Sylvie's Travels Home

I woke up to a beautiful sunrise reflecting in the clouds.

We took our walk but instead of stopping at Starbucks, we went straight to Jude Bistro and Bar, inside the mall, to have breakfast. Derrick had a BLT with avocado. Pogo and I shared one as well and a fruit platter. Deidre didn’t eat as she was going to pilates. She took a taxi to the studio. When we were walking back, Derrick decided to take a taxi to have a haircut at the same little mall where Deidre was. Pogo picked both of them up at 11:30am.

I did some laundry and cleaning.

We had decided to go on a little trip to San Miguel de Allende and to Guadalajara. Pogo booked flights for the 4 of us for tomorrow and Derrick booked an hotel for 2 nights in San Miguel.

Derrick and Deidre went to the beach then to La Gaviota for shrimp tacos. Pogo took a nap. I tried to do the same as I had not slept very well last night but wasn’t successful.

Now for today’s culinary section, I will take you with us on a food tour extravaganza in Puerto Vallarta with Vallarta Eats! I had reserved a private with them called Tasting Vallarta. It is a sit-down experience at some of Vallarta’s finest restaurants. We had done that tour 4 years ago and really enjoyed it. We had decided to take a taxi to PV. Our drive there was pretty bad. We had ordered a mini van thinking we would be more comfortable. It was a really old one with horrible suspension but with an even worse driver who kept pushing and letting go of the gas pedal every 2 seconds. I thought I was going to throw up or at least have whiplash.

We met our guide Pez at Layla’s. The restaurant, unless it was your destination, would not be easy to notice, being on a side street outside of the Malecon. It used to be a residence and over the years, the owners added 3 more floors. Our table was on the 4th floor balcony reached by a narrow spiral staircase. Not easy with bad knees. The food and beverage were delicious: fried oysters, grilled shrimp and mushroom on rice, chicken with pickled jalapenos and pineapple strawberry margaritas.

We took a taxi to our next destination, De Cantaro Mezcal Bar and Grill. The decor was fantastic, they even had a tiki bar, but because they were full with upcoming reservations, they put us into a little closed-in room so not a great environment. We had 2 appetizers: lima bean hummus and pico de gallo on homemade crackers. The entree consisted of mole chicken enchilada and grilled shrimp and steak. All very good. The drink, a very light tasting mezcal with citrus was a little too sour for me but I would love to own some of their glasses!

Next stop was OK José!, formerly known as No Way José! By then we were pretty full but that didn’t stop us from eating some more. First they made us a wonderful caesar salad. The waiter prepared the dressing in front of us then added the crispiest leaves of romaine to it. Our last savory dish of the evening was Chiles en Nogado. It was just incredible! We were entertained by a fantastic guitar player who was later join by José the owner of the restaurant who serenaded us with a few songs.

Our last stop was at Vitea, on the Malecon, for dessert. They brought us a glass of ice, a glass of liquor (not sure what it was) and a coffee. We mixed everything together for a unusual delish digestif. We finished it all with bite size of 4 different desserts: flan, blueberry cheesecake, bread pudding and chocolate cake. By then we just sampled them to be polite.

Overall it was another really fantastic food tour and we really enjoyed our guide as well.

The taxi drive home was terrifying. Our driver was going so fast but the traffic around us was going even faster. We almost hit a motorcycle. Also, I don’t know if the driver was falling asleep but he started slowly going on the right lane and almost hit a car. We were happy to get back to the condo in one piece.

When we got back in the condo, we could hear Mariachis on the beach. We had realized when we were leaving at 4pm that a wedding was about to take place on the beach. Pogo and I went down to check it out. Tables and lights were set up in front of Kite 1 (we are in Kite 2) where people were eating. A little further, they had set up blankets on the beach and people were enjoying Mariachis. The music and celebration ended around 11:30pm.