After Corona largely reined our intercontinental travel plans over most of the last two years, we had kind of a glut there at the end of the 2021. We spent some time in November with Sarah’s family in KCMO (she longer than I, due to work BS), and then with my parents in Puerto Vallarta and some (kinda) new friends in Mexico City in December. So yeah, two trips to North America inside of two months. Under pandemic conditions. Couple of brain swabs. Plenty of document collection. Lots of umpteen-hour FFP2 mask sessions. It all went smoothly — it was just at the beginning of the Great Omicron Flight Cancellation Crisis of 2021-22.
Our theater of operations (neglecting the overnight stay in Newark on the way down to Puerto Vallarta, because hey, it’s just Newark):
In December 2019, we spent a couple weeks at one of our usual vacation destinations. But we did a ton of new stuff. See all our posts tagged with Puerto Vallarta.
In December 2019, we spent a couple weeks at one of our usual vacation destinations. But we did a ton of new stuff. See all our posts tagged with Puerto Vallarta.
We’ve been to Puerto Vallarta plenty of times. Inspired by the Taco Chronicles, we wanted to discover the food we love in the place we love, but not in the restaurants we already know.
AirBnB to the rescue again! We found Memo’s tours there, but if you’re interested, you should consider booking through his website vallarta101.com. He does more than just food tours: history and culture walks are also on offer (and he gave us an inside tip that they’re expanding that area, too).
In December 2019, we spent a couple weeks at one of our usual vacation destinations. But we did a ton of new stuff. See all our posts tagged with Puerto Vallarta.
Background
We are fully aware of our coffee dependency — never moreso than while hopping time zones. So we decided to Learn the Process of Coffee Roasting via this AirBnB Experience, which popped up while searching for things to do in the area. We were looking to AirBnB for inspiration after our good buddy Kristin’s recommendation to take the Pasteis de Nata baking class during our trip to Porto.
Getting There
Daniel’s coffee shop, La Cabra y La Mata, is not in Puerto Vallarta. It’s not even in Jalisco. But it’s less than an hour away by bus in Bucerías, a sleepy resort town north of Nuevo Vallarta with long stretches of beach.
We started our journey with a walk to the airport — about 20 minutes from our home base in PV — and caught a bus going towards Bucerías, or maybe La Cruz de Huanacaxtle or Sayulita. Bus fare was $20 MXN per person each way, payable in cash to the driver upon boarding and stating our destination. That works out to around a dollar or euro, depending on the exchange rate. We monitored our progress on the bus via GPS and just got out at a stop that seemed close enough.
We returned to Puerto Vallarta again in January 2018 for a break from winter.1 It was glorious, like usual.
Corraled in Houston
Except for the getting there, which (predictably) was nicht so toll. But we didn’t let that wreck the mood. Our buddy from Boston and several-time visitor to Ye Olde Parental Condo flew in shortly after we did and the Good Times™ began to roll. Continue reading ¡Puerto Vallarta otra vez!
Actually winter hadn’t been all that wintry by that point, but those last couple weeks of February — hoo boy; that was winter like we don’t often see ’round these parts. [↩]
This winter was dragging on and on and on. Fortunately we’d foreseen a need for a break from it far in advance and planned a trip to Mexico to visit mis padres.
Some highlights, in no particular order:
pal Rachel did her own escape from Boston’s relentless winter by meeting us down there
Sarah and my dad did a duet at the BVG Open Mic session
picked up a replacement stone for my ring (onyx had cracked; got a nice blue/green fire opal in there now)
…looks like this. Including the goofy guy experimenting with his flash bouncing around the balcony.
We haven’t done much outside the condo complex yet, aside from a couple grocery runs and a trip downtown for lunch and trinket shopping on one of the overcast afternoons. Apparently it’s been cooler and cloudier here than normal; next-door neighbors here since November asked if we brought that weather with us from Germany. I hate to think so!
Soon my parents will be arriving and I’m sure we’ll find some less lazy ways to spend our remaining time here. But the lazy feels awfully nice, too.
The Malecón is a seawall in downtown Puerto Vallarta where you can stroll along the coast and log some excellent people-watching. On this year’s trip (versus December or January in years past) there seemed to be fewer tourists from the USA or Canada visiting the region (including the smaller towns we visited to the North of Puerto Vallarta). Consequently, this trip had a much more authentic Mexican vibe to it than previous ones.
