Paradise Village in Nuevo Vallarta
12/16/2002 - 01/10/2003
Paradise Village Resort & Spa in Nuevo Vallarta. "Welcome to Paradise".
The big attraction to Puerto Vallarta (or "PV") for cruisers are three large marinas that allow us to sit at the dock "plugged-in" while exploring Puerto Vallarta, Banderas Bay villages, or quaint inland towns like Guadalajara.
It is also a great place to have visitors fly in -- or to fly home to the US -- because of the international airport here. There is a large sailing regatta (Banderas Bay Regatta) in late-March, and PV is also an ideal jumping-off point for cruisers making the "puddle-jump" across the South Pacific.
Nuevo Vallarta is just north of the airport and PV and is the home of several resorts and two of the three marinas. One of the marinas, Paradise Village is part of a large resort complex, with all resort amenities available to the marina guests. Several of our Ha-Ha friends were there or had reservations there, so we decided to stay there for a few weeks.
Paradise Village Resort & Spa
The "Mall" at Paradise Village
The Paradise Village Resort and Spa in Nuevo Vallarta was our home from mid-December to the second week in January 2003. The resort has a large hotel, several timeshare complexes, and a large condominium complex, with a significant amount of new construction underway. There is also the new Vallarta Yacht Club with its bar & restaurant, pool, jacuzzi, showers and restrooms available to all members and "guests" of the Yacht Club.
The Paradise Village resort complex has a zoo (yeah, that's not a typo), a big "mall" (including a Dominos Pizza, a MacDonald's and two Internet cafes), two large pools, waterslides, a grotto jacuzzi, a full service spa, several restaurants and bars, a night club, and about a half mile of beachfront lined with individual palapa cabanas. Waiters stop by your cabana to ensure you have a steady supply of food and/or beverage to nourish you through your active day. For all purchases, you simply sign the check and it gets charged to your "room" (marina slip number). Two for one happy hour starts by the pool at 5pm. There are big buffets a couple nights a week.
Everything about Paradise Village made us feel like we were "on vacation". The good news is, we don't have to fly back to go to work on Monday!
The smaller pool area at the Paradise Village Resort & Spa.
On the beach, there is organized volleyball, free use of boogie boards, and rental kayaking, snorkeling, diving, wave-runner and parasailing gear. We made frequent use of the free boogie boards and have had a blast "boogie boarding" on the beach in front of the resort. We may even buy our own boards for the boat and future wave-boarding expeditions.
One of the nice things about this resort is that the management has toned down the "sales pitch" for the guests and although they would be glad to sell you a timeshare, they don't follow you down the street trying to get you to sign-up for a high-pressure sales pitch or "presentation". The beach vendors are also low-key, friendly, and don't scoff at you (or persist) when you say "no gracias" to silver jewelry, a wood carving, an onyx mask, a henna tattoo, or hair braiding.
Puerto Vallarta
We visited Puerto Vallarta once before in 1991. Our Princess cruise ship stopped here for about 6 hours and dumped us off near downtown. Folks on the ship indicated it had become a very "touristy" area and if we wanted a more genuine Mexican experience, we would need to get away from town. We took our snorkel gear, hopped in a cab and proceeded south some decent snorkeling grounds near Mismaloya called Los Arcos. We also remember finding a cool outdoor restaurant and having lunch there. It was up in the jungle covered hills on a river with huge rocks and waterfalls. We hitched a ride back with some gringos in a rental jeep and jumped back aboard ship about 10 minutes before pulling up the gangway. Overall, our 1991 impression of Puerto Vallarta was very positive and we looked forward to exploring PV now -- in our own boat with an open ended schedule.
Hurricane Kenna
While in San Diego readying to come down the Baja, a category-5 (bad news) hurricane, Kenna made its way north along the coast of Mexico. Although Kenna's eye passed north of PV, it turned east just north of Banderas Bay and unleashed all its force on San Blas -- just up the coast from the bay. For several hours, huge waves and high winds pummeled the coastline inside Banderas Bay. The Malecón (oceanfront promenade) was destroyed in several places, and many oceanfront buildings either collapsed or were filled with seawater, mud, debris, and sand from the storm surge. Cars, trucks, and boats were washed blocks inland. An outbreak of mosquito transmitted Dengue Fever was reported in the weeks after the storm passed.
