Viva Mexico!

First off there will be no photos, not only because we didn't bring our laptops, but because we left our camera in the taxi within 30 minutes of arriving in PV. Rookie mistake, we're kicking ourselves.

We're finding that all our travel strategies need to be relearned with a full-on toddler. The whole you watch the bags while I check the car/room/table thing is a lot harder when the third member of our party seems strangely drawn to cobblestone streets and stairways. But it's all coming back quickly and we're loving the feel and smells of another hot, humid climate. PV is lush and in full flower, and MZ is so taken with everything around her. We walk out the door and she hollers ocean! During breakfast on the beach this morning, she exclaimed There's a boat right there! Hi boat, hi boat!

Experiencing this place through her eyes turns it into an entirely new country for us. The heat is strange to her, the tile floors a constant hazard, but the proximity to water is her paradise, too. The place we're staying has two puppies in residence, which we thought she'd love, but she's much more interestd in picking the finest tropical flowers that have dropped to the ground and presenting them to her Daddy. The pool outside our patio is the promised land, the small holes in the clay wall a perfect racetrack for her toy cars, the stones laid in the patio a textural fiesta. A jacuzzi? Magic bubbles! Heaven again.

When we said where we were going, a friend replied that they wanted to go to Mongolia, but wondered who would watch their baby for three weeks. Perhaps because we saw so many places before we met her, our new List is quite different. There are so many places in the world to visit anew with MZ, or to visit differently so that she can enjoy, too. Do we regret the dive trips and crowded taco stands (clearly too much for her young tummy)? Sure, but we can't wait to see the sculpture-lined Malecon through her eyes later this evening.

So much more to tell already, but there's someone waiting for the computer and no doubt she'll be awake from her nap any minute, so ciao, amigos, I'm off to the pool... did I mention there's a waterfall? and cold beer? Heaven.