La Cruz - January 21 - 24, 2015

On Wednesday, we had a leisurely breakfast and waited for Jim to pick us up. We met Jim and Jeanie at Glorietas last week. We were having dinner and they walked in. I said hola to them and a conversation ensued. Turns out Jim is a lawyer from Edmonton and we crossed paths in Law School. They own a couple of places in a complex called Punta Esmeralda and they invited us to come see their place and the complex on Wednesday - we are always curious about real estate so we took them up on their offer. It would be a great place to own down here. We had lunch with them at their Beach Club and they asked if we wanted to go whale watching the next day. How nice!  And at no cost - they had chartered the Chica Locca - capacity 80 - for 20 people including us.

We came back in the afternoon and went to the pool. As we are running out of time here in Mexico, we decided to start at Tacos on the Steeet (3, 3, 2 and 2 tacos respectively), then we wandered down to Glorietas for coconut shrimp and bacon wrapped cheese stuffed shrimp (we shared) and then wandered down to La Ballena Blanca for shrimp tacos, cheese cake and the most delicious carrot cake. They were actually out of carrot cake but when Eva saw us arrive she left and came back a few minutes later with carrot cake for us from another restaurant that gets the same carrot cake from a local baker.  That is service. They had music again and they were great. 

On Thuraday, we were up early and off to the Chica Locca. Jim and Jeanie were hosting some friends from Punta Esmeralda, some of Jeanie's family (2 sisters and her dad) and us. What a great day!  We saw numerous whales, many moms with their cubs, dolphins, many different species of birds including the blue footed booby birds which apparently can only be found here. We had great food, drinks and visiting. We stopped at the Marietas Islands to swim, dive, and paddle board.  The guides were fantastic.   We went to Masala for dinner (tuna steak x 2 - what else - fettuccine alfredo with jumbo shrimp and a cornish game hen the size of an actual chicken). They had a group called Tatewari playing flamenco - amazing.  See below for pictures.

On Friday, we hung out at the pool all day.  For dinner, we started at La Ballena Blanca with shrimp tacos, a Shrimp burrito and 2 pieces of carrot cake. We planned to do the reverse tour tonight going from there to Glorietas to Tacos on the Street, but we had such a good time, we stayed and drank and listened to music again. 

On Saturday, we had to check out of our room at 11 am but they gave us another room to use for the day because Robyn and Scott were not leaving until 3 pm and we didn't have to leave until 7:30 pm. We had a breakfast of champions as we had to finish off our groceries - ice cream, Nesquik cereal, taco chips with salsa and refried beans, margaritas, coffee with baileys, potato chips and eggs.  Not so delicious.  We spent the day at the pool.  Robyn and Scott left in the afternoon and Jan and I went to La Ballena Blanca for one last time this trip.  Our 10:30 pm flight left on time and we were home in our beds about 4 am.

Another great holiday!

Dolphin swimming with boat

Scotty off the slide

Robyn off the slide

Bob off the second deck

Groovin'

La Ballena Blanca

Adios Mexico!

La Cruz - January 19-20, 2015

Monday was breakfast, pool, lunch, pool, dinner (at Raixes - the onsite restaurant - average food), bed.  We did get to have the big italian sandwiches for lunch that we bought the day before at the market.

Tuesday was breakfast, pool, lunch (at Raixes), pool, dinner at Sanzibar (again), ice cream at home along with a nightcap of mojitos.  At Sanzibar, we had tuna (what else?), mahi mahi and a seafood pasta - all delicious.

Starting to get used to this life ...

La Cruz - January 18, 2015

Sundays are market days in La Cruz.  Today we walked to the market - it is about a 45 minute walk from our place in the hills.  We were starving so we went straight to the major food section on the wharf.  We had a Moroccan sandwich of roasted pork, paella, a chicken quesadilla (to die for), 2 big italian sandwiches (as a reminder: italian sausage, spicy italian sausage and roasted pork) and 4 fresh juices.  We then wandered the market but didn't buy anything else.  We saw some huge tuna at the fish market.  We stopped by the Big Italian Sandwich place on the way out for 3 more sandwiches to go (lunch tomorrow).

