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Published: February 7th 2012
Sunday, 29 January. We moved south to Puerto Vallarta. PV, as locals call it, is on the same latitude as Hawaii, has about 350,000 inhabitants including a large number of Americans and Canadians who live here full or part-time. PV, is one of only two Mexican cities that have potable water throughout.
PV has two campgrounds. We returned to the one called Trailer Park Puerto Vallarta where we stayed a couple years ago. We love the friendly hosts and its proximity to town. The park is fairly small. There are only seven rigs in here including us but there is room for many more. The bathrooms are clean and the showers are extremely hot with soft water. What more could you ask for!
Our hosts live in an amazing compound on site and have an assortment of small dogs. Gaby, our landlady raises and sells schnauzer puppies.
Coming into town, we stopped to shop at the Mega (that’s the name) store where Carlos offered to help us find some of the items we were looking for. He spoke excellent English so we asked him about it. He told us he’d lived for 14 years in Longmont, Colorado where
he met and married an American girl. He had lost his job there three years ago so he returned to Mexico to visit his brother in Puerto Vallarta and spent two weeks looking for work. He got the job at the Mega store, his wife and kids came down, his 13 year old son was bullied in school because, although he spoke Spanish, it was with an American accent. Carlos has health insurance but his family does not. Here, he joked, his family are the illegals. Carlos said the cost of living is a lot less here but so are the wages. He says it evens out but he misses Colorado.
Maybe we are on a totally different economy but shopping in the large grocery stores and the small tiendas, Wal-marts to upscale department stores. prices seem to be very close to what we’d pay at home in San Jose.
At Costco, prices for Kirkland brands are the same as we pay at home but meat, fish and poultry are more here. There may be some shipping charges involved in salmon but chicken costs more here too. Curiously, deli and food court items are somewhat higher here as
well. The hot dog and soda, which Costco in the states has maintained at $1.50 since its stores opened, costs at the current exchange rate $1.70. As if labor costs here are higher here than the U.S.! Happily, the food sample practice continues here but instead of vendors being mostly senior citizens, here they were all pretty young women. Shoppers were mostly gringos.
Bottled wine in stores starts at the equivalent of U.S. $ 8 to 10. Not much difference there. By the glass, we also pay about the same as at home. Beer is cheaper in stores here than in California. Tourists can eat, drink beer and mixed drinks for quite a bit less than they can at home. Maybe that is why there are so many of them here.
I can’t comment on hotel prices but our RV sites along the Pacific coast have averaged $25.00 per night. Equivalent digs on the U.S. west coast would cost much more.
As soon as we settled in, we walked an hour each way to downtown Puerto Vallarta, then along the malecon (seawall). As it was Sunday, there were hoards of people out, Mexican families as well as
There must have been some sort of sand castle competition going on.
Actually, the best one was an enormous green iguana, which those of you who know me know I would not normally like a close up of a reptile but we never actually got a chance to photograph it because its creator was constantly working on it.tourists. Puerto Vallarta’s malecon is much improved since we were here three years ago. Vendors were selling all kinds of food but the usual souvenir hawkers were subdued. This has been the case all along the coast. Word must have gone out – selling wares is ok but harassing the tourists is not.
There must be some sort of sand sculpture contest going. There were some amazing exhibits on the beach.
Monday, 30 January, we met our campground neighbors Stan and Marion who generously offered to share their internet connection so we can post our blogs and catch up on e-mail. Stan and Marion have been coming to Mexico for about 30 years and staying in this park for about 10. This loving couple has accumulated about a half dozen abandoned Mexi-cats over the years. The cats travel back and forth from Canada to Mexico each year. We were most taken with Cassandra, a 15 pound lynx Siamese. Cassie plopped herself on both Ray’s and my laps for a time. Their latest acquisition, a three month old tiger striped kitty, Tabitha has one green eye and one blue eye. She entertained us with her antics.
We walked
about an hour and half each way to Tacho’s campground where Paul and Terry are staying. Tacho’s is huge. The restrooms are first class and the pool is beautiful. RV’ers here are overwhelmingly French Canadian. As a rule, Quebecois are unfriendly and generally stick to themselves. Whether this aloofness is due to language barriers with English speaking Canadians and Americans or just a French attitude we, nor other Canadians, don’t know. Maybe it would be judgmental to call folks rude who just look thru you and ignore polite “hellos and “good mornings”.
Mexicans, on the other hand, are always friendly, saying “hola, buenos dias/tardes/noches”, as appropriate to passersby on the sidewalk, etc. Some go as far as to say “como estas” to which the appropriate response is “bien gracias, y usted? ” to which they reply that they are also well. Anyway, we are glad we chose this campground.
That said, Tuesday, 31 January, we again walked downtown where we lunched at Pepe’s Papa Fritas owned by Michel Major. Michel, from Quebec province, opened this fast food operation in September, specializing in poutine, a French Canadian inspired dish consisting of French fries covered with gravy, cheese sauce, and/or
other good things. A web search reveals that poutine is catching on throughout Canada. Comfort food at its best – soon we’ll be seeing it all over the U.S.
