Spotlight: Puerto Vallarta

Puerto Vallarta – perhaps your easiest port of entry to Mexico if you don’t speak Spanish and are worried about visiting a foreign country where things are vastly different from the US.  I recently got to spend the weekend in Puerto Vallarta and get a glimpse of this popular tourist retreat, which has lots of great local restaurants, along with Starbucks and McDonalds.  I’ve been living in Mexico for a full year, and I like to think I’m getting some color, but I’m still pretty pale.  A gentleman on the street told me “You’re from Canada. I can tell by the way you walk.”  I assume he was referring to how I walked around blissfully content to be at the beach and in the presence of my beloved ocean, while slightly resembling an albino whale.

View of Puerto Vallarta. 

Welcoming waters of the Pacific. 

Festive street. 

Lovely church.

Puerto Vallarta is full of tourists from all over the world.  I heard English, Spanish, French, German and Japanese during the weekend, and met a woman who was from Washington state.  I had only two goals for this trip: to eat sushi and watch an ocean sunset.  I got a tip from a local regarding a cheap sushi joint a few blocks off the main tourist drag and told the waiter to skip the salad and rice side dishes – all I wanted in my belly was fresh, tasty fish.  I watched the sunset from the beach while listening to musicians at the neighboring wedding and turning away vendors selling fresh shrimp and oysters on skewers and paper plates.    

View at sunset.  

Magical ocean sunset. 

Waves at sunset. 

Beach wedding next to my sunset viewing spot.  

Hotel lights at night. 

Boats and people at sunset. 

In between sushi and the sunset, I hiked to the Matamoros view point, explored el malecon and made people talk to me in Spanish.  Just because I look like I emerged from the frigid winter of Canada doesn’t mean we have to revert to English (i.e., please keep talking to me in Spanish so I don't regress too much).  El Malecon is full of shops, restaurants and street vendors selling everything from handmade dolls to hand drawn caricatures of you and your travel companions.  I explored la Isla del Rio Cuale, which has suspension bridges, tons of vendors selling arts and crafts, and a problematic population of abandoned cats.  While climbing the 125 steps to leave la isla, I met a man who suggested I visit the nearby house that Richard Burton built for Elizabeth Taylor.  I can check that off my bucket list, but will likely never have enough money to eat in the restaurant or stay in the hotel that now occupies the formerly famous home.  

I only needed to feed my sushi animal on this trip, but if you desire an active night life, there are plenty of clubs and places to get your groove on in PV. 

There's also a big art scene and a large LGBTQ population in PV. 

The next morning I headed out early to hike to the top of the Mirrador del Cerro de la Cruz.  It’s not that long of a hike but it is steep!  On the way up, I dripped sweat and thought about the strong contrast between the luxurious mansions placed next to concrete homes with only sheets for windows.  On the way down, I marveled at the physics of how I was staying upright while walking at a 45-degree angle to the ground.  

View from el cerro. 

El cerro de la cruz. 

Super sweaty but super happy at the beach. 

I spent the rest of the day sitting in the shade, enjoying the sounds and smells of the ocean.  Before leaving, I made a beeline for the mega mart where I bought goldfish crackers to help satisfy my recent craving for foods not found in my mountain town.  Sushi, ocean sunsets and goldfish crackers – that’s pretty much my recipe for happiness.  So, if you've been thinking about a visit to Mexico, but want to ease in to a new country and language slowly, I recommend Puerto Vallarta!  Maybe I'll even meet you there ;)