Puerto Vallarta....so very glad it was not destroyed this past week by Hurricane Patricia!

January 2, 1991 - David and my 16th wedding anniversary. A very nice place to spend it! - When I woke up the next morning in our pretty hotel room at Molino de Agua in Puerto Vallarta, I went out onto the porch and saw men sweeping the sidewalks and raking the lawn. We got dressed and walked across the small foot bridge to an outdoor patio restaurant right on the grounds. The floor of the patio was brick, and the tables had marble tops. There were a couple of hammocks hanging beneath a huge rubber tree next to the patio. It was really relaxing and beautiful!

We ordered our breakfast, and enjoyed the outdoors while waiting for the food to be served. The sky was brilliant blue, and the surf was crashing onto the beach beyond the trees. It felt pretty close to heaven there...

The Breakfast Pation at Molino de Agua

Here's our daughter posing beside a huge terra cotta jardinere. Wish I had a couple of these for my front porch!

I had eggs rancheros with beans and tortilla chips, cafe con leche (coffee with milk); David had corn tortilla cut into strips with cheese and a mild tomato sauce (and to David's dismay - not picante! (spicy); and our daughter had her usual pancakes and hot chocolate.

We decided to go swimming in the ocean, so we got some beach towels - the hotel gives them to you, but if you misplace them, the charge is ridiculous! Something like $30.00 U.S. I'll bet not too many people take them home as souvenirs! Anyway, we walked a couple of blocks to a shaded square where van buses stop, and we bought a couple of bottles of pop for our daughter and me. We also bought some beach hats made of straw with brightly-colored woven bands on them. The sun was very intense in Puerto Vallarta, and we did not want to go home with bad sunburns. We rode the bus as far as it went because the driver forgot we wanted to get off at Punta Negra, a white-sand, fairly private beach across from Mismaloya (the beach where 'Night of the Iguana' was filmed.) Anyway, after fearing for our lives as this fast driver took the mountain curves at a pretty good clip - the van door was left open, and the seats were vinyl, so as you sailed around each curve, you slid across the seat until the armrest on the other end, or another person's body stopped you! We really could have enjoyed the ride more if the guy hadn't driven quite so fast, but I felt that in Puerto Vallarta the people look at tourists as a necessary evil - to be tolerated for the money they bring in, but not to be liked very much. On this ride, we did meet a couple of people from Portland, OR who have a condo in Puerto Vallarta, and spend several weeks down there each winter. Anyway, after dropping off a couple of little Mexican girls who spent the entire ride grasping the armrest for dear life...we finally reached our destination - Punta Negra Beach. 

 The Beach at Punta Negra...Notice the 'black' rocks for which this beach is named.

  Sandpiper on the beach at Punta Negra

Black rocks on the beach at Punta Negra. Notice the sandpiper...

The path down to the beach was a pile of big rocks, and then smaller rocks. We stumbled down the path, found a shady spot which was not too cluttered with litter, and put down our towels. We shucked our shorts and shirts to get down to our bathing suits, and David watched the stuff while we two ladies hit the beach. We walked out into the ocean, bouncing over the swells, and tried to stay on our feet. After awhile, I went onto the shore, and David went into the water with our daughter. They spent some time trying to catch some big waves to do some 'body surfing.' We watched some Mexican boys who seemed to have the best method - they also had a small surfboard, which seemed to help the cause. We spent several hours there, enjoying the water, watching a little sandpiper tip-toe around the rocks and sand, and watched a couple of pelicans perched in the trees on the black rock cliff which stood guard over the beach. 

 The big surf at Punta Negra Beach

View of Puerto Vallarta and Banderas Bay in the distance, as seen from Punta Negra Beach

Mismaloya Beach - site of the filming of the movie 'Night of the Iguana'

David and our daughter doing some body surfing in the Pacific Ocean

We had liberally applied sunscreen, but it was nearly worn off, and we were concerned that we might be getting too much sun. We were also getting hungry, so we put our clothes back on over our nearly-dry swimsuits, and caught a bus back to town. (We also had to sweep a lot of sand off, and get it off our feet before we could stand to put on our shoes.) The bus was nearly full when the three of us got on it, but it managed to squeeze in two more passengers as well. There we were, packed in like sardines, sliding across the plastic seats each time the bus sped around a curve - an interesting mode of transport! We arrived at a stop a few blocks from our hotel, and walked the rest of the way back. 

