Puerto Vallarta - Summer 2007

Despite a gloomy weather forecast, On Tuesday July 10th, 2007 we truly arrived in paradise. Puerto Vallarta is more beautiful than I remember from our last trip here years ago. Since the Banderas Bay area is on the same parallel as Hawaii, the climate here is pleasant, although it does get pretty hot during the July summer days.

Tuesday, we arrived in town and took a cab (22 bucks/220 pesos) to the Condominios Playa Del Sol Centro on Playa De Los Muertos. The accommodations are modest, but pretty clean and roomy. Our resort is literally right on the beach, and our view from the room is spectacular.
I think we got lucky because looking up from the beach; our room is on the top floor with what appears to be the best view in the complex. The area of town we are staying in is called the romantic zone as it is laden on one side by the Pacific Ocean and the other by well manicured villas. We are very near the pier on Playa del los Meurtos so there are plenty of beach vendors, parasailers, ski bobbers, jet skis, etc. Playa de los Muertos does indeed mean beach of the dead, which is a bit of a misnomer and a bad fit for the romantic zone. The city officials have been trying without much luck to change the name of the beach to Playa del Sol.

Dinner on our first night in PV night took us to Cuates y Cuetes, a fun beachfront establishment that lured us in with 2 for 1 margaritas. Despite the disappointing realization that 2 for 1 margaritas is Spanish for 1 margarita split into 2 smaller glasses, the shrimp and nachos were awesome and the service followed in the friendly PV disposition. After dinner, it was time for a quick trip to the grocery store to stock up on goods for the remainder of the trip.

Wednesday we started with some huevos de Bateman, toast and mango in the room. The bloody marys were mixed and we were ready to start our first full day in the romantic zone of PV. Most of the day Wednesday was spent lounging in beach chairs under our 2 person beach palapa. Of course the beach vendors were in full effect, but we are trying to heed the advice of our friends Mike and Joanne from California, "Never buy anything within 48 hours of arrival." We were able to get a good gauge on what cheap Mexican sunglasses should cost, as well as book some tours at a discount.

When evening set on the city of Puerto Vallarta, and the beachcombers had become surprisingly quiet. We returned from an excursion to buy soccer jerseys for the family and upon returning to the hotel I was surprised to find the beach almost empty. It was only about 7pm, but it looked like the whole city may have retreated to various shops and cabanas to watch the Mexico/Argentina semi-finals of the Copa de America soccer tournament. We figured... when in PV do as the locals do so we were off to watch the game in our new green Mexico gear at El Torito!!!

Thursday began with a sojourn into the city streets for some exploring. Some locals recommended Fredy's Toucan Cantina for breakfast and it is a great local establishment. Mostly a breakfast and lunch joint, Fredy's served us some great breakfast that consisted of fluffy eggs, bacon, ham, waffles and chilequiles. Complete with pineapple juice and coffee the meal cost us over 15 bucks, so it wasn't cheap but well worth the pesos. Next we were off to check out the shops on la Isla Cuale (island in the Cuale river). The Cuale River is the primary divider between the north and south sections of old town Puerto Vallarta. The island contains a museum, several restaurants and clubs, and a plethora of vendors selling everything from souvenir trinkets to ornate woodwork and jewelry. We resisted most of the bartering banter and ended up with only a Spiderman parasail kite for Jackson and a little wooden animal bobble heads.

What I have failed to mention thus far is that our main reason for coming to Puerto Vallarta is to participate in the wedding of one of my best friends from college, Matt Lenhart. Matt is getting married to Amanda Stewart, his California sweetie. Most of the wedding guests for Matt and Amanda arrived on Thursday, so there was a reception at the Villa Celeste which is a beautiful beachfront casa that was home base for the wedding weekend activities. Our short cab ride from the hotel took us to the Villa Celeste Thursday night to meet up with Matt, Amanda as well as the family and friends that made the Trek for the event. Dinner, drinks, and catching up conversations flowed like the peaceful Cuale as everyone rejoiced in preparation for the holy union. Afterward we all went to Senor Frogs for shots of tequila, Miami Vice drinks by the yard, and late night tacos from the local taco stand. Some of the ladies, Val and angel excluded, decided to celebrate the night with gratuitous "castor" flashing.

