Puerto Vallarta

Bright and early the next morning we were in the dingy and on our way to town.  We laughed because Sharon had heard how late the party had gone on, and we both expected to find bodies still lying in the street after such a celebration. There were signs that people had had a good time: there were cups and napkins in the gutters, all the street vendor had tarps over their stands,and few old men were leaning against the buildings with their eyes closed, obviously sound asleep. But all the merchants were out with their brooms and everyone, including a small band of city workers, was cleaning up the mess.  It wouldn’t be long till the celebration would begin again. 

As we strolled through the town Sharon indicated all the points of interest that she had discovered yesterday, and guided us toward a restaurant that had caught her attention.  The doors to the restaurant were these heavy carved wooden doors that are so impressive and fairly common, particularly on historical buildings. As we stepped inside the whole scene turned white as the floor and the walls were all covered in bright white tiles, with a white ceiling, all brightly lit.  There was a bar that was accented with wood trim and the entire place just reeked of cleanliness and purity.  It made me uncomfortable, and I felt...inadequate.  I’m not sure if that was what they were going for, but it was a most unusual sensation.  In the front of the big room was a lending library, a rare thing to find in a restaurant, with a sign saying, “Here, take one of these books to read, bring it back when you finish, if you can.”  The back side of the front big room opened onto a patio with outdoor dining and we migrated in that direction.  The patio was full of families having breakfast, and the sounds of little girls giggling made for a delightful backdrop.  We found a table located under a self portrait of Frida Kahl, and Sharon insisted on sitting there.  It turns out that Sharon is a huge fan of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, and knows all about their art, their lives, scandals and achievements; she continued to educate me all through breakfast.  I had never heard of them, but that’s just uncultured me.  Sharon put her shawl over her head, imitating the portrait of Frida, and had me take her picture along side the portrait.   It seems that the talented pair lived many years ago in Puerto Vallarta, and there is a huge mural done by Diego that Sharon is desperate to see.  Its OK with me, put it on the list.

After a most satisfying, and tasty breakfast, we paid the bill with a ridiculously small number of pesos and headed out for the bus stop.  We had to walk through and up the main street of the to a big highway where we could catch a bus.  I couldn’t believe it, there was a Raymarine Store, right here in La Cruz.  I didn’t think there was a single Raymarine dealer in all of Mexico, but here one was, in this little town.   It was only a small  store, but I will make a point of visiting here before I leave.  This is very good information to have.  A great deal of the electronics on Milagro are Raymarine Brand, and I was excited to see their representation in Mexico.

We reached the highway and it was obvious where we should go to wait for the bus.  There were a couple of other people there also, and they were waiting just outside a small concrete canopy.   I found a place to stand out of the sun, under the canopy, right beside a trash can that had a long dead chicken in it, and the smell of death and decay almost claimed me.  Now I understood why all the other people were standing upwind of the bus stop, and I joined them there in the sun, almost immediately. 

We didn’t wait long at all for the bus to come. It was a brightly colored, old school bus looking thing, that rattled to a smoky stop right in front of us.  The driver must have known about the chicken, too!   We all climbed on board and I clumsily held out a hand full of change to pay for the trip. The driver said in perfect English, “six pesos each please”.  Really?  6 pesos a piece.  That is less than $.50 and I knew the trip was going to be about 25 miles around the bay.  Dang, 6 pesos..I love Mexico!

Even the main roads in Mexico have pot holes that could swallow a Volkswagen, and we rattled along, bouncing and pitching, and jamming to a stop without any warning at all to pick up additional passengers.  This is a really good way to explore a new place, taking a bus. You get to meet, and smell the people, and watch the changing landscape skate by like a slide show on a computer screen.  It is really fun!  Sometimes a guy will stand up with a guitar and start to sing at the top of his lungs, and many of the other passengers would join in.  It was great.  I sang right along with them, even though I had no idea what the song was.  I really smiled a lot on that trip.

We could tell when we have reached the end of the bus route 'cause the bus was empty, except for us. The driver turned around and looked at you with a blank stare and shrugged his shoulder.  We were fortunate enough to be somewhere in downtown Puerto Vallarta. We stepped off the bus and were immediately greeted by a representative of the Puerto Vallarta Tourist Bureau.  What a lucky break. He had a hand full of brochures, this huge smile, and talked very fast in a delightful form of Spanglish.  The brochures were shiny and colorful and I was immediately attracted to them.  Sharon was tugging on my sleeve, trying to save me, but I was intrigued by what the guy was selling.   He was inviting us to participate in all day bus tours of the city and the surrounding areas, and there was a choice of various things that the tours would cover.  You could choose from artsy tours, or scenic tours,  or adventure tours, and any number of other themes.  Now this got Sharon’s attention because she wanted to visit this mural painted by Diego Rivera - somewhere near a big famous church - and she asked if any of the tours went there.  And sure enough, several of them did.  Now we had her attention. We let the guy go through his entire presentation and he said we could have any tour we wanted for $30 each for the entire day.  I thought and thought, then told him we would have to think about it some more and began to walk away.  Suddenly he called out, what about $15 each:  I reached for my wallet, and Sharon began to review the list.