Puerto Vallarta, Mexico…what can I say, you stole a little piece of my heart. There’s so many reasons I love PV and to kick them off, I will go ahead and say that this trip saved me multiple times during the pandemic. How, you ask? Well, maybe I’m being a little dramatic, but let’s start from the beginning.

I flew out with my husband, kids, and our extended family (total of 11 of us) on March 4th 2020. The party started bright and early in the morning, when my Aunt hired a party bus to pick us up from our homes to take us to the airport. Think neon colored lights, blasting music, and a bus full of amped up people at 5am ready to GOOOO! It just got better and better from there. Yes, we all had matching Puerto Vallarta shirts on, that were custom made for the trip. Yes, I tie dyed all the girl’s & women’s sweatshirts to match. Yes, we had been anticipating this trip and all the sudden weren’t sure if we’d be able to go with the of news of COVID, this was before we could even comprehend what COVID-19 really was and how much life was going to change for everyone after. But, we made it! We landed, got through customs, and were once again greeted by another party bus full of cold Coronas to drive us to the house we booked Villa Los Arcos!

When we pulled up to the house, all you could do was gasp and pinch yourself a little. From the front door you could see straight through the house to the ocean. The entire villa was built with an open concept, but not like American open concept, this was an OPEN OPEN, like open to the elements concept. The kitchen and dinning room were located right next to the infinity pool and didn’t have any walls in the back of the house to close it in from the outside. So it has a completely uninterrupted view to the water. The house was built into the side of the cliff making you feel almost like you were on a boat when you looked out your bedroom balcony. It was great for working out, my husband and I would run up and down the stairs to the ocean and hit the gym in the house for our morning workouts. Best part though, hands down, THE FOOD! But let’s be real, I’m sure you already guessed that, knowing me!

Let’s talk food. We actually did not go out to eat a lot, I think 3 restaurants while we were there, due to the fact that our house had the most amazing chef, Carlos, and it was hard to leave his cooking and drinks flowing all day by the house manager, Alphonso (everyone at the house was AMAZING and we all became friends, Alphonso even came with us everywhere we went showing us around). I wish I had better pictures of the food, I was too busy digging in, but here are some of the dishes Carlos made us, along with Alphonso’s drinks he kept coming:

While I do not have many picture of the food & drinks we had outside of the house, here are the few I do have:

No lie, those al pastor tacos were the best tacos I’ve ever had in my life! I sometimes dream about them. They were from Sonorita and between the vibes, delicious food, and gigantic fresh drinks; it’s definitely going to be one of my first stops when I go back to PV. We also walked to Mismaloya Beach and enjoyed strawberry daiquiris and margaritas on the beach, with chips and salsa, after jet skiing around Los Arcos.

Some of the other fun activities that we did were: zip lining in the mountains, chartering a boat for 4 hours, snorkeling by the arcos, walking the Malecon Boardwalk, riding jet skis again this time at the Puerto Vallarta Pier, and visiting the local casino.

Here are a few pictures from our adventures:

We landed back in Indiana on March 9th, errrr actually March 10th early in the morning from flight delays! And we started an emergency shut down for the pandemic shortly after. So as I said in the beginning, this trip in many ways helped me get through the pandemic. The memories created, the stories we all told as we quarantined together and got a good laugh about, and just being the last trip we had before life changed in a whole new way. I’m very thankful and thank God for allowing us to have these memories. Well, anyways, I’m going to leave this video nugget right here for you…it’s my cousin having an encounter with a fake Mexican tiger and has brought us so much laughter! It could be one of those thing you needed to be there for…BUT here it is and I hope you find the humor and get a good laugh too.