Our resort was in Nuevo Vallarta, which is about 45 minutes from Puerto Vallarta.
There's plenty to do there, especially along the Malecon (boardwalk).
Since we had reservations for my birthday dinner in town, we went to explore PV during the day.
The Malecon runs along the ocean and is full of shops, vendors and odd statues......
....yeah - really weird statues.
But some some nice ones, too.
Not to mention the funny signs.
This was our favorite stop, which is where I took the video in the first Mexico post.
Everybody in there is Cuban.
The ENTIRE place is filled with signatures of past patrons, from 1942 on. And I mean every available surface is covered with names, including lamp shades and every inch of the walls and booths. The walls are filled with photos of Cuban celebrities who have visited.
I had better photos of the inside, but they expired along with my iPhone in the swimming pool. ;-(
We were visiting close to Dia de los Muertos, which is November 1 and the stores had some pretty interesting displays.
The woman skeleton in pink is smoking a cigarette. I loved that, for some reason.
There was a cruise ship docked in PV. Man, those things are ENORMOUS!
You couldn't get a photo of this church without the "Tattoo Shop" sign in it.
You can't tell from these pictures, but the murals are made with tiles.
We walked a VERY long way and it was 91 degrees and humid. We were sweating and parched when we arrived at the restaurant for dinner.
Thankfully, they had these going.
We were early for our reservations so we were able to cool down in the bar with some wine.
Lydia found the absolutely BEST restaurant for my birthday. La Palapa Restaurant and Lounge.
Serenaded.
Then it was time to move to our table on the beach.
And watch the sun go down.
Just spectacular.
Lights on the beach and on the pier next to us.
And the restaurant from our table on the beach.
Time to figure out what to eat.
Duck enchiladas with almond mole, adobo shrimp with crab enchiladas and tres leches cake for me!
Honestly can't remember, but I think Lydia had the taquitos, pork tenderloin and the flan.
It was exquisite! It doesn't sound fancy and yet it was beautifully prepared and served and fancy as heck. We loved every bite. The service was perfect and the view was out of this world.
After we finished, I heard the sounds of "Happy Birthday" being sung somewhere behind me. Thinking I knew what was going on, I turned around to see the servers delivering a huge plate with cake to the woman sitting alone at the table next to us. I asked her if today was her actual birthday (fairly dumb question, but you never know) and she answered "Yes!" Lydia invited her to join us and she readily accepted. She lives in Oakland but somehow it came out that she was from NJ. she casually mentioned that she had graduated from Ursinus College! We couldn't believe it.
So we shared Collegeville, PA and Ursinus stories and toasted our shared borthdays. She was very cool, but we are disappointed that we really don't know her name to track her down. Her last name was difficult and hert first name was odd and she said she went by "MJ". So if anyone knows MJ, a 1999 graduate of Ursinus with a psychology degree, please let us know.
Not a good picture at all, but the only one I have.
Then I heard the "Happy Birthday" refrain again and was presented with this huge plate.
I had the best birthday I could possibly have hoped for.
Thank you to my wonderful wife!!
No comments:
Post a Comment