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         xmlns:georss="http://www.georss.org/georss"><docs>This is a RSS file. Copy the URL into your aggregator of choice. If you don't know what this means and want to learn more, please see: <span>http://platial.typepad.com/news/2006/04/really_simple_t.html</span> for more info.</docs>
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<title>Fun In The Sun</title>
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<item rdf:about="http://platial.com/post/1115265">
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<title>The Tequila Store</title>
<description>
        <![CDATA[
        The tequila store is a little store that, well, sells tequila.  Sarah and her family came upon this store when they went on a group tour with a few other people from the hotel, the tour was offered by the hotel, along with a few other hotels in the area.  It was not a very big place; in fact it was just a little building off the side of the road.  It was a very informal place where people leave just as fast as the get there.  The first thing that happens when entering the building, you will get a history lesson of how this one family makes tequila, it is how most people make tequila, but this one is special, she just could not remember why though.  Then you will get a very brief tour of the place, then the best part, you get to taste the finished product.  Sarah is not a fan of tequila but she tried some anyway.  “It was good, well for as good as tequila can get,” she said while crinkling up her nose.  There were only about twenty-five people in the store, and that is counting Sarah and her family, and if she had to guess Sarah would say they were all from either the USA or Canada, because of they were all dressed as if they were on vacation there, flip flops, tank tops, and sun burns, and no one had an accent from another part of the world.  When walking around the place, Sarah noticed that there were only three or four guys running the whole place, she found this to be weird because in the US there is always more people then are needed working at one place at a time.  These guys were talking to the people trying to get them to buy everything, a few people bought things, but she did not buy anything because everything was free at the hotel.<br /><br /><a href="http://platial.com/post/1115265">Map this on Platial</a><br /> 
        ]]>
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<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2007-05-14 23:50:26.805957+00:00</dc:date>
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<item rdf:about="http://platial.com/post/1136906">
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<title>Going Back Home</title>
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        <![CDATA[
        Going back home was kind of sad.  Sarah really did not want to leave Mexico, but she did not want to stay there either.  She missed her friends at school and she missed her things at the house, but she did not want to go back.  Going back meant only having a few more weeks of school with her friends, then Sarah will be graduating never to see a lot of the people that are so called friends.  “It was bittersweet,” she told me with tears in her eyes.  Sarah and her family packed their things, and headed for the airport.  Security was not as bad here; so it did not take them long to get through to the plane.  They got on the plane in the morning.  She wrote in a journal most of the way back home, slept part of it, and talked to her family telling stories of this vacation compared to ones from the past.  It was a good time to reflect, and a good time to relax.  After a vacation where all you did was relaxed, sometimes you need a vacation from your vacation; this was the plane ride for me.<br /><br /><a href="http://platial.com/post/1136906">Map this on Platial</a><br /> 
        ]]>
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<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2007-05-14 23:56:24.461396+00:00</dc:date>
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<item rdf:about="http://platial.com/post/1115251">
<link>http://platial.com/post/1115251</link>
<title>Airport</title>
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        <![CDATA[
        It was Sunday March 6, 2007 and Sarah Adam was getting ready to go with her mom and dad to Puerto Vallarta for my spring break.  Sarah is an ordinary twenty-two year old college student, who loves to travel.  Sarah has been to Europe a few times, and has even spent a whole semester abroad, but this trip would be different for her, it would be her last Spring Break trip.  Ok, let’s not think about that right now,” she say to me when talking about her trip.  She knew it was going to be a lot of fun because she have been on many different trips with her family, but this one was going to be different too, because the youngest brother, Luke, could not go.  He was in school, and could not miss his classes, even though he wanted too, and his family wanted him to also.  Anyways, they, Sarah and her mom and dad, were all super excited to go to a place where it is warm all day and night, and were very happy to be leaving a place where the sun didn’t shine for over a month, Lombard, Illinois.  It was in the pretty early in the morning when the Adam family arrived at O-Hare airport in Chicago.  It was crowded as usual.  People were traveling everywhere, and everyone was in such a hurry to get there, even if they didn’t want to go to where ever they were destined for.  There were families saying goodbye and crying, then there where businessmen traveling by themselves.  You could always tell the businessmen from the other people, because they were all in nice suits and walked with a fast pace with their heads down toward the ground.  They were also the men traveling alone and only had one piece of luggage.  The flight was at 1:30 in the afternoon, so Sarah and her family arrived early, around noon so they could check their bags and get through security without missing the flight. It took a little while to get through airport security, maybe a half an hour to forty-five minutes, but there were no problems, Sarah was not sure though because she lost track of time somewhere between home and the airport. They rushed to the gate where the plane was got on and left.  After a few hours, direct flight and some really good conversations about life, school and politics with her parents, along with some reading of the Di Vinci Code, and listening to her favorite different kinds of music, they finally landed in Mexico.  Sarah knew she were in Mexico when she saw the beautiful ocean and beaches.<br /><br /><a href="http://platial.com/post/1115251">Map this on Platial</a><br /> 
