Viva Mexico...

So I've been back from Mexico for a little over a week now, and should have blogged much sooner, but life got busy! So I'm now taking the time to recall (luckily I wrote down everything we did earlier, otherwise I would have never remembered it all!) and blog about it now. Better late than never right?

Day 1
The morning started out with everyone rising bright and early (5:00am!) and meeting out in the hotel lobby to head to the Boise Airport. Everyone had dressed in anticipation of arriving in LA and eventually Mazatlan, and we were shocked to see that it had snowed overnight in Boise! So everyone hurried back to their rooms to pile on layers for the cold trek outside. When we arrived at the airport we were told that the plane that was taking us to LA was stuck in Spokane with bad weather and we would be delayed for a few hours. While this news wasn't the end of the world, it did mean that we were unable to make our connection in LA for our Mazatlan trek and that we would be staying overnight in LA. We made the best of it though, and had a great time in LA.

Day 2
We finally made it to Mazatlan! Once we arrived you could immediately small the ocean and it was a glorious way to begin our vacation! Customs was easy enough. The entire group (11 in all) made it through without having to stop to get our luggage checked (they make you press a button as you walk through security; if it turns you green you may proceed, but if it turns red you are searched thoroughly- Praise God for green lights!). A shuttle from the resort picked us up and we were on our way, zooming through the city to our accommodations. Just to warn those of you with motion sickness: Mexico is not the place to go! Talk about crazy drivers! I had to close my eyes and missed most of the sights trying to keep from throwing up. Once we made it to the hotel, and finished our extensive checking in (I think with everyone's questions it was easily an hour long process!) we ran out to see the grounds. What a beautiful place! Our rooms had the most perfect view. Unfortunately that view didn't last long though. My mother is the most picky woman on the face of the earth and we spent the night switching rooms until she was happy. Dinner the first night was wonderful. I have this rule- "if you are in a place that has fresh seafood, you order the fish!" and I did :) I had Mahi Mahi the first night and it was Muy Bueno!

Day 3
Our first full day in Mexico! What a splendid place to vacation during the cold winter. Sunshine all day, the weather in the high 80's, and swimming pools, and the ocean as far as the eye can see. Fantastico! We spent our first day doing nothing but lounging, swimming, laughing, and drinking copious amounts of alcohol (which was, of course, an everyday thing). We decided to try the Italian restaurant, that is part of the hotel, for dinner. (We had chosen to purchase an all inclusive for each day we were in Mexico. So for $55 American dollars a day, we were able to eat and drink whatever we wanted- a great deal!) The restaurant was ok, but laughing about the bad service made it worth it. We soon discovered that service in Mexico (or at least this resort) stinks. It was humorous though (we actually had one waiter tell us that they had vanilla ice cream but we couldn't order it because it was too frozen and it hurts his hand to get it. lol!) The restaurant did have a really cool dessert though. It was called "spanish coffee" and it was amazing! They had a whole show that they put on to make it and everything. They would heat the glasses, and pour brandy into them which would start on fire. They would coat the glasses with warm cinnomon and then pour the coffee in with whipped cream. The coolest part though is that he would ladel more brandy in for the last step and the stream all the way from the ladel to the coffee would be on fire. It was muy delicioso!

Day 4
Probably the best day of the whole trip. This was the day that I parasailed! We decided to spend the day on the beach, and it was glorious! I love the feeling on the sand between my toes and letting the waves crash against my back. The only downside to the Mexican beaches are all the vendors. There are many, many people in Mexico that are making a living by walking the beaches and asking tourists if they would like to buy something. Beach blankets, silver jewelry, hats, glasses, windchimes, hammocks... the list can go on and on! Over and over again you are either feeling incredibly rude by ignoring them, or telling them "no" over and over again. They take the opportunity to hound you if you hesitate or smile at them. Seriously. Anyway, the parasailing was amazing. Its something I've always wanted to do, but never quite had the opportunity. We talked the guy into letting us go for $25 american (its normally $35, but we had 7 people that wanted to do it) and started our journey. Talk about craziness! Its a whirlwind of getting people in life jackets and harnassing them in, and just when you have time to start reconsidering what is you are about to do, they take off, and up in the air you go! I would love to say that we had an event free time overall, but I would be lying. They actually dropped two of our people in the water, and I am not joking! The first one: Joe, a gentleman who is a bit older, has heart trouble, deathly afraid of both heights and water, does not swim, and has no business parasailing. He was way out in over the ocean when the propeller on the boat stopped working. Just stopped. And well, when you have nothing pulling you in order to keep you in the air, you start falling, and fall he did. Straight into the ocean. He's ok, and everything turned out just fine, but talk about a small group of people standing on the shore and trying not to panic! The second one: George. He was just about to the shore, ready to land when the boat propeller stopped again! He was dropped into the water about 25 feet off the sand, so he was able to walk back to shore, but we were still worried nonetheless. Talk about 2 men that would have loved to be singe! All the women from up and down the beach flocked to them to hear their "war stories" and fauned all over them! I think their stories had sharks involved by the end of the week ;) We all had a good time though, and I would do it again in heartbeat.

Day 5
All week long Bri (my brother's girlfriend) and I had seen a woman sitting with lots of little cermaic doo-dads that you can paint sitting in front of the resort. We always refferred to her as the "art and crafts lady" and wanted to paint something. Badly. To the chagrin of my brother (who we had to listen to complain the whole time) we each purchased a craft and sat down to paint. We loved how they tuned out so much, that we went back the next day to paint another one. I love how my turtle turned out. His shell comes off and you can put things in his "body". He is the perfect earing holder.

Day 6
Market day! We decided to brave downtown Mazatlan and go view the market place. Unfortualy the market carried the exact same things that you were refusing to look at from the the peddlers on the beach! It was still a neat experience though. My favorite part of our tour of downtown was the taxi's by far! Their taxis are so neat. They are oversized golf carts that zoom in and out of everywhere! Our drivers were really cool, and made our tour fun and exciting. We were supposed to go to a "Salsa, Salsa" event where they taught you 6 different ways to make salsa and margaritas, and how to dance Salsa, but apparently we were the only group to sign up, and they cancelled it. So we hit the Mazatlan night life instead. We were out a 9:00 and it was dead! We had a good time though, dancing and drinking. We were laughing about how big the place was (seriously huge!) and that they had about 25 waiters for 7 people, but our waiter kept insisting that the place would fill up by 9:45. We didn't believe him, and around 9:30 we all headed to the restroom (safety in numbers) and when we emerged, the place was PACKED! I couldn't believe it! There were people everywhere, and the music had changed from redneck American to really fast techno. It was crazy! We stayed for about another 15 minutes, but it wasn't our scene so we left. It was a neat experience though.

Day 7
Our last day in Mexico :( I really was not ready to leave, and neither was anybody else. We decided to spend the day at the resort and enjoy lounging with the pools and ocean once more. It was a nice last day with lots of laughs, lots of swimming, and lots of drinking.