On the North West side of Banderas Bay you will find the town called Bucerias. This is the area that we have chosen to live in. As you can tell from this map, there are many area's within the Banderas Bay area other than the actual downtown Puerto Vallarta is in.
On the opposite side of the bay from where we bought our home is where we entered the Banderas Bay from the rental house we had in Colima. On this map it shows and inlet of water marked "To Manzanillo Colima".
The drive from Manzanillo Colima is quite beautiful.
Beautiful but the picture above is as straight as that road ever got. Usually the road was one hairpin turn upon another. We had our truck loaded to the hilt and we also had another friend with his truck loaded. It was a long hard drive.
The inside of the car was packed and then we put Butch in, the birds in a shoe box with little holes then Ken and myself. Butch was very good on the drive but our little birds were not. They were busy inside this shoe box making holes to get out of. Sure enough while I was driving around these hairpin turns with the windows down, I now had two birds flying around in the car and one dog trying to eat them and Ken screaming that the birds were loose. I was dodging birds, one excited dog, turning around the hairpin turns and trying to roll the windows up. There was no place to pull over at. Butch was barking her head off, Ken was yelling his head off - the birds were chirping loudly and this continued until I found a place to pull off the road. This road had a cliff on one side and a mountain on the other. It took about one hour till I found enough land to pull off the road.
I had to figure out how to open the door, get enough stuff out of the packed car without letting the dog or the birds out. I remembered that I had sheets packed somewhere in the back seat. I got one sheet out and hung it around the door and eased my way out of the car without creating an opening for the birds. Once out of the car, I felt like I could be happy just walking the rest of the way to Puerto Vallarata and leaving the barking dog, screaming kid, and the chirping birds. But I didn't and long story short I got both birds in one blanket and continued driving to Puerto Vallarata with Ken holding the towel. The birds survived, the dog survived, Ken was calmed down and I needed a drink.
Entering Puerto Vallarta from this direction you come to a bridge where water flows from the mountain rivers into this bay and then into the Bandaras Bay. This little area is known as Buca de Tomatlan and I think that it is one of the prettiest sights to see in all of the Bandaras Bay area.
From this bay, boats will go that you to other very remote villages that are at the tip of the Bandaras Bay. Also from this bay there are a lot of private fishing boats that will take you out to fish. Then there is the diving groups that take off from here.
Kids in the area just having fun in at little bay. They may be poor and not have a lot of things, but they will have great memories of fun times.
The third building where there are two people sitting on the porch - I did look at renting the top unit but figured that it was a little too remote to get to with Ken. John Huston uses some of those remote villages that these boats go to in the movie Night of the Iguana.
From Boca you pass by some lovely homes and areas. One known as Arcos. Los Arcos looking rocks are really islands and they are a national park. There are deep tunnels, caves and arches and around the islands are some of the deepest waters of the bay. This area is known for breathtaking reefs. They are very beautiful. This is the site where I went diving. Some places the depth is 1,600 feet. I was very uncomfortable going that deep and into tunnels and caves.
Give me a surfboard or a sale boat any day
This is another map showing in circles some of the areas.
Find the red half circle on land where the river goes through it.
That is actually the downtown area of Puerto Vallarta. The other circles in white that are in the bay are different towns but regarded as parts of Puerto Vallarta.
This map shows an island outside of Banderas Bay that most people who visit P.V. do not know about. They are called the Marietas Islands. We have not been there and I do not know if we will go there or not, but here is a link that shows the hidden beauties of that area. http://youtu.be/MRogSGL0qVw
Downtown or Old Town is very touristy. There is a board walk that free shows and entertainment, beautiful sunsets and wonderful statues. There are free tango lessons, shops to visit, and tons of people to watch. But my favorite thing is that there is also a real live Baskin Robbins Ice Cream shop - YA!
This is the board walk area
The outside stage for nightly events.
waiting for the performance.
Along the boardwalk are many statues.
This area was first to develop. The reason for the development was because of the movie The Night of the Iguana. Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton were in that movie and both of them fell in love with the area. They both built homes in a section known as Gringo Gulch. The roads are steep and the views are beautiful. To this day it is an area that many investors purchase condo's in. If you are ever driving your own car in this area you will wonder why on earth you did not take a taxi. I got onto a dead end street and could not get enough room to turn my truck around in and it was impossible to back out. It was not a happy experience. Eventually, a bunch of men actually physically moved my truck inch by inch so that I could get out of the area.
we looked at some houses there. A--- no thank you. heck of a view but a tad too close to the neighbors and the walk with groceries up the cliff just did not appeal to me.
From downtown you then pass through area's that were developed at different times. You can see from section to section differences in time. The city moved continually north along the coast. Then the development of the harbor area with condominium upon condominium, mixed in with beautiful hotels. The private boats in the harbor are very elaborate.
We found our house and while it was going through "escrow" we rented a penthouse condominium in the harbor area.
We enjoyed the convince of having everything right in the harbor area and found that it was a little community in side of itself. Met some fun people there and had a great time except for one factor.
The air conditioner did not work in the unit and the realtor what rented this place to us was an absolute jerk. So this lovely unit was changed into this hell hole of construction while the workers that this realtor hired put air conditioning in. Where he found these people to do this job is beyond me.
Why it took three weeks to accomplish putting in a/c is also beyond me.
But the house closed and we moved in.
This is probably the simplest home I have ever owned but I love it. It is comfortable for us.
Until next time - from Butch and Ken
and Donna
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