It’s been almost a year since my new WooCommerce support team was formed yet we haven’t been to a meetup as a team except for a Team Day at GM 2017. It was finally time for us to get together and work in person for a week so we decided to go to Mexico! I’ve never been to Mexico before and was excited for a week to come.
I landed at Puerto Vallarta Airport on Sunday, March 4th around lunchtime and immediately felt the heat as soon as I got outside. What a nice change after a rather long winter in NYC. A few minutes later I was in the cab on the way to Sayulita which was about 45 minutes away, a small bohemian beach town where we rented a house. The further we were getting away from Puerto Vallarta, the more authentic everything was around. I loved every minute of it and could feel my adventures spirit rising within.
Several wrong turns and a couple of the conversations with the property manager later, we made it to Casa Roca, a beautiful villa with breathtaking views where we were to stay for a week:
My teammates started to arrive one by one just a bit later and it was really nice to get together again in this amazing location after several months of working remotely.
Meet my team!
From left to right, we’ve got Fernando from Mexico, myself, Con from Germany, Phil from Canada and Zach from the US. Lacey and Erica couldn’t make it but they were surely missed!
That night we headed down to the village to have some dinner while catching up with each other’s life. Everything was very authentic and interesting. I’ve never been to Mexico before so I was enjoying every minute of a new place. We picked a local tiny Taco Place and were very happy with it. The tacos were fresh and delicious:
We picked up some groceries as we were done and headed back to the house. Everyone was tired so we called it a night. The exciting work week was ahead of us 🙂
The next morning, we decided to cook breakfast at home so we got up a bit earlier and head to the kitchen:
It turned out to be delicious!
After a yummy breakfast, we got to work. We decided to spend the first half of the day working in the tickets queue answering support requests we received from our users:
We worked for about 4 hours so it was time for lunch. The house came with a golf cart so we’ve been driving it for the entire week to get around. It was a cool addition to the experience for sure. So we head down to the village to grab a lunch. It was warm, sunny and colorful:
Back to the house, we decided to focus on our WooCommerce team project so we spent the rest of the day kicking off the discussion:
We finished the day by 6pm feeling productive and happy with the progress we made. It was time to wind down and head out for a dinner. Oh and grab some pictures of sunset – it was beautiful!
Every night we were trying new restaurants and exploring the area while chatting about work and life:
Evenings were rather quiet at the house as we were pretty tired after working during the day. The house lights were amazing so I am sure people who were staying here before had a really great time partying:
The next morning was similar to the Monday’s – we cooked breakfast and worked the first part of the day on support requests:
Property Manager came by in a bit that day and took our golf cart for maintenance but we got an upgraded ride – a super cool electric “car” 🙂
We kept on working on our WooCommerce team project in the afternoon as the day before and made more progress towards our goal.
Wednesday and Thursday were similar to the days before and by the end of each day, we were feeling productive and accomplished. Since Friday was our Activity Day, on Thursday we had our “Friday Night” happy hour. It felt great to unwind after a week of work and reflect on how it went.
Thursday also happened to be March 8th – an International Women’s Day which I celebrated with a glass of white wine and a beautiful sunset feeling happy to be where I was:
As I mentioned, Friday was our Activity Day – a day which we usually spend with the team while exploring the city. On that day, we decided to take a snorkeling tour to the Isla del Coral which is about an hour away from Sayulita. Our tour guide picked us up at 9:30am downtown and took us to the beach first where were got on a boat to head to the island. We spent few hours there snorkeling and relaxing on the beach. The highlight was definitely a statue of Virgin Mary that we saw underwater while snorkeling there. The crappiest thing I’ve seen in my life!
After the snorkeling trip, few of us went surfing as well and we had a blast!
Tired but happy we made it to our last dinner in Mexico. We spent an evening at a nice restaurant watching a beautiful sunset and reflecting on our week and what’s next to come:
We got back to the house and played some board games to finish off the week.
The week flew by and it was the morning of the day we were heading back home:
I said my goodbyes and headed to the airport. This was a super productive, interesting and fun week so I can’t wait to see my teammates again. Until next time friends!
If you are interested in working with us and making the web and the world a better place, join us as we are hiring.
Cheers!
NYC. Tech. Traveling. Art 