“The world is a book and those who do not travel only read one page.” - St. Augustine
This quote from St. Augustine melds two of my favorite things - reading and travel. When we travel, whether an hour from home or across the world, we learn new things about other places and, most importantly, about ourselves. Each year, my husband and I talk about places we would like to visit and take our girls, ages 7 and 4. We keep the budget in mind and then plan. Sometimes our plans work and we are able to visit many places, other times, life happens and we don’t. Usually we do trips as a family, but sometimes my husband and I will do a trip with just the two of us. Other times, work opportunities send us on solo journeys or with co-workers where we can then share our experience with the family through photos, videos and FaceTime chats.
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In July, I had a chance to travel with 45 other Macaroni Kid publishers to a place I’ve never been before - the west coast of Mexico. We landed in Puerto Vallarta and took a 30 minute shuttle drive to a coastal area called Riviera Nayarit. This area is full of resorts, a gorgeous beach and cute towns full of shops and restaurants. We stayed at the Reflect Krystal Grand Nuevo Vallarta resort. Our room was on the top floor and we had the most beautiful view from our balcony. We could see the resort’s 3 swimming pools (one is for adults only and one is an infinity pool, which was a fun feature), its 2 restaurants and more. There is a 4th pool on the rooftop. One aspect that I really liked about this resort is how it it’s all-inclusive, which means your daily price includes food, beverages and entertainment. Each night, there is entertainment, such as musical or dance acts.
I have to admit though - my favorite entertainment? The iguanas we kept seeing by the pools! They were huge! My daughters loved the pictures I sent of the iguana. In fact, they want to go so they can see the iguana for themselves!
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While it was really nice to relax by the pool or beach, my favorite part of this trip took place when we stepped onto the grounds of Vallarta Adventures. They definitely live up to this name! Vallarta Adventures offers a wide range of tours in the area - including swimming with dolphins, zip-lining, snorkeling - you name it, they likely offer it. We did two trips with Vallarta Adventures.
Our first tour began with an off road adventure in a signature yellow Mercedes trucks. Our guide, Gabriel, made the trip so much fun. At each stop, he shared facts along the way and we visited several locations including the city of Bucerias, where we picked up ingredients to make tortillas. We took a hike through a forest, where we learned about plants and animals native to Mexico. I couldn’t get over how green it was everywhere - we visited during the rainy season and everything was just vibrant and gorgeous. We came across one plant on our hike that was both terrifying and fascinating to me. It’s a tree covered in these vines with thorns. The thorns are full of ants that the tree uses as a defense mechanism. Don’t touch that tree unless you want to meet the ants! Gabriel was very knowledgable about the plants and animals, so I felt very safe as we did the tour.
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Remember those ingredients we picked up in Bucerias? We put them to use at the end of our hike at Tia Maria’s, where we learned how to make tortillas the way it’s been done for generations. We used a special stone and block to smash nixtamal into a dough, which we then put on a stone over an open fire. I’m not usually a fan of corn tortillas, but this tortilla was amazing. I’m a pretty picky eater, but I do love trying out cuisines from other cultures. Our other meals in Mexico did not disappoint. My favorite meal took place on the beach, where we enjoyed Aztec Soup, grilled meat and veggies and delicious hibiscus tea with watermelon and pineapple. I can still taste the tea - it was that good.
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Our second tour took us to the town of San Pancho, also known as San Francisco. Their beautiful city murals really stood out to me. I truly feel that it’s so important to step away from the touristy areas and beaches and actually visit local people in places where you travel. That’s where you truly learn what makes each area special and how we realize that our perceptions of things can be very different from the reality. We cannot truly know about places we have never seen. While in San Pancho, we planted trees and visited a community center called Entre Amigos. Entre Amigos offers the local community a place for children to take art classes, attend summer camps, read from their library and learn all about recycling. The entire facility is full of recycled materials. I was impressed by what they were able to create. Freda, who is one of the executives, gave us a tour of the facility and her passion for the place and all they do was so evident. You can help Entre Amigos reach more children by sponsoring a child or purchasing items made in their arts center out of recycled materials - visit their website, entreamigos.org.mx/ to learn more.
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One more stop I want to mention - a beautiful town called Sayulita. The streets are filled with color, people and shops and it’s all located right on the beach. It’s a more touristy area, but still holds so much charm. I really enjoyed browsing the shops and purchased a beautiful throw blanket to bring home. I love to find unique items that immediately remind me of my travels. It’s also a great conversation starter because it stands out when you look at my collection of blankets. (I’m always cold, so I love blankets!).
Should you and your family visit Riviera Nayarit? I think Mark Twain says it best …
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do, than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
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The Riviera Nayarit Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Bahia de Banderas Hotel and Motel Association hosted Macaroni Kid for a three-day press trip. Accommodations and most meals and activities were complimentary. No other compensation was received in consideration of this article and all opinions are that of the writer.
