It's sad to have to think about leaving. There's a leaden ball in the pit of my stomach when I think about returning to the grind of work, one that I think even surpasses the usual end of vacation blues: I know I am going to get my ass kicked. Why fight it?
Turns out that this place, Garza Blanca Preserve, is really slated to become condos and a very nice lady offered us this place for keeps, for a mere $1.1 million (fractional purchase available)! Wish Anne had brought the check book.
In fact, it looks like the entire Puerto Vallarta area, if not all of Mexico is on sale. Mexican architects are good! Really good. There are more than a few Japanese flourishes (like the full-autopilot toilets in the lobby!) to this place: the lines are clean, the materials good and little has been left out. And, it seems, every condo and villa from one end of town to the other, most of these ambitious projects having been started around the same time; when it appeared Mexico's tourist boom would be insatiable, are of similar quality.....giant balconies overlooking a now very clean ocean (saw whales and dolphins from our seats in the restaurant yesterday morning), comfy, sturdy, hammocks, great kitchens, local wood furnishings, and did I mention the views?
And prices, as we have been told or read at least twenty times, have never been lower! Now, Anne, why didn't you bring the checkbook again? I suppose lusting after a permanent place where you are vacationing is as natural as feeling the blues about leaving. If we had bought something everywhere we'd thought we'd like to live, we'd have a dozen houses! And we can't even afford the one we have.
Enough real estate envy.
There are a few more things worth reporting about the trip. They, inevitably, revolve around food, as it seems we spend most of our time careening from one meal to the next, I am happy to report that our lunch at the traditional restaurant at Vallarta's beautiful Botanical Gardens was one of the best meals we had. The views of the wide expanse of local flora from the second floor terrace that runs around the perimeter of the the giant visitor's center are impressive. The food is also deeplyflavored and very good and in the jungle humidity, ice cold cerveza has never tasted better. There is good (if good means regular as opposed to opulent) bus service that cost us all of $2 each so, along with the zoo, I'd sure make sure it was on your itinerary for Puerto Vallarta.
After the outstanding day at the gardens, our confidence in the buses was high enough to think it would be easy to navigate to Marina Vallarta, north of El Centro, from our spot seven and half kilometers south of town making a simple change.
That's not how it worked out.
In fact, if on every vacation, you have to sacrifice one segment to the Trip Gods for their amusement, this would be it. We were planning on visiting a (from now and forever more unnamed) restaurant co-owned by a fellow Bay Area restaurant person and recommended to us by a colleague. We had sent them an e-mail saying that we'd pop by for dinner at maybe 7:30 or so and we thought we'd leave an hour to wander aruound the marina area. We got the bus to El Centro without any difficulties but hopped on another bus indicated to us by some guy standing around near the bus stop, as he appeared to be in the know, even though nowhere on the windshield was chalked our intended destination. It was now dark and the jarring trip over El Centro's cobblestones was reassuring enough and we recognized the road that runs out towards the airport, so all was well. It was after we got to Wal-Mart (and yes, there's a Costco AND a Sam's Club, all located within a few blocks of each other) and the pack of gringos on the bus rolled off that the lights of the town turned into barely lit warrens of cobbled alleys, scary looking warehouses and row upon row of apartment blocks . We kept going and going and going, gradually relieving ourselves of all of the other passengers on the bus until it was only us. The driver looked back, raised his hands in a 'hey, I only drive this thing' gesture. We told him that we headed to the marina and he laughed right in our faces. He told us to sit and we sputtered our way around a few more corners, an impossible intersection where our single lane split a double lane of oncoming traffic like the middle prong of a fork (I thought I was seeing things) and found ourselves at the bus yard in who-knows-where. A guy there stuck us on another bus and, before you know it, (well, it was really a half hour later), we were delivered to the marina, and subsequently followed our bus adventure up with what was perhaps one of the worst meals ever!
