Grand Velas All Suites & Spa Resort All Inclusive Nuevo Vallarta

... the coconut, mango & chilli fields, slightly closer than the nearest, but less well supplied, village of Cantaranas. Good job I'd stocked up at Walmart in PV before heading out there.

Apart from the adjacent collection of villas & empty lots that comprised Playa las Tortugas, that was it! The first week none of the villas were occupied so we were able to use the communal pool with shady breezy palapa & comfy chairs, a nice change from ...

... except for the rooms of course), but everything else is open. We went for a long walk on the beach when we got here...its so pretty. Everything is included (drinks, food...everything). We even have liquor on tap in our room (mom and Tim's favorite part haha). The place is amazing, make sure you check the pictures!

Santiago Ixc ths closest town to the island of Mexicalitlan, reputedly the original home of the Aztecs, which formed the blueprint for the selection/layout of Tenochtitlan in Mexico City. Few combis go & little else to do in town, so left at 7am hoping to get back to hotel in time to check out at 1pm. Pleasant boat ride there - saw my first roseate ...

Ooops. Assumed that combis to Mexcaltitan, an hour away from Santiago Ixcuintla, would depart more than 3 times a day. Maybe cos was Sunday? Anyway this meant that our pilgrimage to the tiny island in the centre of the lily strewn lake that is said to be the original island of Aztlan, home city to a tribe called the Mexica, who would later become famous for their boodthirsty ...

... s biggest contract, or worse. Enuff about politics...we weren't the only new kids in town...so were the mosquitoes! The tropics in the rainy season means one thing...mosquitoes the size of humming birds every morning and every evening! Malin and I slathered up in 100% Maxi-DEET for the first time this trip...let me tell you, that stuff is strong! I was running around like Fire Marshall Bill with my skin burning...I think mosquito bites might be ...

Hola Amigos We are writing this from a lovely beach south of San Blas, Nayarit. We have visited this place a number of times in the past and still like retuning to it for a week or so. San Blas' only claim to fame is that Liz Taylor and Ric*********** made Night of the Iguana here. It is a lush jungle area with massive fruit growing farms of Mango, Orange, Pineapple, Coconut and Banana that stretch from here to Puerta Vallarta ...

San Blas is a quiet little fishing village...usually. When it's a bank holiday weekend, and the town fiestas are on, San Blas is a crazy place. We camped near the beach, in the carpark of a beachfront restaurant and I christened my hammock/mosquito net. The town is endemically infested with "jejenes", sandflies or little buggers as we call them, so the mozzie net was pretty handy.And ...

June 25th - decided that although the place we stayed was nice we would head up to an area we had read about called Lo De Marcos. It was about an hour north of Puerto Vallarta. We found the beach and headed for the water. This area was a little more protected and therefore the water had less of a pull. There were lots of people in ...

... vans running great and all's well. Pretty Cool, rather Pretty Hot and we're told it's gonna get hotter !! Oh yes, our Bell cell phone has quite working - Again ! Thanks Bell for the lousy service ! Well, as all things in Mexico nothing goes according to plan. Never did find a place to post the message from Mazatlan. So here we sit in this really fine trailer park with a good WiFi connection in La Penita, We made it to San Blas, travelling through some of the most scenic tropical ...

The other excursions we took in Mazatlan was about 3 hours total pretty much consisted of going to a beach within eye sight of the ship. Our group was loaded onto a wagon and then a local woman hopped onto the attached tractor and startig pulling us. While it was nice to sit on the ...