Janice's Visit! Crocodiles! Margaritas! More Sunshine! - Marge

Estuary tour - mangrove swamp!

   

           

Such a joy seeing my wonderful sister Janice! She was here for a week! Had a great time! Here's what we did: Monday: Met Janice at the airport! Thrilled to see her! Walked along the malecon at dusk, had dinner on the beach at a table on the sand. Hugely fun to chat and drink Coronas! Tuesday: Drove north to the town of San Pancho. Went to the market. Then walked around the town-very pretty, tree-lined little streets. Afterward we ate lunch at a table on the beach. Had margaritas! Seafood. Delicious! After lunch we walked on the beach. Saw someone practicing high-wire walking on a cable stretched between two palm trees. Also saw the swamp at the end of a mangrove forest (?) that empties into the ocean right next to the town--where crocodiles are actually sometimes seen! Not kidding! And next to the swamp are tents! Where people are camping! YES, they really are camping! Right by the giant warning sign showing a crocodile with it's jaws wide open (see the picture)!

Wednesday: Went to Old Town for more walking and shopping. Went to El Rio and listened to The Zippers, a great classic rock and roll band. Ate the most delicious ribs! Such a beautiful place next to a river! Had a wonderful time!

Thursday: Went on the Estuary Tour (see pictures). A mangrove swamp at the edge of Puerto Vallarta with crocodiles, boa constrictors (!), amazing, multi colored crabs and a whole flock of buzzards! Had a wonderful time! Saw no snakes! Did see a couple of baby crocodiles in the estuary and more in the crocodile nursery. Walked on the malecon. Chatted. Ate dinner at the most wonderful Mexican restaurant, El Campanario. The Best Food! The bells of the church rang as we ate. Real bells! A beautiful sound! Saw the sunset on the malecon. Another wonderful day!

Friday: Went on the Taco Stand tour. Hugely fun! Ate street tacos until we were stuffed. Learned a lot about tacos and Mexican food and Puerto Vallarta! Really the best! Drove south on the highway for about 15 miles. Beautiful views of the ocean down below and the hills of the Sierra Madres and the jungle. Had a wonderful time! Then walked to the pier and along the malecon. Ate a wonderful dinner at Langostino's at a table on the sand only a short distance up from the water! Never get tired of those tables on the sand with the waves lapping against the shore nearby and the sparkling ocean! 

Saturday: A wonderful day! Did something we never do--went to the beach, rented an umbrella and lay on giant beach towels on the sand! The water was too rough for swimming (very relieved!) so waded and chatted and enjoyed the sunshine! Ate dinner at Panchofurters! Wonderful sausages!
Sunday: For some reason Janice refused to move to Puerto Vallarta immediately so had to take her back to the airport. Too bad! That is the only hard part about being here so far--being so far away from my magnificent sister, and other wonderful family and many dear friends! Am assuming that some will move here. It only makes sense!

Estuary tour: Can you see the baby crocodile?

On the Observation Deck looking down at the mangrove swamp
with Puerto Vallarta in the background.

                                                         

Janice holding a baby crocodile.
After the estuary tour.

Having a wonderful time!

Eric and Janice. On our way to the
malecon after dinner.

Lunch at San Pancho on the sand.
A wonderful town! A wonderful day!

A woman practicing walking across a cable
secured to a couple of palm trees.
Janice is in the background.

San Pancho. The swamp where crocodiles live, next to the beach.
See the warning sign? Right next to the swamp is a line of tents 
where people are camping.

                                                             

Such a pleasure to get to see Janice!!!!

   

Being Retired! - Marge

Eric photographing the sunset in Puerto Vallarta
framing someone else photographing the sunset

Being retired is so much fun! It really is more fun than I thought possible! All those years getting up in the dark; the sudden and horrible auditory assault of the alarm shocking me into wakefulness; driving to work in the dark, an hour each way; arriving at work in the dark, or just as the sun was rising; spending all those long hours in a cubicle with a computer and the assignments that no longer interested me, drinking huge mugs of coffee to stay conscious. All those hours gazing at nothing while dreaming about moving to Belize, Uruguay, France, Portugal, Ireland, Malta, Costa Rica, Argentina or Mexico. I researched them all! All those many years hoping and planning and, at last, counting down the days. And then the wonderful good-by lunches and get-togethers and toasts with red wine or prosecco. And now I am retired and we are here, in our new home-Mexico!

Turns out that being retired is like having a whole new life! So many wonderful choices! So many ways to live and experiences to have and places to explore--and the time for it all! Retiring early was the best choice I've ever made (besides marrying Eric, of course!)!

