Hola... Buenos Dias!

Our flight from DFW in Texas down to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico went quite well (thank you, Celeste, for taking us to the airport).  I believe I said in my last post that I was making my list and checking it twice.  One thing on that list was to call the credit card companies that we use as well as the ATM bank card we use (debit our checking).  I gave all those places our agenda....  there's just nothing like having your credit card cancelled for suspicious fraud activity.

I didn't mention that we tried our card at an ATM in Granbury...  making sure it worked.  Bill's worked just fine...  mine was rejected.  (this was AFTER my phone call to the bank with their assurance that all was well.)   I called the bank while we were still at the ATM...  I was informed that that the bank had cancelled that card in October due to inactivity.  I told the bank person about my prior phone call...  yada yada yada....  she said they'd FedEx a new card to me and I should receive it on Friday.  Well....  Friday came and went...  Saturday and Sunday....  yesterday we flew out of the USA.... no ATM card for me, but Bill's is working okay.   

At the PV airport we head to the rental car agency upon landing.  Get all the paperwork done and Bill hands them his Discover card.  You guessed it...  got refused.  There is an international phone number and I got right on it (courtesy of the car rental co's phone) and got thru to Discover.  Yes, ma'am... there seemed to be some suspicious activity on your card and it's been suspended.  WHAT!!!  I was furious...  I'd called them well in advance giving them an itinerary.... and right from the git-go there's a problem.  They reinstated our card and we did charge the car rental fee to Discover, but thank goodness we have our Capital One Visa as a backup.  Or...  in this case, probably the main card we'll use.

We did use the bank debit card at the airport to get pesos, (rate of exchange is pretty good right now, but you get a better rate if you don't use an exchange booth.  Anyway....  by this time I was frazzled and Bill drove us up to Lo de Marcus, stopping at a MegaMart (much like a super Wal-Mart) along the way.

Bill...  getting into the Nissan March....

We decided to rent a car for 24 hours...  just to get our luggage to our bungalow and do some shopping for groceries before arriving.  (We'll use a bus or other public transportation most of the time)

I love grocery shopping in Mexico...

Always interesting things to buy...  some I'm not even sure what they are.

I would love to have bought some of the shrimp and octopus, but we weren't sure what our new abode would have for refrigeration etc, so we held off and just bought some staples.

All the cashiers were dressed for Christmas...  and...  see the cash register in the lower right?

I'd probably fall over in a dead faint if we were back in Texas....  

But actually, our groceries cost about $70 US dollars.  It's kind of fun to get money from the ATM in pesos and get your bank balance...  heck, makes a person feel like a millionaire seeing their bank account in pesos!

We drove the (maybe/about) 30 miles north on Rt 200 from Puerto Vallarta to the tiny town of Lo de Marcus.  While pretty much hugging the coast, you really never see the Pacific Ocean unless you turn off into one of the towns along the way.  We'd driven this road in our motor home in the past...  even found a geocache in Buceria...  but truthfully, nothing really looked familiar.

We found the rental agent's office and he had us follow him down to the bungalow.

Now...  we knew we were on the 2nd floor, so we didn't expect it to be a bungalow by US standards.  Any of you who have traveled with us in the past know that what they show you in the photos on the internet aren't always what you get.   And I always remind myself that I'm now in a 3rd world country and "standards" aren't always the same.  Of course I'll write later about the bungalow....  that's kind of a whole story in itself.

Even though we'd bought groceries, we decided to find a restaurant in town for our first dinner in Lo de Marcus.  Lots of places to choose from, but we came to Mr. Tony's and that's where we ate.  We each had a couple of shrimp and fish tacos... which came with tortilla chips and tasty guacamole, as well as a tasty many-layered cake desert.  And, of course, we had to have a Mexican beer...  Pacifico.... to celebrate our latest adventure.

We're still getting settled...  we were supposed to have an apartment on the 2nd floor but they put us in one on the first.  We really would prefer the 2nd floor so today we'll move all our stuff up the steps to our new abode.  But...  I remind myself...  this is Mexico...  Manana does not really mean tomorrow...  it really means "not today".

But whatever...  we are usually quite flexible as well as being low-maintenance...  so...  we'll see what happens manana....

That's All For Today!