Sunday Brunch

On my last Sunday in Puerto Vallarta I treated myself to Sunday Brunch at the Sheraton Hotel. This post will not be a teaching, preaching, or informative article---it is simply something to make your mouth water looking at all the delicious foods!


The Sheraton has a brunch on the weekends and it is not to be missed. Unlike the restaurants in the USA, when you go to a restaurant in Mexico, you are expected to sit a long time, enjoying the food and visiting with your friends. I was at this brunch about 3 hours, sampling, tasting, and nibbling on a lot of different foods, and then retired to the beach for another hour!



On the way into the restaurant, La Villita, you walk through pretty gardens.

The carved watermelon, behind the bowls, and the fat pig, welcome you to the salsa table.

The salads are inviting and take a peek at the colorful vegetables decorating the table.

This was what I chose: fresh squeezed orange juice (there were 7 juices from which to choose), pico de gallo (in the bowl), spring roll, cheeses, prosciutto, cantaloupe, tuna (tuna is a cactus and comes in red or green), papaya, honeydew and pineapple. A healthy start to the meal, right?

The entree included a chicken enchilada, tamale, birria (a local favorite) and a hardcooked quail egg.

I couldn't pass up the pozole and Spanish paella.

A couple hours later it was time for a visit to the dessert table. I took this picture especially for my friends in Gainesville, the poultry capital of the world! See the chicken in the box? A great decoration, I thought!

The pretty rice pudding (in the bowl) and a crepe de cajete were the best! The fruit tart wasn't bad either!

To top off the meal, a glass of champagne and reading the Tribune, an English newspaper which tells about the happenings in Puerto Vallarta for the next week. On the front cover is a picture of the angel statue on the Malecon.

The mariachi played to entertain us. I love the mariachi music!

When the mariachi took a break, these two guys played the marimba. They were quite good.

These two folklorico dancers and the two Indian dancers (see next photo) were walking through the diners advertising their Fandango show which takes place in the evening.


These are the Indian dancers. Their ankle bracelets shake and jingle when they dance or walk.

Dinner over, the newspaper read, I walked out on the beach to enjoy the ocean and the sun. These folks were at the pool which is right on the beach.

The vendors were waiting to make a sale. The mountains are in the background. Puerto Vallarta has the ocean on one side of the town and the mountains behind it. The views have something to please everyone!

Those chairs are just waiting for you to come, sit, and enjoy!

The yacht just happened to get in the way of my picture! The man is selling jewelry.

I enjoyed my last Sunday in Puerto Vallarta, relaxing at the beach and visiting with friends.

Hasta luego.

A Day in the Country

When my friends, Alex and Tom, asked me if I would like to spend a day at a ranch, I couldn't say "YES" fast enough! Alex sells jewelry at the ranch a couple times a week and he was going to display his gems and invited me to tag along. What a relaxing and enjoyable day.

El Rancho Capomo is in the town of Las Palmas, about 45 minutes outside of Puerto Vallarta. Turning off the main road, we travelled a dirt road for about 1/2 mile back into the jungle of the Sierra Madre Mountains, and arrived at a ranch right out of the movies!

A family owns and runs the ranch and they offer tours to tourists from Puerto Vallarta, Nuevo Vallarta, and other towns in the area. At the ranch the vacationers enjoy a breakfast before spending the day going horseback riding through the jungle to see waterfalls or riding ATVs over the mountainside, or streaking through the trees near the river on ziplines. After all that activity, the famished group is fed a delicious Mexican dinner before being returned to their hotels. What a day!

Now, you might wonder, just which activity did I participate in? Well...I walked down to the corral and looked at the horses. I watched the tourists return the ATVs to the ranch. I was fascinated by the more daring ones moving at lightning speed on the ziplines. And I took pictures of everything!

After all that activity (!), I sat in the outdoor restaurant, and visited with the family who owns the ranch, while sipping a Margarita, and listening to some Mexican music playing from a CD. There was a cool breeze blowing from the river through the trees so the weather was great.

