Video: What it's like to ride the public bus in Puerto Vallarta

Riding the public transit system in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. from CocoaGeek on Vimeo.

Puerto Vallarta beach with effects

A few kid-friendly tours in Puerto Vallarta

So what the heck did we do in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico besides running around on the beach and swimming in the pool? Well, we did go on a few tours but we were limited to what we could choose because of Tristan and my parents. Jean-Louis and I are normally very adventurous but we had to scale back and take it easy. I spent a good half day talking to tour agencies at our resort and decided on a couple of tours that were kid-friendly.

We went on a pirate ship tour since it was recommended as the most child-friendly tour. We were assigned a personal pirate to take care of us all day. The trip included a buffet breakfast, open bar for drinks, lunch, pirate show, a sail to a remote beach 1 hour away where we could swim, snorkel, kayak, play volleyball, and ride a banana boat. There was also a treasure hunt for the kids on the beach and games on board the ship. It lasted from 9AM-4PM and it costed a whopping $93US a person but at least Tristan was free since he was under two. Man, kids under two are so lucky! I thought the tour was good. Jean-Louis thought it was too long. It wasn't scary at all for kids. The ship was nice. The bathroom had skull toilets and everything on board was pirate themed. We were a bit addicted to the pina colada they were serving. Their rules for snorkeling was a bit lame. We all had to keep our life jackets on and you couldn't snorkel if you couldn't swim, even with the life jackets on. My parents and Tristan were out because they couldn't swim. Jean-Louis refused to do it because he had to keep his life jacket on and he wanted to dive underwater. So that just left me. I was the only one that went in the water. The water was lovely and I saw lots of fishes but only four different kinds in that area. Later on, I went on the banana boat ride with my parents. Tristan and Jean-Louis were happy just playing in the waves by the beach.




We got to experience a Mexican Fiesta. If you have been to a Hawaiian luau, this is the Mexican version of it. Luckily, our resort was one of the places that was hosting one. The fiesta was 6:30-10PM but after the show was over at 9:15PM, we just went back up to our room. I loved the convenience! There was a buffet of Mexican food, open bar for drinks, a guy going around and making balloon hats for everyone, a music and dance show, and fireworks. The Mariachi band was playing all night and then there were dancers doing traditional Mexican dances. The music was quite loud since we sat close to the front so we had to cover Tristan's ears. He seemed to love the music and was a bit hypnotized by the Mariachi band.





We went on a tour called the jungle trio. It included a tour bus ride through the city and to the mountains where we visited a botanical garden, tequila distillery, and river. It was lame and quite the tourist trap. Luckily, we didn't pay much for the tour. It reminded us a lot of the tours we joined in Egypt. We all stopped by a silver jewelery store, whether we wanted to or not. It was expensive and we only got off the bus to visit the bathroom there. The botanical garden was so small, Jean-Louis said it was someone's backyard. The tequila distillery was the only interesting stop. I got to taste various tequilas and ended up buying some flavored tequila. Then we drove to the river and while everyone else dine in the overpriced restaurant there, we sat on the rocks by the river and ate our packed sandwiches. Wild chickens were running all around us and there were kids playing and swimming in the river. One little girl was washing her bucket of clothes with a bar of soap on the rocks. The scene made me appreciate the life we lived back home.



Then there was the walk downtown in the Malecon and shopping. The Malecon is beautiful. The promenade along the bay is lined with palm trees, sculptures, sand art, and photographs. There are souvenir shops and restaurants everywhere. We marked a few good restaurants we learned about through our research and went out searching for them. The Mexican food is good and cheaper than what you could find here. Bargaining is a must when shopping. We had to shop awhile before we could guess at what the merchandise was worth. After a couple of days, we had enough and ended up not buying much at all :( The area we were in was considered expensive too because it was a resort area and we didn't want to go very far just for some good deals. I was more interested in the eating than the shopping anyway. It was exhausting for all of us to shop, especially Tristan. It was hot every day!




The bus ride was a thrill for Tristan. The roads are horrible and the buses are in poor condition. I swear it would fail every safety regulation in Canada if it were ever tested. The ride was quick, bumpy, noisy, and cheap. It costs 6.50 Pesos to ride the bus. That's only $0.50 a ride! We would hang out all day downtown to shop, eat at a restaurant, and then take a bus back to the hotel. It was only a 5-10 minute ride. It was a bit of a pain to get on the bus though since we had to take apart our stroller.

