We arrived in Bucerias on the 24th after a very quick ride courtesy of a kamikaze taxi driver who ultimately overcharged us. A nice term for ripped us off. We never seem to learn. We could write a book on the “dos and don’ts” when travelling but god forbid we would follow our own advice!
We then met up with Kristina and Lucy at the Royal Decameron Resort which we had booked for 7 nights. The days have really flew by.
The days were like vacation days are supposed to be. Breakfast, lather up the SPF then hit the beach by 10:00 am, lunch at around 1:30, a little R&R and technology time, shower, meet at the beach bar around 5:00 pm, drink, head to the next beach bar at 6:00 (the first one closed at 6:00), drink a little more and then head out for dinner. We did actually walk into town one day and it was stifling hot away from the beach and semi-hurricane force wind at the beach but refreshing save for the intermittent sandblast.
When Joyce and I first arrived we were early and our rooms weren’t ready but we were assigned rooms in the furthest building from the water, There was a nice pool but no sea breeze and it was hot. So asking nicely to change our rooms were treated nicely and rewarded with rooms Steps from the beach on the 2nd floor in Bock #4 with a pool and ocean view and what we thought was probably the best location out of the whole complex.
The food was good, the sun was hot, the beach was nice and the waves kept Lucy (and me) busy.
Next stop was Puerto Vallarta for 5 days where we went back to the San Marino Hotel where Joyce and I stayed a couple of weeks earlier. It’s a 3ish star affordable all inclusive popular with Mexicans right on the beach right at Los Muertos Pier and in the heart of Old Vallarta, Zona Romantica. We snagged two ocean front renovated rooms on the 7th and 8th floors and proceeded to do what you do at the beach. The food was not bad. Less selection than a popular resort but fresh and varied. Kristina said she would definitely go back and we would also but don’t go with a 5 star expectation. It’s relatively small but nice and you mix in with the locals, especially on a Sunday at the beach and it is close to everything.
We looked into booking a snorkelling trip in Bucerias but didn’t trust the huckster trying to sell us time share BS on the side so we waited until PV to organize it and we ended up with a private boat for the four of us and headed out to Las Arcos for some so-so visibility amongst a fairly large group of tortilla fish feeding foreigners floating amongst several boats all jockeying for position around the buoyed-off snorkelling area but this is what you have to expect in a heavily touristed area. It was still great and we saw fish and travelled the shoreline on our way there and were able to get a really good perspective of the beaches and small resort areas lining the coast.
All good things must come to an end and so we bade the ladies farewell April 5th and headed to our next destination…..
