Puerto Vallarta: A State of Mind

February 18, 2025

Ten Degrees and Getting Colder

Cold Sunrise That's just the name of the song written by Gordon Lightfoot. It was actually -13 F when I got up this morning (wind chill -24). Tucson may have pulled back into the lead! There's a lot of weighing pros and cons of Colorado vs Arizona by the wood stove. Not much else to report. I did enjoy a few games of pool and a beer with my brother this week. We don't get together very often, so it's good to try to keep the lines of communication open, especially with my mother celebrating her 86th birthday next month. He lives in Milwaukee and just started semi-retirement. Our opposing politics and lifestyles keep things very casual and surface-level. Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's important to find common ground. He and his wife have started going to concerts and recently saw the Steve Miller Band. Music is one of our common interests.

From November 2021

I'm an early riser, so I was up before dawn on our first morning and sat out on the dark balcony watching the city start to wake up. Puerto Vallarta is smaller than Madison, Wisconsin, but has the feeling of a much bigger city.

Tourism is the biggest industry, and Americans/Canadians outnumbered Mexicans on many of the streets close to the beach. English is widely spoken. I rarely needed to use my Duolingo Spanish, although it was helpful at times. Our condo was in the Zona Romantica, a/k/a Viejovallarta (Old Town). This neighborhood is known for tourism and open arms for the LGBT community. There's something here for everyone: restaurants, art galleries, beach sports, and shopping.

Puerto Vallarta has a Malecon (paved walkway) along the beach that is about a mile long. There's always something going on there: live music, street performers, paragliding, food/drink carts, etc.