The ranch is on the bank of a river, which was full of water due to the heavy rains. The water was surging and tumbling over the rocks, a beautiful sight. They tell me that during the dry season, there is very little water in the river but today, it was almost overflowing its banks.

On the ranch they grow bananas, have mango and lime trees, and dry their own totopos---nacho chips. If you have never eaten a tortilla chip dried in the sun instead of fried, you have missed a culinary delight!

The area was so pretty and I had a very unexpected but delightful day out in the country! Thanks, guys, for inviting me to go with you!

Lots of room to park the ATVs in front of the restaurant.

A typical Mexican restaurant.


The river was muddy due to the heavy rains. Can you see the people standing on the balcony looking at the river?



You can walk down the stairs and across the bridge to look upriver.




The corral with horses waiting.





These two guys have a nice place in the shade to wait.



Here come the ATVs!




Me and the old cowboy!




Such a pretty picture...the old wagon, a pile of bricks and the agave cactus.

After we left the ranch, we stopped for la comida---dinner---the main meal of the day---at the Restaurante Mariscos El Coleguita in the town of Ixtapa. They specialize in seafood and I ate shrimp and more shrimp!

The waiters pick up the food at the kitchen. I love the sign!




It was a big restaurant and was quite full at 4:00pm. We had to wait a few minutes for a table.



There were musicians to entertain us. Well, let's say that they thought they were musicians! A lot more practice was needed before they truly could entertain!

Pico de gallo on the left with a basket of tostadas and a cup of shrimp soup on the right were the appetizers. Limonada in the blue glass. My entree was a special platter with fried shrimp, grilled shrimp, fried fillet of fish, rice, beets and carrots, and a seafood soup. Of course, tortillas were in a basket on the table too. For dessert they brought fried plantains and kahlua and cream to top off the meal. Good eatin'...yum!

This was certainly a one of a kind day for me and I savored every minute of it.

Hasta luego.

The Malecon

I walked the Malecon (the boardwalk) a couple times while I was here. How relaxing to sit on a bench and watch the waves roll in, observe the people, keep an eye on the tourist boats in the bay and enjoy the ocean breezes. Then walk along the Malecon and take pictures, of course!
Here are some that I particularily like.

El Caballito, the Sea Horse, is representative of Puerto Vallarta. A passing tourist agreed to take my picture!



The church of Guadalupe.

The dolphins were a gift to Puerto Vallarta from its sister city in California.

The Dancers is my favorite statue on the whole Malecon!

The Angel hold out her hands and is a favorite photo spot for tourists.

This man balances the rocks. Some are small pebbles holding up quite large stones. No glue needed here!

The Malecon curves around the ocean.

The white building is actually a big jewelry store but it happens to be at the curve in the street. Notice the rocky shore here and the green pole on the right side of the picture is the pole that the Voladores use for their ritual dance.

Wish you could be here to take a walk with me!

Hasta luego.

Los Voladores de Papantla

Put five men on top of a 30 meter pole. Ask them to tie a rope around themselves and fall backward into the air, spinning around until they reach the ground. This is what happens several times a week in Puerto Vallarta as well as in Papantla, Veracruz and perhaps in other places in Mexico.

The Voladores, the Flying Men, participate in a pre-Hispanic ritual, now associated with the Totonac people. It is thought to have begun as a request to the gods to end a severe draught in the land. Papantla is a town in the state of Veracruz, on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico and this is where the ritual began.

The five men climb a 30 meter pole for the ritual dance. The foreman is the first to ascend and the last to decend. He plays a flute and taps a small drum during the whole event which lasts about 15 minutes.

The five men dance around the pole and then, one at a time, climb the pole to a small platform on the top of it., After they all reach the top, the foreman stands up on the platform and dances a "son of good-bye" dance, never stopping the beat of the drum and the flute. Each of the other 4 men wind a rope around themselves 13 times. Four men times 13 equals the number 52 which represents the number of years in the mesoamerican solar cycle.

The four directions of the platform represents the 4 cardinal directions: north, south, east and west; as well as earth, air, fire and water. The foreman who will remain on the platform, represents the sun.

