Blake and Deb Far Away

We are back in the US now, having left Mexico nearly three weeks ago. We got back in time to see my father before he passed away, so the timing was good. Our plan is to spend the summer here, visiting my mother and the rest of the family, seeing my niece get married in July, working on a building project, getting Deborah’s dental issues resolved, and enjoying the Pacific Northwest during the few months when the weather is actually nice. Hopefully I can get a large painting or two done as well. We were quite taken with Puerto Vallarta. It’s really full of color and art and life. It’s walkable, the sun shines almost all the time, the people are nice, and the food is delicious. We’ve been to a several places in Mexico and liked them all, but PV is our favorite so far. If we were looking for a city life we could live here. But right now we have in our minds a more quiet country life, maybe on the edge of a quaint small town, but one with relatively easy access to a big city with all ...

Mexico is known for its high quality, low cost medical care and, although that wasn’t the main reason for our visit to Puerto Vallarta, we certainly had it in mind as something we should take advantage of. Deborah has already seen two dentists and a doctor in Australia (where she had two teeth pulled), a physical therapist and a doctor in Thailand, and two dentists and a periodontist in New Zealand. Now she has seen an ENT and yet another dentist here in Puerto Vallarta. Wow. Obviously, continuity of care is rather difficult to achieve when you’re on the road.  Most of Deborah's medical visits relate to a particular dental/sinus condition that has made her miserable for months and been stubbornly hard to diagnose. Her Puerto Vallarta dentist has now suggested she see another periodontist, but there aren’t any he would recommend in Puerto Vallarta for Deborah’s special case, which left us with the choice of trying to find one in the big city of Guadalajara or going back to Was...

We are not starved for entertainment options in Puerto Vallarta. There are a couple of clubs near our hotel. At one we saw an amazing young Panamanian singer doing Motown songs. A couple of nights prior we went to a drag show to see “Mama Tits: Big and Loud” (Deborah was quite amused to listen to me ordering tickets for that one). There are also piano bars and lots of the restaurants have live music in the evenings, although we tend to eat our big meal out in the afternoon. Often we would just stumble upon a free concert in a plaza or at the amphitheater by the arches on the Malec ó n . On two occasions we heard military bands, which is normally one of my least favorite musical genres, but they had unexpected musical selections (Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington) and they were both actually quite good. The buskers were more hit and miss, but it is easy enough to either stop and listen or walk away and not. Of course, some of the best entertainment is just people watching, or seeing the p...

When you arrive at the Puerto Vallarta airport, after you clear Immigration and Customs but before you exit to ground transportation, you have to walk through what is not so affectionately referred to as the “Shark Tank” – a gauntlet of aggressive timeshare salesmen. If you keep your head down, maintain a steady stride and not make eye contact you can escape unscathed. But it won’t be the last time you are propositioned during your time in Mexico. Everywhere there are tourists, but especially on the beach or on the Malec ó n , you will be approached by people on foot selling jewelry, hats, sunglasses, clothing, toys, pipes (and weed), cigars, and strange trinkets with no discernible function.   Men holding menus will try to lure you into their restaurants as you pass by. Staff at tequila stores will offer free samples. A simple “no gracias” will usually suffice to divert them to their next target, so it is generally not too annoying, although sometimes I get tired of saying those...

Puerto Vallarta has loads of nice art galleries, but the streets are also filled with color and creativity, which is one of the reasons we like PV so much. Here are some photos of the murals and other artistic flourishes we’ve stumbled across while walking around town. Clever bike rack (photo by Deborah) (photo by Deborah)