As promised, here are pictures of beautiful Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.... we just got back yesterday from a lovely holiday in the sun. Puerto Vallarta was a sleepy little fishing town til 1963 when film director John Huston chose the jungles of nearby Mismaloya to shoot his classic film "Night of the Iguana", with Richard Burton (who was accompanied by Elizabeth Taylor). The story goes that to keep all the egos and tantrums in check amongst the stars, Huston handed each of them a gold Derringer pistol inscribed with the six names of the group- apparently it did the trick and kept everyone honest! :lol: Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor later married in Puerto Vallarta and kept a home. The same jungles have been used since for films like Predator. I'll start the tour as our plane approaches Mexico, starting looking down over the Sierra Madre Mountains. Puerto Vallarta is in the state of Jalisco, which is famous for many things including production of Tequila, and Mariachi bands!! Sit back, open a Cerveza, and enjoy the tour! :cheers:
as we near Puerto Vallarta, the soil turns red and reveals a beautiful patchwork quilt:
on the way into the town, we pass the Bullfight ring (no, we didn't go to the bullfights....)
Beautiful fan-like palm trees:
Finally we arrive at our hotel... the weather always seems to be perfect in Puerto Vallarta. I have been there about ten times and it is always glorious:
one of the two pools at the hotel:
Looking over a balcony from the hotel onto a sidestreet, I snapped two pictures that sum up traffic Puerto Vallarta... imagine honking horns and hollering people to complete the mental image!
after a quick shower we hit the beach:
Fewer wild dogs than any of my trips in the past.... this guy was plum tuckered out in the heat of the mid day...
We approach the famous Blue Chairs Hotel.. one of the largest oceanside gay
hotel complexes in the world:
these are the locally well known, and notorious "Blue Chairs" that the Hotel eventually named itself after!
at 6 o'clock, many of the crowd head up to the top of the hotel for the rooftop sunset happy hour, and entertainment:
Puerto Vallarta is known for its gorgeous sunsets.... they are not as spectacular in winter than in summer, but even still they are amazing. In all of my photos today, I have done no tweaking or Photoshopping of colours.. all are genuine and pretty much reflected what we saw:
moving onto breakfast the next morning at our hotel. I love Mexican food, and iit was absolute heaven for me to start each day with an omelette with spicy salsa, and refried beans.... mmmmmmmMM!!
and then out and about.... this town is so breathtakingly quaint and picturesque that words do not do it justice.
another popular hotel for Canadians.. The Tropicana:
The people of Puerto Vallarta are amongst the loveliest and gentle of any place I have ever visited. Unfailingly polite to tourists, with a smile for everyone:
what time is it? 5:30 pm.... another sunset, another rooftop bar... this one harder to get to as you have to walk up many stairs:
I was sitting by the rooftop bar and caught the sunset beautifully:
another day, and this time we set out to go across the bridge to the other side of the old town. Our hotel is in the area charmingly called "Zona Romantica"!!
Like so many old Spanish Colonial towns, quaint ceramic nameplates on the buildings tell us what street we are on. One even sees these in New Orleans:
while crossing the bridge, we take a detour under it to see the lovely artist's colony.. the day is hot, but down by the river it is cool and fresh:
I have no idea why there was a big sombrero out on a rock in the river!
LOOK!! Up in the tree is a family of Iguanas... lazily waiting for mosquitoes to fly their way....
a statue of John Huston, the film director I spoke of earlier:
in the old town, we visit the local Cathedral:
a closeup of the beautiful crown on top of the Cathedral, La Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe:
Let's go inside and have a peek:
Luckily the Nativity set was still up:
Out onto The Malecón, which is the main street that curves along the ocean front. Here are most of the tourist attractions and shopping:
as you can see, "Hooters" is everywhere!! :lol:
Everywhere we see Piñatas hanging, leftover from celebrating Christmas and New Year. The history of the Piñata possibly goes back as far as China, but developed through the ages in Europe. They are used today as fun for children, who are blindfolded, and try to swing a stick to break the Piñata, releasing the treasure trove of candies and treats inside. The Piñata can be raised, or lowered, on a rope. The crowd screams out commands to the man
with the rope, calling out "¡Más arriba! More upwards! ¡Abajo! Lower! ¡Enfrente! In front!" in an effort to prevent the participant from smacking it dead on!!
