24 hours in the condo

I woke up Thursday morning with horrible allergies.  They were so bad that I left in the middle of class to
 walk to the pharmacy.  I figured that I would be back to "normal" in no time, so after class instead of heading home to rest... I went to the beach.

Swell Restaurant and Beach Bar

I have a routine and skipping out on seeing everyone at Swell seemed inexcusable! :)  Unfortunately, I hadn't considered how exhausted I was from the previous couple of weeks - Guadalajara, the 4 hour hike to Las Animas, Sayulita, entertaining a friend, and of course, all of the sun and studying.  I know, I know... rough life.  Trust me -  I am not complaining!  Sometimes, I just don't know when to rest.  Anyhow, I woke up Friday morning feeling much worse and the thought of walking up and down the stairs hit me.  I decided to go back to sleep for an hour or so, but instead woke up in time to check-in with my friends from school as they finished the school day.  The last thing that I wanted to do was miss a day of class, but apparently I needed the rest.  I spent about 36 hours in the condo and was only awake for 10 of them.  In the 10 hours that I was awake, I lacked the energy to do anything, but was also completely, and utterly bored.  It's funny how feeling sick in paradise can somehow feel much lonelier than being sick at home.

Guadalajara

              Hiking to Las Animas

 
   








By Saturday morning I was feeling much better and knew that I had to get out of the condo.  I had entirely too much time to think.  I had figured out the rest of my trip and when I would fly back to Nashville, I caught up with some great friends, researched where I would live in San Diego, and essentially planned my move from Nashville to San Diego.  Problem was, I still had a month and had a lot more fun and adventure ahead.  I decided a short walk down to Swell on Playa Los Muertos for a couple of hours would be sufficient for the day.  I should know by now that my days are never just quiet and insignificant.

Before I left the condo, Jake and Elizabeth had reached out about heading to the Botanical Gardens on

Botanical Gardens - Hall of Flowers

 Sunday - a trip that I had already done and would probably do again before I left, so I opted out, but not before inviting them to join me at Swell.  I knew Jake in passing from the Nashville entrepreneurial community and back in December, a friend suggested we chat since Jake was planning a move to PV.  I would have never guessed that I would get to know Jake and his gf, Elizabeth, in Puerto Vallarta.  Obviously, at the time that we spoke, I was planning to be in Nashville for awhile and PV was a place I loved to visit.  

Anyhow, I headed down to Swell about 2PM and per usual, all of the seats were taken.  Usually that would require sitting underneath the Palapa or waiting for a seat to come available.  However, since I have come to know everyone there (including hanging out with some of the owners), one of the guys that has become a friend, Alejandro, asked if I wanted to sit on the beach.  I said yes and followed him through all of the people sunbathing, while stopping along the way to say hello and briefly chat with the staff.  I am really trying to speak Spanish, but that means that my conversations are generally limited.  They seem to get a little better each day, but sometimes it takes me so long to think through the correctly conjugated sentence and I feel bad that all that I can get out is a brief, "How are you?"  and "What's going on?"  

Once at the edge of the ocean, and while he is setting up my lounge chair, Alejandro turns to the guy that I will now be sitting in front of and says - do you mind if we put our friend here?  The guy is an older Canadian and is a champ.  He responds to Alejandro with, "At least I know that you'll be back a good bit with her here."  I just smiled and started a conversation with him.  Might as well get to know my beach neighbors if I am going to block their view of the ocean...especially if I am by myself.  I mention to Alejandro that I am happy to move if chairs open up or if anyone joins me, but he tells me not to worry about it.  After an hour of studying, I look up and Jake and Elizabeth have found me!  Instead of moving, two more chairs were brought down.  The beach cleared out pretty early and by about 530PM, most folks had left.  Alejandro finished with work at about 5ish and joined us.

As the day was coming to a close, a vendor walked by and he seemed familiar, so I stopped him.  He was one of the guys that I was looking for.  Back in November while I was visiting, I bought a bracelet from him, but forgot to have him shorten it for me.  I had brought the bracelet back to PV and had been carrying it with me to the beach in hopes of having him fix it.  Once I explained what I wanted and took the bracelet out, he said he remembered me and immediately sat down and went to work shortening my bracelet.  We chatted the whole time and I understood most of what he was saying until Alejandro came back from a swim and they started chatting.  I caught part of the conversation, but I have some serious work to do with my Spanish!  Roberto (the vendor) was very nice and as thrilled as I am that my bracelet is the right size, I feel like I should be more surprised that I found him.  It's moments like these where I am reminded how small this city of 400,000 can be.  

The four of us (Jake, Elizabeth, Alejandro, and I) had just decided to stay for the sunset when I heard a friend's voice.  Emmy, a Portlandian originally from Sweden, that I met here in School, and her husband, Paul, had decided to walk to Swell for dinner.  Paul is in town visiting for the weekend and they are staying at Playa Los Arcos, a hotel just down the beach.  They grabbed a couple of chairs just behind us and the six of us hung out and enjoyed the amazing sunset!

Sunset from Swell: Feb 1

It's so easy to be here and everyone just seems so happy.  The days that seem to be "just another day" turn out to be those of great memories!  Randomly meeting someone new at the beach, having a great conversation in Spanish, or running into new friends makes for great fun!  I don't know if it just having so much time alone, but the clarity that I have about what is important and what I want to do next is kind of amazing to me and really exciting.  So many of the worries that I came with seem to have disappeared and I have come to realize that there really are amazing people everyone you go and that it isn't that tough to find them.  I'm thrilled that I have four more weeks of adventure in Mexico (Vallarta, Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico City) and am pretty excited about the month following!