POM to BNE to LAX to PVR

No regrets, first post in awhile. I've been relying on Facebook to update the masses but have realized lately that not everyone is on FB (gasp!), and this forum allows for a bit more detail.

So in case you didn't know I'm out for my second rotation from Papua New Guinea. The first half I've met friends John and Vanessa from Canada in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. I've been here in PV for 7 nights so far... I stayed the first 6 at the Buenaventura Grand Hotel and Spa in downtown PV with those two... and yesterday I said goodbye to John and Vanessa as they had used up their week off from work. I had a great time with the two of them lounging by the pool and hanging out in downtown PV... We did a zip line thing which was a great time. I've never done that before, and when they go with you down the line and flip you upside down, essentially sending you headfirst over a giant crevasse with no hands it's unnerving at first. But eventually you want to do it more, a good rush! Other highlights of the time spent with J&V was partying on the malecon, relaxing by the pool, golfing, nice dinners, and many (too) tequila shots! I was eventually tequila'd out mid-week but fought through it for one more crazy night on their last night. Neither of them were too thrilled about being severely hungover for their plane ride home, mission accomplished!! ;)

Yesterday I moved over to Paradise Village in Nuevo Vallarta, a little further north than PV proper. The reason for this was now that I'm by myself my plan is to hit the golf course with vengeance, and one of the better courses (El Tigre) is located near this resort. My strategy today was to suffer through a timeshare presentation in order to get cheaper golf.

Timeshare sales people are not happy when you say no... bottom line I said I didn't come here thinking about a timeshare, I'm not an impulse buyer (I lied about that, I am!), and if it's such a good product you'll sell it to me later. It always sounds good though... They eventually talked themselves down to a $3500 sort of vacation club deal that was for 200 years, 6 weeks a year, pay as you go, no annual fee, 6 more less flexible weeks for friends/family, no blackouts, book online, etc etc sort of thing. Which still sounds like a decent deal. I mean, if I go somewhere and book a place it does cost way more ($150/night * 7nights = $1050), whereas this deal it'd be under $200-500 for a week depending how pick I was with times/places. Given that I do travel quite a bit it could be paid off pretty quickly... But basically it boils down to being a sort of discount online/self-service thing that costs $3500 to sign up for! So I'm not sold on it yet...

But I do get to play El Tigre three times for $108 instead of $150x3=$450, so no worries!

Here is a link to photos... They're all from my iPhone and taken with a blood alcohol measure of between 0.04 to 0.23 and therefore relatively crappy.

Tomorrow my plan is get up, jog on the beach, shower, breakfast, golf at 10:30am, then maybe the spa or a real workout... Then on Tuesday I have golf at 9am, so will have to work something else out for some more activity afterward. Wednesday I think I'll play one of the courses up in the mountains (since I have to check out anyways), then I'm on the plane at 6:30pm for the overnight trip to Buenos Aires, which is where I'm meeting Ed and Kate (friends from Brisbane) for the second half my break. Ed and Kate were in Peru for all the rain and mudslides that have been in the news, so I'm hoping everything is alright with them. They were planning a few multi-day treks through the jungle so it's not totally unusual that I haven't heard from them.

mmmm... blogging. I'll try and get back into it a little more consistently and hopefully more interesting too.