It’s about 9:20am Sunday morning and I’m writing this at Jon’s. The WiFi at the hotel has been down since yesterday evening so I’m feeling very behind. Will see if I get can this done in record time! I didn’t do much yesterday but still wound up with 62 photos uploaded. We’ll see if I end up with that many; sometimes I delete as I go.
I definitely slept better Friday night, 7.5 hours at least, waking up at 6:45. I finished Friday’s blog then went out about 9:30 to walk a bit before going to Jon’s.
I went back to the Malecon and sat here to meditate a bit; nothing like the waves crashing against the rocks, and it was early enough where there weren’t too many people out. This is right behind the seahorse PV sign, which you see to my right below.
And here it is again. Many of the photos today are more for my purposes of trying to find my bearings in this town, which got much better today. From here, I walked 2 blocks behind me to Gaby’s as seen below.
This is on the same street as my hotel. See the stairs? Up we go.
First landing.
Looking back at the 2nd landing.
This is Jon’s building to the left at the top of the stairs, middle balcony mid photo.
The balcony from the inside. The slatted French doors are all there is and he says he never closes them. There’s no need for a heater so he doesn’t have one.
The living room as you walk in.
His bedroom. The painting he had in his Sacramento homes, done by his friend Bill who I met Friday night.
Looking back towards the living room from the kitchen.
He fixed a nice little brunch for us – an egg and carnitas scramble with onions and peppers, beans, and at tamale.
Jon with his boyfriend Pedro in the kitchen. We had a nice visit over brunch, I enjoyed meeting him a lot. Very smart and a good conversationalist.
Pedro left and Jon and I went for a long walk. This is down his street and around the corner, the most famous bridge in PV probably. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton stayed in hotels on opposite sides of the street when they were here to film The Night of the Iguana, and had the bridge built to go back and forth. You can read all it about it here if you’re interested.
A sculpture of them behind the gate. The Burton side is still a hotel, this is the Taylor side and is now a high end restaurant.
A stable bridge over the river! I’d seen this on Friday and almost went up it then chose a different route. Now I know where it went to! Jon lives an in area called Gringo Gulch due to the number of expatriates who have lived here over the years.
Above is the Cultural Center as shown on the map. On Friday when I’d taken the photo showing the homes and commenting on the divide between those and the poor neighborhood I’d just left, I was taking a photo of homes in Gringo Gulch standing about in this spot looking up and to the left of this photo.
We went back into the neighborhood we had dinner in on Thursday, and I was in this area yesterday, too, just disoriented. This was helping me get my bearings. We stopped in a little farmers market, above and below.
We made our way to the beach. This is Blue Chairs beach club, where Jon usually goes to hang out with his friends. I lost count of the number of times Jon stopped to talk to someone he knew as we were walking around – 10 or more. He’s collected a lot of people over 35 years of visiting and living here on and off. And here’s another he’s greeting on the left above.
We walked down to the beach and over to another club called Swells and sat for about an hour. We ended up sharing a table with a woman who was by herself, Arlene from Canada who is living here for 6 months, and had a nice visit with her. This was our view, below.
This is part of Basilio Badillo, the street I’ve been on probably the most frequently. Both the mole place and the spot we got ice cream on Friday is here. And somehow I just this time noticed this little market across the street.
The same park we were at Friday night from another angle, and where I’m headed again this morning.
Just another of those street shots I like.
Jon and I parted ways around 3:15 and I started walking in a new area, north of where I’d been so far. I went back to the Malecon to begin. Above – I’d passed this sand sculpture a couple of times before but this was the first time I was able to get a good photo of it. Below, I had only been in this section before when it was dark, morning or evening; it looks quite different and more beautiful during the day.
Above and below: a little square, some locals hanging about. My first indication I might be leaving the tourist area.
You know you’re out of the tourist area when you get to a car dealership!
Above and below: I came across a sports complex where there was what appeared to be a girls softball tournament going on; I’d passed a team from Rutgers.
It also had outdoor racquetball being used by some locals.
I came across this interesting cemetery. While I only explored a little, the oldest date of death I found was 1946. Below, there were several of these spaced out on the outside walls.
Lots of graves with Our Lady of Guadalupe.
It was a tiny bit on a hill and you can see some into the surrounding neighborhood.
This had a live garden planted around it!
Just a few blocks from my hotel but on the side I hadn’t been before, I came across a nice little art gallery Corsica.
It had a nice courtyard with more art upstairs.
I noticed this as I was coming back downstairs: an interesting juxtaposition of poverty amidst wealthy. Most of these paintings were going for $5000 USD.
I really liked these, done in resin, which I can’t say I’d heard of until Pedro was talking about it at breakfast. He’s an art major and has been doing some work in resin.
Interesting street art.
Above: the same sculpture garden on the Malecon in the background, taken from where I’m about to turn on my street; as seen below, the church in the background.
I went back to the room to rest for a bit and had dinner at a place just a couple of blocks away. It was very dark and difficult to get photos. The salsa was very fresh – made at your table!. I had a ceviche with mahi-mahi, basil and lime juice. And Al Pastor shrimp, in a sort of enchilada sauce with grilled pineapple.
After dinner I just read my book (Pat Conroy, Lords of Discipline) since the WiFi was down and got a good nights sleep.
And that’s it! Finished this in record time and time to go. No time to proof so excuse the typos :)
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