The four men launch themselves backward to spin to the ground. They fall backward, keeping their faces to the foreman to acknowledge the sun. They spin slowly to the ground making 13 revolutions around the pole. As they fly down, they create a pyramid shape. They spin very slowly, upside down, until they reach the ground.

Finally the foreman climbs down the pole, still beating the drum and playing the flute, and at the bottom of the pole they all do another "son of goodbye" dance.

What a breathtaking event to watch!

The foreman begins the ascent.





They are at the top of the pole beginning to wrap the ropes around themselves.








They fall backward acknowledging the sun.

They spin around 13 times, forming a pyramid shape.

Here the people who were watching the Voladores walk away, still amazed at what they saw.

The Voladores perform on the Malecon several times a week.

And when I turned around, I couldn't resist taking a picture of the church just off the Malecon.

Maybe someday you will get to see the Voladores, either in Puerto Vallarta or in Papantla.

Hasta luego.

Puerto Vallarta

Here it is---the beach in Puerto Vallarta!

On Saturday, July 31, I took a bus from Guadalajara to Puerto Vallarta, a trip of 5 hours. The bus is a nice coach with a bathroom and tv monitors which showed old movies, in Spanish of course, with the volume very loud!! Turn off the old hearing aids and take a nap!

I arrived about 3:30pm and taxied to the house where I am staying. My friend is visiting her brother in California so I am alone in the house but I stayed with her once before when I was in Vallarta so I'm familiar with the house. But now the problems begin...air conditioners don't put out cold air and the bathroom door, next to my bedroom, is locked! I did the very Mexican thing...I walked out of the house, locked the door, walked to the nearby restaurant and had dinner, went grocery shopping at Walmart and took a taxi home. I can deal with those problems "mañana"!!

Mañana came and I went to the beach!

The man is selling small kites while a gorgeous yacht leaves the dock.

I sat on the beach for a couple hours, drinking a lemonade and people watching, then went into the hotel and got a book at their book exchange. Now I have something to read.

Since the children are off school for their summer vacations, the beaches are crowded and there are lots of people in town. The cruise ships come in on Saturdays and Wednesdays so those days are busy times in the markets.

This is the rainy season in Mexico, which means that it will rain pretty much every day for some length of time. The rains come up suddenly and pour rain, with thunder and lightning. If the rain occurs during the day, after the storm, the sun returns and within a few minutes the sidewalks are dry, leaving puddles in the potholes in the streets and more humidity in the air! Usually the storms are in the evening and at night.

The weather is better in Guadalajara but the atmosphere in Vallarta is much more relaxed and calm. I enjoy both places.

Hasta luego.

La Gorda Restaurant

Thanks for your comments. It is good to know that I am not writing in vain!

I am just now catching up with my posts since I have had trouble finding a "cyber cafe" that would accept my pictures to download on the blog. Today I will try to get up to date. This is the last post from Guadalajara before I came to Puerto Vallarta.

Today's Spanish lesson--gordo or gorda means "fat" in English. However, in Mexico, la gorda, or la gordita is an endearing term too. It depends on how you use it. So when my friends and I had dinner at the restaurant "La Gorda", we were not eating at a place that makes me fat!! At least I hope not!! Their sign, "Welcome to La Gorda" was set in the street in front of the door. The restaurant is in Guadalajara.

Inside the restaurant the decor and the food was very Mexican. If you notice in the USA, all the Mexican restaurants say on their signs "Authenic Mexican Restaurant" and I am afraid that they are "authenic" Tex-mex restaurants, not authenic Mexican food! This one was the "real thing"!

I had their "special" which was chicken enchiladas, two with mole sauce and two with pepian sauce. On the left is rice with onion slices and on the right are frijoles with totopos standing up in them as a decoration. To drink I had horchata, a rice drink which is delicious. I highly recommend it! In the background you can see my friend's tacos.

Aelia, me and Mago (l to r) had a nice visit and a good dinner. Three old retired teachers, gossiping about how nice it is to be retired!




Keep reading!


Hasta luego.