        ]]>
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<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2007-05-14 23:52:38.659952+00:00</dc:date>
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<item rdf:about="http://platial.com/post/1115259">
<link>http://platial.com/post/1115259</link>
<title>Nuevo Vallarta</title>
<description>
        <![CDATA[
        Sarah arrived in a town called Nuevo Vallarta, which happens to be in another state then Puerto Vallarta.  I found this bit of information to be very interesting, because traveling to Puerto Vallarta meant leaving the state; it was kind of like going from Valparaiso to Chicago, but in a different country.  When she arrived she was surprised to see all of the different kinds of people there, because Sarah have been to Mexico before, but a different part of Mexico.  Sarah thought that there would be a lot of upper class people, rich and stuck up, but she thinks there were actually more people from the middle class and lower middle class then anyone else.  It was not hard to tell who was from what class, she said.  The upper class people had money and you could tell by their clothes (if they were wearing name brand or not) to how they acted towards other people there.  And the middle to lower classes were loud and just really excited to be there, because most of them probably never have been there before.  Sarah was talking to her dad about that and he also thought it was weird, but then he explained that it doesn’t cost a lot to stay in Mexico, therefore more people will travel to Mexico then to any other part of the world because they don’t have to worry about the cost.  There were also a lot of Canadians there too, but the only way that Sarah knew this was because she over heard one talking about being from Canada when someone asked where they were from, when they were heading toward the hotel.  I guess the people that travel to that specific place are people from the states and Canadians, or at least that is what I gathered from the pictures that Sarah showed me of her “Canadian friends.”  When they picked up their luggage, Sarah and her family went to go to the hotel they would be staying at all week.  All of the hotels and resorts were on a strip called “hotel row.”  It was a very secure road were a few guys stood at the entrance and made sure that everyone who went down there either worked at one of the resorts or was staying at one of them, if not then no one even thought about going down there.<br /><br /><a href="http://platial.com/post/1115259">Map this on Platial</a><br /> 
        ]]>
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<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2007-05-14 23:54:09.332795+00:00</dc:date>
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<title>Riu Vallarta</title>
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        <![CDATA[
        The hotel that Sarah and her family stayed in was brand new.  It was built within the last four months, and the palm trees were not even open yet.  The building even smelled new still.  It was a beautiful building with six floors, four different restaurants, a buffet, and two pools; that were both very big. They started out on the fifth floor, but then got moved down to the third floor.  She was unsure why they got moved around, but the rooms on the third floor where better anyway.  The room was very beach like.  In other words, big open rooms with tile in the bathroom and the kitchen, then carpet in every other room.  There was also a full kitchen and bathroom.  Also, included in every room, there was a refrigerator that was full of food and drinks, and everything was free, and the maids would switch them every two days.  There was also two chairs on the balcony and a little table, which Sarah started calling her table, because that is where she would sit when her mom and dad where outside also. The resort was located right on the beach, so when Sarah opened the window she was staring right at the Pacific Ocean and smelling the salt water as well.  Anyway, the beach that the hotel was located on was a walking beach, which means, you could walk down the whole beach and not get stopped by gates or anything else that would indicate that you were in another hotel’s beach, so Sarah and her family, along with the rest of the guests, had the whole strip of beach to explore and enjoy.  When walking on the beach, however, Sarah encountered many different vendors spread out trying to cover most of the beach.  These vendors where there just for the purpose of selling things to tourist, but it was mostly junk they were selling, you could get most of it at Wal-Mart for way cheaper.  The one thing that Sarah loved that vendors were selling was candy.  This candy was not in bags, but was just sitting out waiting for someone to come up and buy it by the handful, and not by an actual weight.
The front of the hotel was just as pretty as the back.  There were plants and flowers everywhere; it was some of the most beautiful landscaping Sarah had ever seen.  Also, there were mountains as far as the eye could see, I don’t really remember which mountain they were that she told me, but Sarah said, and “they were really a site to see.”  The air smelled like salt and in some places even fire, but soon Sarah found out the reason why.  Where they were doing construction, they would burn down the shrubs and grasses where the new building would soon be.  There was so much construction everywhere, it reminded her of being back on campus, but it never took away from the site of the ocean and the mountains.
