Friday October 28, 2011

This evening we dined at Marisco Polo's before going to Ballena Azul to meet JR and the other Tripadvisor people for JR's Cantina Crawl.

JR - our leader

We had met Pat and Don earlier at the Vista del Sol pool. She and I had talked on Tripadvisor about our upcoming trip. JR leads people through out of the way cantinas that a tourist would never find. We had a great time connecting screen names with real people and then touring four little cantinas. Very fun evening.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

We took a walk in search of a mojito, but Joe Jax Fish Shack was closed for some repair. We ended up at Dacquiri Dick's for some very delicious cocktails. We enjoyed them so much we had another. And then...a nap!

 We headed to the pier for our Rhythms of the Night tour with Vallarta Adventures toward evening. We had a nice (and wind) ride to Las Caletas Beach.

 We love this tour. They seat you in little palapas for a really great buffet dinner. Yummy! Then they send you to the outdoor theatre. The show was different this year (we had been once years ago). They had some very talented dancers and the show was very entertaining.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

We spent a day at the beach at The Sea Monkey. New palapas and cold beer! Geoff and Gail stopped by. Barb bought some turquoise earrings. Ruth wanted a branch coral bracelet, but resisted. After the beach, we hit the pool to cool off. Lots of reading and crosswording was accomplished today. Back at home, we all gathered at the wifi Hot Spot of #611!

Another beautiful sunset from our balcony. We all enjoyed making up tales about the flirtatious couple who met at The Sea Monkey that day. We got a lot of mileage out of that.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Bill and Barb arrived today around noon. We took a quick trip to Ley's and got stocked up with groceries. While enjoying Happy Hour on the balcony, the Marigalante snuck up on BIll. Lupe came to Vista del Sol and cooked a delicious dinner for us. A great first day with friends!

Monday, October 24, 2011

We went to visit Geoff and Linda Dear at their Selva Romantica condo. What a beautiful place. Mature trees all around the grounds and a beautiful infinity pool. I should have taken more pictures!

 Later we met Geoff and Linda and Geoff and Gail at Sea Monkey. G and G had just gotten into town today. Fun visiting.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Today we watched Tebow start his first Bronco game....and they won! We watched the game at Nacho Daddy's. Afterwards we bought a rotisserie chicken dinner on the corner near Rizo's. Hit the rooftop pool. A good day!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Taking it easy today. Reading, playing cards, a swim on the rooftop pool. Tapas for dinner at Esquina de los Caprichos. It is owned by a woman from Barcelona and her husband. It was fun for us to see pictures of Park Guell and Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, since we had just seen them in person in May. We walked the Malecon extension to get to Esquina and watched this man balancing rocks. Pretty amazing.

On the way home we caught a choir concert in the grandstand and saw a wedding at the church.

Sunday, October 21, 2011

We moved yesterday to the condo we rent each year in Vista del Sol. The Sea Monkey has replaced Epoca as the beach restaurant. It is doing a great business. The food is very good...we had a quesadilla...and the beers and drinks are $1.00. Can't beat that price! The Marigalante is always to be seen from our balcony

We met Geoff, Linda, Kathe & Gurgen at the Sea Monkey for a drink before dinner. We ate at No Way Jose. Geoff and I love the Chili en Nogada. So good! Had another rain storm and had to move inside their new patio cover.

After dinner we walked through the Zona Romantica to Nacho Daddy's for some live music and dancing.

We had a very fun last night with our newest Canadian friends, Kathe and Gurgen, who are headed home Monday.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

On Ticketmaster, Ruth had purchased tickets for the Beach Volleyball Semi Finals of the Pan American Games. The games began at 1:00 on a VERY hot day. We sat in that intense sun in the metal stands...wow...so hot. Every 20 minutes or so you would hear a siren. The firemen would then start squirting the crowd with a big fire hose. It was really funny...I would hide my purse, we would remove our glasses and then turn to the hose to get nice and wet. We left soaking wet!

 We watched three matches. Mens: Brazil vs Domincan Republic and Mexico vs. Canada. Womens: Brazil vs Canada. We predicted that both Brazilian teams would win. I am sure the finals were CRAZY with Mexico playing!!

After the games, we walked to the Malecon and had an early dinner at Melissa's. Great tortilla soup!

Back at Ocho Cascadas that night we had an intense thunder storm. We watched the lightening and sheets of rain by candle light. I had been hoping for a big rain while we were there!

Monday, October 17, 2011

Geoff and Linda Dear and two of their friends, Kathe and Gurgen came up where we had dinner cooked for us in the Villa by the Ocho Cascadas floating chef, Lupe. We had a wonderful meal. Rick and I really enjoyed meeting the Larsens, who are Danes living in Vancouver.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

We made our way to the town plaza near the Malecon for the Sunday evening concert by the Puerto Vallarta Municipal Band. It is a fun event. People from the city come out and dance. We watched one caballero who was dressed to the nines with yellow cowboy boots ask several ladies to dance, with no success. Pretty soon an old guy came up and danced with him. It was pretty hilarious to watch this odd couple finish the song.

We watched the sunset from the Malecon.

For dinner we tried two restaurants to find they were closed. Found this beautiful tiled staircase leading to a beautiful, garden setting restaurant.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Here we are in Puerta Vallarta again. We look forward to our annual Fall trip. This year we got a long anticipated timeshare trade into a resort called Ocho Cascadas. The architect, Ed Giddings, designed his building that resembles a nautilus shell with 8 infinity pools that cascade down the hillside.

Here is a You Tube video of Ocho Cascadas Villa #7 - not ours, but similar.
Ocho Cascadas Villa Seven

We are in Villa #3, the largest of the Villas after the penthouse. This resort has exceeded our expectations. The pictures do not do it justice.