We weren't even hungry. We had made the trip because we felt obliged to visit this Bay Area colleague only to find that he had wandered off an hour or so before we got there, (no one knew where). We ordered two glasses of Roederer Estate Brut that tasted like apple cider (storage, my friends, storage) and a perfectly reasonable arugula salad. Things, however, went downhill from there. I ordered a light sounding Farfalle Pasta with Pesto and Shrimp (OK, here's a tip, the shrimp here are wonderful. They have the texture and taste of lobster and we've been ordering them at every meal) with mushy pasta and bland pesto that was dilute with pasta cooking water. And the globs of chalky, as yet unincorporated pesto made the dish laughably bad. Anne had Spaghetti Vongole but the giant clams, several of which were unopened, had the consistency and appeal of snot and were completely inedible. Anne, wisely, stuck to Pellegrino water but I had a glass of Mexican Semillon-Chardonnay which managed to be both tasteless and bitter at the same time. Anne had a coffee, we skipped dessert and grabbed a cab home! We gave the cabbie $200 pesos for a $160 fare just because we were soooooo glad to have that evening end. The extra-ironic thing about this whole meal that we didn't want in the first place and took us two hours to get to, is that, other than the fabulous dinner we had here in our hotel that was worth every peso, our foray to the marina was the most expensive to date!
I know I am in the business and, and, as such, should always refrain criticizing other restaurants. Noted. But really.........
Yesterday the sun came out in earnest and we ducked in and out of shops in El Centro for a few hours, had a lovely lunch (keep the cold Cerveza coming, baby!) one the second floor terrace of a local dive and spent the early evening hours floating in the infinity pool (gotta get me an infinity pool!), the hot tub and the ocean. Dinner consisted of some more ice cold Cerveza and leftover Shrimp Quesadilla from the Botanical Garden lunch out on the terrace.
And suddenly its go-home day. Poor Anne. She has the cold I came with and we didn't even get to buy a condo.
See you all back at the ranch.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
A funny thing happened.......
The plans were all made. A nice early flight on Delta got Anne and me in to JFK in the mid-Wednesday afternoon. We'd found a great hotel on the Lower East Side. ....super cool looking, great rate (I love you hotels.com) Dinner plans Wednesday night at the Macao with good friends Ira and Susan. Sister Jody was coming in from the 'burbs Thursday for fun and games (the Tim Burton exhibit at MOMA?), drinks at 10 Bells, dinner at Lupa (I was even leaning on Bastianich wine importer Stefano to arrange a Mario-Joe hookup). Then it was Amtrak down to Philly to meet Anne's brother Mike and his family, as well as a hard fought-for rezzo at Mark Vetri's Osteria. Particularly excited about that one. Vetri's cookbook has become one of my very favorites and this was to be dinner at the shrine itself! After two nights in Philly, Anne was to go home and I was to fly to West Palm Beach to spend a few precious days with ailing dad and step-mom Leila.
Uh, none of that happened.
I was sitting at my desk late Tuesday morning and an email popped up from Delta letting me know that they had pre-emptively cancelled our flight because of the big snowstorm bearing down on the East Coast. I was rebooked on another flight that landed at JFK at 11:30 PM. Well, that sucked. Gone was the chance to settle in at the hotel before dinner, gone was dinner. I imagined slogging to the city after midnight in the snow and cold. Well, that's OK. We still had my sister, MOMA and Mario. That's when the next email from Delta arrived. All those on that flight that arrived JFK at 11:30 raise your hand. Surprise! It may snow so we're canceling that one too.
Now, I'm getting pissed.
Since when doesn't it snow in New York in February? And there they were fucking up our min-vacation before one flake even had fallen!
I called Delta and a very nice lady named Ruby and I spoke. No, she said, they weren't prepared to just refund the whole deal and no, I told Ruby, I was no longer interested in going since half my trip was already being sacrificed to the Snow Gods. In fact, though, in the back of my mind, I was hatching a very good win-win alternative.
Yes, I was willing to postpone the opportunity to slog through 18-degree Manhattan without boots with the bad cold I had if Delta could find somewhere a little bit warmer to put us instead.
An hour of wrangling with Ruby and here we are.
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Sorry Mario. Next time.
Anne was last here in 1975 and I've never been here. Terrific fun! Hotels.com again came through for us big time, finding us the Garza Blanca Preserve and Resort, about 8 kilometers south of town. Apparently that was once one of the area's swankiest places but had fallen on hard times a decade or so ago. New money and a very ambitious renovation plan has turned it into something special. Only opened again in late January, we scored a $450 room for $183 and were upgraded into a one-bedroom suite with an enormous balcony, a hammock we can't get out of and a view that goes on forever. Because the place is so new (we may be the first people to stay in this room) it gives off this vaguely eerie never-been-touched vibe, like the Bluth's model home in Arrested Development. But I'm uselessly carping.
