Puerto Vallarta Dec 2009
Took a short vacation to Puerto Vallarta (PV); Mexico. PV is located on the west coast of Mexico, and so is on the Atlantic ocean. It is a popular tourist spot for North Americans and many actually live there full time or part time as snow birds. The town of PV is nice, and located in a large bay, which is a natural sea area where whales and dolphins and other sea life migrate to every year.
The beaches are average; and certainly not as good as Cancun beaches. We stayed at the Sheraton, and took the local buses to get everywhere. The public transportation system is very good, and cheap, and easy to get to most places. We ate at different places every day; but the Mercado was the best; where they have food stalls mixed with fruit/vegetable/meat selling stalls.
The best place for us was the town of Bucerias; which is on the same bay as PV, but is much smaller and less tourists. We found several restaurants that were right on the beach, and served fresh seafood; the red snapper was especially delicious. We spent most of an afternoon/evening at a restaurant on the beach enjoying cold cerveza, great fresh seafood, swimming in the nice beach (better than PV), and a wonderful sunset; before catching the local bus back to PV.
PV is a nice place, but too many North Americans there to make it an “authentic ” experience. When you go to a foreign place and most locals speak english as a 2nd language, then you know that the experience is geared towards english speaking tourists.
restaurant on the beach at Bucerias
Bucerias restaurants on the beach
Whale watching in the PV bay; there were lots of whales
Punta Mita beach; not as good as Bucerias
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