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This is Day 3 in Puerto Vallarta, and after a morning workout in the gym, we went to the hotel restaurant for lunch. Pete ordered iced tea and quesadillas, and I ordered a refreshing glass of lemonade (made with sparkling water), and a chicken and shrimp burrito.

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After lunch we were ready for the sun and an afternoon of reading. There were several pools to choose from. This one was an adults only pool, so this was the one we always used. It was not always easy for me to find a shady spot. One that was often available was under a huge tree, but the drawback was that it was usually populated with small birds, and as birds are known to do, they would release a tiny bomb from time to time, and if I was directly under them, it would land on me. It was only a minor inconvenience though, as they were small birds.

When we came through the airport, we did something that we always advise our friends to NOT do. Pete was drawn to this guy that we both knew was the first line of attack to get the tourists to attend a timeshare presentation. He was such a funny little man, and very personable. We listened to his spiel, and found ourselves sucked into the timeshare trap. But we came out way ahead in the end. He needed $50 in cash, which was refunded to us later on in the form of a RegiCheck, and I used that at check-out time.

After giving us a detailed list of gifts we would receive, he paid our taxi ride to the Westin, and also from the Westin back to the airport when we leave 14 days later. The Presentation was the next morning, Sunday, and what was supposed to be a 90 minute presentation turned into 5 hours. The breakfast was excellent. The product they were selling was very different from the normal timeshare. All we had to do was to sell them 3 of our timeshares and I still don’t. know what we were supposed to receive in return. All I do know is that as we continued to say no, they brought on another guy, a little higher up in the food chain. Each one made the deal a little sweeter, promising us amazing rewards. What began as a $16,000 investment, finally came down to only $4,000, and this final guy was obviously at the top of the food chain, and he wasn’t going to take no for an answer. But that’s exactly what he got. In return, we got all of our maintenance fees for the year paid for in the form of seventeen $250 American Express cards which we had to register into an account and could use them for various vacation packages they offered. We’ve got 18 months to do that. We also got two tickets (at $150.00 each) for the Rhythms of the Night show and 2 tickets (at $100.00 each) for the Marietas Eco Discovery.

That’s $500 that we would NOT have spent on our own, but getting these two adventures for free was totally worth it. ;o)

We were taken to the pier where all the tours leave from, and while we waited, they served us margaritas.

The boat was a fairly good sized catamaran, and the ride to the island where the Rhythms of the Night show was to take place was about an hour.

That pirate ship looked like it would be a fun adventure, but it will have to wait until our next visit. The high rises in Puerto Vallarta give it the look of a fabulous resort town, but actually the Mexican culture is still very definitely present, as the town has managed to maintains its cultural beginnings which has drawn imaginative tourists here over the years.

As we approach the island we see that some strange and wonderful adventures await us.

The island was very tropical and I felt like Captain Cook discovering Hawaii.

I will pick up from this point in the next episode, Part 3.