chicXicana: June 2017

Papel picado in San Pancho

It has been about a week since we've been back to reality. Ugh - I miss Mexico already, or well the beautiful coast of Jalisco and Nayarit.

We were gone for a total of 12 days! That means no work! CRAY - right?! - I checked email, because I get too curious and paranoid - but hey I didn't respond to jackshit!

Anyway, for part of our stay - we used AirBnB in Marina Vallarta. Apparently AirBnB is still fairly new there - but everything worked out pretty well. Here is where we stayed. The first couple of days we were pretty far away from el malecon - which is the boardwalk/downtown area - filled with food, entertainment, sites to be seen and shopping/mercados. Our days consisted of walking, eating tacos, more walking, taking photos, wandering around, staring at the ocean - trying to practice our Spanish, and simply relaxing and really slowing down.

Part of the reason for this trip was to really break routine - as adults (I think I am an adult - hey I pay bills and stuff) we often get super sucked into our everyday lives and forget about what is really important to us. There was this point in my life where I thought that getting a job and making money was important and well the purpose of everything... and then one day against my gut instinct I went to work in morning after spending the night in hospital with mom and got a call that she'd had a heart attack - I literally ran out of that place crying, drove to Modesto, and hours later she passed away.

The point of sharing this is that our lives need to be more than just working for material things - buying land, cars, new fashion trends, and blah blah. I want to see places, take time for myself to reflect, have experiences and meet people that I would not normally meet; spend quality time with people I love.

This time spent in Puerto Vallarta is just that for me - time to break routine, relax, and spend time with myself to really reflect and as an added bonus I also get to spend time with some pretty awesome and inspirational people.

The bulk of our stay was at Alejandra Palos' Casa Alexandra; Alejandra, our amazing host and Martina La Latina Ayala, our fabulous retreat curator make the experience fun, relaxing and memorable. This is the second year that I've had the opportunity to attend and every time I feel like I leave with more members of my extended family. Casa Alexandra is constantly hosting art retreats and is also available through AirBnB and you can book it here.

Here are some photos from our trip, courtesy of me and Adrian Delgado. Other posts about peso to dollar, tacos and artesanias mexicanas later later....

-chicXicana