Puerto Vallarta, A Town With The Charm of Old Mexico

It's time, finally, to tell you a bit about the town of Puerto Vallarta. It's impossible not to fall in love with this wonderful old town with cobbled streets and white houses covered with red tiles. This town completely reflects the romantic charm of old Mexico.

But back in 1963 no one knew anything about the place. Locals were mainly involved in fishing. But then one day the fishing village woke up famous when Hollywood director John Huston filmed "Night of the Iguana" with Richard Burton and Ava Gardner at a location close to the town.

Hacienda de Oro - Restaurant and Botanical Garden

In search of something genuine amongst the touristic chaos, we found a wonderful botanical garden in the middle of the jungle! Great place to start a Valentine's Day, isn't it? If paradise was decorated in a Mexican style, it would look exactly as Hacienda de Oro. Surrounded by a flourishing garden in the middle of lush jungles and spectacular mountains there is even a lovely river running through it. By the way, you can swim in the river, but the water was icy cold and I didn't have the desire! Hacienda itself is a Mexican restaurant. During our stay in Puerto Vallarta I enjoyed a lot of great Mexican food, but the Hacienda de Oro offers some seriously excellent local fare.

Whale Watching In Puerto Vallarta

I really didn't expect that I'd be lucky enough to see these huge animals jumping out of the water so close to me. It was definitely my lucky perfect-picture day. One more childhood dream came true. It was actually our last day in Puerto Vallarta. The morning was quite overcast and cool. The color of the ocean was black as resin, nothing was visible in its murky depths. The boat was very small and it could accommodate only 12 people. We could only sit there. It didn't sound like fun at all and the weather was crap, but we decided to roll with it. 

Margaritas and Sunsets in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

One of my favorite things to do in Puerto Vallarta is to go to a locals beach bar, order a huge Margarita and watch the sunset with my man of my life. The beauty of this particular bar is that for some strange reason tourists seem to avoid this place. You pretty much only see locals there. I love being around locals. It was cool to watch how fishermen were preparing for another night out in the open ocean and watch local kids playing football. It looked so normal and cheerful to see children playing football on the beach. They do not have computers and iPads, they have the sand, a ball and the colored sky. These kids still know what real childhood fun is!

Casa Amorita, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

Mexico was in my must-visit list for forever! After all, I always wanted to know what is Mexico, a country of tequila, love, mariachi with their guitars and sombreros? To my big surprise, we landed into a gray rainy day that is very uncharacteristic for Mexico in February. When I saw this gray picture 15 minutes before landing, a whole range of horror and panic displayed on my face. Do you know this painting "The Scream" by Edward Munch? This was my face! Yes, the gray ocean and the gray hills were a huge surprise to me! But we took our sour lemons, and we bought tequila and salt and tuned into a more positive mood! The truth is it is better to have rain in the paradise rather than sun in the city!