It's an amazing property with maybe 40 rooms open and another 18 or 20 under (very loud) construction. The pool is magnificent; one of those infinity pools where, if you lay your chin on the surface of the water, it looks like you're in the middle of the ocean. It helps that, for the first two nights, we were the only people here! A few more souls appear to have checked in over the past day or so.
The restaurant Blanca Blue will probably become one of the best in Puerto Vallarta. The food is creative and well prepared and the wine list, prepared by a young lady named Rosa who announced that she is on her way out to work on the supply side, is very interesting. Rosa recommended a Merlot-based blend she called 'salty' from a micro-producer called Gabriel from Adobe Guadalupe. It was more savory than salty but I definitely see where she was coming from. It was powerful but supple with elegant, nicely ripened flavors of raspberry, blueberry and tar lifted on the back end by a lot of tannin and a squeeze of lemony acidity. Unique. And, alas, maybe one of the last I'll be able to afford this trip.....$950 pesos (roughly $95 US), much of it, I suspect, in taxes. This is not a wine lover's paradise. Food highlights included buttery prawn pancakes, killer 'chips and dip' made with snapper 'chips' and a Tuna Au Poivre that rocked.
But we're in Mexico and you're not.
And eating very well.
The first night we discovered Guacamole at a beachfront dive in El Centro. Yeah, we've all had Guacamole, but prepared table side with the young woman server reading us the history of the treat from a cheat sheet she had created, it was a lot more fun! And really, really good: the flavors fresh and vivid. Anne promised to have at least an avocado a day during our stay and I see no reason to argue. It's all that good cholesterol, you see.
Last night we ate at the very highly recommended El Arrayan, a few blocks from the beach in El Centro. This was probably the best meal all trip for me. The concept here is to show authentic regional Mexian cooking and do it well. The fried crickets from Oaxaca aside, every dish sounded great, looked great and if the sampling of what we managed is any indication, tastes great too! I was reminded again about the 'salty' wine when we a Pacifico on ice with about a quarter cup of lime juice and a healthy dollop of salt too, including on the mug's rim. Interesting. Anyway, El Arrayan is very well priced, colorful, friendly and, obviously, very popular. The local expats have named it Best Mexican Food in Vallarta five years in a row.
By the way, if you're ever in Puerto Vallarta, visit the zoo. Normally I find them sad places with bunches of unhappy animals trapped in filthy, cramped cages.
And Puerto Vallarta's is a lot like that too.
But the animals are so cool, very sociable (if you like sociable zebras) and really accessible. For $50 pesos you can buy a bag of goodies (carrots, peanuts, 'nuggets' and corn) to feed to the avaricious zebras, hilarious warthogs, world's ugliest dog (Mexican hairless....not really that ugly....there are those (Frank) that say my Mikey is uglier), giraffe (creepy tongues, I am sorry), camel, various monkeys, goats and asses. I've never had so much fun at a zoo. The only animals you can't go right up and touch are those that would just as soon kill you as be pet by you.
OK. I am for that.
But that doesn't mean that the zoo's three baby tigers aren't there to play with you, just under careful supervision!
Today, if we can stir ourselves beyond the infinity pool and Alfredo's tender breakfast ministrations at Blanc Blue, we may try the Botanical Garden.
Stay tuned!
Coming Up......Part II
Uh, none of that happened.
I was sitting at my desk late Tuesday morning and an email popped up from Delta letting me know that they had pre-emptively cancelled our flight because of the big snowstorm bearing down on the East Coast. I was rebooked on another flight that landed at JFK at 11:30 PM. Well, that sucked. Gone was the chance to settle in at the hotel before dinner, gone was dinner. I imagined slogging to the city after midnight in the snow and cold. Well, that's OK. We still had my sister, MOMA and Mario. That's when the next email from Delta arrived. All those on that flight that arrived JFK at 11:30 raise your hand. Surprise! It may snow so we're canceling that one too.
Now, I'm getting pissed.
Since when doesn't it snow in New York in February? And there they were fucking up our min-vacation before one flake even had fallen!
I called Delta and a very nice lady named Ruby and I spoke. No, she said, they weren't prepared to just refund the whole deal and no, I told Ruby, I was no longer interested in going since half my trip was already being sacrificed to the Snow Gods. In fact, though, in the back of my mind, I was hatching a very good win-win alternative.
