on the edge

The Pirate Ship

It sails each evening here in Puerto Vallarta and is one of the great things for tourists to do. It ends each evening with a pirate battle and a display of fireworks. 

Casa Linda

Casa Linda was one of the first places we stayed in the town of Bucerias which is a hour north of Puerto Vallarta. We eventually bought a lot and built our first house there in 1999. Linda became our friend and we attended many of her wonderful parties there. She was the consummate hostess. She has since passed away and our friend Lori, her daughter is now managing the place. We had the opportunity to revisit Casa Linda in April and it still is the perfect taste of life as it was on the coast of Mexico. 

A Villa on Calle Gardinias

Tacos

 

Part of Mexican life are the taco stands. There are very few during the day. There are some morning taco stands, like the Carnitas stand on Lazaro Cardenas and Aguacate that we frequent and is very popular with the Mexicans, but it is closed by 1:00 in the afternoon.

 

Another that I have been going to for years opens around 2:00 in the afternoon and is open until the evening. When I need something to eat in the afternoon and I am downtown, they are my go to place. Taco Gonzalez on Aguacate between Caranza and Lazaro Cardinas.

 

Most however don't open until around 7:00 or 8:00 in the evening after dark and there are taco stands on every street. That is my favorite time to go wandering around with a camera.

 

To me the lowly taco is the gourmet food of Mexico. For around 75 cents US, you can get a taco sincillo (plain) or with everything (beans, chopped onion, cilantro) and what distinguishes each taco stand are their salsas. They have to have at least 3, a red salsa, a green salsa, a guacamole salsa. They also serve quesadillas with the same options. 

 

For meat, there is carne asada (grilled beef), adobada (pork marinated in a red dried chili adobo sauce) and al pastor (pork meat marinated and stacked on a vertical spike with a vertical grill). Meat is sliced off on the surface as it cooks with a little slice of pineapple. Also there is cabeza (meat from the head of the cow, not brains, just lips, cheeks, etc.) and Carnitas (which is pork meat cooked in a caldron of pork fat) but these are only served at breakfast. Each taco stand has its own specialties.

 

Another lunch taco is fish tacos. Here the favorite style is Baja style which is fish or shrimp dipped in batter and deep fried. They are served with shredded cabbage and usually mayonnaise or a chipotle mayonnaise plus the other usual salsas. They are usually a lunch thing. Our favorite is called Marisma on Naranjo and Caranza. They make their own corn tortillas heco a mano (made by hand) fresh hot and good.

 

Devil's Bar

On the Malecon, 
Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco Mexico

The Street Scene at Pancho's Tacos Last Night

Spectacular Explosión of the Volcano Popocatépetl on 10th of November 2017

We have a number of large volcanoes here in Mexico. Popocatépetl is literally on Mexico City's doorstep. As long as it does this occasionally and lets off pressure, hopefully it will postpone any major eruptions.

One Of Our Most Favorite Restaurants in Puerto Vallarta

This is a very special restaurant. The food is excellent and the service is likewise. This is not an ad, we live here and this restaurant is one of our top places to eat.

They are open daily from 6:00 pm  to 11:30 pm.

They are located at Guerrero #264 in El Centro, downtown Puerto Vallarta.

Restaurant Trio

A Look at What The Yearly Temperatures Are Like in Puerto Vallarta

High °F	Low °F	Month	High °C	Low °C
78	55	January	26	13
79	55	February	26	13
80	55	March	27	13
82	58	April	28	14
84	63	May	29	17
85	69	June	30	21
86	69	July	30	21
87	69	August	31	21
87	69	September	31	21
87	67	October	30	20
84	61	November	29	16
80	57	December	27	14
83	62	Year	29	17

Aerial Map of Puerto Vallarta

My Neighbor's Dump Truck

Time to Slow Down

It's June and the rains have come early. The snowbirds have returned to the north and the Mexican schools are still in session so the Mexican tourists have not arrived in any great numbers. 

Temperatures are hot, in the high 20's and low 30's (high 80's and low 90's) with high humidity. The mornings are cool with a nice cool breeze out of the mountains but as the day progresses the temperatures rise and the sun is hot. 

We had a hurricane near miss last week. Hurricane Carlos was just a tropical storm, most of its life. It's original track would have taken it over the mountains in the south and directly over Puerto Vallarta. Luckily for us it did not pick up any energy and was deflected by the mountains out to sea. We got extremely heavy rains for 3 days straight with lots of thunder and lightning. 

It is now sunny with hardly a cloud in the sky and cooler than it has been for several weeks. It would be nice if it stayed this way.

Quality Peoples, a Local Mexican Company

Lost My Mind from Quality Peoples on Vimeo.

A video done by my son who runs a small surfing clothing company and has a store in Sayulita. He lives with his wife and son in Bucerias.

Layla's: A new gourmet restaurant in town

There's a new wonderful restaurant that opened here in August. The chef is Jose Mario Murillo who was trained at the Culinary Instute of America in Hyde Park, New York and worked for some of the best restaurants in New York and Connecticut.

I have been predicting this for some time: that with the numbers of excellent Mexican chefs being trained in international cuisine, many would return to Mexico and produce a wonderful fusion of international flavors with the traditional flavors of Mexico creating a whole new genre of Mexican Fusion Cooking. Mexico has a rich tradition with unusual ingredients such as a cornicopia of dried chilies. A good example of this is Jose's Fire Shrimps. The name might scare away those with an aversion to spicy food but Jose's version is mildly spicy with a complex flavor derived from using 3 different types of dried chilies. My wife Mary loved it so much she has had it on both of our visits. 

I have been sampling their more traditional Mexican fare, but I can say that Jose's version of Mexican dishes takes Mexican cooking to a whole new level. I had the Shrimp Enchiladas one time and the Mixed (Chicken & Beef) Enchiladas last night. Both were excellent with beautifully subtle sauces. 

The owners Rodrigo and Isabel are sweethearts and make you feel like you have come into a very special place. We wish them a generous helping of good luck in their new venture. You can find their e-mail and phone # in the contact section of their web site:

Layla's Restaurante        Menu       Contact

How to Make A Mango Margarita

Almost 9 years ago I posted my recipe for how to make a real Margarita. It gets more hits than anything else I've posted. I've never been a fan of those slushy versions of Margaritas, but my wife Mary plays bridge down at Oscar's Restaurant and when I come down to pick her up at the end of the day, it is Happy Hour. Like most restaurants in Puerto Vallarta, drinks are two for one. So she introduced me to Oscar's Mango Margarita one day and they are pretty good.

When we got home she tried her hand at making them and over the course of several months she has introduced two changes that I think make it even better. One was to add the juice of one small lime and to coat the rim with Tajin (Pronounced Tah-heen). Tajin is a commomly used condiment here in Mexico which is a blend of salt, chili power and lime. It is not very hot (spicy), the chilis used are dried chilis which are flavorful but not very spicy.  

To make this recipe, you will have to find a source for Mango puree. We get ours from Costco here in Mexico. If you can't find a source for mango puree, if you can find a source for frozen Mango slices, you can just put them into the blender directly and use less ice. 

So making a Mango Margarita is fairly simple. In a blender put:

• 1/4 cup mango puree or equivalent amount of fresh or frozen fruit
• 1 full jigger of Tequila plus a little more according to your taste
• Juice from 1 small lime or 1/2 large lime
• Lots of ice
• Blend until most of the ice has been ground up
• Wipe the rim of a tall Daiquiri glass with a piece of lime
• Dip the rim into a plate containing the Tajin or salt or sugar if you prefer
• Strain into a tall Daiquiri glass and enjoy

Let me know how you enjoy it!

Puerto Vallarta's Wedding Cake Church

Life in Puerto Vallarta

If you find your way to the most southern part of Puerto Vallarta, to Old Town (Viejo Vallarta) and find your way to the beach there, known as Los Muertos (the dead), you will be grateful. ;-)

The name comes from a historical incident long forgotten. The beach has numerous restaurants which have placed umbrellas and palapa structures with chairs and tables on the beach for your enjoyment. Just buy something, some drinks, some food from them and you can have the place for the day. You will be grateful!!!

 

Halloween in Puerto Vallarta

Halloween in Puerto Vallarta is a fun time. Although this is a holiday imported from up North, it seems to be catching on here. Mexico celebrates the Day of the Dead (Dia De Los Muertos) on Novemebr 2nd but even that feast day is imported here from other areas of Mexico and is not celebrated here the way it is in other areas. Halloween got a real kick start from the numbers of foreigners who live here diuring the winter.

So every year along the malecon the kids come out with their parents dressed up for Halloween and getting candy from the Americans and Canadians.  Many of the kids are too poor to be able to buy costumes so they make their own, clearly with a lot of help from their parents. The home made costumes are invariably the best on the malecon.

The Temple of Tepostécatl in Tepotzlan

At the end of April we spent a week in Tepoztlan, a town in the state of Morelos not far from Cuernavaca. Tepoztlan is a very pretty little town nestled in a valley between two mountain ranges. It has largely been maintained in a traditional way. No McDonalds, no Dominoes Pizza or developments here.  It is a big weekend tourist destination for Mexico City, being only a hour away. It has a very alternative feel, you can buy crystals here, there is an Indian store where you can buy things from India and a photo shop where you can get a picture taken of your aura. There are a number of very nice B & B's with attendant spa's.

At the top of one of the mountains to the north of the town is an ancient Aztec temple. It actually predates the Aztecs and it is a serious hike to get there. I was told that it was an hour hike, but it took me an hour and 15 minutes and it was a hike straight up the mountain.  The valley of Tepoztlan lies at a mile of altitude, so it's around another 2,000 feet of altitude or 7,000 feet at the top.  

On the way we were greeted by a number of Coatimundis or Coatis or Tejón as they are known here. They are very tame and comfortable around humans. Like Racoons they can be a pest and raid human habitations for food. They are quite intelligent. There were signs at the top of the mountain saying not to feed the Coatis because they were becoming too dependent on human food. Unfortunately by the time we got there it was too late. The last climb up to the temple was very steep, through a gap in the rocks that had a special stairway built. Formerly it had two logs with cross bars forming a ladder to climb the last part.

The Temple of Tepostécatl was occupied with the Tepostlan valley in the 13th century A.D. by the Xochimilcas, a people who settled this area and who were in constant war with the Aztecs and were eventually conquered by them. The temple then became an Aztec temple around 1438 A.D. The temple was built to the god Tepostécatl the patron god of the people of the Tepotzlan valley. Tepostécatl is one of the deities related to the Maguey plant and Pulque. His calendar name was Ome Tochtli, 2 Rabbit. The Rabbit was a moon being in Meso-American cosmogony, so this made Pulque gods moon beings. This heavenly connection with a heavenly body that dies and is reborn endlessly comes from the fact that Pulque gods embodied nature's on-going cycle of birth and death. This is the  reason they are celebrated at the end of harvest time.

According to legend, Tepostécatl was born to a princes who fell in love with a bird or  the god Ehécatl. The parents wanted to get rid of the child so they left him in a nest. Instead of being devoured, he was fed by ants on drops of honey. He then was left between the leaves of the Maguey plant where he was fed on the Maguey syrup. He was finally sent downstream in a wooden box (sound familiar) where he was found by an elderly couple who raised him and taught him all he knew.

 

 

Scuba Diving in Puerto Vallarta

With summer and fall water temperatures in the Bay of Banderas running above 80 (26 C) our friend Norm who is an owner of the Twin Dolphin (Delfines Gemelos) Dive operation had been telling us of how incredible the diving has been this fall. Visibility 70 to 100 feet and water warm enough that a wet suit was unnecessary.   

We have been diving since the mid 80's when we lived in the New York area and could catch flights down to the Caribbean where the water is warm and the undersea life is prolific. Here, in the winter, the water is warm on the surface but due to Pacific current upwelling,  there are thermoclines below  which require you to wear a heavier wet  suit and being warm water divers, we've avoided it when the water is cold. But as we found out, now the diving is just about perfect.

  So one Sunday afternoon, my wife and I set out with Norm and the Twin Dolphin crew to see what was going on. In our diving here we had never dived Los Arcos and were stoked to do that. Los Arcos is a great snorkeling site, but it is also on the edge of an undersea canyon with a wall that descends to 1,800 feet. The diving was amazing with lots of undersea life. We saw two Spotted Eagle Rays, large schools of Angel Fish and Puffer Fish everywhere. We hit the wall at about 70 feet and were down to 110 feet before we knew it. The visibility was perfect and being able to leave behind our wet suits was a real bonus. 

It was so good that I called our son Ed when we got back and we scheduled a return dive later that week. The two of us have been diving together since 1985. Ed and I got our PADI certification together on Grand Turk Island when he was 11 and I was 40. The underwater shots here are his. Our return dive the following Friday was equally as great. There was a turtle (I didn't see it), an Eagle Ray and the schools of fish were mesmerizing. We were with a group that had some beginner divers so Norm, Ed and I took off on our own down the steep cut in the cliff that leads to the wall. For me there is nothing more exhilarating than having the bottom drop away and to drift leisurely down a vertical wall exploring as we go. until we reach our maximum depth. 

When Ed and I learned on Grand Turk we learned on an undersea wall that dropped away vertically, in the case of Grand Turk for a mile. Grand Turk sits on a mile deep trench and is literally on an undersea cliff edge. The undersea terrain in the Bay of Banderas does not drop away as deeply but it actually is a series of underwater canyons similar to Monterey Bay in California. Because of the depth and upwelling of colder water from the depths laden with nutrients, there is an abundance of sea life which attracts larger creatures particularly the whale population in the winter months. The Carribean has its beauty, but diving here is well worth the effort to see close up the beauty of the sea life. 

 

Underwater photos by Ed Fladung:

http://www.edfladung.com/

Frijoles Negros de la Olla

Frijoles Negros de la Olla
Originally uploaded by waywuwei

Black Beans (actually any kind of beans) are wonderful. These were destined for a lunch of black bean and brown rice burritoes. They take three hours to cook, but bascially you put a pot with beans with lots of water and half an onion on the stove on a low burner and 3 hours later they're done. Add a few spices at the end and eat

Puerto Vallarta Bridge Club

When were living north of here in Bucerias, my wife Mary began to get interested in playing bridge and played there for a while then began playing here in Puerto Vallarta. This past winter she got together with several of her friends who wanted to play ACBL (American Contract Bridge League) sanctioned bridge games. So they started an ACBL sanctioned club which plays two days a week at one of our local hotels, El Pescador which is right on the beach. It is also a restaurant so no one goes hungry or thirsty. It has been very successful and people from all over the world come here to Puerto Vallarta to enjoy the warm winter and play their favorite game. More information can be found here...

www.vallartabridge.com

Mountains and the Coastal Plain

Mountains and the Coastal Plain
Originally uploaded by waywuwei

Traveling west towards Puerto Vallarta and the Bay of Banderas, the mountains give way to the coastal plain which is a very fertile farming area irrigated by several rivers which originate in the Sierra Madre Mountains. The river in this photo is the Rio Ameca which is the state boundary line between the state of Nayarit to the North and the state of Jalisco to the south. Farming here is on a more modern footing, using tractors to plant corn and tobacco. You can still often see the vaqueros (cowboys) on horseback herding the cattle.

El Calcetin Solitario/The Lonely Sock

El Calcetin Solitario
Originally uploaded by waywuwei

Even in Mexico we have the same problem: those errant socks that seem to randomly disappear with each wash load. Where do they go to? Is there some sort of sock heaven where lonely socks go when they are sadly separated from their mates?

Mountains of Jalisco

Mountains of Jalisco
Originally uploaded by waywuwei

Immediately east of Puerto Vallarta is the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range, a very sparsely populated mountain area of primitive farms where traditional farming methods that have been used for thousands of years are still practiced.