Not to be Missed

These are the photos camera enthusiasts come to Puerto Vallarta to take. I didn't take them. I had to upload them from the Puerto Vallarta web site and Yahoo Travel. Limping as I was, my soccer injury, (better than just a bum knee),kept me back from seeing what I would have loved to have seen. But these are the photos that will bring me back to this charming old town, originally called Las Penas, founded in 1859 and renamed Puerto Vallarta after the first governor of Jalisco,Ignacio Vallarta. I won't be content till I've snapped them myself.

What I did see of The Lady of Guadalupe Cathedral, the hub of the town's activities, was the very beautiful top of it from a must go restaurant: Hacienda San Angel.

The Hacienda San Angelis comprised of five Mexican Villas. Villa I, Bursus, was the house Richard Burton gifted his wife Susan (not Liz) for Valentine's Day. Richard Burton, (a movie star from the past and long gone), was brought to PV by John Huston in 1964 to film The Night of the Iguana with Ava Gardner and Deborah Kerr, a movie I didn't particularly care for--too slow--like the pace of the town back then. He also brought along his wife-to-be, Liz Taylor. The two were the Brad and Angelina of their time. Their affair put Puerto Vallarta on the map and the pace of life in PV picked up after that.

COME ON IN WITH US


There are 16 rooms in this boutique hotel (of the world),all very pricey. As was our dinner. But the cuisine,the romantic atmosphere, the breathtaking views of the city and bay, and the concert performance of the mariachi orchestra--not band--orchestra--with impressively talented performers with a repertoire more sophisticated than Quanta Lamera--were well worth every peso. This is a place you will want to wear your most romantic sundress-something bare and silky and breezy that flutters about your knees provocatively as you walk. This is a place you wish you could still wear such a dress.

SOME PH0TOS JORGIA AND I TOOK OF THIS MUST VISIT DELIGHT:




There is much more to see in this Hacienda after being serenaded, wined and dined on the grande balcony. As we left, I took a peek at the elaborate Roman style lap pool (pools are me) and walked through an intimate dining room with antique Spanish furnishings and a very old wet bar, (quite amusing for this kitchen designer). I would have liked to have toured the rest of the place, but my dearests were anxious to hit the streets.

After putting mom and pop in a cab back to the mundane world of the Westin, Miguel and Jorgia braved the steep hill down to the Malecon, the boardwalk along Banderas Bay lined with shops in thee shopping district of the town and explored the square in front of the cathedral. I missed it all this trip, but not the next. Don't you miss it; cut the squats.