I miss this soft, sparkly sand! In the right light, it really looked like gold. So perfect!
On this third day, our last whole day out of the country, we opted to catch a cab into Puerto Vallarta's historic flea market area near a famous old church, the Cathedral of Our Lady Guadelupe. We started at some more modern shops. We got a kick out of these skeletons, which are everywhere!
We enjoyed the beautiful scenery and artwork.
These are our friends, Mary and her husband Steve
As we wandered down the beachfront cobblestone, we noticed these men at the top of this crazy high pole.
Within a few minutes, the man on the very top was playing an instrument while the others swung around, doing some tricks. Very neat to have happened upon.
Another neat thing we found was a collection of sand carvings. These were big - this first is almost as tall as the guy that was working on it.
This one was very tall - larger than life and so neat!
Aaron's favorite - can you guess?
It's a fishtank!
The detail was absolutely stunning!
In one of the shops, we got a little history lesson that explained all the skeletons. Besides being a way for people to mock - and therefore, avoid - Death, it was a cartoon style by an early newspaper man. He used skeletons in his political cartoons to both mock, say, the mayor's wife without actually drawing a picture of her, and to protect himself. Catchy.
We also came upon a couple of people decorating with those tiny beads and beeswax we'd seen so much of the day before.
I loved this decorative screen!
Finally, we could see the cathedral in the middle of town, down a flea market-lined street.
The art used in the church was beautiful! Ornate glass windows, Gold inlaid pieces, carvings of Christ's life set into the walls. I felt kind of strange taking pictures while some people were coming and going, worshipping and living their lives. But I was told it was okay as long as there was no service in session.
This carving is Judas' betrayal.
And here's Pilot, washing his hands of the case.
We found the oldest and most eclectic part of flea markets. It was a whole block - if you walked into one doorway, followed it back a bit and turned, you'd find yourself in a maze of people calling, 'I have what you are looking for,' 'lovely skirts,' 'come see my jewelry,' 'I give it to you cheap'. It could be very confusing, and was briefly disconserting whenever I lost sight of the couple of people we were with. Aaron loved the market, especially bartering. I'm no good at all at getting an awesome price at flea markets, but Aaron takes pleasure in haggling with store owners if he sees something he likes. We wandered all through until we'd found souveniers for home for ourselves, our kids, and a couple other people.
Aaron wished he hadn't brought his beloved Green Bay Packers hat. It turned out to be a huge way for all those people seeling things to try to get his attention. "You from Milwaukee? Love beer and Packers?" All in a spanish accent. It was so funny!
Catching a taxi back to the resort was crazy. An old guy heard us looking for a taxi, and offered his. It was the most old, ramshackle van I've ever seen, but it did get us from point a to point b. We realized after we'd all gotten seated that the driver didn't actually know where he was going. He made excuses like, 'I thought we were going to somewhere in Puerto Vallarta' (Technically, our resort was in Nueve Vallarta.) and 'Let's get some gas' (when we could see he was at half a tank) and 'these hotels are always changing owners and then the owners change the names'. We were just glad he got us back to the hotel! What an adventure.
After some more rest and relaxation, we got ready for the night's dinner with the bankers, 'Night of 107 Rockstars'. We made our way to the lobby - this is the only picture I got of us that evening!
The bank gave us 'red carpet treatment' and had flashing cameras all down the hallway for the experience. I'm wondering if any of those flashes were taking real pictures, and if I could get a copy of Aaron and me from them? I don't even know who I'd ask.
We were seated and brought the first of a 4 course dinner. While we got started, this really fun performer came out and sang a parody of 'We Are the Champions'. I can't use the whole thing, since I try to not use Aaron's workplace name, but it went like this:
"You've met your goals
Day after day
You've excelled at your metrics
This is your time to play
Trying schedules and customers
You've faced a slew
You've had your share of challenges and escalations
Yet you've always come through!
{And we mean to go on and on and on and on}
YOU are our rockstars - my friends
and you'll keep on shining
till the end
You are our rock stars
You are our rock stars
No time for losing
'Cause you are the rock stars of [bank]
Tonight you'll take your bows
And your curtain calls
You'll receive your pinnacle award and everything that goes with it
We thank you all
Because this is your night
The red carpet's for you
We consider it our honor to recognize your achievements
For all that you do!
{Quality, Sales, CSAT, KPIs!!!}"
Chorus again and again. The performer was very entertaining!
Then all those 107 banker rockstars were recognized, one at a time. It made for a long night, but each of us were proud of our individual bankers, so it was great that everyone got to shine. Aaron's boss, Linda had asked each pinnacle winner who their favorite music artist was and Aaron had replied that since he didn't really listen to music, she could use his new love of Les Mis for whatever she needed. We found that she was comparing each winner to his/her favorite music. So she said that Aaron was determined like Jean Valjean. It worked. :)
After the bankers were all talked about, we finally got back to our room. We spent a little time organizing our stuff so that we'd be ready to leave the resort in the morning without too much stress, then crashed into bed.
The next day was a blur of waiting, checking out, customs, then a bunch of hours of airports and airplanes before finally arriving home and falling into our own bed at 2am Monday morning. Totally worth it!
