A Day in Puerto Vallarta

  

Friday morning, Rick and I took the bus into PV. The bus we took was one of the bigger more comfortable buses that have air-conditioning (a real treat). It costs 15 pesos rather than the 7 pesos that you pay on the smaller vans. And it’s a more direct route.

We made it to Lepe's home/museum

Signs leading to the museum, getting my hopes up

Parked in the courtyard

After we got dropped off as far as the bus would take us, we had to transfer to another bus that would take us closer into old town. As I mentioned in our last blog I am on a quest to find the Casa Museo Manuel Lepe. So I plugged the address into my phone’s Google Maps and off we went on foot. Google Maps had us walking up hills, in circles and ending up on dead end streets. We turned off the phone and just started asking people for directions. We were getting so frustrated with misinformation that we almost gave up feeling the whole thing was a hoax. Finally a police officer was the most helpful with his directions and we made it to our destination! I was so happy we found it, I almost cried! We walked up a driveway and around the back of an old looking white brick building that opened up to a courtyard with a smaller building in the very back with a sign saying, Manuel Lepe Museum - Gallery. Yahoo! This smaller building looked like someone’s home. It was a cute little building with views of the city and the ocean.  I imagined this must have been the place where Lepe painted. A lot of his paintings are of this view. We walked to the door, which was shut and protected with bars. I was thinking the museum was closed or something and almost turned away. Then Rick saw a doorbell and pushed it.  Voila! A small cute little woman opened the door. I asked her if this was the Museum. She shook her head and said, “no, no existo”.  I looked over her head and into the house and saw some of his works. So I pointed to them and said…in the best Spanish I could muster, I can see his paintings. She just kept shaking her head saying no, no, lo siento (i'm sorry), and closed the door. My heart sank and tears welled up in my eyes, and a lump formed in my throat. I was so disappointed.  Rick gave me a big hug and then we walked slowly out of the courtyard, down the driveway and back on the road. I was thinking, had it been my mother in this situation, she would not have taken no for an answer and would have weaseled her way into the home and gotten a tour. But I am not my mother. There was a reason that the woman did not want me in her home and I needed to respect that. Maybe the museum was really non-existent as the women said and she was just a family member who was now living in Lepe’s home and able to keep his works to enjoy, to keep private.

View from Lepe's home

So, now what? We didn’t really have any plans to do anything else. So we decided while we were here to do a little exploring and maybe find a place for lunch. We didn’t walk too far until we found a place to eat. The food was ok, but not as good as the people watching. After lunch we continued walking around really enjoying the sights. We even walked through a few art galleries even though there were no signs of Lepe. This part of PV had an entire different feel from our first impression when we were at the Malecon.  Rick and I both looked at each other and said, why haven’t we been hanging out here more? I guess you just can’t come here during Semana Santa! There were still signs of Holy Week present when we walked down to the beach. Literally tons of people were on the beach and in the water.  My guess was that it was still the crowd from Guadalajara enjoying their vacation.

 

Walking over a bridge in Old Town

Grafitti or Wall Art I like to call it

The Streets of PV

Interesting way of wiring

Love the Mexican art! So colorful!

The beaches were wall to wall umbrellas

Along the Malecon

Love interesting Doorways!

We slowly walked back through town to catch a bus back to Nuevo Vallarta. We had to make a pit stop on the way at the Walmart to get a few provisions. Food at our Marina is very expensive almost like being back home prices.

We got back to our boat, barbequed and settled in for the night. It was a good day.

I’m starting to feel better so we may leave either tomorrow or Monday for Mazatlan. We have a short 3-day weather window. If we don’t leave soon, like by Monday, we will be stuck here for another week at least waiting for softer seas & winds.  That’s not that much of a problem because we do like it here, but we are starting to run out of time to get to San Carlos by May 1^st. San Carlos is where we will leave our boat for the summer when we head back to Sacramento. We originally wanted to stop at Punta de Mita on the way so we could surf, and then stop at Isla Isabel to see the Blue Footed Boobies. Then of course stop in our first favorite spot, San Blas/Mantachen Bay and then end up in Mazatlan before going into the Sea of Cortez.

We will not have Internet until Mazatlan so stay tuned.