More fun in PV…

A few days later, Stacy comes over to visit around 10am. Around 11ish she gets hungry. There’s a nice restaurant just 2-3 blocks away so we stroll over there for brunch. I’d already eaten breakfast so when the waiter came over, I ordered fruit juice…fresh squeezed. Three times he asked me what I wanted to order and three times I told him nothing but the fruit juice.

Twenty minutes later he shows up with TWO meals. And tries to drop this horrible spaghetti and shrimp dinner plate in front of me. I really don’t care for pasta (really, hate the taste actually) so when he tries to insist that I ordered it, I got pissed. There is no way in hell I’d order something with pasta in it. I also know this is an old trick by restaurant staff to increase the days take from tourists that aren’t fluent in the language. Usually they will meekly accept the food they didn’t order as they assume they made the mistake. Bull. This con has been going on all over the world for centuries. And I knew that.

So I start by telling him, “I told you 3 times I only wanted the fruit juice, so take this back, I’m not paying for it!”. He starts arguing with me, insisting I did order it, which is a big tip off that it was a scam. Anyway, Stacy gets nervous and jumps in and says that she’ll take it for herself. I couldn’t convince her that it was a scam (and I felt that she was frightened that we’d get in trouble somehow) so, eventually, I let it slide. She brought the meal back to my RV and it sat there until it spoiled. Since there was no way in hell I’d eat it, and since she’d paid for it, didn’t bother me much.

After that little unpleasantness, we head to downtown PV and the malecon to wander around.

Love this stuff.

I’m not exactly sure how far this malecon extends. Probably to those hotels off in the distance. One thing I’ve noticed about PV is that it’s beaches here in city aren’t as nice as in Mazatlan. More rocks then sandy areas it seems. A few years ago as I traveled up the west coast of Mexico, I found that bugs became fewer and fewer as you headed north. I hadn’t been able to stay the last time I traveled through here, so I don’t know if the lack of bugs this trip was typical of PV but it was comfortable. No biting sand fleas, few mosquitoes, and few flies. Nice.

Don’t want to give the impression that there aren’t any beaches in PV, because there are some nice places to sunbathe.

Stacy has been here in PV many times and she’s done quite a bit of sand art herself. So she knows many of the local artists. Seemed every time we stopped to look at a piece, she’d be able to strike up a conversation with an artist she knew. Or artists, as many of these pieces were done by two people. Usually men. And there was always a donation jar nearby.

It was here in PV a few months ago that 8 human heads were dropped off on the sidewalk in front of a local police station. So the tourist count is a little low right now. For our part, we tried to not wander into any strange areas and, of course, don’t do drugs or search out seedy strip clubs or ladies of the night so we felt relatively safe.

These two guys were pretty cool. From a slight distance they really look like sand sculptures. Really had lots of kids giggling as they’d move slightly when one of them would approach. Startled a few adult tourists too. What a way to make a living. Not something I’d want to do. Don’t have the patience.

After two, three hours of wandering about looking at art, and getting to hear a 4 man band play one of my favorite Mexican songs (tipped them!), we settled in at a nice bar on the beach and whiled away the hours.

That’s a flavored Margarita. Tasted pretty good. That was the ending to our visit downtown. Then we pile into our respective buses and headed home. I was suppose to take the Wal-Mart bus and after I got aboard it took an entirely unexpected route. Looping up and around the east of PV. But the bus’s sign said Wal-Mart so…20 minutes later and I get off right in front of the restaurant we’d been scammed at that morning. I considered going in the restaurant and asking for the owner so I could complain about the scam but I doubted there’d be any refunds so, in the end, I didn’t bother.

One thing about Mexico is there aren’t any English TV channels to speak of but I checked anyway when I got home. Low and behold, there was a channel that was broadcasting some stateside programs in English. That was a treat. Start missing some of my favorite programs after a couple months down here.

The next day, I take the bus out to Stacy’s place. It was a little unnerving not knowing exactly where I was going and having to pay attention to the buildings along the road. When the bus passed her place my plan was to jump up quickly (the buses in Mexico stop…where-ev). I lost concentration a time or two along the way but when we (finally) passed that little village we’d been to a few days before I sat up and paid attention. Seemed like a longer trip then I remembered. Then I missed her place anyway but recognized the small truck just past it, jumped up and the driver stopped a few feet beyond it. Only had to walk back around 50 feet since the drivers are so good at stopping anywhere. Tried to memorize what her building looked like so I wouldn’t miss it the next time.

After hanging around a bit, we headed back down to that beach I mentioned last post. Our plan today was to take the water taxi to an even more remote beach around 5 miles down the coast in a bay. Stacy had been there before and I wanted to do some sight seeing myself so off we went.

 

The boat was full, but we all had room enough. Everyone got a life vest but few put them on.

I really enjoyed this boat trip. Salt sea & air in my face, the roar of the engine, coast line to examine. And good company. After years of traveling alone, it’s a pleasure to have someone with which to have an adventure.

Guess my stabilizer wasn’t working in the above shot. There’s a pelican on top of the rock.

It would have been fun scouting out some of the homes scattered along the coast. But, unfortunately, we didn’t know anyone who had or did live there.

I heard that they didn’t really have a very good road here. It had been a farm for a century or two and as PV became a tourist trap (I mean, destination), the owners developed it into a very nice spot with a really nice beach. There are now several businesses as you can see, all of them restaurants with bars. Some of the other buildings are rental places for skidoos, kites and the like. There’s no dock so the water taxi just runs us up on the beach and we have to jump for it. Water was nice and warm. Sun was very warm. No bugs to speak of. Lots of wind though. We wandered up and down the beach for a while. The original village is off to the south (right in the above picture) and is fairly modern. Like I said, this area started out as a farm, morphed into a fishing village, then a tourist trap.

There are some rich people here. They owned the big yachts and the nice villas scattered around the hills. There were some rentals as well.

My breakfast wore off but I still wasn’t all that hungry so I opted for this taco soup. I’ve had taco soup all over Mexico. Love it. This wasn’t the best I’d ever had but it was good. I’ve tried it in the states but it’s usually disappointing.

We settled in at a bar and enjoyed the sun. In fact it was hot enough that we needed the umbrellas. Very relaxing. Sun, sand, the sea, a beer, a breeze, lunch. Doesn’t get much better.

A few hours later and sadly, we have to go. It’s the last water taxi of the day. Don’t want to be stuck here as I understood from one of the waiters that there isn’t anywhere to stay. All the buildings are either homes, or full apartments.

Really a nice spot.

So we jump into the water taxi and head home. Nice day.