Puerto Vallarta

Thanks everyone for your birthday wishes!

Before I left for the butterfly trip, Paty (the girl that takes my rent) messaged me saying that she need to duplicate my keys and asked me to leave them with Eli. I thought that was a bit strange but whatever. When I got home from the trip and entered my room, Eli, Ale and Mariana had decorated it with streamers and balloons for my birthday. And in the center of it all was a regular sized bottle of Baileys and a small bottle of Baileys too. I wasn't expecting anything and so I was really surprised. What cool friends no?

That night there was a full moon and there were really cool clouds in the sky.

The next day (Friday), I taught my classes and received more hugs and cards. I only have one break on Fridays and that was taken up with homework for my Masters. Juan Karlo was coming in from Mexico around 2 and he and all of my house mates and I were planning to go to Puerto Vallarta to celebrate Ale and my birthdays. So right when school got out, I rushed home and we left immediately. I was kind of hoping that we would leave around 4 though because Citlali (1st grade student) was having a roller skating birthday party and I wanted to skate... oh well.

Ale and Mariana had already left for Vallarta and so it was Eli, Juan Karlo, Rayme and I in the car. The Brazilian Mariana had to go to class and said she would catch a bus the next day to meet up with us and Oswaldo's family was coming in to visit him so he couldn't go.

Our first stop was Burger King and they forgot Juan Karlo's order and then they forgot the fries and then they forgot the Eli's straw. After Eli drove for about an hour, we switched and I drove the 3.5 hours remaining. It was really fun to drive though because there were a lot of curves. I was carving them like a whip.

That night we went out clubbing to a place called Friends and another club and had a great time dancing. When we got back around 3, I just crashed. The next day we went to the beach which was about 45 minutes away. The sun was hot with a gentle breeze, the water was cool and there were a moderate amount of people there. I brought my Frisbee and started playing with Rayme and Juan Karlo. Later I was throwing with Ale and a dog came to play with us. It was a cute, small dog and so it basically just chased the Frisbee but couldn't do too much else. And then a pretty decent sized Rottweiler joined. So Ale didn't want to play anymore and left. But I wanted to keep playing and spent probably an hour or two doing so. I didn't know whose dog it was but suddenly a girl came over and call it away. Shoot... no one to play with now and now my Frisbee has teeth marks from the dog. Didn't put on sunblock either... better do that soon.

Juan Karlo and I wanted to go surfing and Eli joined us too. I'd only been surfing one time before and that was in California and I was not successful. This time however, I got up on the first time and it was so much fun. Juan Karlo and I tried to ride the same wave one time and that didn't work though. Hahah. I lost my balance and went flying which sent Juan Karlo off his board as well.

When we got to Ale's house, I was B-U-R-N-T. They called me John camarón (shrimp) and cangrejo (lobster). That night Ale's mom, Julia, cooked lasagna and invited some of the relatives over to celebrate our birthdays. Afterward, I was too burnt to do anything but sleep, but the others went out to dance again.

The following day we went to a beach about 10 minutes away and while we were waiting for Julia and Mariana to arrive, we walked the beach and found a dock. Some people were jumping off it into the water and Juan Karlo and I decided to do the same. It was probably only a 6 to 7 foot drop but it was the highest I've ever dived. The water felt amazing and I ended up jumping / diving a couple more times.

Rayme really wanted to jump off too but after 20 minutes just couldn't do it. It was really funny though because he would run really fast to the edge and stop and turn quickly "No no no no way John." Ale was on the shore about 30 feet away yelling at him too, "Ya! (now!) Ya Rayme! Ya!"

On the way back, Ale wanted to play Never Have I Ever and the Questions game. It was so hard in Spanish. In Spanish the nouns are masculine and feminine and though it is a simple rule, I get confused and forget often. At one point I wanted to say "one" and so I said "uno" (one in masculine) instead of "una" (one in feminine). Everyone in the car was like, "UNO!??! John we didn't know!" No no nononon haha, okay I'm tired of this game. I want to talk in English now hahah.

Anyway, this too was a great trip and I look forward to going again. Next time I want to surf a lot more.