Puerto Vallarta Days 1 and 2

It's time for my first round of recaps from our trip to Puerto Vallarta. If you have been following my blog for some time, then you know that I go to PV almost yearly. We are extremely fortunate to have family who has a condo for us to use in the Romantica zone, near the Melacon.

Rory and I dropped the girls off on Friday to my parents house. But first we took them to our work to let them visit a bunch of our co-workers since it had been a year since they had seen them. After we dropped the girls off, we had to go back to work and work a few more hours. Boo. But once we got off, we ran some errands, grabbed some lunch and took Walter for a walk. Then we decided to go to dinner at a favorite Italian restaurant. We sat in the bar area and had an amazing salad to split and then pasta dishes for each of us.

Mushroom Raviolis

We took a walk after dinner and then went home to pack. Nothing like waiting until last minute.

We got up super early to catch our 5:30 am flight. The flights were quick and our layover in Denver was easy. We arrived in Puerto Vallarta and went through customs very quickly. Once we got our luggage, we grabbed a cab to our condo.

After getting settled into our condo, we took a quick shower and then sat on the balcony watching everything below. Then we went next door to visit with Rory's great uncle. We caught up and then headed out for a snack and a drink before going to dinner. Puerto Vallarta is two hours ahead of us, so the time change messed us up for meal times.

We went to Joe Jack's Fish Shack, a favorite of ours. We were surprised when we arrived and saw they did some extensive renovations. They can accommodate so many more people. We were sat upstairs overlooking the streets of PV.

We shared some ceviche (shrimp) and had our first cocktail of the trip (in Mexico. We drank on the plane too).

After our snack, we walked around a bit and then headed a few doors down to Pancho's Takos. This place was an amazing little find a few years ago. They serve THE BEST tacos, more specifically al pastor tacos. There is always a line, but you can watch the guy carve and serve up the al pastor.

They give you the three salsas, plus limes and a pineapple, onion and habanero mix.

We got some al pastor tacos and a chili and onion quesadilla, plus some beers. Our meal total was $14 including tip.

 Al Pastor Tacos

After dinner, we were sooo stuffed. So we walked down the Melacon (the boardwalk) and took everything in. We watched the sunset and made our way back to the condo to finish unpacking and go to bed.

Sunday morning we slept in which was so glorious. Then we made some coffee and sat out on the balcony. After being lazy, we got ready and headed to Coco's Kitchen. This is another favorite (shocker) place of ours. Since it was vacation, I decided to enjoy a mimosa with my breakfast along with an omelet that had bacon, onions and avocado. It came with hashbrowns, a simple salad and a biscuit. Let me just take a minute to say how amazing Mexico eggs are. They are different than the eggs we get in the US. They are more orange and sooo flavorful. Rory got the vanilla almond crusted french toast with eggs and bacon. No mimosa for him.

After breakfast, we walked around some more before heading back to the condo for some pool time. Our pool is a roof top pool (salted water, not chlorinated) and we spent many hours there.

After several hours at the pool, we freshened up and then went to a local brewery that we had never been to before. It was called Monzon Brewery. We were there during happy hour so we got some small bites, a play off of japapeno poppers and mini chorizo corndogs along with a beer for each of us. I went with the sour ale and Rory had a saison.

After happy hour, we walked more up in the hill area and started going into shops to look for gifts for everyone. It is best to start shopping early in the trip otherwise you scramble and don't get the best deals nor the best gifts.

We saw the iconic church (Parish of our Lady) which was in session, so we stopped in for a bit.

Then we made our way into the hills to go to Pipi's. We had never been there before, but TripAdvisor had great reviews and offered traditional Mexican food along with the biggest margaritas. Are you getting the idea that we ate and drank our way through Puerto Vallarta?!

 A massive fresh watermelon marg

 They prepare table side guacamole, on the house and as spicy as you like it. I may have eaten this by the spoonful at the end of dinner.

Combo Fajitas

After eating way too much, we walked back down to the Melacon in time for the sunset and took a ton of photos, sat by the ocean and just took it all in. We were finally all settled in and enjoying ourselves.

We came back to the condo and spent the rest of the evening on the balcony people watching.

And that's it for now. I will be recapping more next week.