Mountain Adventure

Yesterday, we took a trip into the mountains with Paulina's family to celebrate her aunt's birthday at a ranch near a town called Manzanilla. The area is called Sierra Del Tigre: Tiger Mountains, and though there may have once been some kind of wild cat in these mountains, we were told they no longer exist.

There were about 25 people divided amongst five vehicles, so we first traveled an hour and half to the designated meeting place to caravan to the ranch. Below are a few photos of that place.






When everyone had arrived, we traveled through the village to the road that led to Mazamitla, where the ranch is located.

When the village ended, so did the cobblestone road.











Somehow, there was some miscommunication, both as to the exact location of the ranch, as well as the meeting time. Consequently, we spent four hours traveling the countryside on roads that I am certain have never been graded. We were four-wheeling minus the four-wheel drive vehicles!

Is anyone missing some horses? These animals simply refused to move out of the road -- I thought horses were a bit more skittish.

Of course, a random pedestrian might magically appear in the middle of nowhere, so consider yourself warned.

Finally, everyone agreed to give up and travel into Manzanilla for dinner: We had all worked up quite an appetite after 5 1/2 hours on the road!

Addison Prepara Guacamole

Addison has learned to make guacamole. He was so excited about the experience, he wanted to share it with everyone on our blog. Here's the recipe for your enjoyment:

• 3 avocados (smash with a fork)


• 1/4 sliced onion


• 1 medium sliced tomato


• Juice from one lime


• Salt to taste


• 3-4 jalapenos OR 3-4 tablespoons of canned jalepeno juice (jugo de escabeche)

Muy basico, pero delicioso!

La Cena Coreana (Korean Dinner)

While we are in GDL, we are staying with our friend, Paulina, and her mom, Cristina. Paulina was our Spanish teacher when we were here the last time. Last night, we met one of Paulina's students, a Korean man named Sok Jae. Sok Jae is a Korean police officer living in GDL with his wife, Ji Sun, son Kang Hyun (6) and daughter Se Hyun (9). The South Korean government has a program that pays for people to travel to a foreign country for two years to study the language. To be accepted into the program, the student must first study the language of the destination country for three years. Sok Jae, therefore, is fairly proficient in Spanish, but his children are attending a school where they are learning English. When Sok Jae met our kids, he suggested that his family join us at Paulina's so our kids could play and his kids could practice their English. Chitose, another student who is from Japan, also came (In the picture above, Paulina, Trent, Ji Sun, Denise, Sok Jae).
Since Spanish is the one language we all have in common, that's what we spoke -- even with Trent's and my limited Spanish skills. It's amazing to me that we had people from four different countries with four different languages, and we totally connected (Above, Paulina, Chitose, Ji Sun).The tequila might have helped. Sok Jae brought back Korean takeout, which reminded me somewhat of Chinese food, although there was also Korean sushi (yum). We talked and laughed for hours. At one point, Sok Jae came up with what I would call an international party game: he gave the name of an animal, and we would each make the sound that animal makes in our language. The differences were amazing, considering a pig sounds the same no matter where the pig lives, but we express it differently.

The kids also had a fabulous time: Kang Hyun and Se Hyun speak and understand English quite well. Se Hyun demonstrated her origami skills -- impressive. Also serendipitous, as Addison's book club at school is reading "Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes", a book about a girl in post World-War II Japan who had leukemia and her friends and family folded paper cranes to bring her luck. Chitose was also touched that Addison was reading about a girl who is so famous in Japan.

Shell Game

That's right: we engaged in a shell game in Puerto Vallarta, but not the fun kind. This shell game has another name: Time Share Presentation.

As with other Mexican airports located in resort areas, we were first approached when we arrived at the Puerto Vallarta airport. A man asked Trent if we needed transportation, and I said, "No way, time share." "No," the man replied, this is not time share. Only transportation," and Trent believed him. Wrong. The man at the counter attempted to pressure us into attending a time share presentation. After several minutes, we moved on to the next section of the airport. Again, we were approached by a man offering transportation. Again, I said no, but Trent thought no way could they be located in yet another area of the airport, so we duplicated the first experience. Once we managed to extract ourselves without committing to a presentation, we caught a cab to the hotel.

Once at the hotel, we thought we were safe, as we have never stayed at a hotel where we were approached for a time share presentation. Except this time. Turns out the "Information Desk" at the hotel was, in reality, staffed with time share salespeople. Well, sort of. Here's how it worked: The desk was located at the base of the stairs to the guest rooms, and, therefore, unavoidable. It was staffed with people who greeted us each time we went by and offered helpful information about the hotel. In our case, it was a young lady named Selene, and on our second day, she mentioned that we could, in exchange for 90 minutes of our time, earn some free activities and credits at the hotel.

Having been to Mexico a number of times, and also having received time share offers over the phone, Trent and I decided it might be interesting to learn more. After all, we theorized, there are many people employed in this business, so it must have some value, if not specifically for us. Since we prefer to own the property we purchase, the time share model doesn't fit us, but the experience would certainly make a good blog posting.

