Puerto Vallarta (after all!)
OK so it looked for a while that the bus system would defeat us and we'd miss out on Puerto Vallarta - but we made a snap decision on the way to Guadalajara that we'd try to get there after all. So we jumped off in Tepic and managed to find a bus headed to Puerto Vallarta (although it did seem to go all around the houses to get there). So we managed to make it to Puerto Vallarta after all - and we're pretty glad we did because we had a great time!
When we arrived, we thought we'd actually managed to transport ourselves to Florida instead because there were so many Americans of (or approaching) retirement age crowding the city centre. When we finally found ourselves in the right area (our bus driver seemed intent upon showing us as many different districts as possible and the 30 minute journey from the bus terminal took over an hour) we found ourselves a cheap hotel (no wireless internet though - booo!) and checked ourselves in for a couple of nights.
We'd spoken to a few people who recommended Puerto Vallarta as a destination because they'd been there on a cruise and had enjoyed the town and the activities to be found around it. What we were looking forward to were the zip-lines which we'd heard so much about. Laughing in the face of peril and thumbing our noses at danger we set off in search of adrenaline-fueled excitement!
It would have been great to tell you that everything went immediately to plan - but we spent a frustrating half hour or so traipsing around the dusty city streets looking for the point at which we would be picked up by a free bus. Fortune smiles on the intrepid it seems because after a quick trip on a bus (after another trip to the tourist info building) we ran into the public relations manager of one of the zip-line companies who not only gave us a good deal on admission - but also paid for a taxi to take us up there! Muchas gracias, mi amigo Alexandro!
The zip lines were everything we hoped they'd be - fast, picturesque and occasionally scary! Ably assisted by William and Ivan (they are actually Mexican - I think they may have created pseudonyms in case anything went wrong) we negotiated 10 lines in total - from the first easy 'training' line to the monstrous 'I'm not sure I can see the ground' line across a canyon. Both of us were hooting like... well, nothing I've ever heard before. It was over FAR too quickly - unfortunately there wasn't really time to do it again (and, of course we'd have to pay again too!). Afterwards we met up with Alexandro again and he pointed us in the direction of the bus home - via the Don Crispin tequila factory. The star!
We joined one of the tours and watched as Julio and his family (and Pancho the donkey) made the tequila from agave to bottle. He even let us taste some afterwards - salud! He said that he hoped we all enjoyed his tequila but if we didn't we should throw it in his face! Even Trace liked the Tequila (curses - I was hoping she'd give it to me!). After the tour we wound our weary way back to town.
Latin America has a reputation as a barren wasteland of vegetarian food with every traditional dish containing lard, bacon grease or some other animal derivative. However we have come across some wonderful veggie-friendly places - none more impressive than Planeta Vegetariano in Puerto Vallarta. It's a full veggie buffet with several different meals, salads, drinks and even desert. They even tell you if there's any dairy produce in their food too. We wound up eating three of our five meals there. They made lovely garlic-roasted potatoes, stir fries and stews. We were in culinary heaven.
Sadly, it was soon time to move on, but we're certainly glad we jumped off our Guadalaharja-bound bus in Tepic and made the effort to get to Puerto Vallarta.
When we arrived, we thought we'd actually managed to transport ourselves to Florida instead because there were so many Americans of (or approaching) retirement age crowding the city centre. When we finally found ourselves in the right area (our bus driver seemed intent upon showing us as many different districts as possible and the 30 minute journey from the bus terminal took over an hour) we found ourselves a cheap hotel (no wireless internet though - booo!) and checked ourselves in for a couple of nights.
We'd spoken to a few people who recommended Puerto Vallarta as a destination because they'd been there on a cruise and had enjoyed the town and the activities to be found around it. What we were looking forward to were the zip-lines which we'd heard so much about. Laughing in the face of peril and thumbing our noses at danger we set off in search of adrenaline-fueled excitement!
It would have been great to tell you that everything went immediately to plan - but we spent a frustrating half hour or so traipsing around the dusty city streets looking for the point at which we would be picked up by a free bus. Fortune smiles on the intrepid it seems because after a quick trip on a bus (after another trip to the tourist info building) we ran into the public relations manager of one of the zip-line companies who not only gave us a good deal on admission - but also paid for a taxi to take us up there! Muchas gracias, mi amigo Alexandro!
The zip lines were everything we hoped they'd be - fast, picturesque and occasionally scary! Ably assisted by William and Ivan (they are actually Mexican - I think they may have created pseudonyms in case anything went wrong) we negotiated 10 lines in total - from the first easy 'training' line to the monstrous 'I'm not sure I can see the ground' line across a canyon. Both of us were hooting like... well, nothing I've ever heard before. It was over FAR too quickly - unfortunately there wasn't really time to do it again (and, of course we'd have to pay again too!). Afterwards we met up with Alexandro again and he pointed us in the direction of the bus home - via the Don Crispin tequila factory. The star!
We joined one of the tours and watched as Julio and his family (and Pancho the donkey) made the tequila from agave to bottle. He even let us taste some afterwards - salud! He said that he hoped we all enjoyed his tequila but if we didn't we should throw it in his face! Even Trace liked the Tequila (curses - I was hoping she'd give it to me!). After the tour we wound our weary way back to town.
Latin America has a reputation as a barren wasteland of vegetarian food with every traditional dish containing lard, bacon grease or some other animal derivative. However we have come across some wonderful veggie-friendly places - none more impressive than Planeta Vegetariano in Puerto Vallarta. It's a full veggie buffet with several different meals, salads, drinks and even desert. They even tell you if there's any dairy produce in their food too. We wound up eating three of our five meals there. They made lovely garlic-roasted potatoes, stir fries and stews. We were in culinary heaven.
Sadly, it was soon time to move on, but we're certainly glad we jumped off our Guadalaharja-bound bus in Tepic and made the effort to get to Puerto Vallarta.
posted by Iff at
7:47 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home