Casitas?

While traveling the countryside the other day, we came upon what appeared at first glance to be a small gated community. Upon closer inspection, however, it turned out to be a cemetery. It was completely different from any cemetery I have ever seen, however. Each building belongs to a family where they inter multiple family members. The photo below shows one of the mausoleums under construction (the bottle in the middle right section is an empty bottle of tequila -- guess even the dearly departed around here need their tequila).
Each mausoleum is decorated differently, and made to look like a casita (small house). Some of the mausoleums even have small fenced yards in front of them, and there are enough fake plastic flowers in this place to fill an entire Hobby Lobby, I'm sure.

Obama Sighting

Paulina's sister, Gaby, is married to Carlos, who is from Cuba, and Carlos' brother, Ore, is a chef studying here in GDL for one year. The other morning, Gaby and Ore came by the house while I was upstairs. The kids went downstairs to see who had arrived, and Addison came running back upstairs yelling, "Hey, Mom, it's Obama!" When we told Ore this, he was flattered, and this has now become a family joke.

As a result, I asked Ore about his thoughts on our politics. I couldn't delve too deeply, as he speaks no English, but with Paulina's help I understood his basic position. Ore said that the Democrats have historically been bad for the Cuban people, but good for the Cuban government, and the reverse is true for the Republicans. For this reason, he expects that things will not get better for the Cuban people during the Obama administration. He is, however, hopeful that history will not be repeated time around. He thinks that it would be wonderful if Cuba and the US could have a better relationship, particularly because of the two countries' close proximity to one another.

We have also taken the opportunity to try our first Cuban beer, Bucanero. It was quite good, too.

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!