Puerto Vallarta 2009

A Little Businesses and a Lot of Relaxing on the Mexican Riviera...Aaahhhh!

5/27/09 - Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, MX

Making a quick trip down to Mexico to pick up our condo deed and check up on Casita Encantada

After a long winter and early spring in Albuquerque largely spent working (even Caroline completed a two-month temp assignment in the spring scoring standardized test essays) and staying close to home exploring our local hiking trails on the weekends, we were feeling ready for a change of scene. With Memorial Day coming up, we decided to take advantage of the long holiday weekend and take a multi-purpose trip down to Puerto Vallarta, MX, where our condo, Casita Encantada, is located. Our last visit to PV was over 2 years ago, in March 2007, just before we moved into our first residence in New Mexico. Since then, we had learned that the deed to our condo (that we purchased in 2005) was finally available and that furthermore, we were required to pick it up in person. Hence, a trip was in order! This would also provide a good opportunity for us to inspect the condition of the condo, doing any necessary stocking up of supplies and checking to see if any replacements and/or repairs were needed; we've had a pretty steady flow of guests since our last visit and the humid coastal weather there takes a toll on things like appliances and upholstery. A little R&R for the Brookses wouldn't hurt either; how convenient!

We departed Albuquerque's Sunport on Friday morning according to schedule and, with the exception of a minor snafu at the border which resulted in our 'expired' FM-3 documents being confiscated (we mistakenly thought that by paying an attorney a hefty sum to renew the documents last year that we were in the clear, but not so!), it was smooth sailing once we arrived in Puerto Vallarta. Upon our arrival at Casita Encantada, and after making a brief assessment of the condo, Scott took care of some minor repairs involving tightening various screws around the apartment, while Caroline unpacked all the new sheets, bath towels, beach towels and other miscellanea brought down for the enjoyment of our future guests.

We spent a pleasant first evening eating guacamole and drinking Pacificos at a table in the sand, but after one night of sleeping on our old pillows, we (ok, Caroline) concluded that replacing the hardened and lumpy pillows was a top priority. On Saturday, we rushed off to WalMart, the fancy, new Liverpool department store and finally to the new Costco store for pillows and some other necessary items for the condo, but only after enjoying an alfresco lunch of shrimp and fish tacos at Marisma, our favorite Marina dining establishment, of course. First things first, you know! $30 in cab fares and several hours later, we were ready to enjoy sweet dreams for the remainder of our trip!

Overall, the condo was in better condition than we had anticipated and after a brief trip (and only minor confusion, even though we had called ahead to confirm) to the attorney's office on Monday to pick up our deed, our work was done! We spent the rest of our days and nights lounging by the pool(which we had completely to ourselves - the hotel was deserted!), swimming in the ocean, eating and drinking while sitting with our toes in the sand, walking the beach and more eating and drinking. Oh, did I mention that we did a lot of eating and drinking? We visited a lot of our old favorite restaurants and even found a new taco stand, Tacos El Bigotes, that had opened up on the Malecon since our last trip and that certainly merits a return visit or two in the future.

Although brief at only 4 days long, this trip was just what the doctor ordered and we are already looking forward to our next visit to our 'home away from home' in Puerto Vallarta!