(Author’s note: I originally started this post in fall of 2018 and am finally getting around to finishing it, in very early days of 2019. When I talk about “this year” I am referring to 2018. Happy new year! )

We couldn’t figure out what to do for our vacation this year. Europe was thrown around; itineraries were casually brought up. I got recommendations for Greece from a colleague. We eventually crunched the numbers and realized that this wasn’t the year for Greece/Italy jaunt.. maybe Hawaii? Maybe Panama? My coworker had been to Puerto Vallarta for her honeymoon and suggested that. We looked into it. Did you know that PV is only about a 3-hour flight from LAX, and flights were roughly $300 round trip? We found a resort that looked perfect. Elizabeth Taylor used to vacation there, and her imprint is all over the town.

7 nights was probably a bit much - if I were to do it over, 5 is more than enough. I also think that given how close it is to lots of the southern U.S., it would be a great long weekend (3-4 night) trip. Every day we woke up, Ubered or walked to breakfast, went to do the day’s activity, came back and lounged in the pool, cleaned up for dinner, and spent the evening indulging in great food and drinks. By U.S. standards, everything was shockingly cheap (except for activities specifically marketed towards tourists) - we had a couple of very luxurious meals that were about half the cost they would have been at home. Most importantly, everyone was so nice. You expect that at a resort catered to Americans, but we spent most of our time off the resort, and everyone from random folks in the fishing village to bartenders and restaurant owners in town were incredibly friendly. When we went on our honeymoon a few years ago (in Cancun), we didn’t really get off the resort much so it was nice to feel a sense of authentic Mexico. Here are some of the highlights of the trip:

Playa Mislamoya / Snorkeling at Los Arcos

I have always been squicked out by fish - not sure why, but there’s just something about them that’s always made me shudder a little. However, if you need proof that humans are resilient and can overcome their fears when pursuing a larger goal - this was one of my favorite parts of the trip! We arrived at Playa Mislamoya, a small fishing cove made famous by the film Night of the Iguana. Like all Mexican beaches, this one had a lot of people trying to sell you things - not a problem, as by then I’d gotten used to giving a firm No and didn’t find it annoying to be asked. A few people offered us boat trips, but the woman who came by a few times and offered us 1 hour on her boat for 800 pesos ($40 USD) won our business. We bought beers and waters from the restaurant we were sitting at, and headed out into open water. I was really nervous at first, but had a great time and felt really free. Maybe every vacation, you should do something that scares you a little! Anyway, after we’d snorkled, we sailed around the arcos and then went back to the beach.

Only pic we got of us actually snorkeling with the arcos in the background, lol. Bless the sweet woman who took us!

Playa las Gemelas

Going into our trip, we knew that the beaches weren’t going to be those vibrant blue Cancun waters, nor the calm aqua Hawaii beaches we’d experienced the previous year. However, we did our research and learned that very nice beaches were only a short Uber away. Gemelas was down some steps that lead into a sparse, but gorgeous, small cove-like beach. There were people selling coconut water and umbrellas, but otherwise no amenities. With a beach this nice, not much else was needed.

Forgot to take many pics here, probably because I was enjoying myself so much! (Plus… it’s a beach. You know what a beach looks like.)

Sunset Cruise

One of the highlights of our Hawaii trip was taking a mai tai catamaran - I love being in the water and on boats - and I knew I wanted to do another one. This was the aforementioned expensive activity (about $100 USD a person, which is obviously geared toward American/Canadian tourists) but included drinks and a bento box. It was us and a half dozen other couples, all of whom were mellow. We spent about 2 hours on the water enjoying the legendary PV sunset and even saw dolphins. It was a blast.

Beautiful sunset and dolphins!

Food/Drink

Because Puerto gets so unbelievably humid and hot, summer is considered “off season.” Not as many people want to visit in the hot summer months. The downside of this, other than the obvious perma-sweat and frizzy hair, is that some places (really just a handful) are closed for the season. The upside is that things are way less crowded. I’m sure that the lack of crowds had a little something to do with the great service we got everywhere we went, but at the same time, everyone was SO friendly that I think it must just be part of who the people are. Restaurant owners gave us free bites and drinks; bartenders who found out that I speak some Spanish would converse with me in Spanish, helping me recall the many (many) words I’ve lost since I last spoke it; people were just generally really nice. Here are a few highlights of the restaurants and bars we went to:

Casa Kimberly

We were only planning on having drinks here, but were so taken by the space that we spontaneously decided to have dinner, and they were able to accommodate us without a reservation (that “low season” thing probably comes into play here). Seriously, it felt like we were in some village in Italy. I bet a sunset cocktail here would be amazing.

La Palapa

On the first day we arrived, the weather was the worst of the whole trip - just pouring rain all evening. We’d had reservations at a beachfront restaurant called La Palapa, and had to change our plans because of the weather. It was a major bummer, because that seemed like such a nice way to kick off the trip, and I was also worried that the weather would be that bad the whole time - which it wasn’t, btw. Every other day was reliably similar - clear and cloudless day, clouds rolling in in the afternoon, gorgeous dramatic sunset, and humid evening giving way to lightning storms. Anyway, we were able to reschedule La Palapa for the next night and it was absolutely worth the wait. The food and atmosphere were great, and we saw our first of many beautiful sunsets.

Dobladitas (an empanada-esque appetizer that I had never tried or heard of before this)

Every second was more beautiful than the last

Cafe de Artistes

This is one of the finest restaurants in PV. Though their famed rainforest-esque patio was closed for the season, we enjoyed the dining room and gorgeously-presented food.

Other spots we enjoyed a lot:

River Cafe/Cafe Rio - there’s a river that runs through town and there are a few spots along the river, including this pretty well-known place. I had an absolutely amazing breakfast that came with memorable strawberry french toast sticks.
Bar la Playa - we ended up coming here a couple of different nights because it was so cool. Mixology-inspired cocktails, many of which were spicy.
El Sonador - lotsa Americans at this rooftop bar both times we went - they were actually playing the Dodger game. Actually, that was another thing we kept noticing - many people had connections to Los Angeles/the United States, either having lived there at one point or being an American citizen of Mexican descent, spending time in Mexico.
El Barracuda - they’re famous for their fish tacos, which we devoured with a couple of beers right on the beach
El Andariego - this spot was right by our hotel, so we had a couple of breakfasts here. They’re well known for “divorced eggs” (eggs with both green and red sauce), and one of my breakfasts came with a side of both chilaquiles AND hash browns. **suffice it to say that the breakfasts in Mexico were enormous and often came with a bread basket or some other starter. They were also, like, $20 including tips.

All in all, we had a great time and are definitely planning to revisit this town at some point. Hasta Luego, Puerto.