A Day Trip to Puerto Vallarta

Wednesday a.m. - very foggy out
Bright and early Monday morning Ramon, the mechanic, and his helper returned to talk to The Driver about the brakes. We surely do need new brakes. Ramon says the brakes were “muy horrible” – very horrible. He assured us that the new brake parts he is getting will be US made not Chinese made. We’ll get the front ones replaced too while we’re at it. Because they would be taking the passenger side wheels off and bouncing Jennie around some before leveling her I put the satellite down. Rather have it down and secure then just losing the signal. So with nothing to do and all day to do it….

We took off and drove to Puerto Vallarta for the day. 180 mile round trip. Yes we are nuts – we’re in Mexico with the banditos aren’t we. (the only thing close to a bandito we’ve seen are the tattooed guys here at this park from LA who moved back to Mexico to safely raise their families.) At least our trip to PV did accomplish one thing. We are definitely not going that way in Jennie. Last summer the rainy season was pretty sever so the road between Aticama and the 200 is in pretty bad shape in places. Where there aren’t potholes there isn't any road. Well I’m not really being really fair – a lot of the road was good just a couple of bad patches where it was impossible to miss the potholes

Can't miss them all

And where we had to go down through a wash as a bridge is still washed out.

nice drop off on the right

The area that was worse is right before Zacualpan. This is mostly low lying watermelon growing country. And the watermelons are ripe now. We saw big trucks being loaded, pickup trucks full of them and they were stacked in big and little piles along the road.

lots and lots of sundias

Got into PV and parked in the covered garage right across from the Malecón. Walked around a bit looking at the great sand sculptures. There were more this year than last. Click on pictures to make bigger.

He is working on this one. Using a straw to blow the loose sand off.

Another one – lizards – one with a frog? on his back. This is the first one I’ve seen using colors.

And this one of the Virgin Lupita Los Bendiga (translates to “Lupita wants you to go with good graces) – lots of sparkles on it

And another one with mermaids.

Not completely finished yet

This one is being worked on. I was surprised to see that they are not all sand. They are built around stacks of boxes. Guess it makes sense just never expected it.

Hadn’t thought abut how they reached the top to work on it either. Learn something new every day.
I love these chairs – take pictures of them every year.

We ate lunch in a restaurant (who shall remain nameless) right across the street from them. We’ve eaten there before and had good meals – well…….mine was fine I had a half avocado with tuna salad, lettuce and tomato – very good. I got served……waited…..waited…..finally started to eat while waiting for Bills meal –Fried chicken and fries in a basket. Finally came just as I finished and it was uneatable! The chicken was like a hockey puck. As long as it took to get it they could have caught a fresh chicken, plucked and fried it. I think they found this one under a barrel somewhere.
Leaving there we ran the gauntlet of hustlers along the shops. Why do I always feel obliged to answer them when they ask questions? Where you from? Is that blouse Mexican? Nice ring did you get it here? Hi cowboy you from Texas? (Bill always wears his hat out in the sun.) Want a good cigar? NO! Seems they can always find something about you to comment on. That’s one thing I like about Mazatlan. Unless you go to the Zona Dorada you don’t get hassled. Enough of that.
Saw this weird tree in the plaza – Looks like roots….

Another thing I always take a picture of – the top of the church. It is so strange to see a church topped with a crown.

Do you think Puerto Vallarta is a tourist town? Most prices are in US dollars – they seem to prefer them to Pesos. AND they even have ATM machines that dispense US dollars instead of Pesos – never saw that before.

We found the tiny store that sells all the Huichol beading supplies and The Driver bought some more wax. Took this picture of one of the “pictures there” This is all done with beads. It's about 2 feet x 2 feet big

Done walking around. Picked up the car and headed home. Back through the tree tunnels – they are so pretty.

And much to our surprise we passed Tioga and George on the road. Guess he is on his way south again.
Got back to Jennie and now all her back wheels are off and she is pretty level. The satellite – I should give it a name – a nice name so he behaves for the rest of the trip. I’ll have to think about it. Any suggestions?
It was a long day – didn’t do anything evening except watch the sun go down and listen to the waves.
On Tuesday we went up to Tepic again.