PV road trip oct-nov 2008 part one

Report on your Puerto Vallarta trip, hotel, restaurant, tour, etc.

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benito
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PV road trip oct-nov 2008 part one

Post by benito » Thu Nov 27, 2008 12:37 am

This time we decided to drive from San Francisco to PV and stay for 4 or 5 weeks.
our motivation for this trip was the day of the dead on nov 1 and 2nd, and my birthday on the 13th.
We bought a toyota sienna van the beginning of sept. and waited in horror as the ca dmv and u.s. mail conspired against us. after 7 weeks- and 9 days after the dmv mailed the plates-from sacramento, a distance of 90 miles, we recd. them 6 days after our scheduled departure. before heading south we bought a st. christopher/ our lady of the highway visor pin to ensure that our bad luck ended with the dmv.

We decided not to kill ourselves on the drive down so we stopped in joshua tree,
then buckeye az and hit the border on the 3rd day at nogales. getting the vehicle permit and tourist card at the immigration station was a breeze, the station is about 15 kilometers south of town. this day of driving ended with a night stop in hermosillo. we stayed at a nice motel called the st. martin on the north side of town. nice rooms, nice restaurant and took in our 3 dogs no problema. baseball fans were in the restaurant so we were able to watch the world series....sweet!.

The fourth day of driving took us through sonora state and a lot of sinaloa state. sonora state is beautiful...high desert with mountains rising on the right and left of the highway 15 toll road. the toll road is great. it cost about 85 usd to get from nogales to pv, well worth it. some cities you pass through, guaymas/san carlos, ciudad obregon, los mochis, culiacan, and mazatlan.

We stopped just north of mazatlan in a little town called la cruz. it was hot-high 90s- and damn near impossible to find a beer other than tecate light...muy malo after 12 hours of driving. also the folks at the taco stand near our motel laughed at us when we requested frijoles to go with our tacos. not our kind of town. after countless topes (speed bumps) we hit the home stretch the morning of the 5 day. a nice drive until you get to tepic. the last one and a half hours into pv are sketchy. winding 2 lane mountain road with lot of semis and buses and crazy impatient drivers ready to pass no matter the conditions. it sure is sweet though to make that final turn into bucerias and see banderas bay open up in front of you.
all the pv veterans reading this, if you have the time i highly reccomend driving down. mexico is a beautiful country with a lot of style. all the little towns that have all the vendors at the speed bumps, it reminds me how it was in the little towns in the bay area when i was a kid, before the strip malls. also having a vehicle while in town opens up day trip possibilities.

After unloading the van into our condo we made a bee line to los muertos beach with the doggies. after 4.5 days in the van they were ready for some swimming. the ocean was so warm it made us laugh. actually just being in pv made us laugh!!

This is our 3rd year of owning our condo and it was time to pay the piper for owning a place in the tropics. our fridge died, a ceiling fan died, our water heater disintegrated and our back wall in a bedroom and pantry room were melting. i guess the rainy season was in full effect this year and the moisture came thru the walls and turned the paint to mush. everyone we talked to said we were lucky to get 3 years out of our paint job. some friends say they have to redo the walls every year. having a good property manager meant we didn’t have to do very much to fix things. only open our wallet. even that was mitigated a little bit by the 13-1 exchange rate. also the time involved getting things done is what you notice the most. taken care of with property management. best of all, someone else brought the fridge up 91 steps.

Old town was buzzing with activity. much road construction, especially at b badillo and insurgentes. lots of restaurants closed or out of business with work being done on lots of places in preparation of high season. we hit our favorite taco wagons, memos at b badillo and aguacate, (they open at 7pm ) marismos across the street from el brujo on naranja and carranza. tacos cisneros on aguacate and f madero, and of course the lunch counter across the street from the gr rizzo. nothing better than camerone tacos and quesadillas with the tortillas made right in front of you.

We went to yelapa one day on the water taxi, with the bonus of seeing 2 whales right before pulling into the yelapa cove. they were blowing water and breaching before diving deep. pretty cool, we always come in the summer so we never see the whales.
we also went to boca a couple times a week while there. what a cool place. muy tranquilo, no venders, or 1 vendor, nice cantinas on the beach with decent food and good margaritas. great beach to swim at, and it is shallow for quite a ways out so there were lots of local kids swimming.the buses go there about every 10 minutes. well worth a trip out for the day. and it’s a quick water taxi to yelapa from there.
...to be continued

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ellen
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Post by ellen » Thu Nov 27, 2008 4:31 am

Sounds great so far. We probably passed on the street a few times and didn't know it!

