For the record, we got here on Saturday, February 10, 2024, and will leave on Friday, February 16. This is my 6th trip to Puerto Vallarta since my first visit here in 2018; the 2nd time that Ash is here, too. Our plan for the week was “as little as possible” – visiting friends, eating good food and, at least for me, getting massages.

Selfie on the plane.

We had a 6am flight out of Sacramento, with a connection in LAX.

A beautiful sunrise as we left Sacramento.

We stopped in an American Airlines lounge for a teeny bit of breakfast.

We landed in Puerto Vallarta about 2:20pm local time. The lines at immigration (where they check our passports) were very busy as usual, but moved quickly. After this you get your luggage and then go through customs. We exited the airport around an hour after we landed which is pretty typical.

I’ve had all this ambivalence about blogging this trip. Mostly I didn’t want to: y’all can’t possibly care about a 6th trip, can you? Especially when it’s really just going to be about food and massages. Plus, the break would be nice – daily entries require some work for sure. I’d told Ash that I wasn’t going to blog this time. His response: No, you should do it. People enjoy it. I enjoy it. Me: but you always complain about the blog being my mistress! If I do it, you can’t complain about it. Ash: Oh, I’ll still complain about it but I think you should do it.

As we went through our first 24 hours here the push and pull in my head was Real. Fascinating to watch if you’re me. Some of the pull was the number of times just in the prior 48 hours I’ve reference prior blogs looking for a restaurant whose name I couldn’t remember. (Which we do All The Time, for us and others looking for travel tips.) In the end I decided: it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Instead of 5-6 entries which would be normal for a trip like this, how about just a couple? Moderation is not my strong suit. We’ll see how it goes.

We are staying at the same place we stayed last year. It’s a super location, great space, and we booked it for this week before we’d even left last year.

We hadn’t eaten much by the time we dropped our bags off so went right out for dinner again. I’d had some ideas about where to go but Ash asked “what’s the #1 restaurant according to TripAdvisor?” It was a few blocks away so we did that.

Tuna Azul is the spot. They sat us at a great table in the corner of the balcony. If you’ve been to PVR before, you’ll recognize the landmark in the distance, centered, as Los Muertos Beach Pier, and have a pretty good idea where this is. I’d never noticed it before – entrance off a side street and upstairs.

We started with a dish that was fresh diced tuna on a bed of guacamole. Ash had the seafood soup. Later we split crab enchiladas. In general we were not impressed. It was OK, but #1? As we left we learned why: the waiter handed us a business card with a QR code to TripAdvisor, encouraging a 5-star review and mention his name. Instead, the next morning we both wrote 3-star reviews and pulled their covers. I’d wondered why I’d never heard of it on the 5 prior trips.

We were exhausted after, neither of us having slept well for several nights, and were in bed by 8pm (which, sadly, is 6pm Pacific back home). But, I slept 10 hours and Ash slept 11 so we caught up a little. I relished a morning where I could be lazy and not feel the pressure of the blog. It’s good to have this different approach, which will certainly make sense when we do our 2 year trip after I retire (4 years, 1 month and counting…)

We went to Starbucks after a bit of a walk and just hung out. Ash met Jon for a 10:30am and I went for my first massage at that time, a wonderful 4-hand at Blue Massage. I’ve been there many times and somehow never knew that was an option. Marco and Jonathan were amazing, every move in sync.

We met up around Noon and went to Coco’s for lunch.

A lovely seating area in a garden environment.

Jon had a breakfast burrito; Ash and I split salad and shrimp enchiladas.

I stole this off Ash’s Facebook post earlier today: us in front of the cathedral. I don’t remember when he took it, sometime on Sunday but I don’t remember exactly when we were down there.

After lunch Ash took a nap and I went up to the roof to enjoy the beautiful weather and listen to audiobooks. There’s a lovely view of Banderas Bay from up there.

We went out to meet Jon and our other friend Christoper at Jon’s place, and then we all walked the few blocks to Cafe des Artistes. This will be my 3rd time here with Jon, it’s always a treat.

And this visit was no exception. They even sat us at the same table we sat at least year! This is a beautiful setting in a rooftop garden, it’s quite lovely.

And the food was incredible as always. Ash and Jon had charbroiled shrimp above; Christopher lamb shanks (not pictured).

