I woke up feeling a little better but not great; and Ash got sick during the night. But we have different symptoms. Mine seems to be more cold/flu/sinus like, and his centered in his stomach. Both have had body aches, chills and fever on an off. We’ve made like 3 trips to the pharmacy now for various things.

We didn’t have much planned. We went to Azul again for breakfast, but sat inside because it was chilly and not feeling good made that worse. We had exactly the same thing we had the day before. Afterwards we went for a walk. I took him down to the Blue Chairs area, which is the official gay beach section of town, so he could see what all that was about. Neither of us are really beach people so the appeal just isn’t there, but it’s worth checking out. We did find a nice restaurant we said we could go to for breakfast this morning so we’ll see if that plays out.

I had a 10am massage appointment at Acqua around the corner from our condo. And then Ash joined at 11am and we both got Turkish baths. Ash wasn’t all that impressed but I really like this place. It’s kinda upscale, completely legit, very comfortable environment.

After, we got a bite to eat at a place I’ve been several times, Mariscos Cisneros. Ash doesn’t eat beef or pork which a lot of food here is based on, so I wanted to bring him to a seafood place.

This is a cozy family place that started as a taco stand – and the stand is still there and operating out front.

We had marlin tacos and a shrimp quesadilla. He really liked the marlin tacos.

We got back to our condo about 1pm and rested until 4:30pm. By this time, we had cancelled our plans with Jon for today because we wanted to give him plenty of notice. He had this lunch planned that required a 45-minute boat ride, and was at least 2 hours there, and then back of course. That just seemed like a lot given we’d spent the better part of 2 afternoons resting. We had him on alert for dinner tonight but after a two-hour nap, Ash was feeling better and decided he wanted to go.

He doesn’t look sick, does he? We walked along the river island to this bridge that takes you into a neighborhood called Gringo Gulch.

This is the famous bridge that connects the houses Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton lived while he was here filming Night of the Iguana in 1963. They carried on a torrid affair while married to other people, and it put Puerta Vallarta on the map. One of these is now a hotel, the other a restaurant.

Above and below: the view from Jon’s rooftop terrace at his condo.

We walked over to Cafe des Artistes where we had 5:30 dinner reservations. This was my Valentine’s present to Ash, but they had a prefixed menu for that day which was super pricey, so we decided to come the next day. We were on a prefixed menu today, but it was not a “special” one and more reasonably priced.

I’d been here once before with Jon in 2019. That time we weren’t able to sit in the garden but this time we made it. Above was the first to my right….

…and this was the view to my left. This place is huge. The garden area oddly is upstairs, and it has several other areas that break off to my left and right, and there’s a whole floor of regular table seating on the first floor.

The meal started with an amuse bouche of salmon.

I like seeing the restrooms in places like this, they’re usually pretty special. And I was not disappointed.

The art installation behind me from the first photo.

This was a very interesting dish of cactus and avocado that Jon and I enjoyed.

Ash had a tomato salad.

Ash and Jon had this green risotto.

I had roasted Asian cabbage. It had a similar taste and texture to turnip, and I liked it.

This was probably my favorite bite of the evening, and the only thing I remembered from the last time I was here: broiled octopus. Served with a pea creme, roasted golden beets – our favorite – and this stuff inside the bone that tasted like Lipton’s onion soup – and I don’t mean that in a bad way. I’d dove into it before I remembered to take a photo. Jon had this, too, and enjoyed it.

The first of 2 kinds of sea bass Ash had.

Crispy pork belly for me, with a cauliflower sauce. Asd a truffle foam which I ignored. But the meat was excellent.

Ash’s second sea bass dish. They made this just for him since he didn’t want either of the options for one of the courses.

Jon had lamb which he really liked.

For the palette cleanser course, Ash got cheese. That’s with a cranberry sorbet.

Jon and I got this Fois gras creme brulee which I was very nervous about. Creme brulee is one of my favorite things, foie gras is one of my least favorite things, so I couldn’t imagine them together. But it was definitely Fois gras with a crispy top like you’d expect, with this same cranberry sorbet. The sorbet helped cut the fattiness of the foie gras and it ended up being Ok, but I was a little sick to my stomach at the end.

The lights came on in the garden as it got darker but a lovely setting.

For dessert, we had got a dark chocolate taco. The shell was made with dark chocolate and there was more chocolate in it and other things I don’t remember. I couldn’t even finish it, it was so rich, especially after the Foie gras, so Ash did!

And the final bite: a warm pastry of some kind – had a pretty doughy texture but was tasty.

It is now about 7:30am Thursday. Neither one of us got much sleep last night. Ash was up and down all night with his stomach problems which had returned full force after dinner. I took some nighttime flu capsules that ended up wiring me and I tossed and turned all night between that and listening to Ash. When we left Jon last night, we said “no” to the other plans we had for this evening, to see a drag show at Act2PV. My abs hurt so bad from coughing I don’t think going to a comedy would be a good idea!

Since I don’t think we’re going to do much today except tend to ourselves, and we go home tomorrow, I decided to make this the last entry of the trip. Despite being sick, it’s been a great trip and I’m thrilled that Ash has enjoyed it as much as he has. So much he spent a good portion of the last 2 days planning the next one at Thanksgiving. So we will definitely be back and hopefully we won’t get sick then!

The next big trip is Africa for 3 weeks in May-June so you won’t want to miss that. See you then!