Puerto Vallarta

I decided I have to write a post ASAP because Mandy said she's gonna read my blog today or something and I don't want to disappoint. I'm currently sitting in bed skipping class because my stomach is tying itself in knots o algo asi. Fun stuff.

This weekend (or is it last weekend?--Marie :) I went to Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco's most famous and touristy beach. :) The school organized a trip, but it was kind of expensive for a cheapskate like me, and Edgar, who is from there but lives here, offered to take us for a lot cheaper. Plus we knew he would be able to show us some not-so-touristy stuff, which was a huge benefit. Though a bunch of girls planned to go, it ended up being me, Christie, and Lisa. We brought all our crap with us to the TEC Friday morning and left from there. The drive was about four hours and so much prettier than I was expecting. There were mountains the whole time--apparently the Sierra Madre Occidentals are wide. Partway through, we had to switch our seats around, so we got out and had a touristy moment:
We stayed in this apartment type place (departamento AKA depa) that was really cheap and therefore not exactly luxury, but it did the job quite nicely. It, like seemingly everything else in Puerto Vallarta, is owned by a relative or friend of Edgar. I'd always heard about the importance of connections in Latin America, and it proved to be quite true. We got to go to a bunch of antros for free (bouncers were friends from school), a super sweet hotel pool (owned by tios), a discounted boat ride (friend), good parking (cousin), cheap food (tios' restaurant), etc.

Friday we went to dinner around 9--of course--then we met up with Edgar's cousin and friend and went antro hopping till like 5. Though clubs were still open, we were pretty tired so we went for a walk on the beach and then called it a night.

Saturday we woke up circa 11 and went to the beach! It was a little drive to get to a good one, but most certainly worth it. So we drove...somewhere...and took a boat to get to an even more secluded place. Then we walked for a couple minutes to get to a beach with no one on it. It was so hard to believe we were really on a beach that pretty! They look something like this:
It started raining right after the boat-driving friend picked us up. According to Edgar, it always rains after the beach and before the antros, but that day it was sort of a downpour. According to Lisa and Swedish superstition, it was because one of us killed a spider that morning. Or if you ask Eva, because someone didn't finish their dinner. :)

Then we went to the most glorious hotel pool ever created.
This is one of the pools; there are like five more of this size or bigger stuck to it. Oh yeah, and that's a beach in the background. We swam for like ten minutes before it started raining...then pouring...then flooding. I have never seen more flooded streets in my life, and I wish I had a picture, but I think it would have been inappropriate to have taken one with such a frustrated driver. We'd been planning to go to this taco place that los muchachos had been talking about for two days straight but we couldn't exactly get there. So we floated over to Chrisitan's house (the cousin) and had some quesadillas, the Mexican snack food of choice. We waited for this taco place to open, and then went over there. SO GOOD. But we had accidentally stuffed ourselves full with quesadillas so we couldn't have as many tacos as we would have liked. Then we went back to our depa to shower, take a nap (from like 10-11...cra cra!), and get ready. Then more antro-ing till the not-so-wee hours of the morning.

Quick interruption: Zabel just brought me some sick food. She is an excellent temporary mom!

Oh yeah, and while I'm at interrupting myself, I'll toss in here that on the way up, we made a rule that we would puro Spanish for the weekend. This is tricky, because all the international kids as well as the Mexican kids that I hang out with speak English. We did really well following the rule Friday and part of Saturday, but otherwise Spanglish dominated.

Sunday, we went to Edgar's aunt and uncle's restaurant for lunch, and then el centro to see it in the daytime and let Christie get a Hard Rock Cafe pin for her collector mom. Then we went back to the pool, and this time it was sunny at least for a little bit longer. But it still rained, sadly. We left straight from the pool around 5 and headed back all smelly, happy, and tired. I would like to add, though, that I hardly got burnt at all. This is a huge accomplishment for me. The drive was, uh, exciting with all the twists and turns, and my stomach had just started freaking out before we left. Excellent. I went to bed exhaused and woke up sicker. I was going to go to class so I could save up my absences for traveling, but there's no way I could have walked to the bus stop. That's enough whining for now. Sorry. I think it's getting better anyways.

Ooh, I think I'm going to go to the Chivas game this Saturday. I hope it's not a problem that the only thing I know about soccer is that the goal is to get the ball in the net. Also, I wish I had a jersey so I could be spirited, but I'm too cheap. Maybe we can find one at a market sometime this week. Anyways, that's all I got for now. Besos!