Punta Mita - Day 4: Departure

And the vacation comes to an end...main realization? We don't take enough photos unless we are blogging in real time! Case in point -- here's the only photo we have of our lounging area from the entire 4 days. 

I realize the view looks not so amazing, but the short wall there is actually the overflow/edge wall outside the infinity pool...made it more secluded that we couldn't actually "see" people in the pool, though maybe that's why these spots were always free - probably parents would want to keep an eye on their younger kids more.  Meanwhile if I start drowning I'm definitely shooting for the twins to come save me.

So thoughts on the vacation:

- Four days was a nice length of time. Kids not feeling super anxious about homework piling up. Adults not feeling like it will take days to overcome emails that were missed. Could we have taken another day? Sure, but I'm not sure it would have added that much unless we went all the way up to a week. 

- We did not explore Punta de Mita enough to really do the area justice. The resort was very secluded feeling for sure. The beach was not crowded, the sand was really beautiful, apparently there was a nature preserve all around us...but we really didn't enjoy much of that. Though maybe being able to stare at the ocean and hear the waves crashing at all hours is an unspoken and subconscious plus that I'm overlooking. 

- I don't think the resort is worth $1000/night (which apparently it retails for at times). But there were some small touches that made it clear they did care more about service than the average high end chain. For example -- they folded up all of our clothes at turn-down, they put little fruit/umbrellas garnishes on the made-to-order smoothies, and they brought you bottled water at the pool in buckets of ice. I would return at the rates that we paid for sure. 

- We should plan just one major excursion for these short trips, otherwise we end up feeling rushed and we don't get to enjoy the resort's own offerings. Like we totally missed the sunset traditional cleansing ceremony which sounded a bit hokey but also potentially quite cool...and I only learned on the last day that the guided bike ride with photo stops was on a shaded path! Reiya has been asking to do more biking so that was a definite miss. 

- The twins' Spanish abilities are impressive...they just so rarely choose to use them. Next time we return to Mexico, we will have to figure out more incentives for Spanish conversation starting...

- Oddly whenever we had a chance to use pesos instead of dollars, the pesos price was better. Sometimes just marginally but sometimes quite significantly. Maybe a sign of high exchange rate fluctuation? 

- We will have to try Mexico again in the "winter" when the days are less hot to see if the water is still as warm. Figure out when that perfect time is when the water is still retaining the heat of the summer but the air has lost some of that incessant humidity.  Or...if such a perfect balance cannot be met, look for hotels that heat their pools more. 😊 

- I very much preferred the a la carte food experience to our previous all inclusive mexico experiences. Quality over quantity! (Yes, this is also just me admitting that I have no self-control/willpower when the food and drinks are free). 

- We should get the twins enrolled with Global Entry. Would have done their interviews up on arrival but the crew of people waiting was pretty long and we were anxious to get home. Maybe one day we will make a trip to SFO just to do the interviews...

I could keep going, but it's getting late and alas, it's back to a world of not-enough-sleep and too many work emails again. Final shot of the trip (yes, we took so few photos I felt compelled to snap one of Ian waiting outside the baggage claim).

Until next time!

Punta Mita - Day 3: Horses by the Beach

It's our last full day today -- the sadness of a short vacation! Once again, enjoyed that 8-hour long sleep and leisurely breakfast. We've pretty much staked out our "spot" at the pool now, an area of 8 loungers with shade -- we start the day in the right group of 4 and then move to the left 4 as the sun shifts.  I'm reading "Outlive" on this vacation -- not sure when I'll actually get around to finishing it once we go back to California, but at least for now, doing a lot of learning about all the ways we are slowly and fastly dying.  If nothing else, it is a fairly effective way to avoid getting too lazy and overeating on vacation! I am making my 10,000+ steps each day at least!

We technically had booked a snorkel/boating adventure for the day but I cancelled it a few days before we left for the vacation.  With only 4 days/3 nights, it seemed like a bit too much. I can say now that was a great call.  With age, I am really embracing "slower" travel. 

So today's big highlight was the trip out to Vista Paraiso for a sunset horseback ride. Punta Mita has had a few really lovely sunsets.

Pretty nice family shot!

Some solo action shots for the crew:

The twins were particularly happy with this excursion because of how exciting the ride was allowed to be (ie, they let everyone get up to a trot whenever we felt like it...which meant the twins were trotting a LOT) and they even took us on controlled cantors at the end!

(I may have put the video on time lapse mode by mistake...but doesn't she look like she's speeding?!? I know we only did it for a few seconds, but have to say that cantor-ing hurts a lot less than trotting...)

Punta Mita - Day 2: Games & Turtles!

The one thing I really appreciate about vacations these days -- the sleep. I somehow never manage to crack even 7 hours of sleep at home, but on vacation, I routinely make it to 8 hours. I can't tell if that's because there's less distractions, or just the psychology of being on vacation, but it's so refreshing.  

Today the only item on our agenda wasn't until 6:30PM, so after a very late breakfast (buffet gets decent marks, not as amazing as some of the other places we've stayed in Mexico, but had a fresh fruit smoothie bar, a quesadilla station, and very soft breads and pastries), we explored the hotel game room. Surprisingly well-laid out -- Ian and I played a couple games of shuffleboard and pool while the twins explored the video game corner - there was some racing game and some fashion runway game that appeared to be very enthralling. 

And then it was back to the pool! Today we decided to give the water slide in the kids pool a whirl. Not exactly water park level, but impressive for a hotel pool. Ian and I both went down it several more times than we expected to. The twins also declared this pool the fanciest one we've been to because of the family infinity pool. I guess normally those are reserved for the adult pools? Or (more likely), we normally pack our vacations with so many activities that we don't actually hang out at the pool much.

One thing we noticed today, the resort seems to have a few resident hawks that it deploys every morning to keep the seagulls away from the property. It was pretty neat watching them get so close to us while they were doing their rounds up in the sky. This is the second time I've heard of a resort having hawks around to keep other scavenger-type birds away from guests...seems like a trend...hopefully an eco-friendly one? 

Ian would like to give the Conrad high marks for their pool margherita pizza -- it appeared to be done in a real stone oven and had fresh basil and juicy tomatoes. Okay, so it's not exactly authentic Mexican cuisine...but the twins concurred that it hit the spot after exerting all those calories lying around on lounge chairs. 

The real highlight of the day though was our evening private turtle release! I could list a bunch of facts here about how the turtles all return to the place where they are released to lay eggs, or about how the survival rate of turtles is so small so conservation efforts are critical to this endangered species' survival, but honestly Google would probably do a better job of that than I would. Instead, I'll just note that it was really cool. The turtles were so tiny! And there is something really...fulfilling? peaceful? magical?...about watching these day-old turtles slowly figure out where the ocean was and make their way towards it. And watching the waves come and swallow them up and take them out into the sea. 

Stay alive turtles!