Sunday, November 7, 2010

Discombobulated!

I feel like the proverbial pollo sin cabeza right now. I'm trying to wrap my head around our upcoming trip in a couple of weeks to Bucerias and Yelapa, and for the first time in a long time -- I feel like I don't know what I'm doing!

Traveling to Isla Mujeres is so easy because I know the place like the back of my hand. The Isla trips are down pat from immigration to departure. Proceed directly from the gate to immigration and customs, ignore the timeshare sharks, look for the Best Day sign outside the terminal, hop in the van, arrive at Gran Puerto and buy the ticket, jump on the ferry, enjoy the ride, disembark, go directly to the taxi line, get checked in, run to the ATM at the bank and the supermercado, and have a blast until your return flight. I realize now it's a luxury not having a single question about what we're doing and where we're headed in a foreign country! We've become total creatures of habit!

Now we're off to someplace new. I've read some of the message boards, but have been reluctant to dive in and ask questions. I guess I'd better get busy! It's the logistics of getting from one place to the other that have me in a quandry. Bus or taxi? Which dock and what water taxi to Yelapa? Maybe we'll just throw caution to the wind and fly by the seat of our pants! I guess that's what makes a trip an adventure.

Speaking of adventures, I'm just hoping this trip doesn't resemble in any way our last trip to the Pacific side of Mexico! I've taken great pains to make sure it doesn't! I guess I should explain a bit if you're new to my blog. Craig briefly worked for the mom and pop from hell and they took their employees on an award trip (from hell). We were spoiled, having been on many of those beautiful trips with Hallmark Cards in the past where we stayed at 5 stars and lived in the lap of luxury.

The mom and pop award trip was the opposite. Fisherman's hotel with no hot water. Craig and I still laugh about that Cabo San Lucas trip. I think he wasn't laughing at the time because he was absolutely miserable being around his dysfunctional boss. Believe me, after meeting her on that trip, I don't know how he managed to endure a year and a half working for her. She was a true original. How I wish I had a photo of her and her mottled mullet hairdo in that helmet on the ATV's. If only I'd known he was going to resign a few weeks later, I wouldn't have bothered trying to fit in, nor would I have hurled myself down all those ziplines in that river canyon. Craig actually enjoyed the ziplines and ATV part, but the entire thing was kind of a fiasco, including the hotel room with no hot water and truly the hardest bed I've EVER slept on in Mexico, and the four days of consuming the worst food I've ever eaten in Mexico. (I'm excluding Pancho's where we ate on our own time.)

Here are the links lest anyone has forgotten THAT adventure! Survivor Extreme Cabo II. If you're really bored, here's the lead up to that installment -- Cabo Survivor Part I.

Craig and Michael are doing some father/son bonding over golf today. I still have a strange hankering for lemon cake! Hmmmm. Wonder if Starbucks has a slice?

11 comments:

Chrissy y Keith said...

you will find the PV airport/customs and immigration a breeze. Only watch for last minute gate changes on departure.
Not sure on the Yelapa ferry, I would guess PV local will be able to guide you through that.

Chrissy y Keith said...

in fact if you are just doing a carry on, I have gotten off the plane and been outside in the car within 10 minutes.

Life's a Beach! said...

Thanks Chrissy. I'm betting a taxi is the easiest way to get to Bucerias, and I think you purchase tickets for that inside the airport? The last few times we've been through Cancun, it's taken us an hour to get out of the airport. Customs and immigration have been slow!

Ann said...

Any trip will have to be better than the Cabo trip from hell! Can't wait to hear all about it!

jeanie said...

I can't wait to hear about your new trip! You've already got me very interested with the tidbits you shared during the planning. I know you will tell it like it really is and take great photos.

LMAO I clicked on your links for the
Cabo nightmare and relived the whole thing. I'm also laughing at the comments on those posts. WOW it seems like a long time ago.

Katalina said...

If you take a bus from Bucerias to El Centro in PV, then you can take a taxi to Playa los Muertos Pier, from which water taxis leave approximately every hour from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm. DO NOT buy a round trip ticket! In fact, try not to buy a ticket at all and just pay the boat captain when you get to Yelapa. One way costs 100 pesos. OR you can take a bus (7 pesos) from the corner of Basillo Badillo and Insurgentes to Boca de Tomatlan, where it only costs 50 pesos one way. Boats leave around the same time schedule. And I do mean around!

Chrissy y Keith said...

Taxi at PVR, well, I have never taken one from there. We have always been picked up by friends. I would suppose you do purchase the ticket indoors. Just after you pass customs. You go though the doors into"The Gantlat" lots of time share salespeople and they will slow you down. Just keep moving past them through the sliding glass doors. Once you get a cab, which should just take one moment you will be in Bucerios within 20 minutes. Its a short ride. I refer to it as a "one beer drive"

Life's a Beach! said...

Chrissy, I'm hoping for a one beer ride. With the one side of the bridge out and us arriving at 5:00 p.m. -- who knows!

Katalina, thanks for the info. We're debating Los Muertos and Boca de Tomatlan. As I understand it, the Los Muertos pier is now under construction and you have to board from the beach. Not to mention the rabid roundtrip ticket-sellers. Boca's a shorter trip on water, so it's a toss up. I need to tell the Yelapa house owners a time in advance so I can have the caretaker meet us at the pier. Decisions decisions. I just need to set a time and then we'll figure it out!

Jeanie and Ann, I know it will be heaven compared to Cabo. At least that trip gave me one more life story! Some day we should probably go back so we can experience the positive side, but somehow, Cabo just doesn't even sound attractive anymore. I did see an HHI episode with a young couple buying a house in Cabo last week and the prices were damn good compared to Isla! I was shocked!

Moongrl722 said...

I'm fairly sure that there is no ferry, but only a long zip line that is just a couple of feet over shark infested waters. Just sayin...

Jane ;-) said...

Good grief! I would have quit the Tarzan movie, or pretended I was dead if anyone said I HAD to go on THAT zipline! And now you're thinking about taking a ferry from a pier that's named for the dead? Oh good. (BTW, in this case, I don't recommend that you lie on the ground waiting for someone to find you.)

Life's a Beach! said...

Jane and Jana -- LOL! Jana, no ferry! Just smaller pangas that leave from the pier of the dead. Yelapa and the trip there should definitely be an experience! Can't wait to visit a destination with paths instead of streets.