Resort living

After our tiny hotel in tiny downtown Punta Mita, we migrated over to the St. Regis for the weekend. Now, we loved the first hotel we stayed at; the whole staff was helpful, friendly, and accommodating. But the St. Regis is, well, the St. Regis. We were greeted with drinks and cold towels, checked in on a couch by a fountain overlooking the ocean... and that was just the start!

Our rooms joined together and had matching ocean views, and everything from the outdoor shower to the balcony to the beds were sumptuous.

champagne "ceremony" pops the top off with a sword

The hotel had three different pools and a wide strip of soft beach, connected by a winding system of pathways that wove throughout the lushly landscaped resort (it felt like a jungle adventure!). We lounged about, eating lunch poolside. The whole time we were in Mexico, T and I kept saying, "Eat when you're hungry, sleep when you're tired. Nothing else matters." We basically threw the clock out the window and watched time fly...

On our first day at the St. Regis, there was a small "guacamole class" where we watched how to make simple, authentic, Mexican guacamole. The secret is in the simplicity (recipe to follow)... and the instructor, whose name was Tony. His constant commentary kept us all engaged, but he seemed to have it out for me and made me scoop and mash the avocados and grind salt, before mixing everything together, then tasting and serving up our (really, it was my) creation. Yes, the guacamole was absolutely yummy... :)

Look! A leaf cutter ant!

When it was finally time to leave, we bade adieu to Punta Mita, returned to Puerto Vallarta to board our plane home, and watched the Pacific, the mountains, and the food of Mexico disappear below us.
Adíos, México!

sunset on our last night

xxo, S

Punta Mita

The town where we stayed this past week is called Punta Mita, and it is about one hour west of Puerto Vallarta, on the west coast of Mexico. It's a tiny little "point" on the Bay of Flags and has quite a little scene going on.

There is a street packed with restaurants and surf shops, along with a few hotels and a small military base.

we stayed at hotel des artistes

If you go to the end of the commercial strip and make a left turn up a seemingly empty hill, you will come across Café Como No where you can grab a delicious bit to eat owned by a couple of friendly ex-pats at a very friendly price. The courtyard in the back was quiet and rustically decorated; we would have loved to sit there, but it was raining when we went. Apparently, however, the deck upstairs is the place to be.

We started with a simple yet incredibly tasty order of guacamole and chips. T got a yummy hamburger while I munched on a burrito con pollo and Indy enjoyed a large plate of fries :) The quesadillas and tacos were also very good. Everything was simple, fresh, filling, and inexpensive. It was a welcome break from the white tablecloth joints along the beach. Their limonada was also delicious and refreshing, served in a big glass goblet.

As we walked back to the hotel, the skies cleared up for a beautiful pink and purple sunset. Next time we're in the Punta Mita area, we'll be sure to come back to Café Como No - more than once!

xxo, S

NEW! Labels around the blog

You may have noticed a new list of words at the bottom of every blog post. These are "Labels" and they help to identify what each post is about. Basically, labels fall into certain categories (the most common of which you can find at the bottom of the page), making it easier to find what you want to read about.

You can also find all the posts with pictures, because "photos" is a label option. Click it to see all the posts that have pictures and quickly view my life in image form!
For the new, special posts about eating and cooking, there is "food;" if you want to find out about my sorority, there is "delta zeta;" and so on and so forth.

I hope this little addition isn't too complicated. It's just there if you want it! But it also secretly helps me stay organized ;)

xxo, S

New York scenes [photos]

Next hotel

Our next hotel in Punta Mita doesn't have free WiFi so there won't be any more posts until I get home to New York :( But then there'll be so many pictures for you to see - yay!

xxo, S

Tropical storm madness

Last night there was a huge thunderstorm with incredibly strong winds that blew through our little beach spot. We sat on our balcony facing the oncoming storm and watched as dark clouds rolled in quickly, occasionally getting lighting up blue from the lightning.

