The Christmas season in Puerto Vallarta.

Today is our 49th wedding anniversary. We went to Puerto Vallarta (PV) for an anniversary dinner at MargaritaGrill. Clever name, eh? Margarita - Grill! The food and margaritas are excellent, however, the owner mysteriously vanished a few months back. Foul play is suspected. Bottomline, it is under different management and we were unsure if the quality was the same. 

The menu hadn’t changed. Why mess with a winning concept? Fortunately, the food was just as awesome as ever. The mango margarita, although delicious and the size of a bathtub, did skimp on the tequila. Later, Jeff said that he heard rumors that the drinks were less potent. We split the gargantuan grilled shrimp fajita and ordered the wonderful guacamole and salsa made from scratch at our table. The entire meal was flawless and worthy of a 49th anniversary.

It's always 5 o'clock in MargaritaGrill.

MargaritaGrill has an open-air bar. That's Wanda with the backpack walking into the restaurant area.

The waiter whips up the salsa and guacamole at the table. The tomatoes are fire-roasted. The avocados are at their peak ripeness. Fresh lime juice is sprinkled on both. Cilantro is an option. I always take it. Spices are added and they ask how hot you would like the salsa. We go for medium. I love the lava rock mortar and pestle.

Our appetizers. When the shrimp fajita arrived we dove in before even thinking about a photo. Too bad. It looked as pretty and as it tasted. We got about eight fresh hot tortillas and a plate full of giant grilled shrimp over delicious grilled veggies. More salsa, guacamole, and some refried beans were served on the side. Even split, it was more than both of us could eat.

Of course, we zig-zagged around town. Downtown Puerto Vallarta, called the Zona Romantica, is a pretty town and fun to walk. The hotels along the beach have some character to them. The beach itself stretches for miles. As you walk inland, the back streets are bustling. There are tons of sidewalk restaurants, colorful shops, taco stands, fruit vendors, etc.

The ocean front is a good place to start a tour of Puerto Vallarta..

Puerto Vallareta has plenty of street performres.

The point where Rio Cuale empties into the Ocean. This river marks the northern boundary of the Zona Romantica, or the central downtown area.

Outdoor restaurants abound in Mexican cities and towns. Puerto Vallarta has its share. It has been our experience that the food in, and around Puerto Vallarta, is some of the best in Mexico.

We didn't take the dare.

More great open-air street restaurants.

There is great tequila and there are great tequila bottles.

Puerto Vallarta has many wonderful murals.

One pleasant change in the public transportation system in PV are the Centro bus routes. They have returned to downtown. PV has two basic routes: Centro and Tunel. Normally, both start in the heart of downtown. The Centro routes travel due north along the ocean. Once a couple of miles north of downtown, the various Centro routes split into a variety of different endpoints. The Tunel routes first head much farther inland and go through a couple of tunnels before heading north through a variety of mountain neighborhoods. Some of the routes go deeper inland and others return to the ocean.

Anyway, last year, the Centro buses inexplicably quit going all the way into Zona Romantica leaving a good mile of walking to reach downtown. It is a pleasant walk along the ocean walkway, but a mile is a mile. It was nice to see that they have returned to the city center as the name Centro would suggest. One thing hasn’t changed - the price. Public transportation, all up and down the coast, is still a bargain.

Not a great photo, but it shows the inside front of a bus in Puerto Vallarta.

Dave and Wanda

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