Tell me about your flight!

I'm on the Alaska flight on the 16th.  What flight are you on?  Let me hook you up with other happy party goers so you can share a cab from the airport into PV

Sueños Casita Available!

Casa Neo has a king-size canopy bed and 2 day beds, a kitchenette, and a bathroom open to the tree-tops.   Muy romantico!

See the next previous blog post for contact info.

Casa de los Sueños has a casita available

Some friends who had booked Casa Neo had to cancel b/c of work (damn you Steve Jobs!).
Do you need a beautiful casita that sleeps up to 4 people? w/ our discount it's only $80/night.  Deal!

 If you want it e-mail Shannon  ASAP, and please let me know too. 

Puerto Vallarta to Yelapa Water Taxi Schedule

This is the current schedule of the water taxis that will take you from Puerto Vallarta to Yelapa.  It looks like the last boat leaves at 6:00 PM.  Your flight will arrive at 2 or 3PM, and it may take you an hour to get through customs if it's busy.  Hopefully they will get you through faster.  After you exit the customs room, you emerge into a wide room lined with booths and filled with people trying to get you in their vehicles or time share offices.  Glide through this little bit of chaos like you know where you're going and turn right at the end of this room BEFORE you exit the building.  This will take you to the part of the terminal that has bank ATMs where you can get pesos. ($1 = roughly 12 pesos.)  Don't over-peso.  Many of the places you go will take dollars, and you can't spend those pesos in San Francisco. 

After you're feeling flush, make a bee-line to any exit.  There will be taxis there and all will be happy to take you to the Los Muertos Pier for about $25.  The ride will take about 20 minutes.  

When you get to the pier, buy a round-trip water taxi ticket at the ticket office (it's a bit cheaper than 2 one-ways). If you have an hour to blow in PV, check your bag at the Marisol hotel (for a tip, no per-bag charge) and wander the neighborhood.  The street that leads down to the pier is Calle Francisco Rodriguez.  If you head up C. FR to C. Olas Allas or Pino Suarez, turning left will get you into a neighborhood with tons of restaurants, cafes, bars, art galleries, souvenir shops, liquor stores, pretty much everything.  If you walk north on the Malecon, you'll find restaurants, bars, and hotels, beach vendors (mmmm..BBQ squid on a stick!) and lots of sun-burnt, drunk American people. If you head south on the Malecon you'll find about the same thing, but more drunk, sun-burnt American gay people.

Just don't miss your boat, and enjoy the beautiful ride to Yelapa!

Time	Location	Boat Name	Boat Type	Comments
9:30 a.m.	Marina Vallarta	Princesa Yelapa	Tour Boat	With stops
9:30 a.m.	Marina Vallarta	Carey	Water Taxi	Sometimes leaves at 10:00 from Los Muertos Pier
9:30 a.m.	Los Muertos Pier	Yelapa Water Taxi Co-op	Water Taxi	With stops
11:00 a.m.	Los Muertos Pier	Yelapa Water Taxi Co-op	Water Taxi	With stops
11:30 a.m. Except Sundays	Hotel Rosita beach	La Güera	Water Taxi	Leaves at 11:35 from Los Muertos Pier
12:30 p.m.	Los Muertos Pier	Yelapa Water Taxi Co-op	Water Taxi	With stops
1:30 p.m.	Los Muertos Pier	Yelapa Water Taxi Co-op	Water Taxi	With stops
3:30 p.m.	Los Muertos Pier	Yelapa Water Taxi Co-op	Water Taxi	With stops
4:30 p.m.	Los Muertos Pier	Yelapa Water Taxi Co-op	Water Taxi	With stops
5:00 p.m. Not Running	Los Muertos Pier	Yelapa Water Taxi Co-op	Water Taxi	With stops
6:00 p.m. Except Sundays	Los Muertos Pier	Prieta Linda	Water Taxi	With stops

Just a few more seats on Alaska on Sunday!

This just in from a guest!  Reserve your flight now. I'll be so sad if you can't make it down.

Alaska Air

United

Other airlines fly via Denver, LA, or Houston.  Don't go via Chicago.  

