We arrived at the front desk. Dan and me looking bleary eyed, and James asleep over my arm.
"Have you had a long flight" he asked in a very nice Mexican accent, dressed in lovely cool cream linen clothes.
"Yes" we said, "nineteen hours, not inclulding our stop over in LA."
What we didn't add was that when we arrived at Sydney airport Friday evening (Sydney time) we discovered we didn't have a "coupon" to get James on the plane. Yes we'd paid for him and yes our paperwork probably did say he was there, but they won't let infants on the plane with out a coupon. Dan called the travel agent in the US, who wasn't there due to the time differences. He did get the emergency person on call to help a little, but he was fuming by the time we walked away from the counter -about an hour later.
We had to buy James a new ticket from Sydney to Hawai'i and back. His second ticket. The travel agent said there end would have to submit for a refund. (An email from the travel agent later revealed she had indeed posted the coupons on March 10, we hadn't received them.)
So we head on through the airport. Ahhh dinner, we're hungry. What???? Where's the food court. Oh no, they're remodelling the airport. hmmmmmmmmmm. So we head through the security gate to find very little open. But it's dinner time!!!! Dan got a little pizza that had probably been left out all day. I sufficed with some of the food I was carrying in my bag - which has actually sustained nearly all of us for some part, or even all of, the last three days.
So we get on board the plane, Dan's calmed down, not much he can do now anyway. And we enter this tiny little plane. I'm thinking "is this big enough to go across all that water" but say nothing. Dan leans over after a while and says "Qantas flies these planes between Sydney and Melbourne." He assures me it will make it all the way to Hawai'i and is of the newer variety. Technically it was a 7 something 7, but my mind was too busy on the fact that they don't have infant seatbelts to remember. Yep, no infant seat belt. The hosties on Rex would be mortified. We were pretty mortified. I know he can't go through the windscreen, but, well... it just doesn't seem right. Ok so I'll hang onto him.
The crew are reasonably helpful. None of them would ever get their pictures in the company promotional material, and once we remembered you talk slowly and try and say things in American it went pretty smoothly. The food was all right, as far as an american airline goes (we flew Hawaiian by the way) and Dan hired a little dvd player thingy, of which we only managed to watch one movie before both of us were a bit too catatonic.
There were spare seats so Dan moved out of our three seater (the reservations lady was pretty nice after all the drama, she sat us up the front and gave us three seats instead of just the two) and Jamie spread out next to me. He was an absolute champion and slept pretty much the whole way to Honoloulou. He woke up at 3am because another little baby was crying but after a bottle he basically slept till we landed. Neither Dan nor I got that much sleep.
Honoloulou was a couple of hour stop over, enough to stretch our legs, and grab some crappy American airport food and drinks. Then we were off to LA on a full flight.
James played for a bit but again he slept. I had the sling with me and popped him in it - it's a long stretchy cloth one so I made it a bit like a pod for him to sleep in and he responded very well. He managed two sleeps on that 5 hour flight. Not too bad really! He flirted with all the ladies in between and demonstrated his jumping skills as well as having a game of peek-a-boo or two. They all loved him.
We arrived in LA at about 10pm LA time, but by the time we got round to the motel and checked in, had a little food and were climbing into bed it was past midnight. We got up at 6.30am and headed back to the airport.
LA to Peurto Vallerta (pronounced Porto Vayerta) was a relatively short flight and Dan and I were split across the isle. I couldn't recommend flying Air Mexicana, the staff were pretty unhelfpul and unpleasant. I sat next to an old couple who James wooed again. This time he pretty much asked to go in the sling and if it hadn't been for the meal he would have slept the whole way.
So eventually we made it. PV airport is full of people trying to sell you timeshare. We negotiated them, and the people trying to con you into tours. We found our rep and loaded into the van. Punta de Mita is about an hour from the airport. The only way I can describe the trip is by saying that it certainly didn't look a thing like paradise. It was dusty, the trees were brown and everything looked quite poor. In fact we likened it to Cairo. As you get up to the end of the point the landscape changes a little and these monstorous houses, walled in, surrounded by lush green grounds appear. Oppulance greedily feeding off the tremendous amount of poverty. Beautiful on the one hand but seeming kind of unfair on the other... anyway I digress.
So we pull into the gates, all our names are checked off before they let us in. We drive up the long and winding driveway and finally pull up in a beautiful complex. Everybody rushes to help, they're all smiles and friendliness and we don't really know what to do. We're not used to being waited on hand and foot, although I'm guessing it's coming pretty easily now a few hours later.
So David, the man at the front desk asks us about our flight and we tell him it was long... "Don't worry" he says "you're in paradise now". We nod and smile. They load our bags onto the golf cart and our driver gives us the tour of the complex. With each pool, restaurant and palm tree we pass it's starting to sink in, yes this just might be paradise.
We arrive at our room. It is beautiful. There are actually not enough supulatives to describe it. It's simple and tasteful and with a television bigger than any of ours at home. The bathroom I think out does itself and just before I discovered that the toiletaries are L'Occtaine. Nice. There is a phone in the toilet and the bathroom comes equipt with robes, scales and a vase full of rose buds.
They've set up a lovely cot for James, who is still asleep as I type this.
Dan has gone off to find his work buddies - the sms as we arrived said "Look for the Chinese lobster at the main pool". But I would imagine it won't be long till they're down here racing round our floating river on the tubes. (our complex is surrounded by this little river and has its own bar too)
So if you're not already feeling jelous then perhaps this might help.
Yep, this is my current view as I sit on the balcony (side note, a knock on my door and a lovely man just delivered a little basket for James. It has a dinosaur cookie and a drink and a few other things in it. Nice).. where was I, oh the view, yes. The pool bit is where the river swells at the start, right near the bar area. The resort goes right down to the beach and you can just see the ocean in this picture.
Now are you jealous? It's sunny and somewhere in the mid to high 20's and the only possible downer for me is that bush fires are raging in the mountain and there's a lot of smoke, which means some of my photos will be hazy. I promise to post some more photos of pools, beaches and lovely landscape as soon as possible. Just so you get the completely accurate picture of Mexcio ;o).
If you're hanging out for souveneirs from Mexico, keep hanging. This place is so nice we may not leave it for the next few days. There's a lot to do here.
PS forgive the spelling and grammar. I'm logged on through the hotel's internet facilities and all my web stuff keeps coming up in spanish. Also, there's better things to do here than chase down a dictionary, I'm sure you'll get the drift of everything!
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