The clean-up effort in PV has been amazing. As of this writing, almost all of the debris has been cleared, collapsed buildings razed, damaged buildings re-opened, and the Malecón is now almost 100% rebuilt. Most of the resorts that had to close had re-opened for the Christmas holidays. Although we heard about the Dengue Fever outbreak while in Mazatlán, we have not heard anything about it while visiting PV.
Many cruisers and US ex-patriot locals/gringos pitched in both in the PV area and up in San Blas to help rebuild and provide donations and care to the people of San Blas and the surrounding mountians. Martial law was declared in San Blas and the harbor was closed awaiting dredging, but things are on the mend for the San Blas area.
Impressions of PV
Downtown PV and the Templo de Guadalupe.
This trip has been our first opportunity to see PV as a tourist or cruise-ship passenger might see PV. All we remembered from our quick trip in 1991 was the great natural beauty of the area.
Unfortunately, the area's economy seems almost completely (directly or indirectly) dependent on the tourism trade. This means there is intensified competition for the limited supply of tourist dollars that flow into PV.
From beach vendors, to timeshare sales people, to cab drivers, to bars & restaurants -- you feel this competition and associated aggressive behavior to get YOUR attention so they can get THEIR share of YOUR money. Once we got used to being accosted, we have adapted fine, but the initial sensory overload made us want to get away immediately! Once we learned to politely ignore the onslaught, say "no gracias", and keep walking -- things were fine. Also riding the busses with the locals helped us to blend in more and better avoid the "rich tourist" stereotype. However, with a daily Mexican minimum wage of 42 pesos ($4.20 US), even cheapskate cruisers are wealthy tourists.
Puerto Vallarta has several "zones", of which we have seen a few and have our favorites. The Zona Romantico is our favorite area of downtown PV and it is where we have spent several days and evenings walking around, sampling restaurants, and hanging in a beachfront palapa. It is also where we spent most of our New Years Eve, returning to the Malecón only to see the midnight fireworks.
The Christmas Spirit
Kyle, Susan and Samara. Based on Kyle's expression, the "tour town" option was not as popular as the "beach day" option.
This is our first Christmas while out cruising. It is especially hard to get into the spirit of the season when you are basking in 85 degree air and water, but we still managed.
We started our Christmas kick-off with It's a Wonderful Life -- director's cut -- on DVD. Then we moved on to How the Grinch stole Christmas. We dug the tiny tree and wreath out of the bilge and stuffed about 6 Christmas CD's in the CD Changer. Robin decorated the tree. After about a week, it started to feel like Christmas was approaching.
Family visits for Christmas
Kyle & Susan at the Krystal pool.
Duncan's sister Susan and her two kids Kyle and Samara planned a Christmas vacation in PV. We hoped to be in PV for Christmas to join them -- and we were.
They stayed at Krystal, a resort about 15 KM south of Paradise Village Marina. It was about a 40 minute bus ride between resorts. We spent a "beach day" or two in each resort to get some variety.
The first day or so seemed a bit rough for the group. The kids missed their respective girl/boy friends back home and there was an emphasis on getting to a phone or Internet cafe to establish contact.
We had trouble as a group converging on activities we all wanted to "do". Susan was not ready to let the kids head into PV at night and on their own. They got stuck hanging out with the adults -- doing things that may not have been high in their list. Tension mounts...
La Tres Marietas
Susan readies to take the plunge.
By Christmas Eve day, emotions had moderated and we headed out to La Tres Marietas islands for a full-day snorkeling tour with Chico's dive shop. It was 26 miles out and 26 miles back (about 1.5 hours each way) and we hoped for good snorkeling conditions upon arrival.
The conditions were not as good as we had hoped, but any snorkeling is better than no snorkeling. We explored the rocks on the SE side of the largest island and saw lots of fish, curious boobies, and a bunch of other divers and snorkelers. Visibility was about 15 to 20 feet along the rocks.
Most of the boatload of people were divers receiving their certifications after only a few days of dive training in a resort pool. Duncan's basic NAUI scuba course in 1973 was 13 weeks! The sport is much more accessible now.