El Rio, Sylvie and the Zippers - Eric

Last spring when we first visited Puerto Vallarta, our tour guide mentioned she had a second gig playing in a band on Wednesdays at a local bar from 4-6 p.m. Not exactly a headliner slot.
We figured it would be nice of us to go see her perform when we moved to town. Give her a little moral support.
It turns out the bar isn't just some downtown dive or a hole-in-the-wall hidden in some obscure neighborhood. You might call El Rio BBQ and River Beach Club a Mexican entertainment complex.
Getting to El Rio certainly  adds to the experience. Turn east off the downtown Puerto Vallarta bypass highway and head three kilometers over a very bumpy, dusty road until you reach the ramshackle hamlet of Paso Ancho. You're there. Park along the road or if your vehicle has high enough clearance underneath, park in El Rio's lot. Two more kilometers up the road is where the tour buses take zip-line enthusiasts.
I told Marge that, naturally, if we take visitors up river along the narrow road we should stage whisper that we've been paid to "disappear" our guests in the hills. Pretty funny. Marge replied that wasn't her first thought. Her mind works kind of strangely. Maybe just a faulty sense of humor.
El Rio, itself, features an upper bar area, middle performance/dancing space and below is the Rio (River) Cuale backed by a shear canyon wall. Kids of all ages climb as high as they dare on the rocks and swing out on a rope before dropping into the river.
As for the Zippers, they were terrific. Definitely, headliners to me. Slyvie, our tour guide, is the lead singer and she definitely knew how to get the enthusiastic Wednesday afternoon crowd up and dancing.
What really impressed me was the classic-rock song selection. Everything from 1950s Roy Orbison, through the Rolling Stones, Beatles, Creedence Clearwater Revival and Eagles to disco with Gloria Gaynor.
Two guys do oldies on Friday afternoons and El Rio just wrapped up a series of tribute concerts featuring the music of Tina Turner, Jerry Lee Lewis and Garth Brooks, among others.
El Rio and the Zippers--yet another pleasant surprise in Mexico. We hope to entice our upcoming visitors to go up river with us to see El Rio and the Zippers.

San Pancho, Riviera Nayarit- Eric

Marge and I took a field trip up north to check out the small beach village of San Pancho, also known as San Francisco and I want to say....
Don't do it, Eric.
I was just going to say....
Resist the urge, Eric.
I gotta say, I left my heart in San Francisco.
He did it!
We had been utterly disappointed with San Pancho/San Francisco's neighboring village, Sayulita. The guide books touted Sayulita as the hot spot north of Puerto Vallarta. A laid-back surfing village with a beautiful beach. But success has spoiled Sayulita. Too crowded with recent reports that visitors are getting sick because of the over-whelmed sewage system.
We were advised to try the next town up, San Pedro/San Francisco.
I didn't know where the hippies departed to after the summer of love in San Francisco, California. Now, I know.  They've gone to San Francisco, Mexico.
Also, I didn't realize how few clothes people could comfortably wear in March until we visited San Pedro. Mixed in with the hippies are surfers and artists. Not a bad life for an artist--create art in your home studio, hang out on the beach, sell your stuff at a couple of outdoor markets each week.
Marge and I visited a great outdoor market in San Pedro. She bought a pair of harem pants from a Mexican family and got to practice her Spanish. She looked great in the pants but, unfortunately, they shrank in the wash and she refuses to wear them.
After the market, we hit the  postcard-perfect beach. I spotted a tent off to the side and Marge saw a couple with big backpacks who obviously had been hiking the coast.
We ordered beers at a bar right out on the sand and I studied the lunch menu. Meanwhile, Marge started pushing buttons on her cell phone. Pretty soon, she informed me the bar to our left had received much better reviews so we moved across the sand.
She was right! I had the best strawberry margarita I've ever tasted (I haven't sampled that many) and amazing shrimp fajitas.
San Pedro isn't the only spot we've explored on what is known as the Riviera Nayarit, the coastal area north of Puerto Vallarta.
When we came down last year, Marge asked our personal tour guide (more about her in another post) to show us the town of Bucerias. Marge had read some really good things about it. I guess it wasn't the tour guide's kind of place because she raced through it quickly in her vintage VW van.
On our own tour this time around, we found it a charming place with fun restaurants and interesting shops. Our favorite part was the wide sandy beach, much like the Oregon Coast but sunnier, drier and 30 degrees warmer. The beaches in Puerto Vallarta are nice, but sometimes rocky.
What really endeared the Bucerias beach to us was Otto's reaction. On the Puerto Vallarta beaches he trudges along under the full sun looking for his escape. We even had his fur shaved off, hoping that would help. He looked like a giant chubby Chihuahua. His curly hair has grown back somewhat, prompting Mexican vendors to point at  him and exclaim, "borrego!" That means "lamb" in English.
But when we entered the Bucerias beach, both Marge and I swear we detected a smile on Otto's face. For the first time since we've been down here we let him off the leash outdoors. Otto enjoyed his freedom immensely until he raced up to a little kid and scared the bejabbers out of him. Back on the leash.
Closer to Puerto Vallarta, we've seen the vast condo complexes in Nuevo Vallarta. We decided they are too cookie-cutter for our taste. Besides, one of the first amenities we would look for is not a caged tiger at the entrance gate. Or an $80 fee to play a round of golf on the complex's course.
There's even a more nuevo area than Nuevo Vallarta called Flamingo. They are basically building new condos on spec. Reminds me of Ocean Shores with four-lane highways but no cars.
I don't want you to think that I completely reject the lifestyles of the one percent. I like Marina Vallarta with its fake lighthouse bar and fabulous boats. My plan is to cozy up to one of the residents and become a cabin boy on a fancy yacht. Of course, I'll hold out for one with a helicopter. I do have my standards.

