Chapter 5 - Robbery, Friends and Family Visits, New Friends, and Beaches

Hi again -

When we last left off, we were leaving the all-inclusive Riu Vallarta in Nuevo Vallarta and headed to Bucerias.

Bucerias is located about 45 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta.

Vacation was over...real life in Mexico begins.

On January 5, 2022, we checked into our first of many AirBnb's; the Casa Ayoli. We planned to stay there for four weeks. We quickly discovered all AirBnb's have their pros and cons, which I will share for all our stays.

😀 The pros of Casa Ayoli:

2 bedroom, 2 bathroom
located just outside of Centro Bucerias
great host
pretty roomy
well appointed kitchen
beautiful sunsets could be seen from the patio

😞 The cons of Casa Ayoli:

super small bathrooms
located next to Hwy 200 so we heard super loud traffic and smelled heavy exhaust fumes
located on a cobblestone street on a super steep hill
spoiler alert.....we got robbed...details below 😨😩😫😮😯😠😟😢

Our 4Runner barely fit in the parking spot, so we parked the scooter and bikes at the host's house a few block away.

We saw beautiful sunsets after a short walk up the hill.

We found laundry service (lavendaria) pretty quickly after asking around. Generally $5 USD for 12 lbs. of laundry. When you pick it up the next day it's perfectly folded and sealed in a clear plastic bag. I could really get use to laundry service every week.

When getting Mexican pesos, we chose the ATM's at BanNorte bank because the Capital One debit card has no international withdrawl fee. We typically withdrew $9,000 pesos; $450 USD. It was super easy to locate BanNorte on Google Maps.

On January 8, Corp decided it was time for a hair cut. At the first barber shop, a 13 year old (with no English skills) who had an attitude and addiction to his cell photo started his hair cut. He insisted Corp pick the clipper length attachment for a clipper cut. Corp wanted a scissor cut. Multiple people were involved to translate his request. In the end, they offered a clipper cut for free, but Corp wasn't having it so he paid and walked out with half a haircut. Bottom clipper cut, top not cut at all. He went to a second barber shop and was told there was a 45 minute wait. After two people budded in front of him he left there. Still with half a haircut. It was several weeks before he attempted another haircut. This time in Puerto Vallarta with a woman who spoke perfect English and gave him the scissor cut he wanted. We understand we are in a Spanish speaking country and should know some Spanish, but we don't yet. Communication was so much harder then we expected. Thank goodness for Google Translate. We used it many times to make communication easier.

In the early morning of January 9, I awoke to an open front door and side window. I quickly realized we were robbed during the night while we were sleeping. 😢

We called the host right away and the police arrived pretty quickly. They demonstrated how the robbers get in this particular horizontal crank out window. They put their fingers under the bottom phalange, pull until the lock breaks, and then reach their hand in and unlock the door.

They filled out a police report with all the things that were taken;
Corp's wallet with $30 USD, 3 purses, Bose headphones, and large toolbox.
We estimate about a $1,000 USD loss.

Thankfully, they didn't get our passports. We learned years ago to separate our money and credit cards when traveling. We cancelled Corp's credit and debit cards right away. My cards were hidden for safe keeping so we could use those until our replacements arrived.

The host was unable to fix the window by the next night, so we were very worried they would return to steal more.

Corp demonstrating his robbery proofing skills.
He stayed up all night in case they returned.

On January 10, we cancelled our reservation at Casa Yoli and moved to the Bungalows Arroyo. We did drive by the Casa a few weeks later and the host installed bars on the window as they said they would. It made us feel good that future stays will be safer.