Samara smiles for the camera. Hey, you can't smile with a snorkel in your mouth!
Lots o' pur dee fee shees. Okay, these are actually adult King Angelfishes.
Samara & Robin returning from the snorkeling trip.
Although anyone could have justifiably complained about the cold, wet, windy ride home from the Tres Marietas -- amazingly no one did (although Duncan thought about it).
The sighting of at least two humpback whales less than 1/4 mile off our bow (full tail dive/sounding and all!) took our minds off our discomfort. Several dolphins also passed us on our way back into port.
The Mexican Fiesta
That night (Christmas Eve), we attended a fun "Mexican Fiesta" at the Krystal. It featured a great buffet, open bar, and entertainment. The traditional dances, costumes, and setting were the highlights of the evening.
Susan and Kyle after snorkeling.
Unfortunately, Duncan was not motivated to get close enough to the stage for some decent photos, so you'll just have to "picture it". Traditional Mexican dresses from each region, Mayan and Aztec dancers in full pagan regalia, two Mariachi bands, and a "master of ceremonies".
The tacky-cheesy MC reminded us of an activities director on a cruise ship. At least three times throughout the evening (to the exact same audience) he went down the list of countries to get applause for each guest's home country.
By 10pm Robin and Duncan were BEAT! (With hands sore from applauding after each round of "Ow meddy pipples ear fum Ameddika?"). Those wacky Canadians won the contest three times! We grabbed a bus back to the marina.
Christmas Day
Christmas morning on Whisper.
The kids and Susan were heading over to the boat for Christmas morning and day. Robin cooked a great breakfast "Strada" -- a layered and baked concoction of egg soaked bread, cheese, chorizo, and other tasty ingredients. She started at 7 am and worked on it until the first batch emerged from the oven around 9am. We opened gifts while it was cooking. We snarfed a second batch around 10:30am. Tastee!
Once we were done with the gift and brunch thing, Robin began the second major cooking operation -- a potluck dish to serve 12 -- that we would take to a local potluck for Christmas dinner. The potluck, organized at Philo's (a La Cruz music venue and palapa where we had attended a charity benefit), was primarily cruisers and other gringo locals that gather for a casual, music filled Christmas dinner. Philo provides the turkeys and the music/band.
The dish Robin was making had already been a hit at a previous potluck. They are very flavorful veggie wraps -- sautéed veggies in a secret (okay, Joy of Cooking) mojo sauce, which are then rolled into chipotle tortillas and served either warm or cold. Duncan is of the opinion they are even better cold!
Samara makes guacamole in Whisper's galley.
About 1/2 way through the cooking operation, we all realized that we were too beat to schlep ourselves up to La Cruz for the potluck, so we decided to stay on the boat for Christmas dinner. Susan went to the Marina Market and picked up some steak (thin cut "carne asada") for Susan and the kids and and a chicken breast for Robin and Duncan.
Samara made guacamole for hors de oeuvres. We sat and watched the new Spiderman DVD one of the kids got for Christmas.
We grilled the beef, baked the chicken, brought out the veggie wraps, and there you go -- Christmas dinner. Although Philo's would have been great fun (and we heard it was), we were just too pooped to get there and back.
The Day After...
Susan and the kids again came over to Whisper and Paradise Village for a beach day. This time they checked out of Krystal, brought an overnight bag, and stored their other bags at the hotel. Their reasonably price "package rate" at the Krystal expired, so we offered to let them camp out on the boat the night before they left.
Senor Frog's
Samara makes salsa at Señor Frog's.
Before leaving, however, we had to give the kids (and adults) a taste of Señor Frog's. Señor Frog's is owned by the Anderson Group -- a chain of dozens (hundreds?) of restaurants each under one of about a dozen franchise names (Señor Frog's Guadalajara Grill, Carlos & Charlies, El Squid Roe, and Carlos O'Brians are a few).
The key to a good customer experience at Señor Frog's and Squid Roe is to get patrons drunk quickly, make them do silly things (dance contests, tabletop dancing, take a shot and get their head shaken, make salsa), then take their money and ensure they leave with a souvenir glass and wake up with a hangover to remember.