We spent the afternoon at the pool, had a few dirty monkeys at happy hour and then headed into town to Masala for dinner.  We hit four home runs.  Scott and I had tuna steak (best yet), Jan had herb crusted mahi mahi and Robyn had jumbo shrimp with a ginger sauce.  Cheesecake and creme brûlée for dessert and then we were off walking to the best new little place in La Cruz - La Ballena Blanca. They had a band again - actually 2 members of the 4 member band we saw there a few nights ago.  The place was hopping, the band was great, and the cheesecake, cervesas and margaritas were outstanding as well.  They closed the kitchen as we got there because they ran out of food - not in a bad way - there were just so many people - great problem to have.  The young ones running the place were so busy ad happy.  We stayed until 10:30 - whatttttttt? Probably sleep in tomorrow after such a late night.

Our tuna supper!

Le Gato (our Mexican cat)

La Cruz - January 12-17, 2015

These past few days have been pretty much action replay.  Wake up, have coffee and breakfast, go to pool, sit there all day, go for dinner, come home and go to bed (usually by 8 pm).  A couple of specifics:

On Monday, we went to the pool and had dinner at home - spaghetti and chorizo sausage … and our Gato (cat) is back from last year.

On Tuesday, we went to the beach club.  Our place is loaded in the hills and they have a beach club on the beach (where most beach clubs are located).  It is small but fun area - we spent the day there.  We had dinner at Sandzibar.  One of our best meals in PV.  They made a fabulous tuna steak (Bob and Scott), mahi mahi (Robyn) and homemade sausage (Jan).  We were the only people in the restaurant.  What a shame because it was a fantastic meal - we sat beachfront and Leo our waiter was outstanding.  Robyn mentioned that she loved the bread and they sent some fresh bread home with her.

Sanzibar

Good Morning!

Beach Club

Beach Club

On Wednesday, we went to the pool and had dinner at Frescati's - great italian food although I had a tuna steak (I can get italian at home).

Frescati's

Frescati's

On Thursday, we went to the pool and took a margarita making class form 4-5pm.  It was really interesting - we made strawberry, classic lime, tamarind and jalepeno.  The jalepeno margarita was delicious with only a hint of jalepeno taste.  We had dinner at Xocolatl.  Great view of the bay - we had fajitas (Scott), coconut shrimp (Jan), mahi mahi topped with lobster sauce and a jumbo shrimp (Robyn) and chile relleno topped with a lobster sauce, a jumbo shrimp and a shrimp enchilada (Bob).

Margarita Class with Jairo

Margarita Class

Xocolatl

Xocolatl

On Friday, we went to the pool and then decided to wander around town eating a various places for supper.  We started at Tacos on the street but limited ourselves to 3 tacos each (Scott and I) and 2 for Jan and Robyn (not our usual 7-8 each).  Delicious as usual and very hard not to order more.  We then walked to El Asadero on main street and shared a BBQ plate of chorizo, chicken, flank steak, fried onions and refried beans.  Delicious.  We then wandered round town until we came across a little gem - La Ballena Blanca (The White Whale).  You walk in and there is no roof, just tarp like sails stretched across various places.  The menu is limited - Tacos (much like Tacos on the Street) - shrimp, marlin, fish - we tried the shrimp and marlin, both excellent, but the shrimp were better.  We had some cervesas and a margarita (excellent).  A band started playing at 8:30 (a half hour past our bed time), but we endured and the place was hopping.  What a great little place!  They only opened the previous Sunday and it is being run by a bunch of young adults and they were fantastic.  I would recommend this place to everyone.  It is owned by our waitress's father, but the building was once a restaurant owned by her grandfather which was destroyed by a hurricane a long time ago (hence no roof).

La Ballena Blanca

La Ballena Blanca

On Saturday, we had a spa day and had massages and pedicures.  What a great day.  We returned to Glorietta's for dinner.  Ismael (my bro apparently) offered us a seafood feast.  We jumped in.  The huge platter came out with lobster, coconut shrimp, breaded shrimp, garlic shrimp, octopus, mussels, grilled mahi mahi, breaded mahi mahi, rice, baked potato and salad.  We met 2 couples from Edmonton and they offered to show us their place at Punta Esmerelda one day.  We then walked down to La Ballena Blanca for dessert - shrimp tacos and had some cervesas and margaritas.  We wanted to support these great young ones in their new endeavor.  Back to our place and in bed by 8:30.  Can't party every night.

