Platform No. 13: What Comes after Perfect?

I have just returned from the perfect vacation. (Notice I did not use the phrase "best/ever", in an attempt to help Jordan/Whit and others realize that this is no hyperbole.) It was perfect in every sense- not too long, not too short, no logistical upsets, no tempers, no dead batteries or full memory cards, and as far as location and theme, it was just... well, perfect.

Here is the breakdown:

Cities Visited: Creel (3 days), Puerto Vallarta (6 days), and (surprise!) Mazatlan (1 day).
Total time travelled via bus: 50h 30m
Total time travelled via train: 18h
Photos Taken: 546
Skin tone: end of summer brown, no red in sight- success story of the week!
PB & Honey Sandwiches eaten: 20+ (lost count)
Games of Canasta Played: 9
Games of Canasta Finished: 2
Games of Canasta Won: 0
New Games Learned: 1 (Continental- FUN!)
Books Brought: 4
Books Read: 1 ("Broken For You" by Stephanie Kallos- GOOD!)
Movies Watched on the Bus: 12-14 (also lost count)
Movies that were actually Watchable: 7 (that's really impressive for the Mexican bus system)
Sunsets viewed: 8 (one from the train, one over the canyon, six on the beach)
Sunrises viewed: 1 (over the canyon)
Hours spent waiting for the sunrise: 2.5 (the people at the hotel said the sun rises before 5am, so I got up at 4:30 to make sure I didn't miss it... it broke the horizon around SEVEN.)
Worth it? That sunrise was worth the whole trip.
Best eats: handmade flour tortillas in Creel & fresh cocada in Puerto Vallarta
Best Beach: Horse Beach in Puerto Vallarta
Best Waterfall: N/A... but I learned not to try to hike to them in the dry season!
Packing Score: 5 (0ut of ten possible)... it was a lot colder than I expected in the mountains, and I spent a lot more time in the water than I expected in Puerto Vallarta, so I basically had two uniforms: the only sweatshirt and jeans that I brought got me through the first week (although stinkily), and my swimsuit.

And here are some of the best stories:

El Chepe: This story is in the photos, and yes they are filming for Lonely Planet Television.

Hotel Mansión Tarahumara: This was the moment we reached the top of the first hotel and rounded the corner to see our room, and our view. At this point we had been traveling nonstop for over 30 hours; we were exhausted. The train ride that day was beautiful and exciting, but because we travelled through the night to get to the train station, it was hard to remember that the train ride was the destination rather than part of the journey. The hotel promised "breathtaking canyon views", but when we arrived- it seemed like the hotel was looking over more of a valley than the canyon I had seen pictures of. I was worried, because I had done all of the planning, and I didn't want to let my host mom, sister, and nephew down. After we checked in, we had to lug our bags all the way up to our rooms which were on the top floor of the building on top of the hill. That was promising, but we were so tired already, it was a workout. As soon as we rounded the back of the hotel, however, all of our fatigue was gone, all of our expectations were blown away, and we just couldn't stop saying- this is worth it all. Here is Jorge Alex with the view from our doorstep- note that the bottom of the canyon is not pictured.

Laura Ingalls Wilder (Mexico Edition): The next day we took a bus to Creel, the hub of adventuring in and around the Copper Canyon. There we stayed at the Copper Canyon Sierra Lodge which is outside of town in a little village called Cusarare. The fun thing about this hotel is that there is no electricity. Every night the staff come in and light gas lamps and a little wood burning stove to keep us warm. From there we were able to hike to another little native village, a (nearly dry) waterfall, and some caves. It was really fun to stay here, really relaxed, and it felt like being back at camp!

The Amazing Race: On Thursday we started to worry about being able to find room on the train back on Saturday (it's a very long story but we couldn't make reservations early and it being Semana Santa which is national vacation week in Mexico) so we decided to go into town and check out our options for leaving a day early. In order to do this, we had to accomplish a mountain of highly improbable tasks in a very short amount of time. I won't tell the whole story... Lord knows this post is going to be too long for that... but Haydee and I were literally running up and down the streets of Creel trying to get it all done before the train arrived. The whole time we couldn't stop laughing because I swear it felt like we were on the Amazing Race- somehow we made the train, and we won the game! The pic below is of the group of retired American couples who were on a tour of the Copper Canyon, and happened to be the only other people staying at our hotel. They were kind enough to give us a ride back to town in their tour bus!

Family Vacation Debriefing: I am so glad I ended up getting to take this vacation with my host family. Not only do we get along really well and I had a great time being with them, but I noticed a huge improvement in my Spanish as well. It is really amazing how fast you pick things up when you are really 100% immersed in it like that. I have realized that what I am lacking are all the little nuances of Spanish. Not to say that I still don't make a lot of grammatical mistakes, but it's all the little extra phrases that are hard to pick up, the ones that aren't necessary for communication, but add style to your speech. This week I conquered "ni modo" which means "oh well", or "it doesn't matter", and a couple others I am forgetting right now... Besides that I came away from the Copper Canyon trip with the overwhelming sensation of how blessed I have been in my traveling career so far. This was one of the most incredible places I have ever been, and I realized that if I never go anywhere else in my life- I can have no complaints. It was that good. Here are a few take away pics from the train ride back.

Mazatlan: Since we did end up making the train a day early, I had an extra day before I was supposed to meet my friend Rochelle in Puerto Vallarta. Haydee was going to visit her friend in Mazatlan, which was directly on the way- so she invited me to come hang out with them and catch a bus to PV from there. I was thrilled! We ate good food at her friend's mom's house, and spent the day lounging on the beach. Here we are: Valeria, Haydee and I!

Beach, Beach, Beach: There's not much of a story here... just sun and sand. When we got to the hotel, we were greeted with an ocean view from our room, and sand at our doorstep. I didn't know we were going to be actually on the beach so I was SUPER excited! One day we did go on a boat tour of some of the more isolated beaches around, and that was great. We went on a small boat, just the guide and the 12 of us from my group, so we were able to go into a lot more places than the big tours go... although a bigger boat may have been a little more gentle on the stomach! The guide was this funny older German man who even climbed up a coconut tree and cracked open a coconut for us to try! As I mentioned before, I very carefully applied my sunscreen, and I was very proud to be the least burned of all of my friends by the end of the week. It was very relaxing, but by Saturday, I was ready to go home, mostly to end my peanut butter sandwich and crackers diet! :)

The view from our room...