Given the robbery circumstances, we requested a refund for the nights we did not stay at Casa Yoli. First of all, AirBnb makes it difficult to find a customer service phone number. In case I ever need it again, it's 1.855.424.7262 (available 24 hours). After we made the initial request, we had lots of messages back and forth between the host and "Larry" at AirBnb. "Larry" had a lot of requests; copy of police report, copy of most recent ATM withdrawl, and receipts for stolen items (most of which came from Amazon so lots of screen shots of the receipts). When they wanted pics of us with the items stolen I told "Larry" that was going to far. Who has a photo of them using a tool box or wearing a purse or Bose headphones? I was frustrated and felt like a dog with a bone. I did not give up. I told him I didn't have photos, his request was unreasonable, and there was no reason we didn't qualify for the $500 replacement cost offer.

On January 18, we were shocked to hear we got a full refund and maximum $500 in replacement costs. AirBnb was in our favor again.

Corp found the Bungalows Arroyo by walking around in the Golden Zone and sharing our robbery story with a few ladies he saw at the pool. They said one unit was available. We promptly booked on AirBnb. We should have booked through the hotel directly so we wouldn't have paid AirBnb's service fee. Lesson learned. If you can check out a place first, do that before booking.

The residents at "the home" (as the people who stayed there called the place) were all from Canada and the U.S and were just what we needed considering we were pretty upset after the robbery. We bounced back pretty quickly with all their smiling faces and warm welcomes.

😀 The pros of the Bungalows:

great sense of community
daily happy hours
great location
well appointed kitchen
great view of the pool from the front bedroom and great view of the tier housing from the back bedroom.

😞 The cons of the Bungalows:

only one bathroom
barking dogs all times of the night (we called the dogs across the street Zeus and Apollo from the 1980's Magnum PI tv show)
no air conditioning
tv didn't work.

Daily happy hours were a hit.

Over the course of three weeks, they shared a ton of info about Bucerias and other places to visit along the Pacific coast of Mexico. The lady staying below us, Kathy from Vancouver, B.C., became affectionately known as our Mexico mom after her daughter Riley left. The Bungalows location was perfect for beach days and nights hanging by the beach and listening to waves.

Bathroom at the Bungalows Arroyo.
I have never seen a bathroom that had a garden in the shower.
Only in Mexico!

On January 11, we tortured ourselves and climbed to the top of Monkeyhead Mountain (Cerra Del Ono). Took us 70 minutes to hike two miles to the top. My watch said we climbed 80 floors by the end. By far our hardest hike so far. It was totally worth it when we got to the top. Many of the locals had pants and long sleeve shirts on. They hiked up with 12 packs of beer and guitars. I could hardly get myself to the top. We were drenched with sweat. When Siri on my watch said you have gone 1 mile both Corp and I yelled expletives at Siri.

Just starting the hike. Little did we know what we were getting into.

Still smiling!

We couldn't believe there were two little dogs jumping the
huge boulders at the top with a sheer cliff on the side.

At the top....say cheese!

Met some cattle along the way...they had pretty big horns!

Awesome view from the top of Monkeyhead.

Another favorite photo from the mountain top.

My favorite pic from the mountain top!

We never realized hiking was so dirty.

On January 14, we visited Playa Destiladeras, which is located about 15 minutes south of Bucerias. It was a big wide walkable beach with few people. We brought our own beach chairs and cooler and enjoyed a nice relaxing beach day.

Playa Destiladeras

Corp playing in the waves.

On January 14, we also visited Playa Punta de Mita, about 15 minutes north of Bucerias. Nothing special about the beach town, but we had to cross this crazy rickety bridge to get to the beach.

On January 15, we were super excited our friends Ryan and Tammy arrived for a one week visit. The first night we loved sitting on the beach at night catching up and listening to music and the crashing waves.

On January 16, we had a beach day at Mar Y Sol restaurant. We got free front row beach loungers since we ordered drinks/food. We discovered their mango margaritas and shrimp ceviche were delicious and enjoyed both several times during our one month stay in Bucerias!

On January 17, we went to Sayulita for Ryan's birthday. It's a great beach town about 30 minutes from Bucerias. Sayulita has a younger surf vibe, which is a very different vibe then Bucerias. We rented beach chairs and enjoyed a fun beach day with drinks and birthday donut for Ryan.

