Familia: Round one

We hadn’t seen any family from home since September. Finding a place that’s affordable, convenient to fly into, and with easy access to our boat is a challenging trifecta south of the US border, and we were looking for a certain level of comfort and ease for the grandparents. Puerto Vallarta fit the bill.

First up: grandparents from Michu’s side of the family, plus his sister Aisha and her boyfriend Taylor. We parked ourselves in Marina Vallarta, nearby their hotel, and indulged in some marina living.

Having spent so much time in Chiapas, we’ve been feeling a little overwhelmed by the number of gringos in PV. The weather is lovely, the pool is fun, the beach is beautiful, the bay is full of whales; but it’s maybe not the best place to work on your Spanish or find authentic Mexican food. We were continually exhorted to “Relax, you’re on vacation!” But…we’re not on vacation. This is just our life at the moment; we still have to chip away at school, go grocery shopping, and do the occasional boat project. Balancing the vacation atmosphere and our regular, quotidian needs is a challenge. Still, with enough Negro Modelos, I think we can pull it off.

And it was great to see familiar faces. Our break with regular boat life has been working against me in a few areas, and documentation is one of them; I failed to get any good pics of the grandparents. So hard to pull out the big camera, when you’re sipping the fruity umbrella drink! But I did manage to assemble a little evidence of our first week in Banderas Bay.

Two more sets of family yet to roll in, before we return to our regularly scheduled cruising program. My guess: lots of ice cream, not so much on the math homework.