Puerto Vallarta Scenery

Our trip to Puerto Vallarta last week was actually my first trip to Mexico ever. I've been to a bunch of tropical places including the Caribbean, Central America, Asia but somehow never made it to Mexico, even while growing up in Southern California. Puerto Vallarta is nice, but definitely has the feel of a big tourist resort town. The beaches are dominated by a row of large resort hotels curving all along the bay. We stayed at one, the Westin Puerto Vallarta. I much prefer smaller, more private boutique hotels or villas; my favorite places that I've traveled to are places like Bali and St. Barths. It just feels too overdeveloped and corporate otherwise; it feels like we could be anywhere. We stayed on the 9th floor of a huge 14 story resort with several pools and restaurants. I know a lot of people like this kind of experience, but for me, it was just too much people, too much stuff, not enough peace and privacy, all the time. The Westin was fine; we got a great airfare / hotel package through Orbitz, so I can't really complain too much. It definitely wasn't as nice as some of the other Westins that I've stayed at, particularly in the rooms and bathrooms. The beds and pillows weren't "heavenly bed" soft and the rooms and bathrooms could just use a little freshening up. I'm just happy it wasn't too noisy in the hallways. Many of the water features in the front of the hotel were turned off, but the pool grounds with all the palms were pretty. I wasn't too pleased that they charged for internet, although it seems to be the norm for all the hotels in the area. The beach was rather rocky with a strong current so we never ventured into the water, although I'm not a fan of going in the ocean anyway. When the sun was out though, it was really pretty, the water just sparkles and shimmers intensely blue, though different from the Caribbean turquoise. We strolled around the Marina a lot for meals and ventured to the Centro district downtown for a stroll along the Malecon around sunset followed by dinner a few blocks up the hill. The Malecon along the water was lined with huge nightclubs and touristy restaurants but a nice place for a stroll before dinner. The sunsets in Puerto Vallarta are gorgeous, particularly when there are a bit of clouds; fiery pinks, reds and oranges over the bay. All in all, we had a nice vacation, though it's not a place that I would be rushing back to return to since there are so many amazing places in the world to travel to.

Shots of the Westin Property:

View from our balcony

The Malecon at sunset

The marina. Calypso St. Barth x Target dress; I've actually gotten a ton of use out of this dress while on vacations, nice coverup from the sun

Mexican Breakfast #2

On our second morning in Puerto Vallarta, we tried Terraza di Roma in the Marina. I ordered the chilaquiles again while K. got a chorizo scramble. I liked the chilaquiles from Mr. Cream better; the tortillas were too soggy in this version and the sauce didn't have as much kick or flavor. Overall, both dishes felt greasier / heavier. Still, it was nice to sit on the dockside patio and enjoy the view of the boats in the Marina.

Chilaquiles

Marisma Fish Tacos in Puerto Vallarta

My favorite part of vacation is being able to try all the delicious local food. I tend to prefer street food or homestyle cooking as opposed to fancier fusion places. I always do my research ahead of time, usually through Chowhound, and prepare a list of places to try. More often than not, I plan my hotel to be convenient to the best places for food, preferably walking distance. We didn't have too much choice during our trip to Puerto Vallarta since we were going to a wedding, but luckily the Westin is walking distance from a few good places in the Marina and a short cab ride away from downtown. My must try for Puerto Vallarta was Marisma's Fish Tacos, and it was indeed so good that we had to go back twice for lunch. There's a location in the Marina, not too far from Mr. Cream's, so it was an easy 20 minute walk from our hotel. Over our two visits, we ordered the grilled fish, grilled shrimp, fried fish, fried shrimp, calamari and crab tacos. K. preferred the grilled shrimp whereas I preferred the fried fish tacos. The fried fish was perfect, a single piece of fried fish with a smooth non-greasy batter delicately encasing the moist flaky fish. The corn tortilla was perfect, not too grainy and held up to all the sauces, and the taco was topped simply with some shredded cabbage which provided nice freshness and crunch. The array of sauces were great: two creamy sauces, one green and one pink, a hot salsa, a red shallot sauce and a soy based shallot sauce, along with some lime and chopped salsa. I liked using all the sauces, particularly the creamy pink sauce, the red shallot sauce and the fiery hot sauce which really gave some nice kick that lasted for hours. In the future, I would definitely stick with fish or shrimp, the calamari and crab weren't as good. I'd love to find a good fish taco place in LA!

All dressed up and ready to go

Last beach day in Puerto Vallarta

Mexican Sunset

From Saturday's wedding

Breakfast from Puerto Vallarta - Mr. Cream's

Chilaquiles from Mr. Cream! We had breakfast twice at Mr. Cream's on the Marina during our trip to Puerto Vallarta last week. It was my favorite breakfast spot of the three places that we tried; the chilaquiles were my favorite. I couldn't decide, so I went with both the green and red sauces. The fried tortilla chips had just enough crunch left to be the perfect happy medium between the sauce and the eggs. Normally I would go with fried eggs for that runny yolk, but I decided to play it safe and go with fully cooked scrambled eggs. Along with a big glass of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, a cup of ice cold rich chocolate milk and some fresh fruit, it was the perfect start to the day. Good thing Mr. Cream's is about a 15 minute walk from our hotel, the Westin, to avoid the food coma from settling in too quickly.