Thursday night was also a recruiting effort as Angel and I had booked a trip to ride the cable zip lines through the jungle. Puerto Vallarta has lush jungles all around that have provided tourism companies an opportunity to create what they refer to as the canopy tour. A canopy tour is essentially a half-day excursion back and forth across thick cables strung throughout the jungle. Everyone seems to have an opinion about which one is best, but we trusted a friendly beach vendor named Laura Torres and chose to take the more natural Los Verranos canopy tour. Our reservation was for 7 people at 10:00am on Friday. At about noon as we sat in the unconditioned waiting room for the tour I wondered if we had chosen the wrong company. Between scheduling problems and a broken down bus, we were about two hours behind schedule.

Cliff and Val were the only brave souls to show up, and they were just about to throw in the towel when the backup bus came and transported us far south into the mountainous jungles of Jalisco. Something that seems consistent of all canopy tour experiences is the charismatic tour guides. These bilingual characters are sure to keep everyone laughing, even if the guests are a bit scared of flying 540 feet in the air above the river far below. The longest of the zip lines was 1200 feet long, so you have plenty of time to look around or even let go of the handle grips for a truly bird-like experience. The canopy tour was certainly one of the highlights of the trip and well worth the $65 fee.
Afterward we enjoyed margaritas, quesadillas, and tacos by the river. Cliff and I tried out the man-made waterslides that dropped you off into the river to cool off. We sat with our new friends from Houston, Chad and Elizabeth and enjoyed the remote jungle paradise. The Los Verranos tour company also had an impressive mini-zoo with many spooky creatures such as tarantulas, scorpions, snakes, and other creepy crawlies. They also had small primates like pigmy marmosets and spider monkeys. The spider monkeys were probably the most frightening personally as one of them menacingly accosted me. Although he was inside a cage, while I was curiously noticing how similar his feet looked
to human skin he decided to show off some other skin. As Cliff laughed hysterically, I looked up to see that the monkey was proudly displaying "his business" which he was clearly quite proud of denoted by his terrifying shrieks. I plan to see a therapist when we return to help me through this mentally damaging experience.

Friday night was another wedding activity at Le Kliff restaurant overlooking the amazing Pacific Ocean. This was our first reunion with Blake, Wren, Chris, and Tracy so the Trinity table was a bit rowdy. Trinity attendees to the Lenhart wedding included Cliff & Valerie Gallagher (Galla-hair en espanol), Chris and Tracy Muras, and Blake Willeford and Wren Nokes. Shots of tequila quickly degraded into "The Stuntman" which was a painful shot taking trick performed by the one and only Blake Willeford. I don't think it treated him well as it wasn't long before he and Wren disappeared in the many foot trails leading from the restaurant down to the beach. The food at Le Kliff was fantastic, but the views and company will be the most memorable for me.

After the dinner and live music, we all loaded onto the bus to head back into town. Amanda's sister gave us a great Spanish account of the evening on the bus loudspeaker, but I have no idea what she said.
Matt Martin and Jen Lenhart proved that the luggage racks on tour buses can hold the weight of two humans. After a short trip, we were unloading in town to disperse among various nightlife establishments including Hilo and the Zoo. Angel and I couldn't resist finding out whether or not the casinos in PV had card games such as poker, but we had a late night disappointment when we discovered that the Peninsula casino is nothing more than a bunch of slot machines in an establishment that doesn't even serve alcohol! But we decided to challenge each other to a "button-only" slot machine dual and Angel proved victorious. It was a $24 dollar win. She has to get her luck at slots from her mom, but in the future, I think we’ll reserve the gambling for Vegas.

Saturday morning my stomach didn't feel too great. Waking up to the rhythmic convulsing inside my body, I knew something was amiss. The pain was amplified by the fact that my abdominal muscles were actually sore for laughing so hard the night before. I clearly had a case of too much Mexico, though I am still not sure what percentage of that was microbial pathogens and what percent was tequila. We slowly made our way over to the pool at the Casamagna Marriott resort in the Marina district where many of our friends were staying. A relaxing afternoon of hanging out by the pool and sharing laughs was the perfect relaxing preparation for the Lenhart wedding that would be held later that evening.

