Since the last travel blog update we have been on the west coast of Mexico in a little village called Bucerias, near Puerto Vallarta. We went there as we have a friend from Oz, Luke, who lives there with his wife Mireya. We unfortunately couldn’t make their wedding in March as we were still in Canada but we got to spend time with both of them over 3 weeks, which was amazing as they took us to their favourite places, and threw an impromptu party for Tim to Dj at their home. Never in Australia could you send a text out at 5pm on a Saturday night and then 30 people show up with tequila and pizza ready to party. We broke a few rules that night.... and we thought there were no rules in Mexico 🤣😜😂
We had an Airbnb: side note: we are realising how much we are contributing to Airbnb profits for our trip this year - its amazing, easy and I couldn’t imagine how we would find the places without it, another blog post coming later on what makes a good (and terrible) Airbnb....., we were two blocks from the beach, had a great pool and a garden of iguana’s, literally Dexters dream garden. We had the opportunity to settle as we were staying there for two weeks, which meant simple things like Tim and I getting out for a run in the morning, going to yoga, cooking at home and enjoying the sunshine, pool and beach. We did day trips to remote beaches, paddle boarding, water parks, local markets, kayaking, more horses, monkeys, amazing birds and so much tequilla and Mezcal... With the time of year we are here it’s when the wind comes and with the wind are the wind surfers! Amazing to watch in the afternoons, they make it look so effortless.
Learning how the local buses work was interesting, people here are very forgiving of our Spanish. (Thankfully) We had great fun hailing down buses sometimes big, sometimes mini buses with different paying systems and challenging to work out when (and how) we were getting off - lots of ‘aqui por favor, AQUI!’ But we got to see more of the area and the people that live here, and realise how bumpy the roads are! One day trip to remember was out to the mountains, about 2 hours from Bucerías, to the canopy river and the set from Predator (as in the Arnie movie) for 10 zip lines across the river. These were not little zip lines, they gave us advice on how to brake - how to brake on a zip line!!! Well you turn and swing your legs slowly from side to side whilst going 60km /hr..... we all survived, the boys always being their first of our group of 10 to ‘fly’. I certainly enjoyed my margarita at the end!
We have been trying to work out our route across Mexico and originally had plans of buses between towns, but after a few long drives we realised this might not be the best way (Archie strikes again, plus the raods are crazy) and looked into internal flights. We did plan a road trip to tequila via a little beach visit in Chacala, where we had an awesome Mother’s Day sunset seafood beach dinner and got to see smaller Mexican towns inland.
Before I describe Tequila I have to comment on the drive to get there. I’m not the best passenger anyway and there were times I had to close my eyes and grip my seat tightly with how the Mexicans overtake. The trip took 3-4 hours through the mountains with 1 lane in each direction. Most of the time there were thick double yellow lines down the middle of the road - which totally means ‘do not overtake, its dangerous’ even big signs on the side of the road with pictures saying the same. This obviously means nothing to Mexicans.....
Tequila was a highlight, historic town with loads of see and learn. We obviously had to do a tequila tour and went to a couple of distilleries to hear about how tequila is made and the history behind some of the oldest and most famous tequila’s. Jose Cuervo had a big impact on the town and the tequila business is still family owned. We went to an amazing museum that talked about the history of the family and the area, we had our own English speaking tour guide and the boys stayed engaged for over an hour (miraculous!). We had some great meals out and amazing margaritas - plus the worst margarita ever. They had run out of lime margaritas?! So we ordered the especial margarita pepino. Safe to say we will not be ordering any cucumber flavoured margaritas again!
Back in Nuevo Vallarta we stayed with Luke and Mireya for a few days, their place is so peaceful in the middle of a golf course, apart from the noises of the Francis' brothers.... We watched a bit of the annual wind festival and enjoyed a great night out for my birthday - thanks guys you really made our trip to the west coast special.
Then back to Mexico City, there are so many things to do here, we were staying in Condesa again which is central and has great parks for the boys. We went to the kids museum which was amazing and hands on - absolutely packed though, we managed to see Pokémon movie in english (joy), and spent a few hours walking around the historic area including Zocalo (main square with the biggest flag), the palace and the cathedral
We are now in Oaxaca, Tim is off doing a cooking course and I'm off to the textile markets, another update in a few weeks xx
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