As we spend our last few days here we feel a tinge of sadness at the thought of leaving. In what at first seemed to be a village with not much to offer we've found very friendly locals, we befriended a couple of Americans living here, and we've settled into a regular routine with our favorite walking routes and places to stop for a cold drink in the afternoon.
This has been a full and varied week:
Our friends Larry and Joanie, who we mentioned in a previous blog, were visiting their friends in Puerto Vallarta for two weeks so we had the opportunity to see them a couple more times. When we were all sail-cruising Mexico in 2000, Joanie had written a couple articles for a California-based sailing magazine and she's always encouraged me in my writing efforts. (Thanks Joanie!) She had learned about a writer's group that meets every Saturday in Puerto Vallarta and invited me to attend a meeting with her last weekend. We didn't know what to expect from the meeting and discovered a thriving group of writers made of both full-time and seasonal PV residents from North America and Europe. Those 50 people at the meeting are but a small part of their membership. They are hosting a conference next month with Linda Ellerbee as the keynote speaker. Anyone curious can see the group's website here:
John went to a boaters swap meet with Larry and George while Joanie and I were at the meeting. Then Winnie joined in and we all went to lunch at a little restaurant tucked back in the Mexican community of Jarretadera. We'd never be able to find that place again without Larry leading the way!
Another day earlier this week, John and I drove into PV to do a "dry run" of how we will pass through the city with the trailer when we head south in a couple days. What an experience with just the truck--it's going to be a REAL adventure with the entire rig! There is a bypass for Hwy 200 that avoids the downtown / old town center of Puerto Vallarta but getting from here to there still requires quite of bit of driving through the busy congested city streets. No way do you want to get stuck in the narrow cobblestone streets of old town with an RV!!! One of our stops for that day was Costco--we're still looking for M&Ms for John-- and along the way we discovered a very nice, newer residential area with wide, smoothly paved roads that COULD lead us the way we need to go but in an effort to keep that area quiet, big rigs (trucks, busses, etc) and towing of any kind are not permitted.
After driving around for about 2 hours, we think we've got our route planned. After determining there really was no other way than the congested central street leading toward downtown, we then needed to find the exact location of the left turn to the bypass road.
Sounds straight forward, right? I think we've described the "lateral lanes" before--one or two lanes, seperate from but parallel to the main lanes. Strange as it may seem, left hand turns are usually made from these lateral lanes on the far right-hand side of the street but in this instance our left turn to the bypass road is from the central lane. To add to the mix, we've been told that large vehicles are required to stay in the "lateral lanes" through this busy area. So, we first need to be in the far right lateral lanes, then at the appropriate place merge into the central lanes--but not too soon!--in preparation to get over to the left turning lane to the bypass...all this amidst very busy traffic flow, narrow lanes, large delivery trucks and busses, etc. So, we marked each merging point on our GPS. Once we get onto the bypass, it's fairly smooth going except for 2 narrow tunnels and about 8 blocks of "old town", complete with cobblestone streets, pedestrians, cars parked along the sides, etc. No doubt, it's going to be an exciting morning! Whew!!
After we got all that figured out, we explored a little along the downtown waterfront. PV's downtown consists of two areas: the tourist area full of shops, restaurants, and nightclubs-all in buildings constructed since the "discovery" of PV after the 1964 movie "Night of the Iguana" starring Richard Burton, and la zona romantica ("the romantic zone"-that's really what it's called!) where there are more of the same but all housed in old-town buildings, some 100 or more years old. These two areas are side-by-side but seperated by the River Cuale. A few years ago Puerto Vallarta was hit by a hurricane and the downtown waterfront was severly damaged. A blessing in disguise! A 5-story parking structure has been built and the malecon (wide sidewalk) along the beach has been widened and extended, including a pedestrian bridge over the river, making it possible to walk continuously for about 1.5 miles along the water's edge. When we were here in 2000, this was very challenging with the wheelchair as there were no curb cuts and the pavement was old, cracked and uneven. To make it even better this time, we had the scooter with us and carried the wheelchair too. Where ever we go we get lots of curious looks and "thumbs up" signals.
