21 Friday Mar 2014
Posted in Accommodations, Gallery, Travel
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The Angel of Independence — Mexico City’s iconic centennial monument — was just four blocks down the street from our hotel. I was astonished to find that the twenty-three stairs surrounding the base were added long after the statue was built. It seemed that El Ángel had actually risen from the earth some fifteen feet since she was built. She hasn’t. Mexico City has sunk around her.
03 Monday Mar 2014
Posted in Accommodations, Travel
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Approaching Las Caletas beach from Banderas Bay. Credit: Vallarta Adventures
Marcia and I were happy to get seats in the front row for the outdoor show. Friends forever, we were catching up during her first trip to Puerto Vallarta, when suddenly she let out a shriek of sheer horror. Inches away from her knee was an iguana, its ruffled scaly crown waggling, its long rubbery tail slashing about. And it was big. As big as a man.
20 Thursday Feb 2014
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Our front yard here at Los Tules is a swimming pool. Right now, at 10 a.m., all of its 24 lounge chairs are occupied, as usual.
Five are occupied by people, one by a teddy bear, and eighteen by towels. The towels are meant to reserve the chairs for people who won’t come until later — people who don’t want anyone else to use these chairs until they’re good and ready to do it themselves. It’s not uncommon in resorts and along parade routes world wide, but here in Los Tules it is a very touchy subject.
13 Thursday Feb 2014
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Snakes and lizards slithering through the jungle, slitted eyes tracking prey, anticipating nourishment fanged into deadly submission. That’s what my stepson Ted and I signed up for when we parted with our money to take the “Jungle ATV Tour” that was offered by a local agency here in Puerto Vallarta. Continue reading
05 Wednesday Feb 2014
Posted in Accommodations, Travel
Traveling as we do, we meet a lot of people. Conversations ensue. Questions are asked, and among the first is, “Where do you live?” Then the familiar words: vagabond, expat, ne’er-do-well, and homeless.
Homeless.
After we tell the story of our travels — so well-rehearsed we can recite it in our sleep — comes the inevitable question: “What will you do next?”
Our answer has always been, “We don’t know.” But now, with less than sixty days remaining of our planned expat adventure — less than sixty days! — we have decided.
We’re going home.
03 Monday Feb 2014
Posted in Accommodations, Travel
“Pie lady! I’m the pie lady!”
She said this as though she were the Statue of Liberty. Yes, I’m what you’re looking for! We had indeed heard that when we got to the beach at the ancient town of Yelapa, fifteen miles southwest of Puerto Vallarta, we would find the pie lady roaming the beach, selling slices out of Tupperware. We bought a lemon meringue slice and ate it from our hands (she doesn’t offer forks) while walking down the beach.
20 Monday Jan 2014
Posted in Accommodations, Travel
(The beach at Boca de Tomatlan. Click to enlarge)
As in real life, which this is not, sometimes we set out to have a certain adventure, and then we have another adventure instead, which is probably better than the adventure we didn’t have. So it was with our trip south to the coastal village of Mismaloya. We didn’t know much about Mismaloya, including where to get off the bus.
12 Sunday Jan 2014
Posted in Accommodations, Travel
“Steak!”
“Huh?”
I uttered the word so unexpectedly that Louise almost spilled her Cape Coddah.
“Steak,” I repeated. “Now!”
Visions of a thick filet over a charcoal fire almost surpassed the vision currently upon us of sunset over Banderas Bay (pictured above — another episode of sunset guilt).
“As in this very moment?” Louise asked. But she needn’t: I was already on my way.
01 Wednesday Jan 2014
Posted in Accommodations, Travel
Fireworks over Puerto Vallarta
It often seems that life’s most memorable moments are unplanned. Case in point: New Year’s Eve — last night.
29 Sunday Dec 2013
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Those vertical streaks are rivers of rain, cascading from our patio roof.
It’s Christmas Week in Mexico. For many it’s a week off, and in Mexico where the family is cardinal and most people live inland, Christmas Week is spent at the beach. Los Tules has beaches (a half mile of them) and swimming pools (seven). This is the place for Mexicans to take their families for Christmas Week, and scores of Mexicans have done just that.
There’s just one hitch: it’s raining.
The Expat Almanac 