We enjoyed a much toned down version of this, but got to watch everyone else getting wild. Which was just as fun...
The fam damily at Señor Frog's. Are you wirring yur slurds?
From Paradise Village, we hopped a van-taxi downtown and intentionally entered into the Señor Frog's assault of the senses.
Several waiters and "shot-girls" had loud whistles, a loud rock band played, black lighting with corresponding fluorescent green and orange painted signs and sayings glowed everywhere on the dark walls and ceiling. The wait-staff all wore white shirts, so they stood out well in the black light. We were led to an area next to the stage, just to the left of the band's loudspeakers.
Samara was recruiting into making salsa for the table, and both Samara and Kyle ended up in a conga line to somewhere. Eventually returning to the table about 10 minutes later. The food was actually very good, something we did not experience at Squid Roe in Cabo.
Exhausted by 9:30pm, we grabbed a small sedan taxi with 3 available seats, crammed all five of us in, and headed home to Whisper.
Back on Whisper, Susan crawled into the v-berth between the fishing pole and the gennaker and the two kids each crashed on a sea-berth in the main salon. The next day -- Sis & kids packed up, did a little shopping, then headed back home to Seattle.
The Dell from H-E- double-toothpicks
Somewhere in the middle of the family visit, Robin and Duncan went to help fellow cruisers Mike & Cindy on Sobre El Mar with their (fairly new) Dell laptop computer. They were getting a cryptic DOS message about a missing or corrupt SYSTEM file and sometimes every attempt to reboot was met with just a blank, black LCD screen. Every attempt to run the recovery console was met with a DOS prompt (which we later discoverd was a good thing). There was no mention of the problem or how to solve it on either the Dell or Microsoft websites. To make a long and fairly painful story short -- it is now up and working again, but precariously.
Their Dell Inspiron 2600 running Windows XP Home edition, decided to give up the ghost when the "SYSTEM" file became corrupted -- maybe by a USB driver communication with their Kodak software and digital camera? They had a similar problem back in August 2002 with the operating system being corrupted and unable to start, but it was diagnosed as a bad hard drive and replaced. They had to get back up and running from a blank drive -- not an easy task.
In addition to the OS problem, their LCD monitor would only "display" after a hard reboot -- and after it had been disconnected from AC power with some time to "rest". A very frustrating symptom that other Dell users have encountered too, but for which Dell has no solution posted on their website.
After a complete "upgrade" (actually re-install) of the OS -- with all the newest drivers, BIOS and Microsoft OS and Explorer patches and service packs -- and a partially successful "recovery" of the originally corrupted OS, they are (almost) back in business. We burned almost 5 hours of download time at the local Internet cafe at (shared) DSL speed getting all the patches and drivers available from Microsoft and Dell.
Their digital pictures on their machine are only accessible in the OS recovery console and each picture can only be accessed/copied out one at a time (several hundred pictures are still virtually inaccessible there). A problem for another day... Robin is writing the script in her head now that will make the picture migration from the old OS to the new an easy task. Overall, we each probably spent a full day getting it going (our time and Mike's time). We are frequently reminded why it is so important it is to keep our machines and data backed up!
For our efforts, Mike and Cindy gave us a very cool Mexican shot glass holder containing six clear/bubbled glass shot glasses with indigo blue rims. Now we just need to buy some decent tequila to share with them. They have already left PV and are headed south -- we should catch up to them in a few weeks.
New Year's Eve
Robin, getting her "Pee Wee Fix" -- or vice-versa.
We started the day by walking down the docks to get a decent picture of our friends on Mermaid for our website. They also have a miniature dachshund (a.k.a. wiener-dog) that is about the cutest little critter you've ever seen. Although a "boat dog", it is terrified of water and quivers uncontrollably if you get him near or over the water. Of course that might be because he recently fell into saltwater crocodile infested marina water! Robin loves this little dog, and goes down to Mermaid almost daily for her fix of Pee Wee lovin'.
The Mermaid folks are planning a circumnavigation of the Pacific and are filming their adventures for an eventual Discovery or Discovery Kids documentary. Austin, their 14 year-old has been in several movies and does voice-overs for animated movies and shorts.