I had short rib and a beef steak, both great, but the star of the plate were those very thin strips of potatoes baked in bacon fat. Lordy.

I had a pink ballerina for dessert because I just had to see what it looked like. And was not disappointed. The skirt and legs are edible – like shortbread legs and waffle skirt – and the dress is very frozen pink chocolate around a scoop of cheesecake ice cream.

Jon and Christopher shared a “flower pot” which was 3 layers of chocolate mousse: dark, milk, white.

We said goodbye to Jon at the restaurant as he lives in that neighborhood – and uphill. We went downhill to the Malecon and walked that towards our condo. Ash was really enjoying how full of life it was in the evening, something he’d missed out on last year; we were so sick most of the time we were here we didn’t do much.

We walked by this group of statues that are begging for interaction and Ash wanted to get a photo of me sitting on one. I did that for a bit and decided to stand up to show how tall it was – it’s a good 3 feet off the ground (my legs were dangling when sitting).

We were home and in bed at a reasonable hour, around 9pm.

Ash asked me a few weeks ago if I wanted to break up the week with a couple of days in Mexico City. “It’s an easy flight” he says. My response: “You go right ahead.” Mexico City is definitely on my list – I’ve never heard a bad thing about it – but I don’t want to go just for 2 days, at least a week. Maybe two. And all that back and forth during this trip messes with the same objective I’ve always had for PVR which is, as I said earlier: as little as possible. So yes, he left for Mexico City this morning, coming back Wednesday afternoon in time for the evening event we have planned for Valentine’s Day.

And that’s just fine with me. It’s fun having him here and yet I get a little taste of traveling by myself, which I also love.

I relaxed after he left for the airport and did some walking, then to an 11am massage, at Blue Massage again, which I had booked at least a week ago. It was Jonathan again, one of the guys from the 4-hand the day before, and excellent again. After, I met Jon for lunch at La Palapa, a popular spot on the beach. That’s him at the left corner there.

We chose not to join these good folks actually on the beach, although it was an option. Too much sand!

Jon had shrimp tacos, above….

…and I had a shrimp dish over something risotto-like next to a bed of grilled vegetables, especially peppers. And crab enchiladas again, although these were better than the other evening.

We split a guava cheesecake for dessert. I love guava and it’s not something you see at home much (if at all).

Requisite selfie. We had a lovely visit and enjoyed the quality time. We go back 22 years or so and always have stuff to talk about.

A friend who comes here often suggested right before I left that I could get 2 massages a day while here. What I probably didn’t admit in the moment was that’s not exactly new – have done that more than once on prior trips although probably didn’t disclose it because it seemed too indulgent. But what the hell. After lunch I made my way to another 4-hand massage, this one at a place I hadn’t tried yet – Elite Spa. Facilities-wise nicer than Blue Massage but not as nice as Acqua Spa, where I will be on Tuesday. The massage was decent, and I would do it again. (In fact I booked something for Wednesday morning while I was there…)

I came back to the condo and worked on the blog some, headed out about 6:30 for dinner.

In some of our earlier wanderings we’d come across Mariscos El Guero, and I made a point to remember where it was because I’d been wanting to come back here. I remembered it was on Constitución at something but couldn’t remember which intersection (Madero). I’ve been here twice but never had a full meal – both times it was the meeting place and first taste of a food tour. So figured it was worth a full stop. And clearly others thought so, too. There was a crowd in front when I got here so I didn’t take a photo. But it moved quickly. This was the crowd when I left!

I got hibiscus tea to drink, and an octopus tostada to start.

The point of this photo is not really the plate of food – it’s all the stuff behind hit. Mexican restaurants here are really all about the stuff – in this case 4 different kinds of commercial hot sauce, fresh limes, shredded vegetables, fresh pico de gallo, and 2 homemade hot sauces – one orange, one green. I stayed away from the commercial stuff but tried everything else on my two tacos – one grilled shrimp, the other smoked marlin. The quesadilla I left alone as God intended: why mess with a cheese filled flour tortilla grilled in butter until the cheese melts? Simple perfection.

I thought I was done. A lovely gentlemen, not my waiter, who had been clearing plates said “would you like flan?” I wasn’t planning on dessert – not here anyway – but decided that was a sign. And glad I did.

I walked around a bit after but mostly came back to the condo to relax and work on this. And now that it’s done I may as well post. I’ll do at least one more post later in the trip