Passport hell
Trip Start
Sep 01, 2005
1
10
65
Trip End
May 11, 2006
Puerto Vallarta,
Mexico
Wednesday, October 5, 2005
This is my impression of an American woman in the immigration office today. It was so painful to listen to I wanted to go and hide somewhere. They seem to think that putting an "o" on the end of a noun or verb makes it Spanish.
I'm not by any means saying I'm perfect. I still have loads to learn but I've got the confidence to give it a go in most situations and enough vocabulary to get by. I'm starting to understand a little when people speak back, which is always a bonus and stops you looking like a dufus.
We went to the immigration office yesterday to get the situations with our passports sorted out. We filled in a form which we took up to the desk, then she gave us another form to fill in, then we had to go downstairs and buy 3 forms, bring them back upstairs for her to fill in. These forms had to be taken to the bank for them to stamp (for a fee) but the bank only excepts payment for these forms up until 11am. Too late already, and the immigration office closed at 1 anyway. Come back tomorrow.
Next day we had to take the 3 forms that she had filled in to the bank and pay 210 pesos. The bank kept 1 of the forms, we took the other 2, got back on a bus to the other side of town to go to the immigration office again. We handed in the two forms that were stamped by the bank, then we all filled out an immigration card, signed some more forms and letters. Simple!
Puerto Vallarta is a tourist city with lots of club, bars, and restaurants; hence I havenīt really taken any photos as there's nothing much of interest. It's still very nice here and would be a great place to come for a 2 week holiday. Every night is a night to go out, Me and Lewis went out on Sunday night and the clubs were packed, everything was still going when we left at around 5am. The police stopped the two of us on the way home and searched us (hands against the wall, spread your legs), presumably looking for drugs.
The beach is average but has very big waves. Me and Lewis have been doing (trying to do) some body surfing; most of the time this results in getting dumped by the huge waves, tossed in every direction, dragged along the bottom, sand forced up your nose by the sheer force of the water, then swimming to the surface just in time to get hit my the next wave. Lovely.
We were planning to leave here yesterday but the stuff with the passports meant we ended up staying another day. We plan to get on a bus to Zihuatanejo (the place that Andy Dufresne escapes to in The Shawshank Redemption) tonight, it's a 14 hour journey on a night bus. From Zihuatanejo we'll head inland to Mexcio City. My time is running out before I need to catch my flight.
