Mexico - Winter 23/24

Trip List Calendar

2024-02-20 : Bucerias
Today was our last full day in Mexico and we decided to take a day trip to Bucerias. Our friends, Joerg and Barbara, who are also in Puerto Vallarta now decided to come with us. We set a time place to meet - the bus stop down the hill from where Brent and I are staying, but meeting up was complicated by a faulty map pin and lack of internet. We waited a while but they didn’t show up and we had no way to contact them so I sent them a quick note to get in touch when they can and then we jumped on the bus. Literally as soon as we got on the bus I got a message from Barbara that they had just hooked in to Wifi on the Malecon and were near the meeting place, but we were already gone. I sent instructions for how to take the two busses to Bucerias and asked them to get in touch when they got out there.

When Brent and I arrived in Bucerias we had a walk around on the non-touristy side of the highway. We then walked back and scouted out where the bus stop was for the return trip. We then walked down toward the beach and the Bucerias sign. We took a photo of the sign, and that’s when I noticed that the people in my photo of the sign were… Joerg and Barbara. Well THAT was easy!!

The four of us had lunch at Miguel Angel’s restaurant, had a great walk on the beach, and then rode the bus back together.

We ended up getting a bus to centro via the Tunel. We haven’t taken that route before but we knew it would work. Well, we didn’t know quite how well it would work, but not long after we got out of the tunnel, Joerg recognized their neighborhood and they jumped off the bus. I had an AllTrails track that I’ve been wanting to walk, but we haven’t had time. The stop for Joerg and Barbara’s neighborhood intersected with my walking track so we also lept off the bus, said our farewells for the day, and then did some of the walking trail (which took us very close to our place).

We went for dinner for the last time on the Malecon where I finally got a somewhat decent photo of some pelicans flying in formation. We also watched some folks dump their day’s take of empty cans onto the road… for traffic to run over them and squish them. Very clever tactic.


2024-02-21 : Travel Home
This morning we met Joerg and Barbara for breakfast at the Mercado and then visited some art galleries before it was time for us to leave. We enjoyed more great bus karma with a fast and efficient (albeit crowded) ride to the airport.

I checked us in for our flights home last night but the WestJet app said it couldn’t give me seat assignments. When we went to the check in desk today the young fella put a luggage sticker on Brent’s backpack… with a ‘stand by’ sticker on it. Well dang it. Then he fiddle faddled for several minutes and then tore the ‘stand by’ sticker off. Then he fiddled faddled for several minutes and then gave us boarding passes… with seat numbers! Yay! But he didn’t give us boarding cards for YYC to YEG. Boo! So once we were past security and Brent had bought me a hideously expensive beer ($38CAD for two beers… my goodness) I tried to get us boarding cards through the WestJet app. The app was completely useless so I tried through their website. At first it said we weren’t even checked in. Eek! But it also said we had seat assignments. Hmmm. Finally it gave me boarding cards. Looks like we’re on our way home and the lovely Nancy Nancy is set to pick us up.

Unfortunately Shannon has recently started having big problems with Nemo so I have to figure out how to get him fixed up in a timely fashion.
We had a 90-minute layover in Calgary. A little tight given that we would have to go through customs and immigration but WestJet sells the flights so they know it’ll work, right?

Well, we left Puerto Vallarta almost an hour late. I thought for sure we were sunk but we arrived in Calgary 40-minutes before boarding for the flight to Edmonton. We were seated in Row 4, so I thought that if we really hustled we might still have a chance. Annnnd… then the jetway broke so we couldn’t get off the plane. Annnnd… then they got the door open and off we dashed.

Amazingly we blew through customs and immigration but then they made us go out all the way and go back through security. We breezed through that as well and actually made it to our gate with time to spare for a quick pee.

From tarmac to customs and immigration to security to our gate in under 40 minutes. Amazing. Thank you YYC!


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