Category: Travel

Today, against the odds, Mexico tied Brazil 0-0 in their World Cup game. We ate at a restaurant The Red Cabbage that Lonely Plamet rated very highly. Their Facebook page said that if Mexico won today's game the first round of drinks would be on the house. Duke with his great Spanish was able to convince the manager that a tie is as good as a win and we got our drinks free. The food was great and I loved the ambiance at the Red Cabbage.

Today we drove from Manzanillo to Puerto Vallarta. It was a beautiful drive. We had breakfast at our hotel overlooking Manzanillo harbor before we left and were at our hotel here in Puerto Vallarta by 2:30. When we checked in there was a big crowd in the bar off the lobby watching the game. Every so often we could hear cheering even from our room.

It was really hot and humid here so we went swimming and then had a great dinner at the Red Cabbage. We will be here in Puerto Vallarta for two nights.

In 2007 Duke and I and his girls spent a week in a Manzanillo. I liked it then and I like it now. The picture below is the place we are staying.

Today was a lazy day. We read, swam and napped. Tonight we are at a taqueria that we remembered fondly from our last trip. Tacos Sonrisa makes their own tortillas. They obviously have thrived in the last seven years. They have about tripled in size and when we ate at about 9pm they were very busy. I thought my brother in law who works for Pepsi would enjoy the picture below of the decor!

One thing I forgot to mention about the drive along the Michoacan coast yesterday is the wanted billboards. There were several big ones put up by the government advertising rewards. On every one of them the faces and writing had been painted out and were indecipherable.

Today we drove from Ixtapa in the state of Guerrero to Manzanillo in the state of Colima. It was about 250 miles and we averaged about 40 miles per hour. There was very little traffic but the road is along the coast and is very windy. It is a road with pretty much no roads coming into it. We have heard that the coastline of the state of Michoacan has had a lot of drug cartel problems. Probably because of this at least four villages we drove through each had a group of vigilantes with guns checking the cars coming through. They gave us no problems but still it was a bit unsettling.

We saw lots of coconut trees, mango trees, papaya trees and banana trees. We also saw a lot of crabs crossing the road as well as lizards and a turtle.

We stayed in Manzanillo for a week back in 2007. I really liked it them and I’m looking toward to relaxing here again. It is a busy harbor. Our room is in a beautiful spot looking over the water. Very relaxing. And it’s fun to watch the ships. We ended the day with another great fish dinner right on the brach.

Not much to report today. We drove up the coast to Ixtapa which is a planned resort community right next to Zihuatenejo. Saw about a million coconut trees and some beautiful coastline.

The owner of the place we stayed in Puerto Escondido asked where we were headed next. When Duke said Acapulco she said there are 150 topes (speed bumps) between Puerto Escondido and Acapulco. So we counted. Actually there were 240 topes on our route! So although it was not a long distance – 248 miles, it took is about 7 hours.

Acapulco is in a beautiful setting and a stunning harbor. We are staying
at Las Brisas, a hotel built into a cliff on the south side of the harbor. It was built in the 50s. A very elegant pink and white theme. Any time we want to get up or down the mountain we call and a pink and white jeep appears to whisk us away. It is an amazing place. We swam in the pool we share with one other room. Them we had drinks at the sunset bar at the top of the mountain. The sunset wasn’t much but the view was stunning!

We ate dinner on a terrace overlooking the city. The service and food were both great and the view of the city, the nice breeze and the piano player made it a perfect evening.