Yes, I was willing to postpone the opportunity to slog through 18-degree Manhattan without boots with the bad cold I had if Delta could find somewhere a little bit warmer to put us instead.
An hour of wrangling with Ruby and here we are.
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Sorry Mario. Next time.
Anne was last here in 1975 and I've never been here. Terrific fun! Hotels.com again came through for us big time, finding us the Garza Blanca Preserve and Resort, about 8 kilometers south of town. Apparently that was once one of the area's swankiest places but had fallen on hard times a decade or so ago. New money and a very ambitious renovation plan has turned it into something special. Only opened again in late January, we scored a $450 room for $183 and were upgraded into a one-bedroom suite with an enormous balcony, a hammock we can't get out of and a view that goes on forever. Because the place is so new (we may be the first people to stay in this room) it gives off this vaguely eerie never-been-touched vibe, like the Bluth's model home in Arrested Development. But I'm uselessly carping.
It's an amazing property with maybe 40 rooms open and another 18 or 20 under (very loud) construction. The pool is magnificent; one of those infinity pools where, if you lay your chin on the surface of the water, it looks like you're in the middle of the ocean. It helps that, for the first two nights, we were the only people here! A few more souls appear to have checked in over the past day or so.
The restaurant Blanca Blue will probably become one of the best in Puerto Vallarta. The food is creative and well prepared and the wine list, prepared by a young lady named Rosa who announced that she is on her way out to work on the supply side, is very interesting. Rosa recommended a Merlot-based blend she called 'salty' from a micro-producer called Gabriel from Adobe Guadalupe. It was more savory than salty but I definitely see where she was coming from. It was powerful but supple with elegant, nicely ripened flavors of raspberry, blueberry and tar lifted on the back end by a lot of tannin and a squeeze of lemony acidity. Unique. And, alas, maybe one of the last I'll be able to afford this trip.....$950 pesos (roughly $95 US), much of it, I suspect, in taxes. This is not a wine lover's paradise. Food highlights included buttery prawn pancakes, killer 'chips and dip' made with snapper 'chips' and a Tuna Au Poivre that rocked.
But we're in Mexico and you're not.
And eating very well.
The first night we discovered Guacamole at a beachfront dive in El Centro. Yeah, we've all had Guacamole, but prepared table side with the young woman server reading us the history of the treat from a cheat sheet she had created, it was a lot more fun! And really, really good: the flavors fresh and vivid. Anne promised to have at least an avocado a day during our stay and I see no reason to argue. It's all that good cholesterol, you see.
Last night we ate at the very highly recommended El Arrayan, a few blocks from the beach in El Centro. This was probably the best meal all trip for me. The concept here is to show authentic regional Mexian cooking and do it well. The fried crickets from Oaxaca aside, every dish sounded great, looked great and if the sampling of what we managed is any indication, tastes great too! I was reminded again about the 'salty' wine when we a Pacifico on ice with about a quarter cup of lime juice and a healthy dollop of salt too, including on the mug's rim. Interesting. Anyway, El Arrayan is very well priced, colorful, friendly and, obviously, very popular. The local expats have named it Best Mexican Food in Vallarta five years in a row.
By the way, if you're ever in Puerto Vallarta, visit the zoo. Normally I find them sad places with bunches of unhappy animals trapped in filthy, cramped cages.
And Puerto Vallarta's is a lot like that too.
But the animals are so cool, very sociable (if you like sociable zebras) and really accessible. For $50 pesos you can buy a bag of goodies (carrots, peanuts, 'nuggets' and corn) to feed to the avaricious zebras, hilarious warthogs, world's ugliest dog (Mexican hairless....not really that ugly....there are those (Frank) that say my Mikey is uglier), giraffe (creepy tongues, I am sorry), camel, various monkeys, goats and asses. I've never had so much fun at a zoo. The only animals you can't go right up and touch are those that would just as soon kill you as be pet by you.
OK. I am for that.
But that doesn't mean that the zoo's three baby tigers aren't there to play with you, just under careful supervision!
Today, if we can stir ourselves beyond the infinity pool and Alfredo's tender breakfast ministrations at Blanc Blue, we may try the Botanical Garden.
Stay tuned!
Coming Up......Part II
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