As evening approached everyone retreated to their respective rooms to get ready for the big event. Thanks to a good call on Matt and Amanda's part, the wedding was casual so we were able to wear comfortable clothes to make the intense heat a bit more bearable. Lenny hooked me up with a sweet light blue satin guayabera complete with gold embroidered cobras. It was almost as radical as the Casio calculator wristwatch I got as the groomsman gift. I was ready for the show. The guests began to arrive at the Villa Celeste around 6pm for drinks and appetizers before the wedding. The usual suspects from Trinity all made it safely from the pool party, as well as the various attendees from all over the US including Georgia, Texas, Washington, and California. The ceremony was nice, although a bit hot. Just as the sun began to set over the Pacific Horizon, Matt and Amanda sealed the deal in true romantic fashion.
Having pointed out the beauty of the event, I also have to note that I think Matt came as close as I have ever seen anyone come to 100% shirt sweat saturation. There was about 8 square inches of dry shirt on his chest and the rest was dripping wet. After the ceremony were the traditional toasts, cake, dance, etc. all of which I was struggling through with my stomach condition. Unfortunately it was an early night for Angel and I although I am sure the crowd partied well into the morning hours.

It is probably a good thing that I took it easy on my body Saturday night because Sunday at 9:30 I had to meet up with Oscar at the BikeMex offices. BikeMex is a local touring company that arranges mountain biking tours for a wide range of riders. I told Oscar I wanted the hard core tour, and although it was a hot July day, he couldn't talk me out of it. We started with some Mexican PowerAde at the shop and we were off through the cobblestone-laden streets of Puerto Vallarta. As we rode, the number of automobiles gradually decreased and the farm animal to people ratio steadily climbed. We traveled west, away from the ocean, and directly into the jungly rain-forest of the Sierra Madre mountains. Our first stop was at a small family run convenience store. The "store" part was about 100 square feet, and we grabbed some cokes (in a glass bottle) as Oscar said this was biker "gasolina" and required for the trip. It was while we were enjoying our drinks that Oscar began chatting with the locals and I noticed that the family's home was connected to the tiny store. The home portion didn't appear much larger, and I was happy to have paid a buck for the two cokes in some hope that I had helped that family out... even if just a little.

We continued further and further away from town and began to gain some elevation on the bumpy dirt roads. As we passed through various towns of no more than a hundred or so people, Oscar seemed to know all of them shouting some friendly greetings in Spanish that were always cheerfully responded to by the locals. Oscar even showed me some “magical” plants at the base of a roadside shrine to the Virgin de Guadalupe that gently collapsed when you touched them similar to a venus fly trap. He told me that something special grows everywhere they put a shrine. For a while it felt like I was in the movie Truman and everyone was in on some grand setup. This was just too perfect of an experience that really showed the true Mexican spirit. These people are well below any poverty lines established in the modern world, but they still maintain a very happy disposition, and a carefree lifestyle. We saw many people converging on communal BBQ pits by the river after church on Sunday, and I am quite certain that none of them were worried about any deadline they had to meet Monday morning at work.

The rest of the trek was spent on some pretty good dirt roads, although I was disappointed there was no singletrack jungle off-shoots. We did get a sweet hook-up from a farmer (that of course Oscar knew). He was heading up to his farm high in the Sierra Madres, and he let us ride in the back of the truck for a huge vertical gain. Since I was in it for the scenery and the downhill, this sat just fine with me.

In the bed of the truck, I also got to hear some more great stories from Oscar like how the rural people make an annual pilgrimage to the same church each year. It is 150km, and they do it on foot! Sleeping at by-the-way farms during the day and walking all through the night the trip takes three days. Whether it is the blisters on your feet or the spirituality of the whole experience, Oscar said that he feel to his knees and wept when he finally arrived at the church (in Guadalajara I believe). A few more stops at houses of the locals for breathers and we were back down to the city. I’m not sure if I was very clear what I wanted out of the mountain bike trip, but I didn’t quite get it. I did get experience some surprising cultural learning, so I guess it is a wash.

Details still need to be posted about our final excursion: Las Caletas

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View our SnapFish Albums from Puerto Vallarta

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