Puerto Vallarta: A State of Mind

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.   

Beyond the Malecon to the south are beautiful rocky beaches with tidepools.  

View to the South

 

Sea Urchin

By the end of our first day, we felt completely comfortable and relaxed.  Did I mention that I really like Puerto Vallarta?

Neighbors

Every year, around mid-May, we get new neighbors.  The hardest working farmer, Davey, brings some of his calves out of the barn and moves them to the pasture next to our front yard.  Like human neighbors, they sometimes overstep their bounds.  As I walked back from town today, they ran along the fence hoping that I was going to feed them.  Steers aren't terribly smart, but they can figure out when the electric fence isn't working.  That's when we have cattle in our garden and fruit trees.

Davey is a small-time farmer with only 40 acres.  Part of his operation is to raise steers.  He supplements the grass with silage from the corn he grows.  It's quite a contrast to some of the big farms out west with limited water.  Davey's problem is too much water.  Sometimes, he can't plant the corn until June.  I saw him with a stuck tractor in the mud earlier this week. 

We have new human neighbors too.  A nice young couple with a toddler. They commute to Madison and are quiet (so far) when at home. The former occupants ran a business out of the house with lots of truck and van traffic.  

Some may remember we had another neighbor further up the hill who spent some time in jail related to multiple OWI's.  His underage kids threw parties when dad was in jail.  All of that went away when Covid foreclosure rules expired. The bank took back the house and started fixing it up. 

Puerto Vallarta: Flight and Arrival

From November 2021

We hadn't flown in nearly a year.   I have to admit that flying was a strange feeling.  Masks were required; Julia and I were double masked. Every time someone coughed, I cringed inside.

The flight itself was smooth.  Immigration and Customs were easy.  After that, there's a bit of a gauntlet to the sidewalk with timeshare and excursion salesman.  Once on the street, the cheapest option to get to Old Town ( Zona Romantica) is the bus, and it's less than a buck.  

Julia preferred a taxi with our big suitcases, so I guided her away from the official taxi line, up some stairs,  across a nearby pedestrian bridge, and down some stairs to cheaper taxis with no wait.  Twenty minutes later we arrived at our condo building on Lazaro Cardenas across from the park. 

The front desk staff was waiting for us and provided the key to our room.  It was pretty sweet and met all of my expectations.

Balcony

Living Room

The views on the roof were pretty good too.

But we didn't come to Puerto Vallarta to hang out in the room.

Pretty Good First Day

 

After Thanksgiving: Where to Go

 

 

From November 2021

Last fall was a stressful season trying to get Justin into a better care giver situation and/or living situation.  We tried but did not succeed.  I won't go into all of the details, but Justin didn't seem very invested in our efforts.  He was okay with the bare minimum and was totally unwilling to move to Madison, where there were more caregivers and services.  We worried constantly about hygiene issues, eating habits, his college status,  and missed doctor appointments, but there wasn't anything we could do.  And he didn't seem worried at all, except about our nagging and worrying. 

We had a long discussion during which he told us to stop worrying and go somewhere.

Thanksgiving 2021

 

We were double vaxed, freshly boosted, and ready for international travel.  We looked hard at the Caribbean, especially Puerto Rico, but in the end decided to return to Puerto Vallarta, where I traveled in 2017.

Julia wanted to upgrade from my budget hotel last time, and I wanted to stay longer this time, so we compromised on a cheap flight and an Airbnb condo a few blocks away from the beach. Reservations for Callie were made at the bare-bones kennel, where their job is to keep Callie fed, safe and away from other dogs. 

On November 29th, we drove to Chicago, checked into our Stay and Park hotel, and got up early the next day.  It was time for another travel adventure.

 

Mississippi River: End of Scamp Season

From October 2021

We started and ended our 2021 camping system on the Mississippi River.  

We had one last brewpub to visit:  608 Brewing, named after the area code. 

In most parts of the country, you would never see children in a bar.  Wisconsin isn't like most parts of the country. There were actually many kids running around in both the outside space and the inside space.

The beer was pricey here, but I have to admit the hazy IPA would have my nomination for beer of the year.  

With the Scamp put away, we stayed close to home until December.  The blog will pick up from there. 

Mississippi River: Iowa Nice

From October 2021

During our week at Blackhawk COE, we drove across the river to see whether things looked any different on the Iowa side.  Perhaps it's psychological, but we've always had more fun on the Iowa side than the Wisconsin or Illinois side.  The Iowa towns are well-kept, prices are lower, and people seem friendlier. Wikipedia

On the other side of the river from our campground via Hwy 82 is the town of Lansing, Iowa.  

 

Up a steep road (for Iowa) is Mount Hosmer Park.  It has a nice trail system overlooking the river and was a great place to take Callie for a hike.  Alltrails shows only about a mile, but we found other connecting trails and lookouts.

 

 

 Later we walked around town.

 

We found  a place called Safehouse that had good pizza and craft beer.