Mexico Days 6, 7 and 8

I am back for the last recap of our Mexico trip 2021. Today I am going to talk about days 6, 7 and 8 (Thursday, Friday and Saturday).

Thursday morning was our Covid tests. We were instructed not to eat anything which at the time seemed odd. Thankfully, we all had morning appointments. So we got ready, hung out for a bit and then went to have the tests. The test sucked. Avery and I went first. They had us put our heads against the wall and then took a brush and put it way up the nose and swirled it around. After having nose surgery, this felt horrible. Now I can see why they don't want you to eat anything for two hours prior...Rory gagged. Luckily, we all got through it and then headed to Fredy's Tucan for brunch.

After brunch, we stopped next door at the jewelry store that my MIL and I had been eyeing and then headed back to the condo. Rory had a bunch of work to do, so we took a rest for a bit and then headed out to let Rory work. With my in-laws and the girls, we walked the Melacon. We took pictures, bought some gifts and then had gelato.

At this point, we had been gone about 2 hours and headed back to the condo. We also got our Covid results and we were all negative! That meant that we could head home on Saturday. Then we all got ready, including Rory to head up to the pool for some swimming and diving by the girls.

Then around 5 pm, we headed back downstairs to our condo and got ready for dinner. We went to Casa Tradicional Cocina. We got tableside salsa, guacamole and then had a fajita's show which was fun for the girls to watch it all.

Cochinita Pibil

I got the cochinita pibil which is a slow roasted pork dish in banana leaves that is amazing. Sutton shared a bunch of mine and ate all of hers. She was a hungry girl. 

After dinner, Rory and I stayed a bit to finish our drinks and my in-laws took the girls back to the condo. We arrived about 30 minutes after they did. The girls went to bed, and we relaxed out on the patio.

Friday morning was our last full day in Puerto Vallarta, so we tried to make the best of it. We got pastries from a cute little mercado, had coffee out on the patio and caught up on work and emails.

Rory and I had massages at 10 am for an hour and a half. The girls hung out with my in-laws shopping, walking and exploring. After our massages, we met back up and headed to Salud Super Food for lunch. They are a healthy lunch place and I got the Oriental wrap and Bahia de Banderas smoothie. Everything was really good as always. 

Then we headed back to the condo and went back to the pool. My in-laws had a massage at 4 pm, but we hung out with the girls at the pool until 5:20 pm. Then we showered, got ready and waited for my in-laws to get back from their massages and with food for our great uncle. Then we headed out to an Italian restaurant that specializes in seafood that someone at the pool recommended that day. It was called Il Pesce. It is a small place, but the food is amazing.

We started off with three appetizers: a swordfish carpaccio with veggies and beans, a grilled shrimp with onions, raisins and almonds and a shrimp salad. All of them were amazing!

The swordfish dish

The shrimp with onions, raisins and almonds

Shrimp salad

No the girls did not eat any of the appetizers. They did have the fresh bread and an eggplant tapenade. Then we all got different pasta dishes. All of the pasta was homemade. The girls LOVED it. I just wish we came earlier in the trip as we all had leftovers, minus Rory, and we would have loved leftover the next day.

My pasta dish had pappardelle pasta, grilled shrimp, a spicy tomato sauce and pistachios. Soooo good.

Then we opted out of dessert since we promised the girls one last night of gelato (they make amazing ice cream and gelato in PV). 

We all went back to the condo where the girls went to bed, we talked with my in-laws for a bit and then drank wine on the patio to enjoy our last evening in Puerto Vallarta.

Saturday morning we woke up to many text messages from my parents and sister that my sister had my nephew. He came fast and furious! So we talked to my dad first thing in the morning and then got our day started. We started packing, had some pastries and coffee and then got ready. The girls and my in-laws went back to visit Rory's great uncle and Rory and I headed over to the Farmer's Market. They sell food there, but mostly it is for the crafts. It is completely outside and they make you wear a mask. Rory and I both bought quite a few gifts including a Mexican style jacket for my new nephew who was born that morning. 

After coming back, we finished packing up the items we got at the Farmer's Market and then went over to Conrad's condo to hang out and say our goodbyes. Conrad is 97 years old, so it was such a joy to see him again. And it was a complete joy for Conrad to see the girls again. It had been 4 years since he has seen them other than social media.

We said our goodbyes and gathered our things. We took one last photo to recreate a photo we did four years ago and then were on our way to the airport.

2021

2017

When we got to the airport, it was a bit crazy. We had to get our boarding passes, but to do that, we had to go to the kiosk, start putting our info in, then have an agent verify and check our negative Covid tests and give authorization to print those boarding passes. Then we had to go in the normal line to check-in/drop our bags off. There we had to give more documents that we filled out on the way to Mexico. Once all of this was done, we were able to head up stairs to go through security. 

We stopped along the way and took a few photos.

Then we did another body temperature check before going through security. After security, we walked the long path to get to the gate area. We stopped for Starbucks and some food before heading to the gates.

The flight to LA was pretty uneventful. We had a whole row (across) to ourselves and my in-laws were a few rows ahead of us since they broke us up. We watched movies on our iPads/Kindles the whole time. Then once we were in LA, we went through Customs, got our bags, and went over to the American counter to recheck them. The whole Customs/re-check is different due to Covid, so we were thrown for a bit of a loop. I have been through LA Customs many times (with work travel) and it has changed. After we got re-checked back in, we headed through security and then found places to eat which was very difficult. Then we sat in an empty gate for a few hours (like 3 hours) and then headed to our gate to fly home.

The last flight was easy and we were home by 11:30 pm. We were supposed to be home at 9:30 pm but they changed our flights about 2 weeks before we left.

And that concludes our Mexico trip. It was so much fun and I am sad that we are back to reality, but it was definitely a trip for the books! Have you ever been to Puerto Vallarta?