane would be happier if we got settled for real first. Town will have to wait. Maybe for dinner tonight.

I think we’re going to miss this place. There’s no way we have this nice a room at the next hotel. I discovered last night that the door to the other bedroom, which is two double beds, another bathroom with shower and outside access, was open the entire time. Not that we could have used it. But that makes a two bedroom suite that could easily have slept our entire family. Three bathrooms with three showers and a tub. A full kitchen. Dishwasher. Laundry. It’s crazy. Jane wants to come back with another couple, or our family. The only thing is, there’s nothing for the kids to do. The big kids. They’d want to go into town and we’re a little out of the way. Even so, Jane wants to come back. And why not?!


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One more word about the bullfights. Cesar told me it was purely a tourist thing. Damn. The real show is tonight. The weekly rodeo, which happens from 4-7 and then the real action begins. It's all the locals getting tanked and fighting. I don't think Jane's going to want to go, and I'm not even sure it's good idea for me. I'd go without my camera, but I always get a little uneasy in a rough area with $5k work of equipment hanging around my neck. It's like a bullseye.

Nuevo Vallarta | April 18 | Day Five

Today was the first cloudy day we’ve had since we got here. Hazy is probably more accurate description, but it was the clear blue sky we’ve come to expect. We got all the sun we need regardless.


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The hotel is very quiet compared to what we’ve seen so far. The staff explained that they were told it was probably going to be like this for the next two weeks, so many of them are making plans to take time off. When it’s busy, they only get one day off for every two weeks of work. I can’t imagine. So, they take the time when they can.

Some of them are traveling home to the home of their family: a village somewhere, the family ranch, while others are just taking extra time with their families.

Both Cesar and Juan, the bartender, left early today because it was slow slow. Cesar is taking the next three days off, and Cesar had gotten only two hours sleep since he’d been up late with his new girlfriend. He was in good spirits and despite being tired wore a big grin all day. Must have been a good night.


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It was our last day and now we have to make new friends with all new staff members. Jane couldn’t care less of course, but she claims I have a thing with making friends with the staff. I guess I do. They’re more interesting than talking to the other guests. I pretty know all I need to know about people from Minnesota and Calgary. I’m more interested in the local population. Why else would I come here? I can go to Miami and find a nice resort on the water. Of course in Miami they’d be full of Cubans and South Americans too, but this is different. I like having to work a little to speak Spanish. It’s not fun if they speak English too well, because you feel stupid trying to fumble through bad Spanish if they speak fluent English.

So, let see. There is Cesar, Juan, Mabi, two Gabriels, Alonso, and Javier. There were more of course, but we didn’t really meet them. All very friendly and courteous.


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We’d been invited to Cesar’s 96-year-old grandmother’s birthday, which would have been a blast, I’m sure, but we need to pack since we’re changing hotels tomorrow. We want to be packed and out early. Our plan is to get to our new hotel in Marina Vallarta, check in if possible (though technically, check-in isn’t until 3pm), then head into town. I want to spend some time walking around to the various shops, scope out a few restaurants and bars, then head back to the hotel. From the little I saw when I was there with Cesar, it seems like a fun place. Lots of funky little shops with all kinds of cool junk we don’t need, but will buy anyway.


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Well, before we go, a little about the resort. It’s basically a privately-owned resort, most of the suites are owned full-time, while some are time-shares. And then there are people like us who simply use it like a hotel. All the rooms are suites with full kitchens and range from one to three bedrooms. And then there are penthouses.


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The resort is shaped like a “U” with the pools in the middle. There are several with waterfalls connecting them, as well as three, large hot tubs.


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There is only one bar in the hotel, other than a small one at the main restaurant inside the resort and it’s in the pool. Of course you can get drinks and food at your chair either on the beach or at the pool, but if you want to “sit” at the bar, you need to be wearing a suit. It’s not the worst thing in the world.

So, tomorrow we leave. As they say, we don't have to go home, but we can't stay here.