Puerto Vallarta

Sorry for the delay; this blogging is hard work. We've finished our journey now, but I still want to tell the rest of the story so I have an update today and then probably two more posts to finish it up.

6 - 9 March

Our bus from Zihua to Puerto Vallarta was late. We got to Vallarta around 11:30 am and called and talked to Catherine. She told us to catch a bus back to the center of town. We had passed right by their neighborhood but we didn't know where to get off. The bus station is 4 km on the other side of town and a taxi is $10. We found the bus and lugged our suitcases on. We were the only ones on the bus and things seemed to be going well at first. The bus was following the reverse of the path we had come out on. Then it turned off onto a dirt road and began a crazy path through colonias. It picked up a lot of school kids and soon filled up. It ended up taking an hour-and-a-half to go 4 km. We didn't really mind the long trip but we felt bad that Judy was waiting for us.

Piedra

Once we met up with Judy she helped us find a hotel in her neighborhood. Hotel Iris, $25. We left our stuff there and then went to Catherine and Judy's apartment. It's a great little place. Catherine has a sweet little chihuahua named Piedra. She makes and sells fleece chihuahua sweaters because apparently the little buggers are always cold. The five of us (including Piedra), went to a little taco stand around the corner and had some yummy fried fish and shrimp tacos which Judy was kind enough to buy for us.

Catherine went home after that but Judy played tour guide for us. She showed us the island in the middle of the river which you get to by crossing a little suspension bridge. There are a ton of tourist shops there. Stuff is much more expensive than further south. Then she took us to the Malecon, which is a seawall walk that goes for about a kilometer in front of the city. We stopped for ice cream and then walked on some more. When we spotted a sign for $1 beers we of course had to make a pit stop. We got to the second floor bar and found out they also had $1 margaritas. I figured it would be a little plastic cup, but it was a good-sized margarita glass and not bad.

Puerto Vallarta Zoo

We continued our walk along the Malecon and saw some nice bronze sculptures and also sand sculptures. Then we went back to our hotel and got ready to go out to the Santa Barbara Theater where Judy and Catherine work. Judy got us free tickets to the show, which was a tribute to Bob Fosse. On the way there we stopped at a taco stand for some of the best food we've had. It's incredible the food you can buy off the street in Mexico.

The place was sold out but Judy had gotten us two chairs but no table. It was comfortable enough though. There was no set for this show and no costume changes, just the dancers interpreting various Bob Fosse numbers. The Director and choreographer, both Mexican, were also in the show. The rest of the dancers seemed to be Gringos. The crowd, all older than us, were familiar with the tunes and I could see them singing along and really getting into it. We enjoyed ourselves. After the show we went upstairs to the bar and had a few beers. We chatted a little with the owner of the theater and some of the other staff. We didn't get back to our hotel until 11:30.

We got to sleep and were happily dozing until about 1:30 in the morning when someone opened our locked door and said "What are you guys doing here?" in accented English. It was a couple, an older man with a young woman. Alaine had woken up while he was unlocking the door, and had been yelling at them to go away, but I was so fast asleep that I woke up at the moment they were standing in the doorway. We responded that this was our room and he said no it was his. Finally he left. We were so freaked out we didn't know what to do. I locked the door again and we finally got back to sleep with no more disturbances. In the morning we talked to the night watchman about it and he said that the guy had gone with the key and not paid for another night or something. They assured us that all the keys were now in their possession so we would not be disturbed again.

Punta Mita: Alaine, Catherine holding Piedra, Noble, Judy

We had plans to go whale-watching with Judy and Catherine, and her little dog too. They knew how to get the bus to Punta de Mita, so we let them be the tour guides again. We got there around 11:15 and some guys were already at the bus stop asking about doing a tour. They wanted $120 for the trip. We said we'd like to wait and see if we could get more people to go so we could reduce the cost. While we waited we had some beers at a beach-side restaurant. Catherine got some chips to feed to Piedra. After about an hour-and-a-half we found a family from Saskatchewan with two boys who wanted to go.

We went out and did see whales, although not as close as I would have liked, but it was a fun outing. We got back and had lunch at the restaurant and then went back to town around 6.

We changed out of our sandy clothes and went to a little pizza place we had scoped out the day before that had $1 beers on Saturdays and WiFi. I believe it was called Pizza Roma. We ended up staying there until closing.

Next morning we slept in and then got packed up and left our stuff downstairs while we headed over to see Judy and Catherine. We all went out to the fish taco place again and then they showed us a great store with nuts and dried fruits where we stocked up for the train trip.

They came back to our hotel with us where we sat in the lobby and drank beers we bought next door until it was time for us to go. They took us to the bus stop and made sure we got on a bus that would get us to the station in 30 minutes.

It seems to me that there are two Puerto Vallartas. Walking around the town center doesn't seem that much different from any other Mexican city and the people are wonderfully friendly, but when you get to the shore and see all the high-rises you get a different and, for us at least, unpleasant feeling. Condo billboards advertise "Life built around you", while in the town center it seems that life is built around a community.

Puerto Angel

We're in Zihuatanejo now. I'm sitting in "Rick's Bar" drinking Pacifico and listening to live music. But first I'm going to tell you about Puerto Angel.

