Day 16 - Thurs 4th Apr 2024
Participants: Tam & Kev
Awake at 7.00 am as we arrive in Puerto Vallarta. Tam has already snuck out and gone to the gym again! I'm starting to worry, this is not mormal behaviour for her. She showers and we get ready for our day out in Puerto Vallarta. The plan is to get a taxi into town then just stroll around browsing the market stalls, eating out and drinking at a few bars and maybe buying a bottle of tequila.
We have a light
breakfast in the buffet and we're off the ship at 8.30 am. An
Uber is easily available once you find the pick up point which is
just outside the port gates and costs around £3.
We are dropped off at the start of the Malecon (promenade along
the sea front) and walk along taking in the many sculptures along
the way.
Ah, but which one's the old nag?
It's the exact
opposite of Huatulco, built up with loads of hotels, bars,
restaurants and shops. There are also lots of stalls with Mexican
things and we buy Charlie a birthday present of a day of the dead
skull in Green Bay Packer colours.
We walk through a pretty square and look inside a small church on
the other side before moving on to the flea market located on the
Isla Cuela, a small islend surrounded by the Cuela River on both
sides. Everywhere we have been so far has been really nice and
we're pleasantly surprised by how much we are enjoying it all.
It's time for our first food and drink in Puerto Vallarta. I'd looked at a few places to go and chosen the Blue Shrimp as our first stop as it is one of the many restaurants alongside the beach. We choose margaritas (of course) and fish cerviche with tostadas. The cerviche is delicous and the margaritas even more so. The server brings glasses with margarita mix in and then begins to freepour tequila into each. There's a fair slug in there before he turns to me and says 'More?'. Yes please! We end up with very strong margaritas.
Love the margarita glasses.
It's a lovely place, but we are on a mission to see more so we set off along the Malecon again. We come across a very modern looking pier and walk onto it to watch the boats bobbing in the water while lots of birds fly around and dive into the sea. Looking up and down the beach you can see how busy and built up the area is. It's normally the sort of place that wouldn't appeal to us too much, but we find ourselves really warming to Puerto Vallarta, it's got a really nice feel.
We wander inland a bit to our next stop, a bar called Margarita Time. I wonder what we'll drink here? It's another spot that I'd looked at before we left home and it didn't disappoint. We order maragitas and some mixed tacos. We're surprised when some nachos turn up along with a guy who makes a fresh dip for us. We're told that it comes free if you order food. Nice. It's lovely, simple and fresh.
The margaritas are huge and come in aluminium cups.
The guys behind the bar are great fun and seem to be enjoying themselves as much as the customers especially when Highway to Hell by AC/DC comes on and me and Tam sing along. The barman grabs my video camera and records us before joining in himself. This is a private video and not for public consumption, you can only bear so much humiliation.
We have a
Victoria beer and start chatting to a couple of American guys
next to us that have a small dog. They are so much fun and they
tell us that they have been in Puerto Vallarta since November,
over 5 months and are going home in a couple of days. Their names
are Jobe and Michael and they live just outside Seattle. One of
the saddest things about our conversation is that they are really
frightened that Trump might win a second term in office later in
the year. Being Latino and gay they are concerned how the climate
may change and they are seriously thinking of moving abroad. What
sort of world are we coming to when people fear for themselves
due to their colour or sexuality?
This sounds like it was quite a serious and dour discussion, but
it really wasn't. This is just a small part of a lovely couple of
hours laughing and talking with them. Jobe insists on buying us
more drinks and Tam has a Pineapple Margarita while I have
another beer. They refuse to let us buy them a drink and when we
have to say our farewells Jobe gives us both a big kiss. Lovely
guys. Lovely afternoon in a lovely bar.
Our next stop is in a liqour store. We decided that we would like a nice bottle of tequila to take home and have set a limit of 1000 pesos, about £50. We are staring at the bottles without any clue as to what to get. I ask the lady behind the counter what is good for 1000 pesos, but I guess there is something lost in translation as she shows us the bottles that cost 100 pesos (£5). I'm tempted to buy one just to see what it's like. In the end we pick a bottle of Don Julio Reposado.
It's getting towards the end of our time here, but Tam wants to do a little more shopping before we go back to the ship and buys a brightly painted fish mobile to hang in the garden. We still have time for one more stop at Oscars Restaurant for a final beer.
An Uber gets us back to the ship at 4.00 pm. They take the tequila from us as we board and it will be returned when we leave. The security guy says that it's a good tequila and we'll enjoy it. Drop everything off in the stateroom before heading to the top deck for the sailaway in the sunshine with another beer and a Long Island Iced Tea.
Now you may not
be surprised that things start to get a little hazy from here,
but I do know that we enjoy watching Puerto Vallarta disappear
into the distance before getting something from the grill on deck
- a burger and fries I think. There's no way we're going to go
out for dinner this evening and we'd never planned to do so. The
end of a wonderful day is spent laid out on the sunbeds watching
Aquaman 2 or more correctly Aquaman Poo. It's not a good film.
Not that it matters the merry state we're in.
I go back to the stateroom and get the chocolates left from our
balcony dinner last night and eat these along with another beer.
Tam looks literally legless in this photo.
You won't be surprised to hear that we are back in the room and tucked up in bed at 9.30 pm. Sometimes when you plan holidays things work exactly as you'd hoped and this is one of those days.