April 4, 2023
After the show last night, our cruise director explained that most of the crew enjoy stopping at the port in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico so they can go to Walmart to pick up snacks and necessities. I’m pretty sure a lot of the ship guests took advantage of this as well.
Our ship docked in an area where people can walk to Walmart, Sam’s Club, and a shopping mall to the left of Walmart. It looks far away in the photo but it was only about a 15-20 minute walk from the ship.
We are traveling with another couple, and the men and women planned separate excursions.
The men took a taxi to the Malecon – an area with a mile-long boardwalk. Hubby negotiated a taxi for $16 one way and $14 the other. (All of the photos below of the Malecon area are courtesy of Paul Norwood.)
They enjoyed seeing lots of sculptures…..
a beautiful church…
…and stacked rocks that were along the shore.
They got there just in time to see a flying demonstration. These guys are brave or nuts or both.
I visited this area back in 2015. Their pictures showed me that the area has remained mostly unchanged from what I remembered.
The women took a ship’s excursion -“Colors of Vallarta: The Artist Inside of You.”
Our excursion instructions said to meet at the cruise pier. Just outside the ship at meeting point C. The terminal meeting points were extremely easy to find.
Our guide, Alex, wrote his name on labels and stuck them to each of us saying, “You belong to me, now.” He was a self proclaimed hippie in his younger days. The port area here is easy to navigate, and soon Alex led us through the colorful port shopping area toward our Sprinter Van.
There were only seven of us on the tour, so it felt very much like a private tour.
Our first stop was at Galeria Dante.
I started taking photos before I noticed the, “no photos” sign on the wall, so I deleted those. You will have to take my word that the artwork was beautiful and interesting. They had wearable art as well – Jewelry and clothing. Complimentary coffee was served here, and I knew they would have no objection to my photographing that.
We loaded the van and headed to a second gallery – Galaria Isela Mariscal. As soon as we walked in, the owner met us and explained that her gallery is different than most. “Feel free to walk around and take as many photos as you like.” These are some of my favorites:
From here we rode to a villa in the middle of nowhere. The winding road was steep, rocky and bumpy, but the villa at our destination looked like an oasis.
La Dulce Vista Entrance
This villa has a pool, pavilions, volleyball courts, hammocks, and lodging facilities. It would make a great wedding venue.
There was another ship’s excursion group here for a cooking class as we arrived. However, our group was here for a painting class. They served wine, water and cheese. The artist taught us a techniques for painting on tiles with one finger. He explained that his family perfected this technique. When we were finished, he wrapped it up in such a way as to protect it for packing while still allowing it to air dry. After four days, I took it out of the packaging for a photo. Not bad for a first attempt at finger painting!
We had one last look at Puerto Vallarta as we sailed away.
Click on the link for the next post: Huatulco, Mexico
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