Free Chile Pages & Chile List ads for all registered users!       Log In
Day 412 of 1827: Puerto Vallarta

Day 412 of 1827: Puerto Vallarta

This week, I shopped at Wal-Mart, ate dinner at Chili’s, and now I’m staying at a touristy hotel.

Apparently, I’m on vacation.

Actually, I will say this:  If you are looking for a good place to visit, you should definitely check out Puerto Vallarta, especially if you currently live in North America.

It’s absolutely gorgeous here, it’s safe, the traffic is sane, you can spend US Dollars if you want (although Mexican currency is way prettier), and there’s lots of North American chains you can visit if you get homesick.

It’s not exactly cheap here, but it is definitely better than, say… Dallas.

Especially if you’ve got a little Spanish and know your way around the local markets.

Speaking of which, I’ve been having a ball with my Spanish here.  I don’t know if it’s because Mexican Spanish is easier for me to understand, or a year of living in Latin America is finally starting to pay off, but I’ve been on my “A” game lately.

Negotiating at markets, chatting with locals, flirting with chicas….  That’s right; I can make naughty puns in two languages now (:

Welllllll… ok, they’re not really puns, exactly.  More like, I get mixed up and say the wrong word.  But the end result is usually naughty.

Curiously, I haven’t actually done that much since I arrived last week.  This is partly due to the fact that I’m still recovering from falling off a mountain a couple of weeks ago (which – despite how exciting that sounds – I have not been able to turn into a good blog post after 3 attempts!).

But also, I think I made a mistake by coming to Mexico with exactly zero ideas for what I want to do during my time here.

I know, I know.  I produced an entire podcast on the virtues of not having a plan.  Annnnnd… I still stand by it.

But I think there is something to be said for maintaining a… let’s call it a “creativity reserve”.

I’ve noticed that if I wait until I’m bored on a Saturday afternoon to start thinking of things that would be fun to do, I’ll just end up spending all of my creativity and excitement (not to mention my Saturday afternoon) on the task of coming up with things to do.

And the funny thing is:  When I’m bored, anything that requires work (i.e., anything more involved than sitting on my butt researching fun activities) never quite feels like it’s worth the effort.

Much better, I think, to already have a list of things that I want to accomplish so that I can focus my problem-solving efforts on the actual having of adventures rather than the brainstorming of them.

So with that in mind, I’m going to go look for fun things to do in Puerto Vallarta now!

beautiful sunset across the bay in Puerto Vallarta
If you’re a fan of beautiful sunsets, you will love Puerto Vallarta (:
Check out Five Years Abroad on Facebook for more photos from Mexico!

Leave a Reply