So there you have it! We did do more than just run on a beach and swim all day. Although it wouldn't be such a bad idea since we were in a great location to do all that :) We found ourselves walking to the beach during the sunset most nights while Tristan kicked around in the waves and while my parents enjoyed the jacuzzi. Ah, paradise :)

Family vacation in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

We're back in Vancouver! Back in the cold and rain but I love it :) It's always so nice to be back home after a vacation. There really is no place like home!

We spent the past week vacationing with my parents in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. The flight was direct via WestJet and only 5 hours long. The time difference was 2 hours. Compared to our trip to France, this trip was a breeze. We didn't have to entertain Tristan as much now that he is a bit older. In fact, we found that window seats are awesome for him. Aisle seats are recommended so that you can get out easily but he loves looking out the window. He is so much happier to be by the window! On the way there, my dad sat with us so we were able to tuck things under his seat and we didn't have to keep our distance from him or feel like we were invading his privacy every time we poked him or used his tray table. On the way there, the plane was not full so we had an empty seat next to us for Tristan. Yes, he flew with us for free. Again. This is his last free flight since he will be officially two this weekend.

Puerto Vallarta is beautiful. There are many great swimming beaches and they are free of rocks so Tristan went bare feet a lot. Man, our kid loves the beach! He loves to walk on sand, touch sand, and he loves the waves. He also liked the pool. He just likes being around water I think :) Besides the beaches, there are the breathtaking views. It's everything you would expect from a tropical destination, plus timeshares salespeople. Yeah, those salespeople were persistent and quite annoying.

We stayed at a lovely hotel with beach access and nice pools. It was conveniently located 10 minutes from the airport and 5 minutes from downtown by taxi or bus. As a result, we got to walk a lot. We left our car seat at home and only brought our stroller. It was a good thing we brought our Bugaboo frog because the sidewalks really do require a stroller that has a 4 wheel drive :) It was hot to walk though but since we were by the water a lot, we would get nice breezes. The temperature all week hovered around 28-30C and it doesn't rain at all for months. In comparison, Vancouver is raining now and 9C. Snow is expected for us by the end of the week! Eeeks.

Even though we were away from home and away from everything familiar to Tristan, he was surprisingly well behaved and adapted quite well. He didn't trash the hotel like what we had thought. Soon after we checked into our room, Tristan locked himself in the bathroom and my dad had to pick the lock to free him. He soon learned that he was not allow to play with the bathroom doors and we learned that we could not let him roam free for too long. We were able to pretty much stick to his usual routine for meals and sleep times. The nap time was off since we were normally out so he would just sleep whenever he was tired in his stroller. That's pretty much what happens on the weekends back home anyway.

My parents stayed with us in our 1 bedroom suite and we stuck together for the entire trip. One of the rules I had for us was that we had to stick together or at least stay close together because it was safer that way. It turned out the area that we were staying in was very safe and we were just paranoid for no reason. Because we did so much stuff together, Tristan really got to see my parents a lot and got better acquainted with them. They were trying to teach him a bit more Chinese too so that was good. My parents also helped us carry bags and pushed the stroller so that was a bonus for us.

Our main purpose in Mexico was to get away from the cold, relax, play at the beach, and visit a new place and try new foods. We did all that, plus more :) Our budget allowed us to experience a couple of tours, which were for the most part very enjoyable. Overall, we had a lovely time in Puerto Vallarta, despite me being sick with a cold. Tristan is a bit older now and a little easier to manage compared to when we went to France five months ago. I think when he gets a bit older and knows how to swim, we could do more activities with him. For instance, we could go snorkeling and swim with the dolphins. The dolphin swim has an age requirement of 4 years. I think my parents had a good time too. We all needed a vacation and this was exactly what we needed :)

Halloween candy stash

Once upon a time, there was a little monkey...

...and he brought us all this! Yes, we love our little monkey :)
The candy stash above includes all the candy from the Heights trick-or-treating, Halloween night trick-or-treating, and our daycare goodie bag.

Toddler's first trick-or-treat

We could not have asked for better weather on Halloween day. I don't even think it rained that day. The forecast called for rain but it was dry all day. The sun even came out in the afternoon.

