We've been home for almost 2 months now but I figure it better late than never, right???
Thayne and I were wanting to do something special for Tristyn for graduation. We decided it would be fun to take her on a trip somewhere. Originally we were thinking Italy but airfare was just too crazy expensive. We joined a vacation club a few months ago and with it we can travel just about anywhere and get a condo for a full week for just $200. We decided on Puerto Penasco Mexico since it's close enough to drive. That way Tristyn could invite a couple friends too. Only one ended up being able to come, her boyfriend Jake, but it was perfect.
Thayne and I were wanting to do something special for Tristyn for graduation. We decided it would be fun to take her on a trip somewhere. Originally we were thinking Italy but airfare was just too crazy expensive. We joined a vacation club a few months ago and with it we can travel just about anywhere and get a condo for a full week for just $200. We decided on Puerto Penasco Mexico since it's close enough to drive. That way Tristyn could invite a couple friends too. Only one ended up being able to come, her boyfriend Jake, but it was perfect.
We stayed at the Mayan Palace Resort and it was gorgeous. I was so impressed with it especially since it only cost us $200. I was looking at the regular pricing and the condo we had would normally cost about $550 per night! Insane!
Our housekeeper was so sweet. She left us pets made out of towels every day and notes wishing us a happy trip.
We had our first meal in Mexico poolside at the resort. The food was good but definitely not authentic mexican... Jake had a bacon wrapped hot dog. :)
The resort was about 20 minutes outside of town so we alternated our days spent at the resort and in town. The second day that we went into town we went to the aquarium. The aquarium is small but it is run by one of the schools and that is how the school get its money to run. Everything at the aquarium is caught locally. All of the tanks are open and you can touch everything. There is even a tank with piranha in it that is open... there is at least a sign posted on it that they bite. You can also buy food to feed to the sea lion or sea turtles. Jake and Tristyn fed the sea lion. The turtles wanted us to feed them too - one of them snapped at my hand when i was petting it. 
Since the resort was situated on the outskirts of town it meant that we had our own private beach. The resort is in the middle of 6 miles of private beach front property. It was so nice that the beach was never crowded and it was so clean and beautiful. Since Puerto Penasco is on the Sea of Cortez rather than the Pacific Ocean, the water is warm. About 80* all the time. The resort had a gorgeous pool but I only got in it once because it was colder than the sea. We spent a lot of time at the beach. It was heavenly.
Jake was our pack mule when we did our souvenir shopping. When the street vendors saw him with his arms full they thought that he must have money to burn so they started hounding him to look in their shops and buy stuff from them. It was really funny. Bartering with the street vendors was one of my favorite parts of the trip. It was fun to see how far I could talk them down from their original price. A big smile can do a lot to bridge the language barrier and get a good deal :). Tristyn was terrified of bartering so I did a lot of hers for her. She would stand there and watch me and wonder how I could do it. At one shop Thayne and I were bartering for hammocks. When the shop keeper wouldn't go as low as we wanted we walked out of her shop. A couple minutes later she came running down the sidewalk after us yelling that she would take our deal.
Below is the Mexican version of WalMart. It was strange, all of the tags and labels looked just like the ones in Walmart here just in spanish. Jake and Tristyn loved how colorful the shopping carts were.
On our last night in Mexico Jake and Tristyn went on a dinner cruise while Thayne and I rode horses on the beach at sunset.
