Today was our adventure day, not a canopy or snorkeling adventure, but a bus adventure. There is a town north of Vallarta that we really wanted to visit while we are here. We know can take a taxi or an uber, and of course that will be or landing net, but we thought it would be more fun to try and get there using the city and regional buses instead.
When we were in Europe seven years ago, we used the subways and regional trains alot to get to destinations we wanted to see, but public transportation is different everywhere you go, so it's always an adventure.
We had breakfast at the hotel and then headed up the hill to find an Intercam banco. They are the bank in Vallarta that will work with foreigners that don't have an account with them.
First we needed to get some cash at the ATM, which was right next door to the bank, then we needed to go into the bank to get our bills broken up into smaller bills and coins that we could us on the buses. The tellers at the bank spoke a little English, but not a lot, so we just wrote down how many of each money denomination we needed and passed it through the window with our money that we got at the ATM. She counted out our money and handed it all back to us. They had nice comfy chairs in their lobby where we could sit down and get reorganized before heading back out onto the streets.
From the bank, we headed further up the hill to the north bound highway 200. All of the buses you catch there are heading north and will make a stop right before the Sams Club and Walmart. We got the bus heading north. We were the only gringos. It was all locals riding the bus. They were all hard plastic seats with no padding, and no AC, so the bus was warm.
When the bus stopped at our stop, we didn't realize it and didn't get off (you can't actually see the Sams Club or Walmart from the stop, but it is the stop where a lot of people get off, by this big whitish building.
Once we realized our mistake, we jumped off at the next stop (about 2 blocks away) and walked back to Walmart. If you want to get off the city buses, you just go stand by the door and the driver knows to let you off at the next stop.
Walmart had nice restrooms, which we went inside an used before catching our regional bus to La Cruz.
Walmart
Sam's Club
When we came out of Walmart, we walked straight out the front door, under the covered walkway, clear to the end.
At the end, there are several buses waiting. They all had writing on the window that says where they are going, but we couldn't see one that said La Cruz. We saw a man with a clipboard, so we asked him and he took us to the end bus.
Our bus said Wal-Mart, Bucerias and Manzanilla, but it didn't say La Cruz. Later we did notice a card stuck to the inside of the window that said La Cruz.
We had some nice views along the way. This is the cruise ship terminal, which had a couple of navy ships in it.
A large part of Nuevo Vallarta is the Vidanta Resort. It has it's own exit on the highway.
The red exclamation point is where we were trying to go, the blue dot was us.
At one of our stops a man with a guitar go on the bus and serenaded us for awhile. Everyone gave him a few pesos when he finished.
The bus drivers seat looked like an old warn out lawn chair.
In Bucerias, there were a lot of stands set up under the overpasses. It kept them cool and comfortable in the shaded all day as they worked. Bucerias was a much larger town than we realized. All of the research I did said that it was a small fishing village, but it had several exits and bus stops from the highway.
When we arrived in La Cruz, we weren't exactly sure where to get off, so we watched the signs and got off near the marina.
We walked down the main street, heading toward the marina.
We walked in, and there were two small tables in the entry way, so we walked in a little further and found the owner. On one side was the kitchen and on the other side was the fresh tortilla making station. If you walked between the two, there was more seating. She told us to sit where ever we liked, so we chose a table near the fan. She brought us out of drink of the day. I asked in Spanish what it was and she said "avena"? I looked at her puzzled and she she said it was made from a cereal. She then looked it up. It was oat water. It was really tasty!
Shes back there making our tortillas that will go with our lunch.
The kitchen on the other side.
Her menu for the day was rellanos, chicken or fried fish. Steve and I both ordered the rellano.
I forgot the tortilla in the first picture, so I had to take another one. They gave us home made corn tortillas that we amazing, and I don't really like corn tortillas. Her's were amazing!
The rellano was stuffed full of a really salty Mexican cheese, it was so good!
When we finished our lunch, she brought us each a small dish of pistachio ice cream. We didn't realized that this came with our lunch too! Oh boy!
And they had the cutest little boy. His dad was sitting in the chair. His dad measured him with his tape measure and told him that he had grown again. He got so excited and started clapping. They quietly went on and on. It was so cute!
This restaurant alone would make it worth coming back to La Cruz! What a great find! Our entire lunch, drinks, entrees and dessert cost us about 2.50 each, and it delicious! I told Steve that if we lived in La Cruz, I'd never cook again!
When we left the restaurant, we headed toward the marina. We passed a park.
And a typical neighborhood street.
Entering the marina.
We made our way around the marina, and started walking along the coast. It wasn't long before we wandered into a resort, with all of it's palapas on the beach.
Before long, we came along another really crowded beach. We weren't sure what it was, but we just kept walking. It seemed to be mostly Spanish speaking people.
We made it all the way through the crowded beach, and stumbled upon a restaurant on the far side. We had just finished lunch, but were getting thirsty for something other than water, so we asked for a table and ordered a couple of Sol beers.
When we were in Puerto Vallarta 20 years ago, we got hooked on Sol beer, but now days you can't find it in Puerto Vallarta or Puerta Penasco. All they sell is Sol with clamato or other flavors. This is the first place we have found that sells plain ole Sol Beer. This is SO exciting. Plus Steve's mom said she wanted o buy us a Sol....even better!
As we were drinking our beers, we decided to look and see where we are. It turns out we are at Playa la Manzanilla. We see tours that will take you here in town, but never knew where it was. Now we know.
This next picture show where we are from Puerto Vallarta.
When we came out from the beach, there was a whole parking lot full of tour buses that brought visitors down here. Holy cow, no wonder the beach was so crowded!
After answering a call from our oldest daughter, we made our way up to the highway, which was just above the beach. We weren't exactly sure where we would catch our bus back, but we decided to just walk along the highway in the right direction until we saw a bus sign. But not two minutes into our walk, a bus stopped and picked us up. This was a really nice bus. Still no AC, but really comfortable seats.
We think this might have been an express bus, but we really aren't sure. The bus said it was going to Vallarta (we think), so we paid and climbed on. Steve pulled up his map on is phone and watched to make sure we were going the right direction, and sure enough, we were! Yay, we were on our way back. If you want to get off the regional buses, there is a button you push at the back of the bus to notify the driver that you want off. At most stops people load from the front and get off from the back.
We then walked up a few feet to the blue city bus sign and waited for the right bus to come through.
When we saw a bus that said "Centro" in the window, we jumped on. Once again, Steve pulled out his phone to make sure we were going the right way on the map. Then we sat back, relaxed and enjoyed our ride. This bus had nice cushy seats and AC. Wow, what an upgrade from our first bus of the day!
We got off our final bus by the Malecon and walked back to our hotel room so we could cool down and regroup before heading back out for the evening.
When we headed out this morning, we didn't realize that it was Friday the 13th, or we might have postponed our bus adventure until another day, but as it turned out, our bus adventure was a huge success and we enjoyed a great day in the town of La Cruz!
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