Hola from Puerto Vallarta

Now I remember why I need to keep my job. We’ve been here since Thursday, I got a new tattoo poolside, and I’m off from work all next week. We’re staying in the Marina Vallarta district, with Bahia de Banderas and the Pacific Ocean outside our hotel window. Every day has been spent going between pool and beach and back. It’s been a year since our last beach vacation, and we’re going to make the most of it!

I ran Friday morning. Didn’t pay attention to sunrise time and got up at 6:00 am to pitch darkness. It started to barely lighten up sometime past 7:00 am, and I headed out a couple miles to the main Boulevard Francisco Medina Ascencio that runs from the airport to town. Once at the main road, I encountered lots of locals heading out or arriving for work. On my return leg, I followed a mass of people and wound up at the Marina itself, which they were using as a shortcut to a major high rise construction project on the opposite side. I continued back to my hotel, ending up on the beach for a post-run dip in the bay.

One night, we took that same road into town for dinner at El Arrayan, a traditional Mexican restaurant recommended by the concierge. It was a simple down-to-earth place, open-air with a small central courtyard. Everything on the menu was recognizable and well prepared with really fresh ingredients, although we declined the daily special – fried crickets. After dinner we walked down to the boardwalk, or Melecon, where we found this wonderful art.

It probably didn’t last the evening, because it started to rain buckets. We caught a taxi back to the hotel, and promptly got stuck in a massive traffic jam. With no A/C, no movement, and high humidity, we had the windows cracked open half-way just to keep from fogging up, but it still felt like sitting in a sauna and shower all at once! Soaked to the bones and going nowhere fast crammed inside this taxi, we just had to laugh off this unexpected adventure!

Tomorrow (Sunday) calls for 1-hr run, more beach, and more pool. Somehow, I’ll survive. The worst part of this trip has been getting tattooed by these artists, and then being forced against my will to pose for this picture. Somehow, I'll survive that too.