The following morning, we met with Eddy, the time share representative, for breakfast, and then he took us on a brief tour of the time share area of the resort. Now here's where it became less fun. Following the tour, we sat with Eddy to learn the pricing, which is when the shell game began. We started at $40,000 for a 25-year membership, but before I knew it, we had miraculously earned multiple credits and the price became about $9,500. Trent took pictures of everything Eddy wrote down, and I am including it here for your reading pleasure (and confusion). We told Eddy we were not interested, and thought that would be the end of it. Again, wrong. Eddy said he needed to get his boss, who would ask us if he had treated us well -- quality control, essentially. Extremely pushy and arrogant, the boss was a German man who mistakenly believed that the best way to close a sale was to try to make us feel stupid. We repeatedly told him no, and finally he called another man over who would take us to claim our "gifts". Man #3 took us to a lady who asked us to take a survey. NO WAY. She attempted to convince us briefly until she realized we were DONE. Now, on to Lady #2 for our "gifts". Five people and four hours later, we finally made our escape.

A final note on our "gifts":

1. Five tickets for the City Tour, which we didn't have time to do.
2. Three nights and four days at the hotel for free, which had so many stipulations we would never use it.
3. A free massage at the hotel, which I used. Nice massage -- not great, but ok.

Result: A $55 massage for four hours of our time and plenty of aggravation. That is, except that I get the pleasure of sharing it with all of you right here.

Montagus Return to Mexico (Los Montagus Regresamos a Mexico)

We're here! We spent the first four nights in Puerto Vallarta (PV), and then took a five-hour bus-ride to Guadalajara (GDL) yesterday. It takes about an hour longer to travel from PV to GDL as it takes from GDL to PV because GDL is about 5,000 feet in elevation. I think we enjoyed Puerto Vallarta a good deal more this time than we did last year -- I suspect this is mostly because we hardly ever left the beach, so it was very relaxing.

Our hotel was the Crown Paradise, and was perfect for the kids. Our room had a nook off the main room that contained a bunk bed and a trundle bed for the kids. The hotel is older: one of the first in Puerto Vallarta, we were told, but since we don't ever spend much time in the room, it really only matters if we have a bed for everyone and a place to shower.

The Crown Paradise Hotel is located near the marina, so we got up close and personal with a cruise ship. Having never been on a cruise, we were all amazed at how enormous these ships are.

The food was fine: good enough by all-inclusive standards. The main restaurant is situated right on the beach, so the view was splendid. The beach vendors are not permitted to come up to the building, so we could eat in peace.

The best amenity at the Crown Paradise for the kids is the Pirate Ship Water Park. It has slides, waterfalls, climbing structures, and pools of varying depths -- fun even for the adults! This resort is definitely family-focused, as evidenced by the kids' drink menu posted at all the bars.


That nearly completes my report on Puerto Vallarta, but I do have one last item to report later today or tomorrow. Let's just leave a little teaser and say that Trent and I decided to take one for the team and subject ourselves to an experience neither of us found pleasant. It's a must-read for anyone who ever visits a resort town!

Guadalajara Zoo

As I was looking through our photos from Guadalajara, I came across the pictures from our trip to the zoo in Guadalajara and realized I never reported on that, so here it is!

Opened in 1988, the Guadalajara Zoo is located on the edge of the Huentitan Gorge, and it covers 100 acres. The natural topography of the land where the zoo sits was completely left undisturbed, as well as all existing native trees and plants. As a result, it is a very beautiful place, with lots of meandering paths throughout, and because it's located on the edge of a gorge, it's also very hilly. The day we were there, several of the goats escaped from their confines, but no one seemed to mind.

Located next to the zoo is an amusement park, so we visited that, also. For future reference, I would not recommend attempting to do both the zoo and the amusement park in one day, as they are both large places that require an entire day each to really explore. Our time in Guadalajara was quickly coming to a close, though, so I knew we wouldn't have a chance to return, but it was a very full day!

Last Days in GDL

During the time Ella and I have been back in GDL, we have been staying with our Spanish teacher, Paulina, and her mom, Christina. They have been so generous and hospitable to us, and it's been very enlightening to actually live with a family here in GDL. The last few days have been spent pretty much eating, shopping, and traveling around the city. Paulina, Ella, and I spent our last evening in downtown, which is fabulous at night, particularly since it's still all decorated for Christmas (Speaking of Christmas, we even had our photo taken with with Santa Claus, who apparently works well into the New Year around here.). We ate at a restaurant that's located in a former convent, called La Fonda de San Miguel Arcangel, which was fantastic. I honestly don't think I've had a bad meal here in GDL -- everything seems to be about the food, and they take it very seriously. Ella made lots of friends at this restaurant, and our waitress took her around with her as she waited on customers -- Ella loved it! In the Mexican culture, children are treated very kindly by everyone, and Ella has received extra-special attention because of her blonde hair: Strangers will stop on the street to touch her head -- this has been so common that I no longer find it odd, and neither does Ella!