Jellyfish in Puerto Vallarta?

I was bit/stung by what the locals called 'malagua' but they didn't have tentacles that I could discern, so it may not have been the same critter. They were kinda bunched in a string and looked like a string of ice cubes for lack of a better description. I barely noticed it and thought it might have abrasions from body surfing.
As far as remedies go, I learned in advanced first aid to urinate on a sting, as the ammonia neutralizes the venom.

A friend of my wife's got stung once and my wife told her she should've peed on it. Her friend replied, 'I couldn't, it swam away'

Nope! Lots of varieties of Jellyfish from the clear non stinging ones to some really nasty guys.
They mostly drift with the current/tide and vary at different times
Once in the British Virgins when we dove the "Rhone" we had to dive through about 50 feet of the non stinging kind that just dissolved in one's hands. An incredible experience! This was the day before the ship was closed to film the movie "The Deep" back in the late 70's.

PS I have been told that by professional divers the Urine remedy is a Old Wife's Tale but have no personal knowledge or experience on the subject.

dg27, I always check the sand for washed up jellyfish, it is usually the small purpleish/ clear ones that drift with the tides and winds, you know they make a anti sting / uv friendly swim suit...here is a link:

https://www.ecostinger.com

Thanks for your replies ElPelon and stewbear.

I've also heard about pee remedy and some says it's good for a few laughs and nothing else, while others swear by it.

I'm not interested in debating that--we're just trying to figure out how to avoid it in the future. (She swam in loose fitting pants I bought in India that have gathered ankles; that seemed to prevent it the last two days we were there.)

bajadude,

We checked the sand each day and there was nothing we could see.

Thanks so much for the link! She'll be glad to get one of these. She swims in pools when there is no other option, but greatly prefers the sea.

I find in some topical waters I experience hundreds of stinging sensations and have been told authoritively that they are due to stinger larvae or commonly known as sea-lice. They are too small to be seen and although they don't mark my skin, some people are left with marks and rashes. To me swimming through the water, it feels like hundreds of pinpricks, harmless but uncomfortable. They're prevalent in warm summer seas and particularily where there is alot of seaweed. I think if OP problems were due to grown jellyfish then there would be visible evidence of them, either alive in the sea or washed up dead.

It probably is an old wives tale. That's why they taught it in first aid rather than med school. But that was a long time ago. The Heimlich maneuver used to be taught too.

Thanks for the reply.

In my wife's case the stings are a series of equidistant red marks spaced about 1/4 inch apart in a row, consistently 3-4 inches long. This agrees with what I read online about the tentacle brushing, say, the leg. It looks nothing like a rash: 12 hours later it looks like a track of some sort. And from what I've read (as I noted above) some jellyfish will be thumb-sized and translucent (not like the Man-of-War variety).

The water where we were swimming had absolutely no seaweed, btw.