Puerto Vallarte - update #3

All righty!

First Picture Story
Here is a picture story of our adventure going in to town.

So the cheapies that we are, we decided to skip the $20 cab ride from Nuevo Vallarta to down town Puerto Vallarta and go with the 30 cent bus ride.  

No bueno.
Did I mention that we went to PV during off-season?  And why is it off season you might ask?  It might have something to do with the heat, humidity and evening thunderstorms.  The later I loved as I am in bliss if it's storming outside.  So anyway here is a pic of me trying to smile while dying of the heat and humidity on the dramatically slow bus ride in to town.

So Mr. Bus Driver didn't really understand where we wanted to go and dropped us off what he told us was a 10 minute walk to down town.  Temp check - 90 degree heat with about 90% humidity.  Uh-huh.  An hour later, we finally reach the board walk.  Here is a pic of Rich (he's going to kill me for posting this) applying sun lotion mid-way our 'walk' and grimacing due to the heat.  This pic makes me laugh!  It reminds me of the sweaty messes we both were!

The walk was beautiful though!  Isn't this gorgeous?

Ahh, finally!  We reached the board walk.  Despite the heat, it was a gorgeous looking day! Along the board walk were a number of little stores that we perused.

One art gallery had a guy from an environmental agency holding a baby alligator.  We made a donation to the agency and got to cuddle with the alligator.  Rich gladly cradled him while I gladly snapped away.  I didn't want to pay extra to hold him although I did get to tentatively pet his belly and his head.  I pretended he was Shila.

"Hello Rich, my name is Benjamin and I want to eat you".

"I'm scared".

This gentleman was so sweet and explained to us how this specific type of art is hand made one bead at a time.  

Woah.
Talk about patience.
Talk about a hand cramp.
This artist was amazingly talented.

And of course I fell in love with all of the art.  I really wanted the center lady in purple.  It was $160.  :(  Of course the gentleman selling these offered it to us for free if we sat through his timeshare presentation. It was the only time I was tempted to sit through a timeshare presentation.  That's how much I wanted the figurine.

This is Rich and I in a couple years from now.

(See the pregnant belly?)

We met this guy who owned a tiny cigar shop.  Awesome guy!  He was so upfront with us and told us how to avoid the timeshare sharks...the games that they play, what to say and not say.  

 We stumbled across a very serene looking Catholic Church.  

I just loved the architecture in here.  Looking up was my favorite.  The arches seemed to pop out everywhere I looked and the white walls were pristine.

Check out all of the gold work.  Amazing.

Let's play a game.
Spot the Jew in the Catholic Church.
:)
(ps - I hope I didn't offend anybody...Rich and I have a very unique sense of humor)

And finally after hours and hours of walking, we sat down for lunch and...

...many well deserved Corona's.  Ahhhhh....

This was one of the best meals we had.  It was a fish fillet shallow fried in coconut, sitting on a bed of baked bananas.  It also came with a dramatic sprig of rosemary that was plunged in to the middle of the fillet.  I thought it was slightly humorous.

After lunch, we decided to spoil ourselves with a cab ride back to the hotel.  No more sweaty bus rides for us!

Second Picture Story
We also snuck in a day boat ride out to a secluded beach to snorkel, relax and drink.  :)

The day was overcast which we both enjoyed as we didn't want to burn up too badly.  After filling up on dramamine, we were all set for a great day on the boat!

After a boat ride, we doned life jackets to go snorkeling around these islands...

...it was my first time snorkeling and I loved it!  We couldn't see too deep but we did get to see quite a few tropical fish.  I wished we had an under water camera with us!

Our tour guide dove down to the ocean floor and picked up a very unique looking and feeling starfish which he then hung on my shoulder.  I'm not sure that the starfish quite appreciated it but I sure did!

Shortly thereafter, the boat docked at the secluded beach.  The picture shows you the full length of the beach.  It was tiny and we felt pretty damn special...kind of like being on a date on The Bachelor.  :)

And while Rich drank beers in the ocean...

...I drank my signature P.V. drink - the Pina Colado - on the shore.  Bliss!

We hung out on the beach for a while before heading back to Nuevo Vallarta via the boat.  Really nice relaxing day!  For a bit there, I had dreams of becoming a surfer girl, living for everything-ocean like the gals in Blue Crush.  Sigh...