Puerto Vallarta!

Your mom and I got to use our passports again this Spring visiting my dad, Ed, in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico! We took a week to soak it in and had a share of adventures.

We had a brief lay-over in Mexico City before making our way to the coast, and that feeling of being somewhere new and different, where the language is foreign, was starting to seep in. Adventure!

Dad picked us up at the airport, which was incredibly different from how I remembered it as a kid, and brought us to rest up a bit at a condo he let us borrow for a few nights. He's in real estate and has some good connections, so we stayed in this big, beautiful place high up in a high-rise with this stunning view of the town.

The peso was kind of weak when we traveled, so what was normally a $1 beer turned out to be about a $0.90 beer after the conversion. With our toes in the sand, we sat back and caught up a bit with Ed and his boyfriend, Daniel. In the proper Spanish accent, Daniel's name is pronounce just like your mom's name in English.

A view of Puerto Vallarta looking inland from the condo, nestled at the foot of the jungle.

More gorgeous than ever...

We started walking around to explore a bit on our own. Soaking in the sights and sounds was almost overwhelming. We also got our first taste of powerful humidity in a long time. We were basically damp the entire trip!

Hand painted and fired street name tiles. This street is named after the namesake of the whole town.

The town has long established itself as "gay friendly," as my dad called it, and we just happened to arrive the day of the Gay Pride parade through the center of town.

The water is always in earshot, and it made for great views later in the evening.

That first night a fiesta was roaring in the town square not far from where were staying. 

Your mom fell in love with the classic architecture, and we lost count of how many VW Beetles we saw scooting around the cobble-stone streets in the southern part of the town.

One morning we got up a little extra early to enjoy the town when it was a bit quieter. Shops were only beginning to open up but of course the operators weren't shy about trying to goad us into getting something.

The early day ocean views were just as wonderful.

The pier near Old Town is a working pier, with many fisherman at work early earning their catch.

This guy was netting a lot of small fish and offered up quite a few to the birds he attracted doing it. He'd throw them up towards the birds circling and they'd dive after the morsels. 

The next day dad took us to a beautiful and secluded beach, one he calls "our beach" because years ago he and I stumbled on it randomly exploring the coast during a family trip when I was a boy. It's still quiet and wonderful, and a great spot for boogie-boarding.

Some nice houses are scattered about, but that's it. It was a little drive to get there.

Your mom and I had a little beach photo shoot, and I really liked how this one turned out!

We did pretty well catching some small waves on the boards. I love your mom's laughs and squeals when she does stuff like this.

Our beach trip tradition : )

After wearing ourselves out and enjoying some of dad's ceviche on the beach, we stumbled on the pie man at the top of the climb back to the car. Pineapple pies were in order.

We explored some more of the "Romantic District," and this iconic church right in the heart of it.

The beach boardwalk, the malecon.

So of course I had to try the town's first and only microbrewery, but we needed a cab to get us there. It has a generic name and is likely not too well known yet, so it took some finagling with the cabbie to figure it out...

But we made it! And I was able to sample the only beers in town made locally. You could tell they were still getting the hang of it, as the paler beers definitely had some noticeable off-flavors, but I appreciated seeing the beginnings here of what in the States has become a beer revolution!

Sunset at the Old Town pier, all the fishing boats tied down for the night.

Then dad showed us to the Puerto Vallarta Botanical Gardens, a gem hidden in the hills behind the town which I'm guessing gets missed by most tourists. 

Koi filled a large fountain/pond in the center.

Instead of ropes and warning signs barring the nearby river as you'd expect in any American park, this one naturally led to a dirt path where you could wade and climb around all you liked.

This garden was renowned for its collection of orchids of all varieties, hundreds of them, in fact.

Ed's place, where he started living recently with Daniel, is set on a large hill in a residential area. It had this beautiful patio, though it was usually too hot and humid to lounge out there.

Ed's rescue pup is Canelo, which he told us means "caramel" in Spanish. He's a cute and friendly little guy. Ed's always been a dog lover, so it was no shock to meet this new family member.

Ed's a fantastic cook, always has been. So the few nights we spent there we ate like royalty, with some delicious and authentic Mexican meals he's fashioned while living there.

This is his dining table, where we enjoyed many a beer and played many games of Mexican Train, a fun little domino game, and Ed's super-competitive nature came glaring out again...

We found a nice little horse-riding package and Ed dropped us off at the ranch where the trail began. We were geared up for three hours, which we learned after about an hour and a half was a bit much on our butts!

The trail took us through streams and up the mountain.

The trail ended at the top of the mountain with a great view of the woods on one side and a view all the way to the sea overlooking Puerto Vallarta on the other side. Surprisingly, soon after this photo was taken, a javelina showed up and spooked the horses, and they ran off! The guide still had our camera when he ran off into the woods after it. Luckily the horses could only get as far as a closed gate not far off.

We stopped at a small restaurant and got some guacamole before making the trek back. A few times the horses got a little antsy and took off a bit quick. 

The next day Ed took us to visit the little surfer town a bit north of Puerto Vallarta, called Sayulita. It was a cool place with a totally different vibe than Puerto Vallarta. The beaches were sprawling and quite a bit busier, and we noticed a lot more American tourists.

Your mom's shrimp cocktail, quite a bit different than what comes when you order such a thing in California.

Your mom found some cute boutiques and found some nice souvenirs to take home, including a really pretty jadeite necklace. 

On the way home we visited Daniel's mother in Busarita, a very tiny town not far from Puerto Vallarta. She gave us some home-made tamales of various kinds, all amazingly good.

We had dinner at a tapas place with an amazing view of the sunset that night. We shared a couple pitchers of the house's sangria, which was fantastic!

Our last morning I got up a bit early to go on the morning walk with my dad and Canelo. I got a much better feel of the town strolling around.

The nearest produce market.

A cat lounged outside a run down empty restaurant.

The river through the town was hardly a trickle, but it was just that time of year. In only a few more weeks the thing would be rushing and quite dangerous when the rains picked up in the summer.

Ed's neighbor had these roosters caged up, and they freakin' crowed all night long, never resting it seemed.

We got to spend a lot of time with Daniel, too, since he was taking some time off from work. He works at the big department store in Puerto Vallarta, Liverpool, and in on his feet a lot, so much in fact that he needed a long break to heal his legs.

We said goodbye to the pair and on the way home had a long layover in Guadalajara, so we got brave and ventured out of the airport into the heart of the city to soak up a bit more of the foreign land before returning home. I was nervous as we cabbed it into the city and got out.

The city had almost a European feel to it, with all the large old-world architecture and cathedrals around.

We were there. Right there.

We stumbled into a massive market which sprawled for blocks, both inside and out. We almost splurged and bought a cow head. Kidding, of course.

We got home to cats who were quite grumpy with us, leaving them behind all that time. Another adventure in the books, another stamp in the passport : )