Child's Play in Puerto Vallarta
The resort city of Puerto Vallarta, on Mexico's Pacific coast, has so many great things going for it, a visitor will have her hands full trying to enjoy more than a small part of them in a single visit. The food is delicious; the Mexican vacation villa rental is pure comfort; and the beaches that line Banderas Bay provide a natural playground that can't be matched.
Life's a beach
A person could spend an entire week just enjoying the scent of sun block and the sound of waves running up the shore. You can swim, snorkel and dive in the bay. You can go wind surfing and deep sea fishing. You can run on the beach in the morning and sun on the beach at noon. And while you're enjoying yourself, make sure you connect with your inner child/artist/comic and create a special piece of sand art.
Watch children play on one of the bay's family-friendly beaches – they simply can't resist the urge to create something in the sand and water. Sometimes it's a castle with a real moat (designed along the lines of a Mexico vacation villa rental) and sometimes it's the tallest pile of sand on the beach. It might be a self portrait carved in the sand with a stone or a mosaic made of shells and seaweed. The thing is, no matter what the result, the fun is in the creating.
Tools of the sand
At this point, if you're not thinking that it's time to find a nice open space on the sand and get to work, then you might have misplaced the carefree kid within. That's okay – it's easy enough to track the little dickens down and invite it to join you on the beach for some artistic action in the sand. Naturally, you're going to want some tools to help you build your masterpiece – they're not absolutely necessary, but it's likely you'll reach greater heights of artistic splendor if you invest in some simple aids.
Professional sand builders have an extensive tool kit that includes a variety of blades and implements; as an amateur, you can probably do fine with a big spoon and a bucket. It's not out of the question for you to browse some of the gift and curio shops along the Malecon to find a child's beach play set, complete with plastic bucket and shovel, plastic starfish (for the moat) and small plastic boats (races!).