Puerta Vallarta

Hola, from beautiful Puerta Vallarta! It's almost 1am, everyone is asleep and I'm stretched out on the sectional in the living room. The front side of this room is completely open with the infinity pool and ocean in perfect view, couldn't get away with this at home, we'd be attacked by June Bugs and Mosquitos. The waves are crashing into the rocks below like soft music playing as I type on my laptop. I can see the shadows from the alter of rocks emerging from the ocean with soft lights of the city way off in the distance. There's a dive boat that's been puttering around for the last hour. I watched the diver's flashlights cutting through the water from our room's balcony for the last hour. Year's ago, I scuba dived in Florida during the day and at night. We arrived here just after lunch today. I had major anxiety the first time I experienced the airport here. I wasn't expecting that reaction, but the realization of being in a foreign country away from the security of home hit me hard. Just before we landed then as today, the flight attendants brought around papers for us to complete before going through customs. Three years ago, we did not pull directly to a concourse but unloaded by taking the stairs down onto the runway. All the passengers were crammed onto an old bus like sardines. There weren't any seats just poles here and there for us to cling to. All the windows were down, there wasn't any air conditioning. When the bus pulled up in front of the airport, we all were marched off and herded into the building. Customs was weird. Everyone standing in line nervously waiting for those in uniforms to inspect our passports and documents to decide if we can continue on. our journey. This time was different. I must admit, I was a little disappointed. I wanted our friends with us to have that same experience. I'm not sure why, maybe so I could sit back and watch their reactions as first timers. As any other airport you've been in, today the plane pulled up to a newly built concourse. Different from last time, there was a nurse standing with a thermometer checking each passengers temperature before allowing them access to customs. I guess remnants of the Swine Flu. None of us had fever and were permitted on through customs, we found the baggage claim and then the real fun began. As we searched for the van sent from our villa, we were bombarded by what seemed like hundreds of people offering to "help" with our luggage and offer taxi rides but mostly trying to sell time shares. These people have the high pressure, hard sell down to a tee. But I've been here, done that so we said "No" firmly and kept moving till we found our guy. As we got into his van, he offered us beer and water from the cooler. The guys took him up on the Mexican beer and the girls the water. Ron was a little nervous about drinking the beer while sitting in the front seat rolling down the road with open container law in the back of his mind. He felt the urge to hide it between his legs when not drinking. We drove away from the airport, passed some big resorts, into the newer and then older part of downtown cruising on cobblestone streets and finally up toward our villa in Mismaloya. The villa we stayed in three years ago (Casa de los lomas) was awesome but this one is just incredible. I can't even begin to describe it, pictures are best. Our villa is called Casa Azul Profundo. Check out their site; http://www.casaazulprofundo.com/principal.htm We met the host, the maid and then as I was entering the kitchen hubby grabbed my arm and said, "Look, it's Maria!" I couldn't believe it, our cook from the villa three years ago will be our cook this week. She remembered us from the time before and gave us great big hugs. How cool is that! There's so much more I want to say but it's 2am and breakfast is at 9am. Tomorrow is Ron's birthday. I think it's safe to say, it'll be one of the best birthdays EVER! More later. . .