Days 10 and 11 in Puerto Vallarta

Yesterday and today have just been days of winding down, strolling up and down the malecon and city streets, eating and drinking, watching the sunset, and shopping. Here are a few more pictures from the beautiful building we are staying in:

 The common areas are so pretty.

 There are a lot of egrets here, especially on the Rio Cuale that leads to the ocean.

 The surf is really strong this morning.

 This morning we found out that we hadn't gone to the very end of the malecon. Here is one more sculpture.

 This artist was working on the giant head in front of our building this morning.

 The Rio Cuale and La Isla Cuale with restaurants and shops.

We sat here for the longest time, drinking iced coffees and watching the surf.

We had a really good dinner at Kaiser Maximilian last night and tonight we'll finally have dinner at Cuates y Cuetes instead of just drinks. We fly out of here tomorrow. I'm not looking forward to the cold and snow but I will be glad to be home.

Day 9 in Puerto Vallarta - Rain. Rain. No rain. Rain. No rain. Sunset!

It started raining around 1 am (I think) and just poured steadily for hours. We had breakfast and lunch here (good thing we bought food) and caught up on the blog about Talpa. It stopped raining around 1 pm so we ventured out for a walk and drinks on the Malecon:

 Two pelicans sitting on a boat. The pelicans are big here but the one with its wings up had to be at least the size of a 4 year old child.

 We got to The Langosta Loca just in time, it started raining again.

We sat on the balcony of Langosta Loca with margaritas and ceviche for a long time, waiting for the rain to stop. We had umbrellas with us but still, why walk in the rain when you don't have to? Those cobblestones get slick and I didn't want to fall again.
Once the rain stopped we wandered some more and then heard some great jazz coming from our favorite place:

Cuates y Cuetes would be our neighborhood jazz bar if we lived here.

 For my friends and family who work in customer service.

We went back to our place to change into nicer clothes for dinner and then noticed just how great the sky looked and rushed out to take pictures. Just look at this sunset!

Everyone was outside, taking pictures.

We went to 116 Pulpito Gastro Pub for tapas and the food was so, so good! The cheese croquettes were these heavenly fried clouds of cheese, the meat plate was delicious, the tuna tartar was even better than what we had at La Palapa, and the potato wedges with a garlic cream sauce was over the top. If you're ever in Puerto Vallarta I can highly recommend eating there.

It was late enough that we could then think about going to Garbo's Piano Bar and Jazz Club which was just down the same street. It was super crowded at 10 pm and we could only find one table in the far corner by the band. A waiter managed to squeeze in four more people at a table and chairs that he dragged over next to us, so we were effectively trapped. The music started a little after that, piano, guitar, and congas, but we never got a chance to hear them because the table in front of us, and the table next to us, were louder than the band. Super loud. Drunk loud. We had one drink and left. 
Buenos noches!

Days 7 & 8 in Mexico - Part 2 - Talpa de Allende, then the bus back to Puerto Vallarta

Wear your earplugs in Talpa because the bells of the basilica start ringing at 6 am. Luckily, we went to bed early the night before, but still, 6 am was too early. We managed to sleep in until 7 and then the saga of the hot water began. 

Since there was still no hot water coming out of the sink tap I turned on the shower to test it. Nope, no hot water. I go to the front desk and explain in my limited Spanish that we have no hot water and the young woman there grabbed two huge D batteries from a large pack, grabbed her baby in his stroller, and off we went to a bank of heaters just outside of our room. Standing on the stairs and reaching as high as she could (while I kept an eye on the stroller) she popped in a battery. There was one already in the battery case, I think they must remove the other one when the room is not in use. Going back in our room I turn on the shower and still no hot water. I tell her we have no hot water. She indicates that we just need to wait. We never did get hot water, but at least it wasn't ice cold like before, it was only cool. We took very short and brisk showers. I'm sure that the owner of the hotel keeps the heaters at a very low temperature to save on heating costs and it's a crappy thing to do. 

We went in search of breakfast and it took a little while, nothing was really open for breakfast at 8 am. We bought coffee from a street cart and asked the man where we could get breakfast. The Molinas Rojas next to the bank was his recommendation and it proved to be a good one. I had Huevos al Gusto (eggs as you like) and Don had machaca: eggs with re-hydrated spicy beef and red sauce with tortilla chips. Then we just strolled around the town:

 Almost all of the sidewalks in town are tiled. This was the most prevalent type of tile.

Look close, that's Mickey and Minnie Mouse on those doors.

We found a river and a walking path.

 Paw prints in the sidewalk.

The path looked to go for miles. We headed back to the center of town so we could visit the museum of Our Lady of Rosario de Talpa.

These are all personal testimonials about how the Lady of Rosario helped people when they have been physically injured.

 Hand sewn clothing for the doll used in the Lady of Rosario processions. The original image is said to be diminutive and these articles are baby sized.

 Views from the second floor of the museum.

 One of the many religious charms among others. This does look like a "church key" or bottle opener.

 There are many paintings of religious officiates of the basilica and these two just struck us as being very amusing.

We had lunch, wandered around the town and a park some more, then went to the bus station.

 Hotel "Marys"

Pretty, green church.

The terminal in Talpa is actually a step above than the one in Puerto Vallarta, probably because it serves at least two bus lines, ATM and Azules.  It was indoors, had bathrooms, and even a convenience store. We got on the bus at 5 pm and it was an even older bus! It had to have built in the 70's at the earliest. Most of the windows wouldn't open, or if open wouldn't close. Many of the windows were cracked. The bus was loud and stank of some chemical. Most of the trip was in the dark and scary as hell. But we got back okay and taxis were waiting at the "terminal" in Puerto Vallarta so we arrived at the apartment quickly.