Sunday, October 28, 2012

Today we took a walk up Isla Cuale to look for the new pedestrian bridge linking Isla Cuale to Gringo Gulch.

Rick on the bridge over the Cuale River to Gringo Gulch.

Richard Burton bought Liz Taylor a home, Casa Kimberly, in Gringo Gulch and a home for himself across the street when they were filming Night of the Iguana. He had a pink bridge built between the two homes so they could discreetly meet.

 We walked around the corner to find Hacienda San Angel, a highly recommended Boutique Hotel that has amazing meals. There is a funky rope connected to a little pulley that you pull and it rings a huge bell in a tower inside the compound. Pretty amazing. We got a quick look around and made reservations for another night.

This pulley contraption rings the large bell in a tower inside. Pretty incredible!

Next we stopped by the Cheeky Monkey for a $1 beer and a view of the Malecon.

After a dip in the pool tp cool off, we headed to El Torito to watch the Bronco Saints game. Fun to watch them actually win!

Friday, October 26, 2012

--> We took a trip to the Flea Market today and browsed around. So much for sale! After finding a gift, we headed to Cafe Roma. The sign outside is pretty funny. Needless to say, I did not leave Rick there for Daycare!

 

Pata is the pretty little parrot at Roma's and he is very friendly. 

As we walked home, Ruth found some kids to give a few of the Beanie Babies to. Last summer she bought Beanie Babies at garage sales and brought 76 down in her carry-on luggage (10 pounds worth!). 

One shopkeeper was so tickled with the gift to the owner's child that he gave Ruth some sugared nuts that he had for sale. The apartment balconies near the flea market were so colorful.

We crossed the rickety bridge over the Cuale River and ended up right at the Fish Market, where we bought some more large shrimp for later. Lots of fish for sale, mahi mahi, red snapper and tons of shrimp.

At night we met Jorgen and Kathe for mojitos at Joe Jack's Fish Shack. Such good mojitos...ginger, strawberry and pineapple that we stayed for dinner. Later we had Kahlua and cream on the beach. Wonderful evening with our friends!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Lazy day today. We walked over to Amapas Street in search of fresh salsa. Mary had given us a tip on a little tienda there. Then we hung around the rooftop pool and read. Ruth swam some laps. Getting the bathing cap on is pretty ridiculous. It kept snapping off. For dinner we walked to the corner chicken store and bought the dinner: a roasted chicken, potatoes, chilies, rice, salsa verde. All for 114 pesos, which is a little less than $10. We stopped at another little store on the way home and bought a salad to share and two chocolate tarts. We have enough left over for a few more meals.

Beautiful sunset tonight....first pretty one. There has been so much humidity that the sun just goes behind some clouds and is gone.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Grocery shopping day. We walked up the Malecon to Leys and admired the statues, some new, and the stonework on the walkway that we had watched them setting by hand a year ago. Looks great!

A view south on the Malecon.

Beautiful stonework.

Ready for Dia de los Muertos!

Rick loves eagles.

More pool time in the afternoon. Dinner tonight, just the two of us, at The Blue Shrimp, which is a few blocks from our condo.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

We have enjoyed relaxing these first several days either around the rooftop pool, on the beach at The Sea Monkey under a palapa or on our balcony overlooking Banderas Bay.

Rick is ready to cool off

Ruth bought a pendant for herself and a gift from a beach vendor, but did not bargain for the very lowest price, as is the expectation here. There are not many tourists and many of the Mexicans depend on tourism dollars.
 
 This evening we met our new friends, Jesus and Mariela of Peru, for dinner at Esquina del los Caprichos, one of our longtime favorites. It is a tiny, funky, artsy little tapas bar owned by a woman from Barcelona and he Mexican husband. After a delicious meal with sangria, we got a tour of the kitchen and the soon to be opened rooftop patio. Jesus is a Federal Agent stationed in Peru who comes to Denver now and then, so we may see them another time.

Love this doorway.

Great planter for bromiliads!

Jesus y Mariela

Whales' Tales

The owner & chef.

Fall 2012 Puerto Vallarta Trip ~ Saturday - Monday

 We arrived on Saturday, October 20th for our 27 day stay in Puerto Vallarta. We will be spending two weeks in the condo we rent every year on Los Muertos Beach. We wish we could own one here. Such a great location for exploring Old Town Vallarta! Then we will move to our second home away from home ~ Lindo Mar just south of town in Conchas Chinas. Barb and Bill will be treating us to a one bedroom condo timeshare, as we share our condo with them the week before. They will have their own one bedroom Lindo Mar condo ~ hopefully side by side. Our last relaxing week will be spent at Ocho Cascadas, the most amazing spot ever.

Tile work on our condo's lanai.

The new pier on Los Muertos Beach is nearing completion. We are not sure if we are loving it yet. It seems so massive. I want to see what they do with the sails they are going to install later. Verdict is out on this

The new pier on Los Muertos Beach

On Sunday we headed to the Plaza in front of the church of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Every Sunday at 6:00 pm the  Civic Band plays dance music and the citizens come out for dancing. It is very fun to watch them enjoy the beauty of their city. We saw a little gal following her grandfather (maybe). He was playing a percussion gourd and she was banging two sticks together to help out. Very cute.

Helping the Band

 

Dancing in the Park

Rick and I have been looking forward to seeing our friends from Canada, Kathe and Jorgan. We have Skyped a couple of times before the trip. They will be staying two weeks in Conchas Chinas at their timeshare. It is a beautiful location. For our first get together, they came by our condo on Monday for drinks and snacks before heading out into Old Town for dinner. Amazingly enough, Kathe and I had very similar outfits on, down to our (cheap) white watches. Mine cost $10.48 and hers was $15.00. Too funny! We all had great mariscos at Mariscos Polo...red snapper, shrimp, mahi mahi...yum!

Almost Twins

I like Kathe's better.

Hungry Ricky?

Great baby red snapper!

A very tall waiter!

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.