<br /><br /><a href="http://platial.com/post/1115261">Map this on Platial</a><br /> 
        ]]>
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<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2007-05-14 23:52:02.835631+00:00</dc:date>
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<item rdf:about="http://platial.com/post/1115263">
<link>http://platial.com/post/1115263</link>
<title>Downtown</title>
<description>
        <![CDATA[
        The town of Puerto Vallarta was much different then the strip where the resorts and hotels where at.  There were so many different types of people there, any where from upper, which the people wore very nice clothes, to very lower classes, these people were begging for food and money, because most people that lived in the area where rich or poor, very few in between.  There were many different types of stores and buildings all around, some authentic, but most were there to cater to the tourists.  Most of the buildings were beautiful, like this one that looked like it could have been one of the oldest in town, but it just had that feel to it that made me think of other countries that Sarah had been too.  They were brightly colored, and brick, and they had flowers all around them, she was not sure what kind of flowers though, but they were yellow and red and white mainly, well most of the buildings did.  It was actually kind of a dirty place, there were cars, and taxies and buses everywhere Sarah looked, “I was kind of appalled by this site of all the trash and just garbage everywhere,” Sarah told me.  It was also a very crowded city with very few tourists because no one really left their all-inclusive hotel or the beach, because they had everything that they needed there, and just were to lazy to actually see what authentic Mexico was.
All around town there were these little flea market type of shops where you did not pay full price for anything.  The secret, so she learned the hard way, was to ask how much something was, then say that you only have a certain amount of money to pay for it, Sarah was not very good at doing this, but her mom was awesome, and got everything for a cheap price, so she only shopped there a few time, most of the time she stayed with the Wal-Mart and Targets that were both located just up the road from the hotels.  The good thing about being here was that you did not need to know Spanish, although someone should know a little so they do not get ripped off at one of the shops, and pay four times as much for something that you could buy at Wal-Mart.  When Sarah first entered downtown Puerto Vallarta she was expecting a lot of American culture, but they actually did a very good job mixing the American and Mexican culture and not letting just one dominate, like over in England. Here, they made an effort to kept most of the feel of Mexico, but everyone knew English.  She did learn something very fascinating about the area where she was staying, if someone knew English they would get paid more, and they would almost be guaranteed a job.  “So if nothing works out for me in the USA then I could always go to Mexico and find a job, just kidding,” Sarah said, just playing around.
<br /><br /><a href="http://platial.com/post/1115263">Map this on Platial</a><br /> 
        ]]>
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<georss:point> </georss:point>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2007-05-14 23:51:20.170086+00:00</dc:date>
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<item rdf:about="http://platial.com/post/1115267">
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<title>Pipis</title>
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        <![CDATA[
        The only restaurant that Sarah and her family went to was named Pipis.  Pipis was located in Puerto Vallarta, and is very americanized; she really thinks that she could have gotten more authentic food from here (the USA) then at this restaurant.  The menu had things on it like Chilis would or TGI Fidays.  That means tacos, burritos, and even hamburgers.  It was a brightly colored place with a lot of reds, yellows, and purples with posters on the walls that were in Spanish and of course the television programs that they had on were in Spanish.  The only thing that was not Spanish was the food that they were serving.  Everyone who worked there knew English, and all of them knew how to entertain.  Sarah felt like she was at El Salto on $2 margarita night.  She was rather appalled by this, because she wanted authentic Mexican food, and not something that she could have gotten anywhere else.  Sarah, her mom, and dad all ordered hamburgers, this is what this restaurant was famous for; so they thought they would be worth trying.  The food was not that good, and they were disappointed in their choice of restaurant.  The only good thing was that the service was fast, and the people were nice.  This was the only restaurant that they went too, because our hotel was all-inclusive, so after eating at Pipis they decided that they did not need to eat anywhere but at the hotel, they had better food anyway.<br /><br /><a href="http://platial.com/post/1115267">Map this on Platial</a><br /> 
        ]]>
        </description>
<georss:point> </georss:point>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2007-05-14 23:49:38.220876+00:00</dc:date>
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<item rdf:about="http://platial.com/post/1115269">
<link>http://platial.com/post/1115269</link>
<title>The Canopy</title>
<description>
        <![CDATA[
        One of the tours that Sarah and her family went on, with the hotel or course, was a view from the canopy; at least that is what she called it.  It was only a twenty-minute drive from the hotel to this place.  What happened when they got there, you would go up on these cables, get hocked on with your feet dangling and then go more of less “fly” over the jungle area.  It was really a great experience.  “I felt like I was flying, at first I was scared, because I say that people could get going to 50 miles an hour down, but then I realized that it was totally safe and I just need to enjoy the view from the top,” said Sarah when she was showing me pictures of her mom and dad “flying.”  The jungle was so beautiful with every green that you can think of, and many different colored flowers as well, at least that is what I saw in the pictures.  There were so many different kinds of trees and plants that she had never seen before; of course there were the usual palm trees and pine trees, you can never seem to get far enough way from pine trees.  “ It was a once in a lifetime experience that I would defiantly do again if I had the chance,” said Sarah.  The cool thing that she learned from this was that the jungle that she was over was the same place where Predator 2 was filmed.<br /><br /><a href="http://platial.com/post/1115269">Map this on Platial</a><br /> 
        ]]>
        </description>
<georss:point> </georss:point>
<dc:creator></dc:creator>
<dc:date>2007-05-14 23:47:11.936922+00:00</dc:date>
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