Day 1 Puerto Vallarta Nov 1 2020

 November 1st

It's been a year since I’ve stepped onto a plane to go anywhere. Usually Beck and I would have been to Hawaii and traveled to some of her Navis accounts but with COVID-19 most all of her accounts have been not fully open or the Navis company has cancelled all un essential travel to those accounts. Our last major trip used trains planes auto and boat (our awesome Europe trip….) a few months ago we decided we were going to take a risk and plan a relaxing get away trip….Beck and I would be in PV 2 whole weeks and Rob and Rachel would join us on our last week. We Love PV and since they decided that it was safe to come to the area we jumped at the chance to book the trip for all of us! So today was the day! Here we go! 

Travel so far has been easy starting with us waking at 230am jumping into the truck with our packed belongings, picking up Logan in bend who will drive our car back to our house (and pick us up on return) The Redmond airport is not very busy so getting through security was super quick. We got FIRST CLASS to Seattle, but they don’t really do anything due to covid restrictions on that flight. Second flight is 4 and a half hours direct to PV. They serve a couple water, 1 soda, a cookie…and becky got a chocolate bar (with toffee) cause she’s a premier member with Alaska airlines Yumm!

So…off to PV! A friend of mine just got back and recommended that we use a driver that he liked and used to drive him and his wife around…like a personal chauffeur! so he gave me his number I sent a text and he will be waiting across the bridge from the airport for us! he is picking us up personally…we thought it would be better and cheaper to pay him…he gets more money and we get a super deal on a chauffeur for the next few weeks! While I write this we are still about 2 hours away from landing but I am excited about this connection and the opportunity’s it will bring on this trip. Having a local that can show us around will make this trip more enjoyable (I hope). 

update on the driver. Teo is his name...and he was there as he said he would. Newer car, clean, he was conversational and has lived in the area since the mid 80's. As we got to Costa Sur from the airport...he was also kind enough to pull up to a store so I could buy some beers for the first few days, i was ready to pull out a 20.00 since a conventional taxi would have cost us $30.00 U.S.. He said only 112.00 pesos. Exchange rate here is 21 pesos to 1 dollar...i happily handed him $8.00. We will definately drive with again!

We will be staying at Costa Sur…(back when we first visited it was called Costa Vida Vallarta) a beautiful spot along the water, with its own private cove! Its the same place we’ve been going to since Rob was a baby (I even think it was his first official trip! Looking forward to lots of great food, relaxing and swimming in the cove. The resort is clean and just minutes from town by bus…but…busses aren’t running during Friday through Monday...(to keep tourism down in PV) so having a driver will be key! It will be interesting to report what measures the resort town of PV and our resort have in place during our stay.

UPDATE: First thing after unpacking was to hit the pool. As we were relaxing there was a beautiful bride in her gown who walked in and moments later her groom arrived. They walked down to the beach for some pictures and when they came up i was able to catch one of them. So even during the pandemic people still celebrate life, and marriage...but weird thing is that Mexico has cancelled Dia de las muertas, the celebration of the dead. I was hoping to go catch familes durring the celebration of life but it has been cancelled!

Last time we stayed here we were hit by Hurricane Patricia and evacuated the resort to a mountain village technological college. View that here. https://davebeckmex.blogspot.com/2015/11/uh-oh-not-way-i-wanna-go-in-mexico.html