Buenos dias, amigos,
Frank and I decided we needed a vacation. Therefore, here we are in beautiful Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. This city is one of my favorite vacation spots, but I do have to say, that it is Hot! Hot! Hot! And humid. Perhaps August isn’t the best time to visit here.
We arrived Saturday night, so Sunday, we just spent the day here, getting acclimated to the time difference (they are one Central Time here) and the climate difference.
On Monday, we took a cab to town, as I wanted to see some of the local places, places I had visited before. I wanted to go inside the cathedral here; a wedding was taking place inside, so I had to bypass a visit that day.
Frank and I wandered down one block toward the Malecon, the walkway that parallels the sea. We remembered that we needed to find a Bancomat, so we wandered down another block or two, found what we wanted, got some Mexican Pesos, wandered some more. To me, it was enjoyable, just looking into the different shops (I cannot say “Window shopping”, for the merchandise was right there in the open. At the park, we watched some children at play; like children everywhere, one little boy was trying to escape from his mother, while his sibling went in another direction.
There were small grocery stores, shoe stores, clothing stores, electronic stores, and of course, many bars and restaurants.
We came to a restaurant that looked interesting. It was nearing lunch time, and there were no patrons in the restaurant yet. That made me a bit suspicious , but Frank looked at the menu, and he decided we could have a drink and a snack. We weren’t quite ready for lunch yet. The proprietor greeted us and told us that we could be seated and he would bring a menu. He told us that there was a cooking class going on in the back room, and soon it would finish, then the chef could begin making lunch for customers.
Cooking class? Oh, how did I miss that!! I told the proprietor that cooking was a passion of mine, so he invited me to watch the remainder of the class. I put that cooking class on my bucket list for my next visit to Puerto Vallarta. The chef was finishing a soup, where he had heated three large rocks, and put them into a pottery bowl of broth, with some diced vegetables and shrimp. As I watched, I could see the broth bubbling around the stones. Soon, right before my very eyes, the shrimp and vegetables were cooked without coming near a stove.
If any of you are planning a trip down here in the near future, look up http://www.gabyrestaurant.com.mx. That will give you information on the address as well as the cooking classes. Apparently, this chef is on a cooking show down here and seems to be well-known. He certainly knew how to make soup in an interesting fashion.
As Frank was eating his little snack, I mentioned to the owner of the restaurant that I was allergic to tequila. That man went into the back of the restaurant and came back to the table with a little glass of what he called a “medicina ” for allergies.
We left the restaurant and continued on our exploration walk of Puerto Vallarta. Only two blocks west was the Malecon, the long walk that parallels the sea. I love that walkway. It was cooler there, also, than it had been, for a lovely breeze was blowing off the water.
This walkway is about two miles long, and we only walked a small portion of it. There are shops on the left of us, trees and flowers are planted in the middle of the walkway, then sculptures are interspersed along the right side.
We walked, stopped to look at things, then walked some more. Sometime, after about two hours or so of this, I decided I was hungry. I wanted some shrimp tacos from my favorite Puerto Vallarta restaurant, La Fuente de la Puente.
This restaurant sits right at the river bank, hence the name, which means, the Fountain at the Point, as the bridge over the river is right there.
We found our way there, without any problem. Soon we had ordered our lunch, and were enjoying a cool drink while we waited for our food. Then, when we were eating, the same musicians that we had seen in Gaby’s, came into the restaurant. They saw us, and came over, as we were all laughing. Frank asked them to sing that same song again and they did. That was a fun experience.
Finally, our long day in town was finished. We caught a bus back toward our hotel, making a side trip to WalMart for some groceries. Soon we were back at our resort, and as I was bemoaning the fact that we were too late to make Happy Hour, one of the attendants told me that Happy Hour on that day was from 5:00 p.m to 6:00. We made it!!
I got a bell boy to help me take the groceries up to our room, while Frank got us a table at the open air restaurant near the lobby.
Oh, just as an aside, one reason that I love Puerto Vallarta is that it is not an expensive place to visit. For instance, at WalMart, I bought fresh fruit and vegetables for salad, cold cuts, cheese, some pastries and bread, a few other items all for 350 Mexican pesos, which sounds like a lot of money, but is the equivalent of about $19 US.
So we made Happy Hour, and relaxed after a long day of just enjoying being in Puerto Vallarta.
I have more to tell you, but it will have to go into another blog, for this one is getting too big. And it is almost Happy Hour time again.
Adios for now,
Dolly
Ciao for now,
Dolly