Before we knew it, the winds were whipping fabric roofs across the beach, collapsing chairs on themselves, and sending umbrellas flying (and not in the Mary Poppins sort of way)! But it was magical and thrilling and haunting to watch. In no less than twenty minutes, the sky went from sunset-dim to midnight-black, and we could only see when the lightning flashed. We listened as the waves got bigger and bigger, splashing down hard on the small strip of beach and meshing with thunder claps. The fronds on the palm tree outside our room were pushed completely to one side, doing the "hurricane lean."

Research later proved that we had experienced an outer wing of Hurricane Dora, which swept up from Acapulco; reports today informed us that Dora had reached force 5, but was thankfully out at sea. Locals said they very rarely get storms of this caliber, and were, frankly, kind of scared. Indy was not to be deterred, however: after coming outside to watch the first strikes of lighting, he went back inside, unimpressed, and watched his beloved Curious George.

First tropical storm: survived!
xxo, S

Islas Marietas

We went out on a little boat with our guide du semaine Black Bear and got to explore the two Marietas Islands. Our hotel is on the Bahia de Banderas (Bay of Flags), the second largest bay in South America, which leads out to the Pacific on the west. The two islands are at the very edge of the bay, on the boarder of ocean and bay water, and were created out of volcanic lava. Their lava foundation makes the landscape very barren looking; no trees can grow, only short grasses, because there is no soil, and the sides of the islands stick up like grey cliffs with no vegetation at all. But, the lava cooled in interesting forms, so there are a lot of caves and arches in the islands where the water pools up and sometimes “blows” out in great spurts.

On these “barren” islands, however, is a great population of blue-footed boobies, yellow-footed boobies, and frigate birds. The boobies are indigenous to only two sets of islands in the world, the other one being the famously unique Galapagos Islands. Having never seen (only read about) blue-footed boobies, I was amazed by their, uh, blue footed-ness – their feet were really blue!!! Like bright, poisonous-dart-frog blue! And the yellow-footed guys looked like their feet had been caught in a fight between a neon sign and a canary. Black Bear told us that what makes boobies unique (besides their name and outrageous “footwear”) is that they have an air bubble in their brain cavity so that they can dive from great height in the air to great depths in the ocean without any trouble (like, how scuba divers get the bends if they go between different water pressure levels too fast – wouldn’t a scuba diver love to have a brain bubble!). Black Bear also told us that frigate birds have very short legs and very long wings. Their odd proportions make them unable to jump, so they cannot go somewhere very low or they will not be able to get high enough to fly again, especially if they don’t have room to spread their enormous wings.

The Marietas Islands are, as you can imagine, a protected area for all of this wildly special bird activity. Scientists set up research stations and you could even see the communications tower and tent they set up on one of the islands.

We were lucky enough to go snorkeling around the smaller island and saw some pretty amazing fish. The water was so warm, you didn’t even notice it so, all you had to focus on were the colourful life forms floating in the clear blue water around you. Black Bear even dove down and found a little lobster guy and a small oyster to show us. Him and his nephew (who also came for the ride, along with their dog, Neptuno) can hold their breath for a really long time!

Then, it was finally time to say farewell to blue feet, orange fish, and turquoise water. We headed home and spent the rest of the day by the pool.

I guess the only other time I'm going to see blue- and yellow-footed boobies will be in the Galapagos... adventure here I come!

xxo, S

Summer books 2011

Last night I finished reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It's a wonderful story that centers around the prejudice that was very much prevalent in 1960s Mississippi. Told from the point of view of three different women, it is fast paced, touching, and innovative. Not many people wrote about such controversy back then, not many people write about it now. I remember learning in high school that the U.S. has an unusually long legacy of slavery and race issues which has had an effect on our country even through today.

A lot of critics have compared The Help to Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird, which is an old favourite of mine. I think that is a fair comparison because it tackles race issues from a somewhat naive perspective. But I think that the messages in each book are a little different, which is good because you wouldn't want to read the same book ;) I highly recommend this book to EVERYONE!

Also this summer, I've read:

One Day, David Nicholls

Tinkers, Paul Harding

Away, Amy Bloom

and I'm working on:

The Nanny Diaries, McLaughlin & Kraus

xxo, S