On our way home from Puerto Vallarta we stopped to see Daniel, the guy we'd met up with in Nogales, AZ and we'd all crossed the border together. He's the guy I mentioned who is working here now as a boat broker. He's loving life in Mexico and is making plans to stay long-term.
After our long and stressful day driving in Puerto Vallarta we were happy to arrive back "home". We have developed an afternoon routine of walking a certain loop through town. We found a lovely little spot for our afternoon bebidas (drinks): We usually have a coke and a beer--bet you can't guess who drinks what--with a tip included costs $30 pesos (about $2.50us) One day I had no coins, only a $50 peso bill and she didn't have change (it's common that no one has change) but that's all I had so she said to just come back the next day to pay. So, we did and had a delicious lunch too! That was the first time we'd eaten there. It as very good, prepared in her VERY BASIC kitchen there on the sand.
(There are more pics of this little place in the web album, linked at the bottom.)
One day while we were taking our daily walk through town we chatted with a woman from Colorado. She, her husband and 10-year-old son are living here in Lo de Marcos for one school year to give their son the cultural immersion experience. They've rented a simple beach-front house. Her husband travels home about once per month on business. She said the school materials lag a bit behind compared to 4th grade at home but their son is thriving and having a wonderful time here. We've also befriended a retired couple who have RV'd in Mexico for years but due to health issues have simply rented a house here for a couple of months to avoid the stress of driving the RV down but still enables them to enjoy all the pleasures of being in Mexico.
In addition to our afternoon walks, we continue to enjoy evening strolls through town a few nights each week. Since the holidays have passed, there isn't quite as much activity but all the shops are open and we love the food sold from the street vendors. Last night we were sitting along the sidewalk sharing a plate of tacos when we were pleasantly surprised by the Mexican couple, Noa and Esthela, who own the RV park we stayed at in Celestino (up north of Mazatlan) stopping by to say hi. They are having a weekend holiday and noticed us there. That was a pleasant surprise!
One highlight of this week was an evening we spent out with a large group of RVers from this park. One guy organized about 40 of us--pre-arranged for the taxi vans, etc--and we all went to a restaurant about 15 miles north of here. It is a newer business, owned and operated by a very musically-inclined Mexican family. The brothers have a great band that plays the best of '60-70s rock'n'roll mixed with great Mexican music. Most people may think of Mariachi music when they think of Mexican music but there is so much more to it than that, which we've hearing. We love the romantic classical guitar style, especially when it has a bit of a Cuban / Salsa flair to it! Part of the family does all the cooking and restuarant duties while the band entertains. The children dance too! There were three very young girls, dressed and dancing in very contrasting styles but so adorable! The girl in the green dress stole my heart. Her face always had such a serious look as she seemed to be concentrating on the steps to her classical style. The other girl very quickly imitated baby-boomers as they did "The Swim" or line danced. It was great fun and we had lots of laughs. John and I even danced to a couple of slow songs. As we were leaving I told the lead singer that they were fantastic but we really liked the Mexican music the best.
A few final notes:
Because it is legal to ride in the back of a pickup and hitchhiking is so common here that everyone does it, both young and old, we are now regularly picking up hitchhikers. This week we picked up a young couple headed toward Guadalajara with their backpacks and guitars. We took them 15 miles up the road, as far as our destination, and left them at a gas station to catch their next ride.
When we left Costco the other day our bill was about $850 pesos which seemed high since we'd bought very little. But when we did our calculation later, we realized that because the peso has devalued against the dollar making even the "Kirkland" products carry a higher price tag here than Costco in the US, the price was about right. Even though we've adjusted our thinking to pesos versus dollars, $850 still sounds so high but really it was only about $61us.
I've finally added more pictures to the web album of this beautiful RV park where we are staying so you can see those in addition to more pics added to the Lo de Marcos album. You can know what pictures you will be seeing by the final words on each link at the end of the blogs:
http://picasaweb.google.com/dealegria1961/LaPenitaDiningAndDancing
http://picasaweb.google.com/dealegria1961/PuertoVallarta#
http://picasaweb.google.com/dealegria1961/LoDeMarcos#
http://picasaweb.google.com/dealegria1961/LoDoMarcosCampground#
1 comment:
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.... sigh............................
Yo estuve allí que deseen.... pronto...
Brazos,
su hermana
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