On Taking Risks

As my week in Puerto Vallarta draws to a close, I find myself thinking a lot about taking risks. The first time I came to Mexico, I was 17 years old and my cousin Karlie was my age. We stayed in Cabo San Lucas at the Pueblo Bonito Rosé. I was terrified of a lot of things. My mother told me stories about girls getting kidnapped by their cab drivers and raped, so every time I got in a cab, I worried for the whole ride. I was pretty paranoid.

This time around, I’m much more relaxed. Karlie and I have taken a few risks this week, including buying a horseback riding trip off a beach vendor. We had no idea what we were going to get, but it turned out to be a great private trip along a river in rural Jalisco. Once the guide saw that we knew what we were doing, he even let us run the horses along the sandy path by the river. It was great to get out at a brisk canter on a beautiful horse again. It’s been far too long. They even had an English saddle.

There was a time in my life when I would have been far too suspicious of everyone and everything around me to have had that experience. I’m so glad that I’m out of that place. After all, I do not want to arrive at the grave as a perfectly preserved corpse. I’d much rather slide in headfirst, thoroughly battered and used up, and screaming, “woo hoo! what a ride!”

More photos are up on Flickr, if you’re interested to see.

More from Vallarta

I’ve added a few more photos to the Flickr photoset. Karlie and I had some fun frolicking in our bathing suits at sunset with a camera, so there are some definite hot shots in there. My favorite is at left.

We’re about to head off to the rain forest for a horseback riding adventure. This is our last free night in Vallarta, so we’ll be going out to the clubs this evening. Tomorrow night, I’m planning to get a massage on the beach and watch the sun set. My flight back to the states takes off on Saturday evening at 5:30.

Still, I’m obviously looking forward to seeing Andy again. We’ve done such long periods of time without the other person. But now that we live together, there’s a different quality to separations like this. I can’t decide if I miss him more, or if it’s just different.

Flickr Photostream Has PV Photos

Check out my new photoset on Flickr for photos from Puerto Vallarta.

Mexico is Fun

So far, my Mexican vacation has been a blast. Karlie and I have gotten up to work out every morning so far, which is good because the food here is unbelievable. The pool is gorgeous, which is also good because the ocean is much too rough for swimming. I’ve been practicing my Spanish and now know that the words estoy cotoriando mean, “I’m goofing around.”

Last night, the resort had a Mexican fiesta. The food was unbelievable. My favorite thing was the shrimp broiled on sprigs of rosemary. I’m going to have to make that one when I get home. It was so terrific. They also had an artist there who painted scenes from Puerto Vallarta with only his fingers. The work is amazingly detailed. I’ll post a photo later.

After we stuffed ourselves, Karlie and I went out to a club in downtown PV. It was called Hilo. The roof was held up by caryatids in the shape of famous Mexicans like Emiliano Zapata. A guy who was hitting on me at the club told me that Zapata said, “the Earth and women belong to those who work them.”

Afterwards, we wandered along the beach near the city center. There was a gorgeous sand sculpture of Jesus on the cross, and another one of Mary comforting her dying son. They were breathtaking. I couldn’t believe that such complicated structures could be made out of sand.

The WiFi at our hotel is screaming fast, so my anxiety about being completely out of touch with the world for a week was utterly unfounded. However, it costs $10 a day to use — which is cheaper than the $20 per megabyte that T-Mobile was going to charge me to use my wireless data services.

I’ll be updating my Flickr account in the next 24 hours with lots of fun pictures of our adventures thus far. I have a two hour hot stone massage scheduled this evening. They do some of their massages outside on the beach, but not the hot stone one because they need electricity to heat the stones. I do want to get a massage outside later this week so that I can watch the sun slip beneath the waves of the Bahia de Banderas while I relax.

Man, I needed this vacation. I only wish Andy were with me!

Pre-Travel Jitters

I’m hanging out at Sea-Tac airport with about an hour to go before my flight. Poor Andy had to get up way too early to bring me to the airport. Actually, he didn’t have to. I offered to take a shuttle. But he insisted on driving me. He’s sweet like that.

Being a worrier, I have double and triple-checked that there will be some kind of high speed Internet access while I am in Mexico. The hotel lobby has it for $10 a day, so I brought an AirPort and am going to try to amplify the WiFi signal from the lobby so that I can use it in my room. Always the geek, it’s odd for me to go a day without checking my RSS reader, writing a blog post, or doing something Web-oriented. I’m honestly not sure how well I’ll do without 24/7 access.

Unfortunately for me, T-Mobile does not offer any kind of roaming package to Mexico, so my cell phone will cost me $1.49 per minute to use. Data will also be $20 per megabyte. I spent an hour on the phone complaining to T-Mobile and they credited my account $20, so the first Megabyte is on them. Thankfully, I purchased a SkypeIn number and I’ve forwarded my calls. With any luck, I’ll be able to check and respond to voicemail while I’m away once I find some WiFi.

I’ll try to blog and post photos as I go along, but until I know the WiFi situation, I can’t be sure. I may have to rely on Andy to keep you updated on my trip.

I hope everyone has a wonderful week. Much love to all!

Never Underestimate the Power of the Princess

I may climb rocks, listen to loud music and love sports, but at heart, I’m a girly girl. When I pack my suitcase, half the space goes to my hair and skin care products. I have a whole process for shoe shopping. And when something isn’t right, I’m not afraid to ask someone to fix it.