Mermaid & Crew. Left to right: Skipper Mike, son Austin, son Alan, spouse Robin, Pee Wee and daughter Stacey.
The other kids/young adults are very talented as well -- Alan in the arts and animation and Stacy in water-polo (and boogie-boarding and volleyball). Although Austin is the "full time" crew, Stacy and Alan may hang around for extended legs of their cruises. Their New Year's week family cruise north to Isla Isabella was thwarted by a genset problem, but the good news is we got to spend New Years Day and Evening with them.
We were also joined by Ha-Ha friends Greg and Susan on Tavana and new acquaintances Robin and Martin on The Cat's Meow. Going out to New Year's with three Robin's was very interesting. We used "Meow Robin", "Mermaid Robin" and "Whisper Robin" to help us keep them all straight.
New Year's Dinner and Fireworks
The group of 11 of us headed to downtown PV on a bus. We walked all around the Malecón area and headed for a Mexican restaurant (okay, taco stand) we heard was good. It was a fun experience and a price performer, but the food was only average. Several of their tiny tacos and a couple of beers cost the two of us $13. Not bad for New Year's eve dinner -- the resort wanted $139 US per person!.
Robin munches on the tiniest taco ever made.
After dinner, we headed over the Rio Cuale for the Zona Romantico. We spent an hour or so in a palapa on the beach sipping ice-cold beverages, then proceeded to walk around the Zona Romantico. This was the first time we got a taste of the night life in this area. The gay venues were hopping, every bar and restaurant was packed, and the festive atmosphere was contagious. For a couple of sleepy cruisers used to the quite life, it was almost too much -- so we headed back over the bridge to the Malecón where we could watch the fireworks.
It was getting difficult to keep the group of 11 together and we all seemed to be going different speeds, so we peeled off from the group just after the fireworks started -- mostly a survival instinct!
Mexico loves fireworks. Any holiday, fiesta, or celebration justifies at least a small display. We judged by the number of HUGE mortars, rockets, and roman candles filling two large beach areas that this would be quite a show.
Feliz Ano Nuevo!
PV Fireworks -- from a safer distance. Video Clip, click here.
We arrived on the Malecón, just in front of one of the "fireworks beaches" at midnight. Dozens of recreational boats bobbed in the water just off the beach. When the fireworks display started, we realized we were UNDER the canopy of fireworks -- a very strange feeling. Although really loud, it was quite exciting to feel the air-concussion of the launches and to be under an umbrella of fire and light.
Suddenly, one of the large mortars exploded on the ground about 50 feet away throwing flaming debris and sand into the crowd. At that point we (Robin and Duncan) hauled butt across the street and away from the crowd. We didn't realize that the crowd had gathered so close to the fireworks! As far as we know, no one was injured.
Robin starts planning for our next adventures. The cruising guides for the South Pacific are pulled off the bookshelf.
After the fireworks, we searched for an hour for an available cab. We found an empty cab on a side street, but when the red-bleary eyed driver couldn't answer my question on "quanto questa" to Paradise Village, we realized he was either very drunk and/or very tired. It was a fateful decision to keep looking. We found a great and friendly cabbie to take us all the way back to Paradise for $16 US. Most of the other cabs were charging $25 US or more!
Where to next?
We are now readying for our trip down the "Gold Coast". The area between PV and Manzanillo is supposed to contain some of the best cruising anchorages in Mexico. We will probably stop at Bahía Chamela, Careyes, Tenacatita, Bahía Navidad (Barra de Navidad), and possibly Bahía Santiago, and/or Bahía Manzanillo.
We anticipate we'll spend about five weeks or so in these areas before heading south to Zihuatanejo. We'll have a bout 4-5 weeks in "Zihuat" to goof around and get ready our next big adventure. We will probably leave for the South Pacific from Zihuatanejo rather than return to Puerto Vallarta, but that decision is subject to change. The trip from Mexico to the Marquesas is about 2800 nautical miles and will (should) take from 18 to 27 days!
We attended the first "puddle-jump" meeting here in PV on January 4th. Much great work has already been done to help cruisers get ready for this crossing. Our thanks to previous puddle-jumpers that contributed their time, knowledge, and content in the "First Timer's Guide".