On Monday, I got up a little before 5am, clocking over 7 hours of sleep which is a lot for me. Ash got up not too long after. I didn’t have much of a blog entry so got it up pretty quickly and we went for a walk, taking coffee we’d made in the condo. We headed back over to Centro, the neighborhood across the river, to do the walk we’d skipped the night before.

Our Lady of Guadalupe, with a silhouette of Ash at the bottom. This is on Calle Hidalgo, the street I stayed on my first three times here.

It’s a beautiful church. The angle is funny because there was a guy kneeling, praying to my right and it felt weird to get him in the photo.

We walked up the street a few more blocks so I could show Ash other personal landmarks, then took a left and walked the couple of blocks to the Malecon – the boardwalk in PV. He enjoyed posing with the art.

Other than the church, arguably the most famous PV landmark.

His sandals go with her dress.

We ended up at a Starbucks (I know, I know) to get some more coffee and use the restroom because we weren’t ready to go back. Jon somehow guessed we would be there and joined us. We visited for a bit then went down the street – Basilio Badillo – to the Alano Club for their 9am AA meeting. Although I have to say, that latte I got at Starbucks was maybe one of the best I’ve ever had. The milk was so rich, I couldn’t believe it.

After the meeting we went to Los Molcajetes for a bite to eat, which is essentially across the street from our condo, again on Basilio Badillo.

One of the things I love about PV is how colorful everything is.

I had chilaquiles, which is chips in an enchilada-type sauce and other things, in this case eggs.

Ash had an eggs benedict with salmon.

Jon got machaca, a dish of dried beef that’s surprisingly good, with eggs. This was my other choice; I’ll get it next time! I don’t think I’ve ever seen this in the states so try to eat it when I’m here.

From there we said goodbye to Jon, Ash and I went back to the condo for quick showers then went to our 11:30am appointment at Blue Massage on Olas Altas. They only had one person doing pedicures, so I went first while Ash got his massage and then we switched. My experience was great on both counts, as always. I typically come here at least once and usually twice on each trip. I was thrilled to hear when I got out of my massage that Ash was very happy with his pedicure. He has a troublesome big toe that can be tricky to work on but he was very happy with her work, and with his massage. Yay! I have one other place to take him for massages so will see how that one goes, maybe today or tomorrow. Oh: and both massages and pedicures including tips was like $135. Crazy. But why it’s not unusual for me to get several while I’m here.

Ash wanted “a snack” when we got done about 1:30pm. I took us left out of the massage place up Olas Altas, another strip you end up on a lot when here. I didn’t have a specific destination in mind but when we came across Tacos Revolucion a couple of blocks up I suggested we try this. I’ve been here a couple of times and have really liked it.

They just had one 2-top open so it was perfect, amidst requests for patience as they were completely full and only one waiter. We were fine.

Every restaurant here boasts their own salsas – in this case a mild avocado, a medium tomato, and a super-hot pineapple and habanero. We added quacamole just to had some heft. Between this and the chilaquiles I think I’m chipped out for the week. (Although hard to pass up…) Ash got a cucumber lime aqua fresca, I got horchata.

Ash had shrimp tacos….

I got a pastor quesadilla, complete with pineapple inside, as it is usually done here (apparently the way it’s supposed to be).

From here we just walked around so Ash could see more of the town. We went back to the condo a little after 3pm and rested until it was time to go out again about 4:30pm.

Remember the Peet’s gang in SF I mentioned yesterday? One of them, Eric, moved here about 3 years ago. Another, Fred, happens to be visiting here now, too. We met them for a show at Act2PV, an entertainment venue just a couple of blocks up – where? – Basilio Badillo (are you getting why I wanted to stay close to it?). I’ve heard good things about it but had never been. They have several stages and put on a variety of Broadway type shows, cabarets, drag, etc. This was my first time meeting Eric. I’d met Fred briefly in Las Vegas, where he lives. We were there for one night in October and he found us at the restaurant where we had dinner to say hello.

We met Eric and Fred in the lounge of the theater and visited until the staff told us to be seated at about 5:30pm. Given the early time we were the youngest people in the audience. And it wasn’t crowded- we were 3rd row right and there wasn’t anyone behind us. This was a “Best of Broadway” show which included 2 guys and 2 girls doing a revue of sorts of a bunch of show tunes. I knew all of them but a couple. They were actually pretty talented. And attempted some tough stuff, including Defying Gravity, Memory, and the “One Day More” chorale from Les Misérables which was pretty impressive. Maybe not ready for Broadway but definitely above community theater. Whenever I’m in a live production I somehow always think about their rehearsals, and these kids – all seemed to be like 25-30 – clearly had to rehearse a lot. The staging, choreography and costumes were simple but there were a lot of changes. So, to find out at the end that each of them in is at least one other show at the same time – the most talented in 2 others, one opera, the other Linda Ronstadt, I was pretty impressed. It was a fun show with enthusiastic performers, and we had a great time.

After the show, Eric took us to his condo so we could check it out. It was a nice 1-bedroom that had a great west view over the town and Banderas Bay. This was taken from the rooftop pool. We went in search of dinner after, but everything was super crowded. We finally ended up at an Italian place on Olas Altas. It was good but nothing to write home about. It never even occurred to me to take pictures.

We stopped at Lix for ice cream after. As we made our way back to our condos – Eric’s is on the same street as ours! – Ash was attempting a selfie when a passerby offered to take it. That’s Eric next to Ash, and Fred next to him.

We were super tired when we got home, much more tired than it seemed we should’ve been given how little we did. I had a pretty bad cold a couple of weekends ago which is still lingering, and I think that’s wearing me out faster than usual. Oh well. Good thing we decided on a relaxing week. For today, we are on a mission to get haircuts and that’s as much as we’ve planned. Come back tomorrow to see what else we came up with.