It’s so nice and cool in the RV park that we haven’t done much in the way of sightseeing.  Our view of the mountains, palm trees, and tropical vegetation is just fine sitting here on the patio. We took the bus (6.5 peso’s each) downtown and walked the length of the malecon and had lunch.  And we found an Italian ice cream parlor that had hazelnut ice cream, which I have always looked for obsessively.  Delicious. 

 There are interesting sculptures all along the Malecon
One thing that’s not in short supply in Puerto Vallarta are time share salesmen but they have gone incognito.  One was the clerk in a tee shirt store.  Another was a clerk in the Megamart that helped us find a hose sprayer in the hardware department.  Then there are the ones selling boat trips and tours for a bargain price…..but there’s a catch.  
We are walking distance to two big supermarkets and have been stocking up for when there are no supermarkets again in the small towns.  Megamart is my favorite supermarket and so far they seem to be located in cities where there is a large gringo/wealthier clientele.  You can buy desserts imported from Italy, wonderful meats and cheeses, soap from France, great breads, and so on.  I would almost move to Mexico just for the yogurt.  Same name brands as in US but totally different yogurt and flavors.  
This afternoon, an SUV with trailer from Minnesota parked next to us temporarily while waiting for someone to come back and move a motor home blocking the spot they are moving into.  We have been told the managers record keeping here is not very good.  Well, she rented them the site we were supposed to move into on Tuesday out from under us.  The park will be totally full when the second caravan of 22 Quebec RV’s arrive Tuesday, so it looks like we will be moving on.  Next year, if we come back, we’ll know to visit the coast in December and go inland after that.  The caravans come down in January and no one seems to like them much.
It just started raining pretty hard.  Sounds so nice on the roof and awnings.

The 120 mile drive from Melaque to Puerto Vallarta took five hours and was very pretty.  The topography changed quite a bit in those few miles with the last 25 miles or so being the prettiest in my opinion.  There’s a high mountain range to cross just before getting to Puerto Vallarta and in the highest area there were pine trees and a 15 degree drop in temperature.  The south side of Puerto Vallarta has some spectacular homes, hotels, and views overlooking the most beautiful shade of blue green ocean. 
Initially we planned to go to a very large RV park on the north side of town but noticed we would be passing only 3 blocks from a smaller one near the center of town. We stopped here to have a look and immediately decided that this was the place.  It’s like being in a park and is walking distance to so much.  Every Canadian neighbor informed us that two Quebec caravans would be arriving this week and next week and the park would then be full.  The first caravan arrived today and it was a sight to see.  Their motor homes are the largest of the large but they all managed to park somehow even though the sites are not very big.  Here is a picture of one of the behemoths and I didn’t doctor this photo to make it look bigger either:

Here’s us:

When we first set out on this trip, I was looking forward to sitting outside under our awning, eating our meals, and reading.  Easier said than done.  It’s either been rainy, too cold, too windy, too buggy, or too hot.  None of this is the case here.  A few biters come out in the evening but it’s manageable.  So this afternoon I talked to the manager and asked if there wasn’t just one spot that we could stay in after next week.  And there is just one.  If we still like it here, we will be moving to that site next Tuesday to stay through February (just in case anyone wants to come down and visit).  We’ve been told that for the most part, the campgrounds going north are on the ocean.  I’ll take traffic noise any day over the 24/7 pounding, RV shaking, surf.  However, we have heard from many people that this year is unusual with waves and rough ocean all along the coast. 

Dick and Ginny from Colorado are camped next to us so we have been hanging out with them quite a bit.  One day we went a few miles up the road to check out the campground at Boca Beach.  It’s quite large but very few sites are overlooking the ocean and there didn’t seem to be a breeze like we have here.  However, the water is much calmer and more people are on the beach and in the water there.  Not too many brave people go in the water here although there is one dog that loves to surf.  The waves are once again very big and rough, there are whitecaps, but this dog dives right in. The dog watches for a big wave and then he races towards it and surfs back in.  There is a restaurant 2 blocks from here that you have to go to if you are ever in Melaque.  It’s call The Salamander and the food is gourmet quality. The tables are in a garden-like courtyard and the chefs kitchen is in the open.  They have shrimp almost the size of lobster tails.  We are going back again tonight with two other couples.  Yesterday for lunch we drove to Barre Navidad and went to a shrimp place called Freddies that’s very popular.  It opens at 1 pm sharp, then the shrimp truck arrives, and the place closes when the shrimp is gone.  A large shrimp cocktail is more than enough for two people having an estimated 30-40 large shrimp in it.  Barre Navidad is larger and more touristy than Melaque, but the streets are paved so it’s less dusty.  Another thing, if you ever vacation down here, don’t buy summer clothes until you get here.  There are loads of clothing shops with very nice bathing suits, sun dresses, shorts, etc. for cheap.  These clothes are made in Mexico and look to be good quality and are very nice.  Bathing suits are less than $20 and there’s a better selection than back home.  Makes me wonder why we don’t import more from Mexico and less from China.
The leader of the Panama caravan that we were going to go on quit and left before the group got to Puerto Vallarta.  Two women were traveling with him and they left six days into the trip because of personality problems.  There are about 10 RV’s remaining and they are continuing on.  We plan to start slowly north two days from now.  The following pictures are all taken from this hotel/RV park.




    Hotel Laguna del Tule
    
                                           Looking at Barre Navidad