2019 Puerto Vallarta

A few hours on the beach then a taxi to the airport.   Unbelievably crowded airport, but more efficient than expected. Security took less than 10 minutes

Morning on the beach. For lunch, we decided to try the “food park” nearby, with pizzeria that our Canadian friends highly recommended. On the way, we revisited an outdoor artist complex about 100 stalls of individuals selling everything.   Bo bought 2 beautiful embroideries there. The food park turned out to be closed (opens at 3 pm) so we went to the mall across from Los Tules. It is immense, but we could not find a decent restaurant, other than the one we’ve already eaten in, just tons of fast food places and a food court.   We went outside and asked a security guard if there were restaurants nearby.   He pointed us in a direction and told us around the corner. The one we chose was empty “Punto 18”. Everything was 18 pesos, about $1.   We had 4 tacos and they were great. Afternoon at the beach. We managed to get a palapa. There are only a few palapas on the beach and that’s the only shade available so people reserve them early in the morning by putting their t...

Started at beach. Then we explored this complex  (Los Tules) looking for the restaurant bar. Last night we walked all around looking for it but could not find it. This complex is immense but we found it. [Sitting on our patio writing this (on day 4) I can see whale watching cruises on the bay. ] For lunch we walked across the street where there were 2 chicken rotisserie stalls selling hundreds of cooked chickens. We passed by them a couple of times before and there were lines at both places each time.   We bought half a chicken and about a pound of roast potatoes and took it home.   It was great.   The street food we have had here is better than the restaurants. In the afternoon we went downtown to the art district. We visited many art galleries and were impressed. The art district is just 3-4 blocks inland from the malecon, but we saw very few tourists. This part of town (el Centro) is also not as ritzy and polished, with a lot of old buildings in questionable ...

Nice Alaska airlines flight from John Wayne to Puerto Vallarta.   The immigration hall was jammed with arrivals and we thought it would take a long time.   However with 13 agents we cleared   In customs the line went on forever, at first we couldn’t even find where the line ended. It was just a crowd of what look like thousands. Luckily, it did get organized into two lines, and it miraculously only took 20 minutes to get through.   Our hotel/condo (Los Tules) is large – about 1200 sq. ft. and right on the beach. It has everything even though it is a little dated. At check in, a colored wrist   band is attaché to our wrist which cannot be removed. Adjacent properties have different colors. There are probably over 1000 units here.   It was a timeshare and the units maybe individually owned and furnished. There is a large shopping complex across the street (6 lanes) so we bought provisions.   For dinner we went to one of the high rated restaurant...

This is our 72 trip together.  Canadian friends just went and loved it so we are doing a short 5 day visit.