¡Que aventura!

What an adventure! No pictures today, because my camara batteries are dead, so I´ll post some tomorrow, if I can get them charged. There was a storm last night (the first real rain of the year, thus beginning the rainy season), and we lost electricity last night, but only partially, sort of like a brownout instead of a blackout. Some lights are working, some are not, and some are working half way. The fans are moving a little bit, but not much. The fridge is only a little bit cold, so I think we lost all our food. So much for all the grocery shoppping and leftovers... Also, the water pump isn´t working, so when we got up this morning, there was no water. Hopefully it will be fixed tonight so we can get showers. The problem is with the electric company (read the government) so it may not get fixed right way, where in the States the electric company would have been out overnight fixing whatever was damaged in the storm. In the meantime we´re cleaning off with face wipes, but we can´t wash our hair that way! I´m sure something will be worked out soon.
We tried to go to Mass today at La iglesia de nuestra señora Guadalupe, and we were told by a taxi that Mass was at 9am, 11a, and 6pm. We showed up at 10:45 for the 11am Mass, only to find out that Mass was at 8am, 10am, 12pm, and some times in the evening. So, we were either early or late, depending on your perspective. We stayed for the end of the 10am service, bought something from the nuns, and went for breakfast.
Sharon went to visit a resort, but Shelly and I opted to stay in town and do some shopping. We wanted to get off the main tourist street so we weren´t accosted every two steps to buy a timeshare or visit a resort, and ended up walking up a very steep hill through a residential area to get back to an area that we´re familiar with. Even though I wasn´t sure exactly where we were, I had a map, and wasn´t for a moment scared. It was interesting to get out of the main shopping area and see where people lived. Shelly got some pictures since my camera died on me. We´ve all agreed to give each other copies of whatever pictures we take, so we´ll all have lots of pictures to show off.
Yesterday we went to a beach town called Yelapas. It´s not possible to drive there, you have to take a half hour water taxi ride across the bay. I wasn´t sure how my stomach would handle it, since I only have experience with being on a boat on a river, but I was fine. The beach was nice, and apparently there are waterfalls if we´d walked for about 45 minutes into the jungle, but by the time we´d thought of it, it was too late. It did confirm for me that I´m just not a beach person. I like the sun, I like the water, but I really prefer the river or the pool. I´m just not a fan of all the sand, I guess.
Tom had some more questions from an email (I´m glad he´s doing this, because there are things I forget to write about), so here we go:
I think Puerto Vallarta is between the size of Louisville and Jeffersonville. Tourism has built it up a lot, and on the drive to the water taxi you could see all the big oceanfront developments - for better or for worse. On the streets we´re meeting locals, but also Americans who work for the time share real estate companies. We try to talk to as many locals as we can, and avoid the ¨time share guys¨. Last week there were four of us in my class: Sharon, myself, Mike (from California) and Sara (from Holland, and speaks 5 languages!). Sara left Vallarta yesterday, so next week it will only be three of us. La profesor, Cinthia, is from Mexico City, and has a degree from UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico) in tourism.
I just noticed how long this has become. That´s enough for one day. For those of you with ADD, sorry! :)