GOLD is available flights on UAL for 35,000 Miles, or 20,000 + $170. There are just a few remaining seats!
WHITE has seats available for 70,000 miles. There are no non-stop UAL flights on Sunday the 20th.
This screenshot is from 1/21/2011.

Flights are booking up!

I just reserved a flight on Alaska Air non-stop from SFO to PVR for $437 inclusive.

For the same dates, United was $500.  

Sorry, but I was not able to get group discount numbers b/c of blackout dates. The following week is Spring Break for some schools, so I doubt that prices will go lower, and flights will get fully booked.  Hopefully, most of the Spring Breakers will stay in Puerto Vallarta. 

THE FLIGHTS ARE GETTING CLOSE TO FULL !  

especially on the 16th and 17th.

 

 

 Casa de los Arboles.  Treehouse.  

Casa de los Arboles

http://www.palapainyelapa.com/pages/arboles.html
I inquired about availability.  The owner wrote me back and said it was available for $175 a night, and sleeps 6-7.  The ad says 12.  Whatever, it looks pretty cool.  Send me a note if you're interested in forming a rental posse and I'll connect you.

 Here's my photoshopped google map that shows a few locations and the scale. 

Another view of the bay.  

 Yelapa Oasis-this is the main restaurant-bar area where we will be gathering on the 17th for dinner, intros, and a surprise sing and dance along movie.

It's Shannon!  She's the Goddess of Suenos and one of the nicest people alive.  Canadians!

Casa de los Sueños is full!

Yes it is! But frett not!  Birthday Partricians have been booking rooms at Yelapa Oasis (right across the footpath), Hotel Lagunita, and a couple other undisclosed locations.  I have inquiries at Los Naranjos and Casa Arboles to check for availability.  Both are 5-10 minute walks from Casa de los Sueños, and have that Yalapa rustic charm.  Los Naranjos is a beautiful jungle garden with 3-4 casitas of varying sizes set at the top of the property at the edge of the jungle, so some of the rooms feel like tree houses. 

Arboles is a big palapa that sleeps six and is very centrally located.

Do feel free to come hang at Sueños anytime, especially at the daily 5pm hora feliz.  

I made a photo map showing some of the spots of interest, and the general scale of the village and the bay.  The three blue circles are places that you can get off the water taxi.  If you're at Sueños, I'd recommend the town pier, but the main beach is also close, but you'll have to wade from the boat to the shore, and then wade across the (shallow, clean) river to get to both Sueños & Oasis. 

There's much that's not on the map: good restaurants and cafes in the village, hikes to 2 waterfalls, snorkeling spots along the sides of the bay, and hikes in the hills, but be sure and leave time to unwind on the beach chaise under a palapa or umbrella with friends and a good book.  

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

People have been asking about money.  Many of the restaurants will take dollars, but you'll probably get a bit less than the standard exchange rate (12pesos=$1 in December).  There are Mexican Bank ATMs at the PVR airport that will give you the best rates, but you'll pay a fee for the  ATM use, so taking out larger amounts is more economical than smaller.   There are no  ATMs in Yelapa.  There is a Cambio with not the best rates in the world, but it's there at least.

Be sure you know how you're paying for your lodgings and bring enough cash if that's what they take.  A few of the places like Sueños & Lagunitas will take visa/mastercard.  Oasis takes PayPal for deposits or full payments in advance.  Others will accept dollars or pesos.  How much to bring?  for your basic 3 meal day, it would be hard to spend more than $40.  Of course those margaritas can add up at $3-5 each, cerveza is less and prices vary.  If you want to go fishing, take a boat to go snorkeling, or a spur-of-the-moment parasail, you'll need more cash, but I would imagine that they would take dollars as well as pesos.  The water taxi will take pesos or dollars and costs $10-12 each way.  I think you will save a few dollars if you buy a round trip ticket at Los Muertos Pier in Puerto Vallarta.  

Someone told me today that United had raised their fares, but Alaska had dropped theirs to around $400.  Those are the only airlines that I know of that fly non-stop from SFO.  I think United doesn't have daily flights, and I'll re-check the availability of mileage flights poste haste.