Plus4
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Post by Plus4 » Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:41 pm

Very good start to your trip report...
:)
Thanks for posting






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Re: PV road trip oct-nov 2008 part one

Post by Plus4 » Tue Dec 23, 2008 4:24 pm

benito wrote:This time we decided to drive from San Francisco to PV and stay for 4 or 5 weeks.
our motivation for this trip was the day of the dead on nov 1 and 2nd, and my birthday on the 13th.
We bought a toyota sienna van the beginning of sept. and waited in horror as the ca dmv and u.s. mail conspired against us. after 7 weeks- and 9 days after the dmv mailed the plates-from sacramento, a distance of 90 miles, we recd. them 6 days after our scheduled departure. before heading south we bought a st. christopher/ our lady of the highway visor pin to ensure that our bad luck ended with the dmv.

We decided not to kill ourselves on the drive down so we stopped in joshua tree,
then buckeye az and hit the border on the 3rd day at nogales. getting the vehicle permit and tourist card at the immigration station was a breeze, the station is about 15 kilometers south of town. this day of driving ended with a night stop in hermosillo. we stayed at a nice motel called the st. martin on the north side of town. nice rooms, nice restaurant and took in our 3 dogs no problema. baseball fans were in the restaurant so we were able to watch the world series....sweet!.

The fourth day of driving took us through sonora state and a lot of sinaloa state. sonora state is beautiful...high desert with mountains rising on the right and left of the highway 15 toll road. the toll road is great. it cost about 85 usd to get from nogales to pv, well worth it. some cities you pass through, guaymas/san carlos, ciudad obregon, los mochis, culiacan, and mazatlan.

We stopped just north of mazatlan in a little town called la cruz. it was hot-high 90s- and damn near impossible to find a beer other than tecate light...muy malo after 12 hours of driving. also the folks at the taco stand near our motel laughed at us when we requested frijoles to go with our tacos. not our kind of town. after countless topes (speed bumps) we hit the home stretch the morning of the 5 day. a nice drive until you get to tepic. the last one and a half hours into pv are sketchy. winding 2 lane mountain road with lot of semis and buses and crazy impatient drivers ready to pass no matter the conditions. it sure is sweet though to make that final turn into bucerias and see banderas bay open up in front of you.
all the pv veterans reading this, if you have the time i highly reccomend driving down. mexico is a beautiful country with a lot of style. all the little towns that have all the vendors at the speed bumps, it reminds me how it was in the little towns in the bay area when i was a kid, before the strip malls. also having a vehicle while in town opens up day trip possibilities.

After unloading the van into our condo we made a bee line to los muertos beach with the doggies. after 4.5 days in the van they were ready for some swimming. the ocean was so warm it made us laugh. actually just being in pv made us laugh!!

This is our 3rd year of owning our condo and it was time to pay the piper for owning a place in the tropics. our fridge died, a ceiling fan died, our water heater disintegrated and our back wall in a bedroom and pantry room were melting. i guess the rainy season was in full effect this year and the moisture came thru the walls and turned the paint to mush. everyone we talked to said we were lucky to get 3 years out of our paint job. some friends say they have to redo the walls every year. having a good property manager meant we didn’t have to do very much to fix things. only open our wallet. even that was mitigated a little bit by the 13-1 exchange rate. also the time involved getting things done is what you notice the most. taken care of with property management. best of all, someone else brought the fridge up 91 steps.

Old town was buzzing with activity. much road construction, especially at b badillo and insurgentes. lots of restaurants closed or out of business with work being done on lots of places in preparation of high season. we hit our favorite taco wagons, memos at b badillo and aguacate, (they open at 7pm ) marismos across the street from el brujo on naranja and carranza. tacos cisneros on aguacate and f madero, and of course the lunch counter across the street from the gr rizzo. nothing better than camerone tacos and quesadillas with the tortillas made right in front of you.

We went to yelapa one day on the water taxi, with the bonus of seeing 2 whales right before pulling into the yelapa cove. they were blowing water and breaching before diving deep. pretty cool, we always come in the summer so we never see the whales.
we also went to boca a couple times a week while there. what a cool place. muy tranquilo, no venders, or 1 vendor, nice cantinas on the beach with decent food and good margaritas. great beach to swim at, and it is shallow for quite a ways out so there were lots of local kids swimming.the buses go there about every 10 minutes. well worth a trip out for the day. and it’s a quick water taxi to yelapa from there.
...to be continued
benito..You promised :)
Please do continue

shawnie
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Post by shawnie » Tue Dec 23, 2008 6:10 pm

Glad to hear it was such a nice trip as I am heading down on the 14th of Jan. Dad has driven before but it is my first time. I am excited to do this tho!
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