From there, we walked the streets of “old town” in search of a wonderful glass shop I’d visited with my friend Alana about five years ago. We eventually found Mundo de Cristal which has an amazing selection of Mexican glassware, silver serving pieces and ceramic bath sinks in Mexican designs.
http://mundodecristal.magix.net/website#Página principal
We finished off the day by catching the Mismaloya bus south to Costa Sur to enjoy Happy Hour at the vacation resort/time share owned by our friends Greg and Alana. Our bartender for the afternoon, Enrique, has worked there for 33 years.
Wednesday, 1 February, we walked an hour and half north to Puerto Vallarta’s marina, had lunch and caught the bus back in time to clean up and join our neighbors Stan and Marion and their friends Al (from Puerto Rico) and Bonnie (from Los Angeles) for dinner at a cute little tapas joint and do Puerto Vallarta’s weekly Wednesday night Art Walk. Al and Bonnie currently make their home in New York state but
spend their winters living in a condo here in PV.
Ground Hog Day, and our one month anniversary in Mexico, we caught the bus to Bucerias. Along the coast until now souvenir hawkers had been pretty restrained but here it was Katie bar the door. They were out in full force. Walking the street, it was a gauntlet of “No Gracias”, “No, Gracias”. We did visit with one guy who, in very good English, told us that he had lived in Santa Cruz and worked in restaurants and for construction companies in Santa Cruz, Felton and Aptos until he got busted for DWI in 1998 and was deported. "Never mind, he said, his family is here.”
Coming into town, last Sunday we had stopped at Wal-Mart. While shopping, Ray recognized a guy we’d zipped lined with three years ago and renewed his acquaintance with Phil who owns Sunset Bar and Grill in Bucerias so naturally that is where we stopped for lunch. Phil, a native of Sheffield, England began coming here when three week packages from England were offered for $1200 U.S. He opened this restaurant four years ago. They serve the usual Mexican fare for lower prices
than his competitors plus a few English dishes. We shared the Fish and Chips – a lovely 4” x 10” plank of basa. Hungry, we dived in before it occurred to us to take a picture but Phil told us that trip advisor had the photo we’d missed.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g657267-d2090232-Reviews-Sunset_s_Beach_Bar-Bucerias_Pacific_Coast.html Friday, 3 February, we caught up on our laundry at nearby lavenderia where customers have the option of doing their own wash verses dropping it off and picking it up later as is the custom in Mexico. Doing it ourselves didn’t save any money. While I’m ok with their system, I just prefer to do my own wash.
Getting back to the campground we met our neighbors, Cesar and Danni from Washington D.C who are making their way thru Mexico and Central America to South America. They had planned and budgeted for about 18 months. They left home on 2 Dec. Now, two months into their journey, they are behind schedule.
Cesar told us he’d served six years in the navy and now worked in D.C. in the defense industry. Danni is a campaign staffer working for Lois Capps, a progressive Democrat who represents the California congressional district
which includes Santa Barbara.
With the help of many blogs, Danni convinced Cesar that this trip was a good idea. They drove cross country and entered Mexico thru Baja California, ferried across to Mazatlan and are now driving south thru Mexico and Central America, where in Panama they will put their Toyota camping rig on a ship bound for Cartagena, Columbia. You may follow their adventures on their blog:
http://capitolsouthbound.com/ In stead of walking Ray wanted to catch the bus to town where our job today was locating the American Legion. Banderas Bay’s American Legion Post 14 meets on the third Tuesday of each month at Steve’s Bar and Grill on Basilio Badillo between Constitution and Ignacio
http://www.americanlegion14.org/ and
http://stevesbarpv.com/ where Carla will make you feel right at home.
Stopping for a nightcap this p.m. we began talking to our server Ivan. His parents divorced when Ivan was a baby. He grew up here in PV but attended high school in Los Angeles where his dad lives. He has siblings both here and in L.A. His 15 year old brother here recently married. Ivan said this is not uncommon when a baby is expected but if a
father does not want to support his child all he has to do is go to court, pass about 2000 pesos to the judge and no child support is required. Mom has to bear the entire burden. There is no welfare here. He suspects that many of the taco stands we see everywhere are operated by single moms. These stands are often subsidized by breweries when beer is sold. Setting up a road/street side stand requires a permit but not the bureaucratic red tape the U.S. would require.
I don’t know about sanitation, but we’ve eaten at a number of these places and have never gotten sick. Rule of thumb, look for the crowded places. Mexicans get sick too. If a place is unsanitary, Mexicans won’t eat there either.
Saturday, 4 February, we started our day with pork tacos at another sidewalk stand which is always very busy so much so that one courteous guy gave up his seat for me as all seats were taken. Ray overdid the hot sauce and steam came out of his ears for a while!
For our grand finale in PV, we splurged on tickets for Rhythms of the Night. The
event includes a one hour boat ride, all you can drink, an excellent buffet dinner and entertainment. It takes place on a site called Las Caletas, the former jungle hideway of film director John Huston. The spectacular show changes regularly. Prices vary depending on your bargaining skills or whether you’re willing to endure a time share presentation for free tickets. We consider ourselves in the skillful bargainer category.
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Candy
non-member comment
Enjoying your posts.
I don't know if you got my previous comment, but I am enjoying, once again, travelling vicariously through you and Raymondo. You definitely meet some interesting people. Great photos!