Here we go again...
The year of fun we had here in Puerto Vallarta is already gone - wow! - the days really do zip by when you're having a great time. We are going to miss this place and the many new friends we have met while we were here.
It's time to pack and getting our worldly belongings back into those 4 suitcases will probably be relatively easy. For the past year we were very busy collecting great moments and memories, rather than buying and collecting stuff that takes up space in our bags. Our suitcases need to weigh less than 50 pounds each so we have done our best to avoid getting all of those nice "things" we see everywhere.
We still have a few clothing items from Canada that we brought with us but never wore - too warm for us to use here. We know there are some Mexican folks who get chilly in the winter months, as we see them wearing gloves and hoodie type coats, and we will leave our warm stuff here in PV as a donation for others to use. That helps to downsize a bit and hopefully there will be a bit of space freed up in our suitcases so we can pack our combined portfolio of painting efforts.
The few small items that we did buy here were necessary to make our kitchen more workable and our home more livable,but they won't fit in our suitcases. So, they will also be donated to various friends and charities in the hope they will be of use to them. Then there is our healthy supply of art / painting materials to be shared with our local painting friends.
We have been busy preparing a couple of detailed "to do" lists:
one for downsizing and preparing to leave here,
the other to help us to remember the many little things that need to be done or purchased when we return to Canada for a few days.
While we are in Vancouver we will need to look after a few things like:
replenish a few medications (drag leg here) - see doctor,
our tiny storage locker in Vancouver will need another small deposit to carry us through for another year. Hopefully we can move the few contents to a new home after that. Yaaaay!,
our travelers' insurance and medical insurance will need a bit of tweaking,
and, we will need to do some shopping to get a few things for our new apartment in Barbados.
...then, we get to enjoy some much needed quality time with our children and our family members before we head out on the next part of our journey.
This is the final post (at least for now), from our very happy time that we spent in Puerto Vallarta. We will be boarding a plane and heading for Canada on Tuesday Sep 20. Please make sure you come back to check out our next bit of news sometime in early October - we will post an update once we get into our little apartment at Sunset Crest, Barbados, West Indies.
So, for the foreseeable future we will have to put up with even more sunshine, palm trees, white sandy beaches and perfect sunsets. We will probably switch from sipping on margaritas to enjoying a rum punch while we contemplate the intermittent need to replace flip-flops and tank tops when they wear out... the harshness of it all...
The most difficult part of leaving Puerto Vallarta will be saying goodbye to all of our new friends, neighbours and acquaintances here. As can be expected, it will be very hard to say adios, hasta luego with abrazos y besos to Patty. Until the next time... Despedida Puerto Vallarta.