Our Trip to Puerto Vallarta During the Summer Scott - Purple Roofs
go to original August 22, 2017

Buenos dias, amigos,

Frank and I decided we needed a vacation. Therefore, here we are in beautiful Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. This city is one of my favorite vacation spots, but I do have to say, that it is Hot! Hot! Hot! And humid. Perhaps August isn’t the best time to visit here.

We arrived Saturday night, so Sunday, we just spent the day here, getting acclimated to the time difference (they are one Central Time here) and the climate difference.

On Monday, we took a cab to town, as I wanted to see some of the local places, places I had visited before. I wanted to go inside the cathedral here; a wedding was taking place inside, so I had to bypass a visit that day.

Frank and I wandered down one block toward the Malecon, the walkway that parallels the sea. We remembered that we needed to find a Bancomat, so we wandered down another block or two, found what we wanted, got some Mexican Pesos, wandered some more. To me, it was enjoyable, just looking into the different shops (I cannot say “Window shopping”, for the merchandise was right there in the open. At the park, we watched some children at play; like children everywhere, one little boy was trying to escape from his mother, while his sibling went in another direction.

There were small grocery stores, shoe stores, clothing stores, electronic stores, and of course, many bars and restaurants.

We came to a restaurant that looked interesting. It was nearing lunch time, and there were no patrons in the restaurant yet. That made me a bit suspicious, but Frank looked at the menu, and he decided we could have a drink and a snack. We weren’t quite ready for lunch yet. The proprietor greeted us and told us that we could be seated and he would bring a menu. He told us that there was a cooking class going on in the back room, and soon it would finish, then the chef could begin making lunch for customers.

Cooking class? Oh, how did I miss that!! I told the proprietor that cooking was a passion of mine, so he invited me to watch the remainder of the class. I put that cooking class on my bucket list for my next visit to Puerto Vallarta. The chef was finishing a soup, where he had heated three large rocks, and put them into a pottery bowl of broth, with some diced vegetables and shrimp. As I watched, I could see the broth bubbling around the stones. Soon, right before my very eyes, the shrimp and vegetables were cooked without coming near a stove.

If any of you are planning a trip down here in the near future, look up Gaby's Restaurant. That will give you information on the address as well as the cooking classes. Apparently, this chef is on a cooking show down here and seems to be well-known. He certainly knew how to make soup in an interesting fashion.

As Frank was eating his little snack, I mentioned to the owner of the restaurant that I was allergic to tequila. That man went into the back of the restaurant and came back to the table with a little glass of what he called a “medicina” for allergies.

We left the restaurant and continued on our exploration walk of Puerto Vallarta. Only two blocks west was the Malecon, the long walk that parallels the sea. I love that walkway. It was cooler there, also, than it had been, for a lovely breeze was blowing off the water.

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