The Mystery of Mesa Del Mar (Monday, July 16th, 2018)

Twenty years ago, when our kids were little, we used to visit Puerto Vallarta quite a bit.  We loved the hotel where we stayed, and have always wondered what's up with it now.  So today's goal is to find the old Mesa Del Mar.

When we first arrived here in Puerto Vallarta, we walked down to where the hotel used to be, and tried to figure out the mystery of Mesa Del Mar, but we were pretty confused, and really didn't have much time, so we gave up and saved it for another day.

Now we are back on the beach, by the sea horse statue once again.

This hotel is called Vallarta Shores, it is on the very end of the beach.  When we think back, it seems like there might have been one more hotel after Mesa Del Mar before the beach disappeared into the rocks, but we really can't remember. 

So we went into Vallarta Shores and asked them what they knew.  They said that Vallarta Shores has been there for about 40 years, and Mesa Del Mar used to be right next door.  

She said that it was torn down several years ago, and is now being replaced the a new hotel and beach club called Almar and Manta Mar.  The tall white building in the background is the new Almar Hotel.  It is still under construction, so there is a little evidence of what used to be there at the beach level. 

The entrance to Mesa Del Mar sat high on a cliff, with the floors coming down the face of the cliff to the beach.  The restaurant was on the second floor just above the beach, then there were stairs to get down to the beach from there.  On the right side of this little building, you can see what looks like a chimney.  We are pretty certain it is what's left of the stairs coming down to the beach.

Steve and I made our way through the construction zone to see if we could get up the mountain to the entrance of the new Almar hotel.

We found a path and some stairs that headed up the cliff, so we took them. No gates or signs so what the heck!

The only entrance to Mesa Del Mar was on a cobble stone street off the highway that dead ended at the hotel.  They have now put a new road in coming from the other direction and leading down the hill into town.  It is actually the same road that our hotel is on.

This is the new road coming in.

When we got to the top of the hill, we went into the hotel to inquire a further.  They confirmed that they had torn down Mesa Del Mar and built the Almar Hotel in it's place about two years ago.

When we left the hotel, we walked on past it, and continued on the old portion of the road that used to come in from the highway.  It isn't used much any more and isn't in very good shape, but it does still lead out to the highway.

We had a very leisurely afternoon at the beach, enjoying the incredibly warm water and the lulling of the waves carrying us along with them.  It was so relaxing!

We decided to try a new restaurant for dinner tonight, so I did some research and came up with a place called Bravos.  It looked like they had a nice selection.

As we walked along, we strolled by several of the same taco stands that we have passed on other nights.  

When we got to Bravos, the sign said that they are closed on Monday's, and the sky was looking very stormy.  So we looked up to see where else we might be able to duck and and find a good meal before the rains started, and right across the street was...you guessed it, Martini En Fuego.  I won't go into details tonight, but again we received an appetizer on Chef Roberto, and 

An amazing meal, that we shared to avoid leftovers. Look at the size of the platter.  The fork and knife are dwarfed!

And as we ate, the skies poured.  We were so happy to be in out of the rain, and we couldn't beat the food either!

At the end of our meal, Chef Roberto brought by his home made tequila, but this time instead of pouring us a glass to share, he poured us a glass and then left bottle on the table for us.

So how does the pear get into the tequila bottle?



Chef Roberto told us that they take the young pears and place them inside the bottles.  Then as the pear develops and grow it remains in the bottle.  Sounds like a very interesting process...maybe something we can see someday!  

Leaving For Puerto Vallarta (Wednesday, July 11th, 2018)

This morning was a dajavu kind of morning as we did exactly the same things we had done yesterday to get to the airport to leave for our flight to Puerto Vallarta.  Fortunatey for us, we had our passport booklets and were able to proceed to our gate to catch our flight this time.

We were in the A Boarding group on Southwest and ended up at the front of the plane, and it just so happens that the woman we sat next to on the plane was named Markay, and she has been living in La Cruz, a community just north of Puerto Vallarta for the past five years.  She was a wealth of knowledge about PV and told us about a lot of great places to eat, etc. What a bonus!   We enjoyed our flight, just talking to Markay and learning all that we could.  

We used to visit Puerto Vallarta a lot, but that was 20 years ago, so we really didn't know what to expect in 2018.  When we landed and got out of the airport, Taxis were waiting everywhere.  We negotiated our price for two, then they drove around the taxi circle and we paid our fare before we ever left the airport. The driver didn't have to handle any money at all (except for tips), which was great!  Our fee from the airport to the Romantic Zone for 345 pesos (little less then $20 US), which is high, but there are a lot of airport fees included.  Our driver knew a lot of English, so we enjoyed talking to him while we rode along. PV has grown so much in the last 20 years!  

When we arrived outside our hotel, there was just a small sign with the name of our hotel, nothing that really stood out.  We went up to the gate and one of the office staff came out to let us in.  There is a gate at the entrance of the hotel that is always locked, which is kind of nice.  

Daniella checked us in and gave us our keys for the front gate and also for our room.  She then gave us a tour of the property and showed us how to open our room.  She also showed us that there are water purifier machines on each floor for refilling water bottles.  This is great!  She spoke very good English and was very helpful!  Once she left us, we got ourselves settled into our room.

You enter our room through a sliding glass door from our balcony.  You enter into the kitchen and dining room.

From the kitchen and dining room, you climb three steps into the bedroom.  On the bedroom level there is also and living room, then up two more steps to the bathroom.

The view from our balcony isn't bad either.

The indoor/outdoor Mexican feel of our hotel is great! Our room is about 800 sf and about 400 sf of semi private outdoor space for less than $100 US per night, which includes a 30% tax. We love off season rates! 

There were a lot of steps to get up to our room from the lobby, but they offered to help us with our luggage. We just carried our own. 

Once the luggage was in our room, the stairs were no problem, in fact, they have been great exercise without even realizing we are exercising.  

The rooftop deck.

The courtyard and swimming pool.

Once we were settled into our room, we decided to do a little walking along the beach.  The place we used to stay in PV was Meza Del Mar, and we were pretty sure that it was only a few hundred feet further down the beach, so we headed south to see if we could find it.  

We found the sea horse statue that was on the beach below the hotel, but there wasn't any sign of the hotel any more.  

They have built this new hotel in it's place.

Way up on top, there are some wooden doors that look like they may be from the original hotel, but we're not sure.

The steep stairway up to the street was still there too, but our beloved hotel was gone.  It made me kind of sad to see.

When we left the old Mesa Del Mar area we headed north along the beach. The Romantic Zone is full of little shops and restaurants, so it's the perfect place to stay if you don’t have a car. 

We stopped by a little convenience store and bought a six pack of Pacifio beet and enjoyed happy hour on our balcony overlooking the city and the pacific ocean ocean sunset.  



The we walked to dinner at Pancho’s Takos. 



There was a 45 minute wait to get in bu while we were waiting, we could watch one of the chefs carve the al pastor.





 $11 US for more than we could possibly eat. Guacamole plate, one stuffed avocado platter, two al pastor tacos and one volcans, which was el pastor on a toasted tortilla with melted cheese. 

We started with an order of guacamole and two hibiscus waters.

Stuffed Avocado Platter (This was the best!)  It was two avoado halves topped with a mound of al pastor, onions, cilantro and pineapple. Served with four hot tortillas.

Steve's al pastor tacos.

We were exhausted, so we walked back to our hotel and went to bed. 

Slept well for the first time in three days.