Puerto Angel Bay

We arrived in Pochutla at about 5:30 and shared a taxi with an Italian couple, Daniele (website) and Erika (website) and who were on the bus with us to get to Puerto Angel. The four of us had a beer next to the naval station on the bay, then Erika and Alaine went to look at a hotel that was nearby. It was nice but a little pricey. Then Erika and I went to check out another hotel called Puesta del Sol that was a little farther away. It seemed nice and at $15 for a double the price was right. We went back to get our parejas and then checked in. Alaine and I drank beer in the hammocks they had set up on a little deck there and the Italians joined us a little later. We talked about dinner plans and decided to check out a nearby restaurant called Beto's that was recommended in our guide book and also by the people at the hotel. The food was alright but a little overpriced. It was nice that they gave us a lot of vegetables, something you don't see much in Latin America.

When we got back to the hotel the rooms were very hot, even with the ceiling fans. The place was made of concrete with a tile roof and I guess it was absorbing heat all day. Daniele, Erika and I fell asleep in the hammocks for a while, but Alaine went straight to bed. I woke up about 11 when it seemed that every dog in the town was barking and moved to the bedroom. Alaine and I were more accustomed to hot nights, I guess, or maybe we just had more to drink, but we slept OK. In the morning we found out that Erika had hardly slept and she was still perspiring even though it seemed relatively cool to us.

Alaine and I got ready and walked in to the center of town and had breakfast, then headed for a beach called Eustacahuitle. It was a bit of a hike in the hot sun, but when we got there we found cold beer and a beautiful little bay waiting with three little beaches. I didn't bring the camera, sorry. We met a gringo there named Scott, who was snorkeling between drinking Coronas. We had a couple of Coronas ourselves while we watched the bay. A boatload of tourists came in to snorkel and we didn't want to share the space with them so we had more beers while we waited.

While we were waiting we spotted three or four whales about 300 meters out. We watched them for about 5 minutes. It was the first time for either of us to see whales. We rented snorkels for $1 an hour and went in snorkeling after that. The waves were a little high and the water stirred up, but it was still nice. The water temperature was perfect. After we got out and had another beer and were getting ready to leave, Scott offered us a ride back to town which saved us from another blazing hot walk.

We got back to the hotel and hung out there a while. Erika and Daniele left us a note that they had moved on to Zipolite. I typed some of the previous entry but couldn't get online because the owner wasn't there to give me the code. Alaine went looking to see if we could rent bicycles anywhere but that's a service that Puerto Angel doesn't offer. The guy at the bike repair shop said he might rent us his and a friend's the next day.

Sunset on Ziploite Beach

We wandered down to the beach in town and watched some guys playing soccer, then went in to town looking for dinner and finally found a place that had tlayudas, which is kind of like a pizza made on a tortilla then folded in half. We split one of those. After that back to the hotel and played Skip-Bo and then tried to sleep in the hammocks again for a while before going to our room.

The next morning we went to the same place for breakfast. we checked about the bikes but the guy hadn't come through, so we took a taxi to Zipolite after checking out of the hotel. We planned to take the bus to Acapulco at 9 pm. Zipolite was nice. A long, wide beach with big waves. We walked along until we found a place with two-for-one drinks (of course), stopped there and then walked to the end of the beach. We came back to the place with the drinks as that seemed the best spot for swimming. I was able to body surf a little bit, but the waves were very big and I couldn't catch them like I usually do, as they're breaking. I had to try to jump in after they crashed and I'm not practiced at that. Still, it was a lot of fun. We split a pasta dish at the restaurant and had more 2x1 mojitos and people-watched. People watching is interesting on Zipolite because a lot of people go nude. In addition to topless girls it was amusing to watch the guys, especially one guy who walked by three times wearing just a cowboy hat and a big grin. It seemed like he was purposely walking in a way to make his wedding tackle swing like a pendulum.

After watching the sunset, we got another taxi back to town, showered and collected our stuff from the hotel and headed for Pochutla to catch our bus.

Itinerary

I realized I haven't mentioned what our plans are for the trip other than to put up a map. The basic idea is to go up the pacific coast of Mexico as far as Los Mochis, where we'll catch the train though Copper Canyon to Chihuahua City. On the way we'll be visiting a few other spots. We had to scrap going to Granada, Nicaragua because the bus doesn't stop there as I thought it did.

We have to overnight in San Salvador anyway but we decided to spend an extra night and take a day trip to Suchitoto, El Salvador which we've heard and read is a nice little colonial town. Lonely Planet says it is like Antigua, Guatemala was before it filled up with tourists. After that we'll go on to Antigua so we can compare. We'll probably stay at least two nights in Antigua so we can rest from our travels. After that we may travel to other spots in Guatemala and finally stop in San Cristóbal de Las Casas in Chiapas, Mexico, a beautiful little town that we didn't have enough time in last year. Then we'll go to Oaxaca, which we skipped last year because there was some unrest there. From there south to the beach at Zipolite, which several people have recommended to us, then up the coast and play it by ear.

When is all this going to occur? We have reserved our tickets for this Wednesday, the 20th. We'll go to San José on Tuesday and get on the bus for San Salvador at 3 am Wednesday morning. We should arrive in San Salvador around 10-11 pm.