It s a good day to go to town.
We actually slept in a bit since the new room is away from all the resort circus. Yulia took a walk and i did some writing and a bit of email catchup, then went down to the pool to meet her. she had walked along the beach to the resort next door to check it out. It’s brand new but has a far worse beach than our resort. Or place is actually one of the older ones here, and has a great beach. it confirms a suspicion that i had that the newest resorts seem to get built on whatever land is leftover. I see this in a lot of reviews of new amazing properties that you can’t actually swim at. Good land goes fast.
We tried to grab Breakfast and get out of the resort a bit early, but Petru had a meeting he couldn’t skip (he’s working a few days while here) and we needed to rebook our excursion for the next day. It took longer than expected. We grabbed a table at the terrace buffet while we waited for Petru – it’s a better buffet and had a view of the filthy children at the pool and their drunken parents. Thankfully the terrace itself kept them away and we could throw fruit at the ones who tried to approach us. Not really but I was sorely tempted.
We also had to wait at the travel desk a bit since they got busy. we were able to cancel our city tour, and get a boat tour all setup. Keeping fingers crossed for the weather – too much heat or too much rain could be an issue. We will see how that goes. We walked across the lobby and caught a taxi from the bellhop. It as almost an hour to the Romantic District of Puerto Vallarta. The distance isn’t that long overall, but the road to the resort is pretty worn out and slow. Once we hit the main highway we made better time.
I recognized when we passed the Cruise Dock – last time we were here was on a cruise. from the land we could really see how big the town is. It’s really a beautiful and modern town. I was impressed. The Romantic District had really gorgeous cobblestone streets. All along the waterfront were courtyards with small vendors – along with bigger shops and the tourist clubs and bars. We loved it. PV has an amazing promenade. we walked for over a mile down the waterfront. The streets were Cobblestone and narrow, and there was a lot of artwork along the buildings – Murals, Sculptures, etc. There was a really beautiful church about halfway down the boardwalk. (When is there not a church? Those damn things are like Starbucks)
We were looking for the old area where we went the first time on our cruise visit, but I suspected that it had long since been rebuilt with something new. “new” at this point could be 15 years old and rebuilt a second time for all we knew. there was a lot of new construction and remodels here. PV has really stood out since there isn’t much in really bad shape. It always seems like wherever we go there is under construction. things were in great shape here and building more. We walked further to a hotel that Sasha and Petru went to on their own trip.
This hotel had a restaurant on the deck that had the tables sitting in water, so your feet were soaking while you ate. We got a table right on the corner with an amazing view of the harbor, downtown Puerto Vallarta, and the water. This place really turned up the upscale. Since your feet were in water they gave you little bags for your shoes, and a stand by your table to hold those and your bags. All the cocktails were in house specialty and many include wine that was matched to the various dishes. Petru ordered one that had toasted sticks to produce a smoky flavor. Of course the waiter couldn’t get those lit because all of those Crème Brulé torches are cursed to never light when you want. The food was top notch – everything prepared fresh. We had some fish dishes, soft shell crab tacos, Ceviche, etc. It was all great even if the salsas were all 5-alarm.
Eventually the sun did get the best of us. even with feet soaking in water we left due to being too hot more than anything else. No matter what we couldn’t escape the fact that we had walked a long way in the sun and it wasn’t cooling off any time soon. We left and went downstairs to grab an Uber back to the resort. I scrolled through the uber list – and picked the best option available – an Uber XL.
The car arrived – and it wasn’t all that XL. Or L for that matter. M was a stretch. We got in and headed back. It was a 50 minute drive from town to the resort. I have noticed that pretty much every car in Mexico has the Check Engine light on – and this was no exception. We asked the driver to turn up the A/C and he seemed a bit nervous at the idea – but gave us an extra fan speed. It didn’t seem to cool any better, but it did make more noise so that was better I guess. There was an interesting noise when he accelerated. Something was definitely not right with the car. Our driver was a young kid. and he was trying pretty hard – he knew where to avoid the slowdowns and was making good time, so I was happy to ignore the rest. He did manage to get us back without breaking down, and shaved off about 10 minutes from the drive. I think it only cost him one wheel bearing.
I gave him 5 stars and a tip. Kid needed it.
Once back we cleaned up and went back to swimming. The skies were dark again – so we got out of PV at the right time. After a while we got hungry and were looking for somewhere to get a bit. we walked about but finally went up to the Member’s Lounge. It was located at the top of the highest point in the resort, on a cliff facing the ocean. It only had a bar but we could order room service up there. We did just that and sat down on the patio. Facing the ocean we watched the sun slowly set – changing the clouds to pink as the skies cleared just a bit. It was a perfect view for the night. A racoon came up after a while and Yulia tried to train him with food. He just stole the food, made noises and ran off.
Once the sun went down we did the same.
Cognitive Dissonance 