The Zippers, the Blonde Gypsies, Sauerkraut, Harem Pants and A Journey Ending at the Beach - Marge

Listening to The Zippers at El Rio! 

 I didn't know being retired would be so fun! Am enjoying myself hugely! So is Eric! We've been exploring nearby beach towns, including San Pancho (see pictures below) which we really liked! We went on market day and saw lots of great and interesting handmade items--from painted ceramic skulls to painted shoes to shirts with embroidery covering almost every bit of cloth (sadly not machine washable), and also stalls selling mangos on a stick and coffee made to order in tiny cups, and someone offering psychic readings. We also saw several people with long hair sitting on the steps of the market smoking what seemed to be grass (I know that smell!) and playing some kind of jazzy, reggae, Caribbean instrumental music! Loved it! Listening to it, you just had to feel happy! Great background music for such a beautiful, sunny day (actually, every day should have background music)!

I got carried away (maybe it was the music?) and bought two pairs of harem pants at a market stall. They looked great in San Pancho but lost their luster as soon as we left town (fortunately they shrank in the wash so I didn't have to decide whether to wear them)!

The town had one-lane streets and lots of little shops, several selling real estate, some selling secondhand clothes and some selling paintings that are still cheap; with lots of old trailers in big yards with car parts scattered around in the dirt and chickens scratching, mixed in with b&b's painted bright contrasting colors with cast iron gates and address numbers made of decorative tiles.

And then, after the market, as we sat at our table in the sand waiting for our lunch--shrimp fajitas (Eric) and chili-garlic octopus (Marge), two people wearing backpacks (serious backpacks meant for travel--not for using instead of a purse) walked straight out onto the beach from the road. They looked dusty (yes, dusty!), at the end of a journey that started someplace far away; and they stood looking out at the ocean for a long time standing side by side, still wearing their backpacks. Yes, OK, maybe they were weekend hitchhikers but I don't think so!

After that, a couple of days ago, we went to a restaurant by a river (see pictures below) in the jungle at the edge of a tiny settlement a few miles out from Puerto Vallarta, in a deep canyon with the river running along the bottom around big round rocks, and children splashing in the shallow water; with horses grazing picturesquely by the river, and palm trees. Stunningly beautiful!

The restaurant, El Rio, had wonderful Margaritas (Eric said) and also an astonishingly great band, the Zippers-who played Rock n Roll from the 60s, with such power and feeling and beautiful true notes! To be in that beautiful place with that beautiful music and the canyon walls rising up on either side and the river flowing by over those wonderful round rocks right by the restaurant in the late afternoon sunshine! If you get to Puerto Vallarta you must go there!! Remember: El Rio!

Just this morning we went to the Saturday market in Old Town and I purchased more naturally fermented sauerkraut. It's so good! And so healthful! We sat for awhile afterward on the steps in front of the stage in Lazaro Cardenas park, listening to a musical duo, the Blonde Gypsies (??), playing flamenco music and then went home.

After that Eric took Otto for a walk and I studied Spanish. Love the class! We are staying in Puerto Vallarta long enough for me to finish the next level too! So happy to be able to communicate better in Spanish! I am too outgoing to easily bear not being able to talk to people (though I love chatting with Eric, his capacity for conversation wears out before mine)!

The restaurant on the beach in San Pancho
where we ate lunch

Eric with a margarita at San Pancho

The main street of San Pancho

The beach at San Pancho with palms in pots on the sand

Eric wearing his new hat while listening to rock and roll at El Rio

El Rio by El Rio