La Penita/La Cruz de Huanacaxtle - January 10 - 11, 2015

Our last morning in La Penita.  We packed up and went for breakfast at Hinde y Jaime's.  On our return, we checked out and waited for a taxi … as we were waiting the bread lady was driving by so we bought bread, donuts and muffins from her out of the back of her truck.  The drive to La Cruz was about 50 minutes.  As we arrived at Puerto Bahia (our home for the next 2 weeks), it was like we were with family again.  Our place is massive - as you open the front door, it walk into an open air foyer.  Each room (bedrooms, kitchen, living room are all rooms by themselves connected with open air covered hallways).  We hopped into our little pool and waited for Robyn and Scott to arrive.  They arrived about an hour later and they hopped into the pool for awhile too.  We went to Glorieta's for cheese stuffed bacon wrapped jumbo shrimp, coconut shrimp and garlic shrimp.  Delicious.  WE then took a cab to Mega for groceries - about $400 worth of groceries should get us through breakfast and lunch and drinking for 2 weeks.

The next morning, we went to the La Cruz Market - it is a great market - we like it better than the 2 markets in Guayabitos and La Penita.  We bought some smoked marlin, hummus dip and had our traditional Big Italian sandwich (a combo of italian sausage, spicy italian sausage and pork) at the end of the market.  We went to the pool for the afternoon and then came back to our room for Scott's famous Mojito's in our pool.  Dinner was at Tacos on the Street - essentially one menu item - rib eye tacos (but there are several variations, cheese, flour or corn tortillas, quesadilla style).  They also bring you a bucket of beer and charge you for the ones you drink.  16 tacos, 3 quesadillas, 6 beer and  glass of wine later, we hopped in a cab back to Puerto Bahia - we brought 10 tacos back for the staff too.

Our Front Door

Looking through our front door

Our Pool

Looking at a bedroom with the front door on the right

Kitchen

Living room

Glorieta's

Glorieta's

Buying Bread from the back of a truck

Tacos on the Street (that is actually the name of the restaurant)

Good Morning La Cruz!

View of the front door from the kitchen/pool area

La Penita - January 9, 2015

The day started with coffee.  I the heard the bread guy walking down the street yelling that he had bread for sale and bought 2 cinnamon bun type buns.  We went to the beach in the morning - we were the only people on the beach all morning - went for a swim in the ocean having to dodge the odd pelican floating nearby.  The ocean was quite warm.  We went for lunch at a street side taco place and had chicken tacos and a quesadilla.  I then went for a massage for one hour - cost $20 - while the ambience is not the same as those fancy massage places, the massage was great (see picture of the venue below).  Stopped at Hinde y Jaime's for a few shrimp tacos and a margarita, bought some hand made leather sandals for $18 and back to the Casita for a Mango Margarita party hosted by Bob and Linda.  Great time chatting with everyone.

Friday nights are Chile Relleno and karaoke nights at Hinde's.  The Chile Relleno's were amazing - i had to have a second order.  The entire Casita crew went for dinner including Bob and Linda.  We ate (a lot), drank(a lot), sang (a little), danced (a little) and had a lot of fun.  Our bill for the evening: $30!

Our beach

Jan on our balcony

Dirt road separating the Casita from the beach

Got to the top!

Great massage!

Hinde y Jaime's

Outside Hinde y Jaime's on Friday night

La Penita - January 8, 2015

Starting to get used to the early morning coffee by the pool visiting with Mike and Colleen from the Ottawa area.  The Tianguis Market was on today in La Penita.  It is a huge market being a combination of a flea market where you can buy new and used clothing, kitchen utensils and stove parts to traditional souvenir type items and hand made Mexican crafts.  We started out eating - surprise surprise - from the vendors in the market.  We had fresh made potato chips, fresh hand squeezed orange juice ($1 for a 20 ounce cup), my favourite Mexican dessert - Tres Leche cake (three milk cake which is a white cake soaked in evaporated milk - sounds delicious doesn't it?), a fresh bun and croissant.  We are now officially eaters of street food in Mexico - something that would not have happened only a few short years ago.  I bought a couple of tank tops and Jan bought a table runner, some napkins and an beautiful apron.  We donated some money to a local charity which Bob and Linda help organize to help  locals go to University (they have provided 17 scholarships so far).  We went for lunch at Cesar's and had grilled shrimp sautéed in garlic and butter.

We spent the afternoon by the pool.  Dinner was at Rincon del Arabe (LOL not at Hinde y Jaime's) with the Judy, Phil, Lynn, George and Georgina (the crew from Mackenzie BC).  Jan had curry shrimp and I had hawaiian shrimp stir fry - both very good.  3 of us ordered Pina Coladas and a rum punch like drink showed up - the owner Hitham decided we should try this concoction instead.  It was great.  Hitham bought us a round of drinks at the end of the night.  We went for a walk downtown and arrive back around 10.

A Mañana (until tomorrow).

Tianguis Market

Tianguis Market