March 22nd - April 1st (The Fools Day)

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We headed out of Mexico City and took a 5 hour bus journey to San Miguel De Allende. It’s a very, very pretty little town with cobblestone streets, glorious tree lined plazas and Spanish architectural styled buildings…. It reminded me of Totnes in a way due to its quaint streets and its full with artistically inclined culture vultures (painting classes in the square and Mariachi’s playing when the sun goes down). My stomach finally calmed down here and we found a very reasonable hotel to stay in… Not got much to report about this place. Very pretty but not a great deal to do - the main draw is in the evening when afore mentioned Mariachi’s play in the main town plaza and all the locals come out and people watch or walk around and around and around… We ventured out one day to a local spa and immersed ourselves in the supposedly naturally heated spring waters - the source of the spa was through a tunnel and into a domed stone building with the fountain of youth gushing from the side (it actually flowed from a 6in plastic pipe…yeah! made me wonder too). So after a few days we decided enough was enough and headed to the West Coast and the Pacific to the happening place that’s Puerto Vallarta.


Twelve hours of bus trip later we finally arrived at the gay capital of Mexico, humidity was up and so was the temperature to around 25-30 degrees. Really like it here - sand, sea and shrimp are the order of the day. After spending the initial night in a grotty hotel we landed a penthouse type apartment with kitchenette and fabulous views on all sides - with one side without windows at all, just shutters which can be pulled right back and the whole place opens out to let a continual sea breeze wash though the place. Puerto Vallarta itself is a town in a huge natural bay surrounded on all sides with dramatic mountains covered in tropical vegetation and trees - apparently the film Predator was filmed here (but we haven’t bothered to get off the beach to check out the tourist trap day out). So we have invested our time here to getting a sun tan, enjoying the surf during the day and heading into the downtown area at night for fantastic sea food dinners. It gets too hot to be out all day so we are being sensible and heading back home to unwind early afternoons…


On The Fools Day Claire spoilt me with a great day out on a chartered happy cruise - first to snorkel with dolphins (well you could see them from the boat but when we went snorkelling they were obviously used to the daily onslaught of tourists and swam off!) So it was looking in murky waters at the scattered fishes that would dive from your view. From there we cruised onto a small coastal village and took a horse ride up to the touted waterfall - which to be honest wasn’t very impressive and already overly crowded with tourists. We took the horses back down to the boat and headed off again to have a bite to eat and then took the cruise back to port…. Claire had booked me a beautiful dinner in a local restaurant with a riverside seating (prime location) and after the main course I was surprised when 5 of the waiters came over with a cake and started singing happy birthday (or a Mexican equivalent) the whole restaurant looked my way of course and after the waiters had finished a table of Jesus loving ladies (Americans) opposite continued the song singing praise the lord…. Very memorable! - That’s just about it for Puerto Vallarta a day or so more and we are heading southwards and back east…. Maybe Acupulco or somewhere similar so until next time… Adios amigos!

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Comments

[tony b]

yea hav it
nice one stu, enjoy, im not green with envy one little bit you bugger