A few years ago when Andy and I were moving into our apartment, the rental agent showed us two identical one bedrooms in different parts of the complex. One smelled horrible, having belonged to a smoker who had recently passed on. The other was passable, if somewhat disheveled, but it was nothing a good coat of paint and a new carpet couldn’t fix. Assuming that the owners–who were inhabiting the place at the time–would refurbish the condo after they moved out, we settled on the disheveled one.

On moving day, the rental agent took us up to the apartment. Nothing had been replaced. There were stains on the carpets and the walls. There was still grit on the kitchen floor. The place hadn’t even been vacuumed since the owners moved out. Andy was so tired of living with my parents that he was prepared to take it. I’ll never forget the furious look on his face when I turned to the rental agent and said in my best, most regal voice, “this is simply unacceptable.”

She looked at me, waited a beat, and said, “you’re absolutely right. I told them that they needed to paint this place and redo the carpets before they rented it out. But they didn’t do it. Let me show you something else.”

So she took us over to the other apartment, the one that had smelled so horrible just a few weeks before. She opened the door on a little heaven on earth. The old carpet was replaced. The kitchen was newly tiled and the walls had a fresh coat of paint. The place smelled fresh and new. And it cost less per month. We took it.

The same thing happened just last night. Steve and I were settling into our respective rooms on the 19th floor of the Carnival Tower at Harrah’s Las Vegas when a band started playing obscenely loud music directly below us. After confirming with the front desk that the Bedlam below us wouldn’t settle down until the wee hours, we asked for a room change. Some people would consider that unreasonable. But they got us moved to the new rooms with a minimum of fuss. They were bigger, had nicer accoutrements, softer beds and best of all, the night around us was as silent as the grave.

Sometimes, it pays to be demanding and to push for the best service. You don’t have to accept what you’re given if it’s not up to snuff.

Richland Wine Tasting Redux

Andru Edwards has put together a hilarious montage of our day wine tasting in Richland, WA. We flew over on planes provided by Greenpoint Technologies and dined at the fabulous Hedges Cellars.

All I can say, now that the video of Halley and I singing French drinking songs is public is, “oui oui oui!” all the way home.

All Your Grapes (On a Plane) Are Belong To Us!

UPDATE: I should have stated from the beginning, as Scoble always does, that this was a junket, which my company organized to draw some blogosphere attention to our clients. Yes, we got stuff (specifically good wine, good food and flights on private jets) for free with the expectation that we would blog about it and link in. However, as Christophe Hedges said to me, “I don’t mind if you write bad stuff about us. I just want to read it either way.” It’s up to you, my readers, to make up your mind whether you believe me or not about how great this event was.

Wow! What a 24 hour period. We finished the conference yesterday evening. It was an amazing three days with a mega letdown afterwards.

The Grapes on a Plane event was a smashing success. All the bloggers had an awesome time and we all bonded. I have a bunch of amazing photos that are forthcoming over my flickr photostream.

We visited a number of wineries. First we did some tasting at Bookwalter (try the 2004 Columbia Valley Chardonnay-Viognier) and Chandler Reach (the ‘02 Cab-Franc is awesome) before traveling to Hedges for dinner.

The dinner was really cool. There was an organic butter lettuce salad with Walla Walla onion and paired with a Three Vineyards. The main course was a traditional Boeuf Bourguignon, which was obviously well-prepared but not really my thing. I do have to get the recipe from Christophe Hedges because I think Andy would really enjoy it. They paired that with their Two Vineyards Reserve.

After the beef, there was a bread and cheese course, which is my favorite thing to eat. The bread crust reminded me a bit of matzoh, which is a good thing. They paired the course with a private reserve Single Vineyard Syrah, which requires a private list membership to even purchase. If I had the money, I would seriously consider purchasing a membership because I’ve never had anything quite as special as that Syrah.

Finally, they paired dark chocolate truffles with their Red Mountain Fortified port. Everyone had a great time. I think a small food fight even broke out at one point, there are photos in the photostream

The jets provided by Greenpoint Technologies were really a trip. I’ve never flown on a private jet before, and I felt very fancy. My favorite thing by far were the bathrooms. On commercial jets, the toilets make really scary noises when you flush them. I’m always afraid that it’s going to de-pressurize the cabin and vent everyone onboard into the stratosphere. On our jet, the toilet flushed like a normal toilet, except the water was blue. I wasn’t freaked out at all! I may never fly commercial again.

UPDATE: So, what do you think? Am I telling the truth about the junket? Did I really have a good time or is Jason Calacanis right to question my authenticity as a blogger? If you need to check out the photographic proof one more time, you might want to do that.

Traveling While Muslim

It just makes me sick to hear what these American citizens have to go through every time they want to get on an airplane or cross a border. This makes me want to kick some major ass at the TSA and customs.

I mean, anyone who has even watched Sleeper Cell (iTunes) knows that terrorists usually try to blend in, not stand out with long beards and traditional garb.

We really need to develop a better way of identifying potential suspects than names and appearance. Obviously you can’t expect the very human agents at customs and TSA to be completely race-blind. There’s a lot of evidence that the human brain just doesn’t work that way. But what these folks are going through is not fair, and we’ve got to figure out a better way.

Maybe random screening really is the answer. You just have a computer ping every so often, and that person or group is screened. Obviously customs agents and TSA professionals will have to use their best judgment, but only if they see something truly suspicious or out of the ordinary. Having a Muslim name or a long beard simply shouldn’t be reason enough.