ARRIVAL IN NUEVO VALLARTA

ARRIVAL IN NUEVO VALLARTA
JANUARY 4, 2009

Earl and I traveled with about 110 passengers on a chartered WestJet flight direct to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It was a 4 1/2 hour flight, departing 10:40 PM and arriving at 3 AM Nuevo Vallarta time which was the same as Central Standard Time. WestJet was on time in every way. They even provided a delicious snack without additional charge, which was a pleasant surprise. If you've travelled on flights within Canada or between Canada and the US, you'll have experienced the pay-for-everything-and-get-next-to-nothing treatment on most airlines.

On the flight, we had to fill out an extremely long, laborious custom form but when we got to customs, they barely glanced at the form and waved us through.

Our package included a shuttle to our hotel in Nuevo Vallarta. The airport is about halfway between Puerto Vallarta and Nuevo Vallarta. After a 20 minute wait which seemed longer because we were tired, we were seated in the shuttle van and joined by four college students from Calgary. One of them was visiting Nuevo Vallarta for the second time.

We noticed that most of the passengers were young, between the ages of 20 - 50. Perhaps retirees aren't interested in spending only two weeks away from the frigid cold of Canada. They're gone for the entire winter! If you know how brutal our winters are in Canada (for example, this morning, January 25 the thermometer registered -17F (-27C) in our fair Winnipeg), you`ll have great sympathy for us. Of course, all inclusive resort stays in Mexico include free booze and that is probably one reason why so many young people sign up for these vacations. We live in Manitoba, a province with oppressive liquor control laws and a government run monopoly on the sale of hard liquor so liquor costs are sky high (it`s mostly taxes upon taxes upon more taxes). If you like to drink a lot, you may spend less on a one-week all-inclusive trip to Mexico than if you drank the same amount in frigid Winnipeg!

Even in the dark, we enjoyed the warmth of the morning as the driver drove us through the quiet, palm-tree lined streets toward our resort, the Occidental Allegro Nuevo Vallarta.

BUENOS DIAS!