The Malecón is a lovely stroll on the seaside.. many colourful statues dot the sand:
sand sculptures..
a rather hot and tired looking Santa Claus:
some sunset shots:
Time for bed, as there is a snorkling cruise first thing in the morning!!
looking off our balcony window, we see Los Muertos Pier, in the middle of the Bay of Banderas (Bahía de Banderas). This is where the group is meeting for the cruise.. I've actually combined photos from two separate cruises here for convenience:
a glance down at the early morning beach:
an old man fishes in his wooden boat:
we head out to sea, on our large catamaran:
Our first stop will be at the famous Los Arcos (The Arches). This area was declared in 1984 to be a National Marine Park, thus by law protected as a breeding ground for a variety of sea birds, such as pelicans, boobies and others.
The birds feel perfectly safe up top the rock formations, as people cannot go up:
over time, the water currents have created holes, or "arches"...
The coral reefs below make it a favourite spot for snorkling:
Here is a big catfish, who has been coming up to this particular snorkling expedition for years... his name is "Georgie", and loves treats of banana:
nearby the whales frolic and play in the sunshine:
blowing off a bit of steam!!
we anchor at a remote beach, and have a lovely lunch:
exotic chickens in a cage:
and then back to land we go!
One last wander around town before we leave... an ingenious fellow without a ladder proves the old adage:"Necessity is the Mother of Invention"!
more ceramic wall plaques with the house address:
public buses are everywhere, and heavily used; a fare is 50 pesos,(oops..edit: was just pointed out to me that is a typo.. should be 5 pesos!!!) which is about 50 cents Canadian or American. They make for a fast, somewhat bumpy and often alarming trip!! :
A doctor's office, which thankfully I did not need to enter!
I end the tour with a Festival Mexicano one night at our hotel... a group of dancers performed songs in the costumes of all the states of Mexico. The variety was amazing, and we really enjoyed the show:
and the night ended with the children breaking the piñata.. being ****** kids they didn't handicap them by putting on the traditional blindfold!!:
My heartfelt thanks to the gracious folk of Puerto Vallarta... their kindness and patience with the onslaught of sun seeking touristos is amazing... I can't say enough about these lovely people who have made every one of my stays there memorable!! :cheers:
as we near Puerto Vallarta, the soil turns red and reveals a beautiful patchwork quilt:
on the way into the town, we pass the Bullfight ring (no, we didn't go to the bullfights....)
Beautiful fan-like palm trees:
Finally we arrive at our hotel... the weather always seems to be perfect in Puerto Vallarta. I have been there about ten times and it is always glorious:
one of the two pools at the hotel:
Looking over a balcony from the hotel onto a sidestreet, I snapped two pictures that sum up traffic Puerto Vallarta... imagine honking horns and hollering people to complete the mental image!
after a quick shower we hit the beach:
Fewer wild dogs than any of my trips in the past.... this guy was plum tuckered out in the heat of the mid day...
We approach the famous Blue Chairs Hotel.. one of the largest oceanside gay
hotel complexes in the world:
these are the locally well known, and notorious "Blue Chairs" that the Hotel eventually named itself after!
at 6 o'clock, many of the crowd head up to the top of the hotel for the rooftop sunset happy hour, and entertainment:
Puerto Vallarta is known for its gorgeous sunsets.... they are not as spectacular in winter than in summer, but even still they are amazing. In all of my photos today, I have done no tweaking or Photoshopping of colours.. all are genuine and pretty much reflected what we saw:
moving onto breakfast the next morning at our hotel. I love Mexican food, and iit was absolute heaven for me to start each day with an omelette with spicy salsa, and refried beans.... mmmmmmmMM!!
and then out and about.... this town is so breathtakingly quaint and picturesque that words do not do it justice.
another popular hotel for Canadians.. The Tropicana:
The people of Puerto Vallarta are amongst the loveliest and gentle of any place I have ever visited. Unfailingly polite to tourists, with a smile for everyone:
what time is it? 5:30 pm.... another sunset, another rooftop bar... this one harder to get to as you have to walk up many stairs:
I was sitting by the rooftop bar and caught the sunset beautifully:
another day, and this time we set out to go across the bridge to the other side of the old town. Our hotel is in the area charmingly called "Zona Romantica"!!