We took showers to wash the sea salt from our hair and skin, and changed into street clothes. Then we walked across the bridge near the hotel, found the steps down to the island in the middle of the river, and went down to eat at the restaurant situated on the tip of the island facing the ocean. The restaurant was called 'Franzi's' and was empty except for ourselves and the waiters, as well as some rather bedraggled-looking cats. The trees sheltering our table on the patio continually shed some kind of seeds, leaves and who know what else, causing the waiters to continuously sweep off the table tops and chair seats. The cats came over to see our daughter, and we noticed that a couple of them were blind, or nearly so. I wondered why they chose to sit beside her - do animals instinctively know who likes them? We ordered beer, and pop for our daughter (sin hielo - without ice). Then she ordered a cheeseburger with bacon; David and I got fish and chips. The fish was very good, and was served with lots of fresh lime chunks. After we ate, David and our daughter headed back to the hotel to swim in one of the hotel pools (they had three), and I went exploring on the island where there were lots of little stalls of crafts and tourist items for sale. I found a nice sterling silver bracelet from Taxco, which I purchased. After looking over all the other craft places, I went back to the hotel. David and our daughter were ready to quit swimming. The pool where they were swimming is a beautiful blue mozaic tile pool surrounded with bright pink cement walkway. The entire hotel grounds was really a tropical paradise. You would have never known that a place such as that could be nestled in the busy part of town, and be so well-hidden from the traffic on the street.

Rio Cuale, the little river that goes between Hotel Molino de Agua and the Franzi's Restaurant where we had our lunch that day. You can barely see the restaurant patio in the trees on the right side of the photo. The hotel is on the left side.

David and our daughter enjoying the pink and blue pool at Molino de Agua.

 Our daughter diving into the water of the pink and blue pool at Molino de Agua.

This is the patio where we had our breakfast, with willow trees and the ocean beyond...

These were the parrots in the cage near the entrance to our hotel.

That's our daughter coming around the big fountain in the front courtyard to our hotel.

This nativity scene was set up near the registration desk in the courtyard of Hotel Molino de Agua. Be sure to notice the red devil above the creche.

Big banana trees and the cobblestone walks between the buildings at Molino de Agua...very pretty!

Chona - a monkey in its cage inside the courtyard at Molino de Agua.

The beautiful courtyard at Molino de Agua in Puerto Vallarta.

The restaurant and bar at Molino de Agua in Puerto Vallarta.

While our daughter got dressed, I went shopping for stuff for breakfast. I found a supermarket and bought three different sweet rolls, two huge oranges (about 4" in diameter) and three cartons of liquid peach yogurt. I took the food back to the hotel, and we headed across the bridge to find our supper. We found Helados Bing, the ice cream store similar to one in Mexico City. After standing around awhile trying to figure out the ordering system, we realized you were supposed to pay first, take your receipt to the clerk at the window, and then order your flavor of ice cream. It really would be nice to be fluent in Spanish! Our daughter got a double dip of pistachio, David got one each of pistachio and mamey (tropical fruit), and I got coffee and coconut - delicious! It tends to be very hot and humid in Puerto Vallarta in the afternoon and evening, even in the winter, so the ice cream melted quickly. We had to eat very fast!

We saw an art shop with fantastic sculptures of mermaids with small fish for scales on their fin/tails, a lion with a man's face and hands rather than paws, a man with a face inside his chest (behind bars!) and a cage over his head (more bars) and holding a mask of his own face in front of the cage. Lots of weird, deeply symbolic work - fascinating!

Then we returned to the hotel, sat at the restaurant by the pool, listened to the piano player and waited for our 'complimentary' drinks. We didn't order dinner so our drinks were not delivered in a timely manner! After a long time, we were asked if we wanted anything else. We said we were waiting for our drinks. The waiter made a big effort to seem like they were at fault and that he had forgotten, but I think it may have been intentional, since we didn't buy our dinner there. Oh well - we finally got the drinks... I had read that the service at Molino de Agua was slow, so maybe I was expecting the worst. I had a margarita with crushed ice - and I waited to see if I would get turista, but I lucked out! Maybe there is less chance of that in the popular tourist areas where it is known that people from other places are not immune to the local 'bugs.'

We slept very well, this time with the windows open and the fan turned off. And, the sound of the ocean lulling us to sleep...

Just a little more time to enjoy Mexico's entrancing different-ness...and then we had to head home...but we still had another day to enjoy!

Come back to read about our last day in Puerto Vallarta, and our trip home to Iowa...