On Halloween day, we had a family dinner where I cooked ghastly goulash and baked a rainbow cake in the shape of a pumpkin. We all ate more than enough to fuel us for trick or treating that night. We headed out around 6PM. My plan was to get back in time for Tristan's bath around 7:30PM. We went in a group with my sister, brother-in-law, and Tristan's little cousins, and some of their friends. Jean-Louis didn't come along since he wasn't feeling well. It was great going in a big group because it always felt safe and no one was scared.


After an hour of walking from house to house, up and down stairs, Tristan was pooped. He started out running door to door along with his cousins. I barely had to carry him for the first 40 minutes. When I did carry him, it was mainly so we would catch up to the others. Tristan seemed to have enjoyed himself. What can I say? He loves to collect stuff in his pumpkin pail :) Seriously, he did very well on his first outing trick-or-treating. We came across some fairly spooky looking houses and he wasn't scared. Well, he had a sad face once when some lady in a mask dressed like one of those killers in Scream approached him. Even when the firecrackers were going off left, right, and center, he didn't freak out too much. Near the end, I had to carry him from house to house. His candy pail was also getting full so I had to empty some into my pockets. I honestly didn't think we would get so much candy! It also helped that he would collect two pieces of candies from some houses because they said he was small. I then carried him home so he could brag to his daddy. A job well done, I'd say! :)

Halloween on the Heights and train ride

With so many events to choose from this Halloween weekend, we opted for one that would take place a bit later in the day since we had a lot of errands to run on Saturday. We were all feeling a bit under the weather and I wanted all of us to be well rested before heading out. At the last minute, we decided to go to the event at Burnaby Heights. Every year they have fireworks, trick or treating, and a Halloween train ride. The fireworks took place Friday night but Tristan would have been scared of that anyway. We headed down there Saturday for the trick or treating with the Heights merchants from 3-5PM and for the train ride from 6-9PM. Tristan loves the train at Confederation Park!
When we dressed him up and headed down there, I didn't know what to expect and was kind of worried that he would be one of the few kids dressed up and people would look at us funny. It's kind of funny when you think about Tristan. He is young enough that he doesn't know what is going on and he is fine with us dressing him up in a monkey suit and giving him a pumpkin pail to carry. He'll just go along with it, no questions asked :) When we arrived on Hastings Street, we saw a lot of children in costume. Phew! Then we soon discovered that there were a lot of people and every child was dressed up and some parents were too. I could tell there was a lot of community spirit along that street :)


Tristan soon learned that he would go from door to door, hold out his pumpkin and someone would drop a colorful package into it. He loved collecting treats. Since he didn't know what they were, he would have been just as happy if the merchants were handing out rocks or leaves. After about an hour of this, he got tired and it was time to look for dinner. Since the train ride didn't start until 6PM, we grabbed a quick bite to eat on Hastings and then walked to the Park to line up for the train.

It was pretty nuts. We lined up for 45 minutes to get our ride. Tristan was so anxious too and every time someone else would go on it instead of him, he would get a little upset. In fact, all the kids in line were going a little nuts. Needless to say, it was not easy keeping the kids in line to wait patiently for their turn on the train. It was dark and then it started to rain. Luckily, it was mostly light rain so we didn't get soaked. Considering it was October 31st, we couldn't complain too much. It was nice most of the day!

This was my first miniature train ride at the park. Jean-Louis didn't feel well so I rode with Tristan while Jean-Louis tried to take pictures. The ride was a bit breezy in the dark but it didn't go very fast. At some parts, it was going very slow so you could take in some of the displays such as read what the tombstones said on the grass. There were lit up pumpkins everywhere, lots of halloween balloon figures, a lady dressed up in a witch costume walked toward us at one point, there were spooky lights and fog, creepy noises, haunted house displays etc. And then our train derailed. Yup, the first technical difficulty of the night and it was our train. It happened just in front of a giant orange inflatable ghost. It would deflate and then the light inside of it would go on and it would inflate again into a standing ghost. So then, Tristan got a little scared and wanted to get off the train. The train ride up until now was not scary at all. Then it started to rain harder. Joy. Luckily, five minutes later, we were up and moving again. It's amazing how a bunch of old guys in the dark with flashlights can fix things so quickly :)

After we got off the train, we entered a room where we were greeted with hot chocolate and cookies. Even without the treat, it would have been awesome since the train ride was only $2.50 for me and Tristan was young enough to ride for free. It was an exciting day and if we were to do this again another year, I would plan to arrive at the train station for opening at 6PM. We arrived at 6:45PM and waited way too long.