Singing Happy Birthday to Ryan.

Corp made a new friend at the beach.

We drank margaritas as big as your head!

Ryan loving the margaritas!

That evening we went to Jax for some live music and dancing.

On January 19, we went to Guayabitos, Lo De Marcos ,and San Pancho; all beach towns within an hour of Bucerias. Bucerias is a great location if you want to go to a lot of different types of beaches in one day.

Guayabitos is a lively little beach town with lots of small hotels on the beach. We didn't see any mega all-inclusive resorts. Definitely a local holiday/weekend hot spot. We saw very few Americans or Canadians there during our three visits.

Lo De Marcos is a quiet little beach town with only three bars on the beach. Very few people.

At Lo De Marcos, we saw our first "dog fish" on the beach.

I was intrigued by the lone house on the hill.

Time for beach drinks!
I tried the Mexican drink called a michelada....
tomato juice and clamato juice...didn't care for it.

Lo De Marcos beach.

I'm not sure what he is doing with this horse,

but it felt like he was training him like in the Black Beauty movie.

San Pancho is a really colorful beach town with lots of green foliage; more so than any other place we have been so far. We visited Mexico during the dry season and the areas we visited were much drier than we expected. We thought the environment would be more tropical and lush.

On January 21, we took a day trip to Puerto Vallarta. As always, a walk on the Malecon has tons of photo opportunities.

We had a delicious breakfast at Cafe Olla. They had a ton of great signs in the lady's bathroom that I found very inspiring!

We found a great place to get a pic of the 4Runner with festive Mexican flags in the background.

Last fun beach day with Ryan and Tammy. We were right across the street from the Bungalows.

On January 23, Ryan and Tammy left and Corp's cousin Brady and girlfriend Taylor came to visit for a week. It was Taylor's first trip to Mexico so we were excited to show them everything we had discovered so far.

Before picking them up at the airport, we discovered Corp's money clip was found on the road in front of the Bungalows. We thought it was at the restaurant on the corner. Turns out it wasn't and the owner was not happy when Corp questioned why it wasn't there when we were told it was. Long story short....a couple from Iowa found it on the street and returned it to us after posting on the "Bucerias Everything You Need To Know" Facebook page. We were the talk of "the home" that day.

On January 24, we took Brady and Taylor to Playa Destiladeras.

Brady and I had fun looking for snail trails on the beach.

Snails are about he size of a nickel.

Corp and Taylor were talking about their love of doughnuts and all of a sudden a vendor selling doughnuts appeared on the beach.

The homemade cream filled doughnuts were awesome!
This was the first of many doughnuts we ate over the next week.

While enjoying drinks on the beach to saw whales breaching. I think that was a first for Brady and Taylor.

Brady and Taylor enjoying their first beach drinks.

While walking in Centro Bucerias one night, Brady was walking too close to a parked car and knocked off the driver's side mirror that was barely attached to the car. Looked like it probably happened before with the way it was attached to the car.

On January 25, we had another beach day at Mar Y Sol restaurant. This time with Brady and Taylor.

Brady had enough sun and turned into a beach towel mummy.

On January 26, it was Puerto Vallarta day; Malecon and Zona Romantica in the morning and Wild Trek Adventures Razor Tour in the afternoon.

Group pic!

We all loved the Razor Tour in the Sierra Madre Mountains. While Brady was driving cow poop splashed up on us...yuck! He drove through a huge puddle at the end and we were soaked.

I love the pic we bought!

We went to a little restaurant midway in the tour that was on the Cuale River. We even saw a cowboy riding a horse across the river.

On January 27, we took Brady and Taylor to Sayulita where we ate more beach doughnuts and discovered Brady's love of tuba music.

There was a small band playing Mexican music at a table nearby and we listened to tuba for over two hours. Brady was not amused.