Like so many old Spanish Colonial towns, quaint ceramic nameplates on the buildings tell us what street we are on. One even sees these in New Orleans:
while crossing the bridge, we take a detour under it to see the lovely artist's colony.. the day is hot, but down by the river it is cool and fresh:
I have no idea why there was a big sombrero out on a rock in the river!
LOOK!! Up in the tree is a family of Iguanas... lazily waiting for mosquitoes to fly their way....
a statue of John Huston, the film director I spoke of earlier:
in the old town, we visit the local Cathedral:
a closeup of the beautiful crown on top of the Cathedral, La Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe:
Let's go inside and have a peek:
Luckily the Nativity set was still up:
Out onto The Malecón, which is the main street that curves along the ocean front. Here are most of the tourist attractions and shopping:
as you can see, "Hooters" is everywhere!! :lol:
Everywhere we see Piñatas hanging, leftover from celebrating Christmas and New Year. The history of the Piñata possibly goes back as far as China, but developed through the ages in Europe. They are used today as fun for children, who are blindfolded, and try to swing a stick to break the Piñata, releasing the treasure trove of candies and treats inside. The Piñata can be raised, or lowered, on a rope. The crowd screams out commands to the man
with the rope, calling out "¡Más arriba! More upwards! ¡Abajo! Lower! ¡Enfrente! In front!" in an effort to prevent the participant from smacking it dead on!!
The Malecón is a lovely stroll on the seaside.. many colourful statues dot the sand:
sand sculptures..
a rather hot and tired looking Santa Claus:
some sunset shots:
Time for bed, as there is a snorkling cruise first thing in the morning!!
looking off our balcony window, we see Los Muertos Pier, in the middle of the Bay of Banderas (Bahía de Banderas). This is where the group is meeting for the cruise.. I've actually combined photos from two separate cruises here for convenience:
a glance down at the early morning beach:
an old man fishes in his wooden boat:
we head out to sea, on our large catamaran:
Our first stop will be at the famous Los Arcos (The Arches). This area was declared in 1984 to be a National Marine Park, thus by law protected as a breeding ground for a variety of sea birds, such as pelicans, boobies and others.
The birds feel perfectly safe up top the rock formations, as people cannot go up:
over time, the water currents have created holes, or "arches"...
The coral reefs below make it a favourite spot for snorkling:
Here is a big catfish, who has been coming up to this particular snorkling expedition for years... his name is "Georgie", and loves treats of banana:
nearby the whales frolic and play in the sunshine:
blowing off a bit of steam!!
we anchor at a remote beach, and have a lovely lunch:
exotic chickens in a cage:
and then back to land we go!
One last wander around town before we leave... an ingenious fellow without a ladder proves the old adage:"Necessity is the Mother of Invention"!
more ceramic wall plaques with the house address:
public buses are everywhere, and heavily used; a fare is 50 pesos,(oops..edit: was just pointed out to me that is a typo.. should be 5 pesos!!!) which is about 50 cents Canadian or American. They make for a fast, somewhat bumpy and often alarming trip!! :
A doctor's office, which thankfully I did not need to enter!
I end the tour with a Festival Mexicano one night at our hotel... a group of dancers performed songs in the costumes of all the states of Mexico. The variety was amazing, and we really enjoyed the show:
and the night ended with the children breaking the piñata.. being ****** kids they didn't handicap them by putting on the traditional blindfold!!:
My heartfelt thanks to the gracious folk of Puerto Vallarta... their kindness and patience with the onslaught of sun seeking touristos is amazing... I can't say enough about these lovely people who have made every one of my stays there memorable!! :cheers: