It's December 17 and we are in the Iberostar resort hotel at Playa Mita. We came to visit Kevin and Kat, as well as enjoy some sunshine, swimming and diving.
We arrived on Saturday evening, having left Ottawa quite early in the morning. There were time changes, plane changes, customs lineups, a 40 km bus ride, etc., plus the plane ride itself (from Toronto to Puerto Vallarta is 4 or 5 hours). So it was almost dark when we arrived and it was raining quite heavily. We asked at the desk where Kevin & Kat might be, but they weren't found quickly so we came to our room.
Kevin had been here earlier and arranged a Happy Birthday banner on our bed, and added festive flip flops for each of us, and whale pictures, too. Soon they appeared and we had some beer from the minibar and made some plans. When the luggage was delivered, we unpacked items we had brought for them, especially books for Kevin. Quite a bit of catching up to do, even tho we had seen them recently, in October. We all went to dinner in the main restaurant.
On Sunday, K&K had planned a day off, away from the hotel. Their new truck can't take 4 people, so they rented a car (quite a process!) and we were on our way by 10. Kat thought we should stop at McDonald's for "second breakfast", so we did. It's in a pretty plaza on the north side of Puerto Vallarta and there was a Christmas "tree" and crèche.
Then our journey took us through downtown Puerto Vallarta... and lots of traffic... and out the southern end, to go around the Bay of Banderas. We stopped to watch waves and butterflies.
We made a stop at Boca de Tomatlan where K&K expected to show us a lazy river wandering through a sandbar, but instead we were treated to big muddy waves. The beach restaurant was friendly tho, and the drinks were cool.
Moving on, up and down medium mountains (up to 700 metres above the sea), we went as far as the little town of El Tuito, where we walked around the main square, admired the Christmas decorations, and had a local lunch, complete with a drink of an alcohol similar to tequila, and some fresh, fresh lime lemonade.
El Tuito is a tiny town. From this corner, you can see the town square and, turning around, the end of town. It reminded me of Echenevex with barns in the centre of town.
That was the far end of our explorations for the day. We returned to the Botanical Garden and spent an hour or so admiring orchids, bromeliads, and other exotic native plants, with good explanations. Neil and Kat took some excellent pictures. These are mine.
I was intrigued by this stone creature
curious about these curios in the gift shop,
and amused by this "sign" on the bathroom wall (Caballeros side, of course).
It was getting to be sunset time, so we headed for a fancy restaurant/bar called Le Kliff, where the architecture was impressive (it's built right on the rocks and into the cliff), the drinks were lovely and the sunset perfect.
But the Christmas tree was unimpressive!
Back through PV and to a steakhouse near the marina. Wonderful service and great steaks! Then we strolled along the marina and saw some lesser yachts (the larger ones were farther from the eyes of wandering tourists). On the sidewalk, we encountered this lovely cecropia moth.
Kevin drove us carefully and swiftly home to the hotel and we went to bed very happy. A lovely day! All our thanks to K&K, because it was our birthday treat!
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