Couldn't resist taking a pic of this woman. Would love to know her story!
She looks like she lives life to the fullest....
the sun glasses, 40 oz. beer, and her vibe were super unique.

More fun beach pics at Sayulita.

At Jax Nightclub that night, we ran into Oscar Montenegro, a local we met in Bucerias 5 years earlier. At the time, he gave us a tour of the marina in La Paz and took us to a great lunch spot. It was great seeing him again. I can't believe I didn't get a pic of the three of us.

On January 28, we took Brady and Taylor to San Pedro, Lo De Marcos, and Guayabitos.

We decided to drive down the beach road in Lo De Marcos and discovered Playa Los Venados. Corp saw a Jeep on the beach so he couldn't resist driving the 4Runner on the beach too.

He didn't drive to far on the beach because he didn't want to get stuck!

When leaving San Pancho, we saw a doughnut vendor walking down the sidewalk at the end of the day.

Time for another doughnut.

On January 29, we said our goodbyes to Brady and Taylor. We enjoyed the Gecko Band at the El Chivero with our Bungalows neighbors Wayne and Karen from Pendicton, BC. That night Wayne killed a huge spider in our second bedroom.

I should have taken a photo when the spider was alive, but it was moving to fast.
After dead and curled up it was the size of a quarter. Yuck!

On January 31, we went to the thermal baths at Aqua Termales Nuevo Ixtapa. What a little gem this turned out to be. We took a long windy drive to get to this rustic place.

There were approximately 20 small pools with different temperature thermal water. Everyone gets their own pool and we couldn't jump to different pools. We stayed a few hours and enjoyed the pool and chatting with those in the pool next to us.

Along the way we saw a beautiful cemetery. I love visiting Mexican cemeteries. They are so bright and colorful. They evoke a celebration of life emotion rather than death and loss.

On the way back we came across a river (Rio Ameca) and a small waterfall. Corp couldn't resist driving the 4Runner through the waterfall.

On February 4, I flew back to Minnesota to pick up our 17 year old puppy Charlie. It was great to see family and friends during my short stay!

On February 8, I flew back to Puerto Vallarta with my mother in law Beanie and Charlie. It was his first time flying. He wasn't a fan.

Charlie waiting to board plane at MSP. Happy puppy at this point.

Charlie was not happy under the seat.
The flight attendants finally let him sit on the seat with his head out,
but he could not be outside of the carrier.
I think the flight really messed with his ears.
He was a happy camper again when we landed.

On February 8, we moved to Juan's Place (Puntarenas) in Nuevo Vallarta, which is about 15 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta.

😀 The pros of Juan's Place (we loved the place):

American style living
great unit layout
2 bedroom 2 bath
large patio
pool

😞 The cons of Juan's Place:

not many restaurants within walking distance
needed wheels to get around
about a 15 minute walk to the beach

On February 9, it was a beach day and we took Beanie to Sayulita.

Charlie settled into the beach life pretty quickly.

Great street performer.

While I was back in Minnesota, Corp discovered the Cerveceria restaurant chain. Everything on the menu is a little more than $1. It was fun ordering all sorts of different food/drinks seeing what we liked best. We loved the potato wedges (papas gaja) and shrimp ceviche the best. We visited this chain in a few different places in Mexico.

Charlie liked it too and was trying to sneak some yummies
off the table when we were taking a picture. Stinker!

On February 12, we had a fun beach day with Beanie at Playa Destiladeris.

Bought this fruit tray from a beach vendor. Very fresh and yummy!

Windy beach day so Corp fixed the sunshade with a

large branch he found on the beach.

Family pic! Bummer I cut off Charlie's nose.

On February 13, we took Beanie to the Zona Romantica in Puerto Vallarta. We couldn't resist another visit to the tile park. I just loved that place!

On February 13, we watched the Super Bowl at La Litas Burgers. Rams won. Beanie is a football fan so she enjoyed watching the game even though there were no American commercials. All in Spanish. 😞 Great burgers!