Gemelas Beach

Another great beach that I have been to many times is called Playa Gemelas (The Twins), located just past Punta Negra Beach on Carr Barre de Navidad 200 between 2 condo complexes, the Playa Gemelas Condominios and the Intercontinental Hotel complex.  It is a little tricky to find as there is minimal signage with a gate and a staircase it is the only public access.  The beach is on a time schedule opening around 9am and closing at 8pm, so do not get caught down below as I once did and had to climb over a condo complex wall to get back up the main highway!
Parking is just along the main highway wherever you can find a space and not get towed away.  The walk down to the beach is about 100 steps in a zigzag pattern in fairly good shape, but due to storms and heavy rains there are sections that require a bigger jump to continue on the path, especially at the bottom to the beach there is a 2-3 foot drop.   There are no services here, so have to bring your own food and beverages, however, I often see food vendors on this beach.  The beach is lifeguard patroled as well.
What makes this beach so special and worth the walk down? It  must be the small size, the great soft yellowish sand, and of course the beautiful crystal clear waters!  There are some large shade trees against the wall to the condo complex, so there is shade all throughout the day if you do not have an umbrella.  On Sundays it is quite busy as it is a favorite beach for the Mexican locals as well.  Just enjoy it and I have been there through a fantastic sunset as well!

Bucerias Art Walk

Every Thursday evening from 7pm-9pm the Bucerias Art Walk is held in the beachside town of Bucerias about 30 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta.  www.thebuceriasartwalk.com/index.html
Considered the "Center of the Bay" Bucerias is a neat little town with lots of beachside hotels and condos for rent in a quiet sleepy setting with great beaches.  I have been to the Art Walk a few times already and have always enjoyed the leisurely stroll along the Main Street one block from the beach, where many shop owners open their doors to promote local Mexican art from the area.  This includes many other areas of Mexico as well such as Puebla, Oaxaca, and Veracruz.  At least 6 restaurants are located within the area so after your walk around to see the great works of art, a bite to eat is easy! 
The restaurants include infamous Marks Restaurant that has been a staple in the area for many years, providing an excellent menu, great wine list, and fine service.   I have enjoyed their Beef Carpacio with Ostrich Pate, the Calamari with Wasabi and Tomato Colis sauces, the Seafood Pasta, and of course their great choice of brick oven Pizzas. www.marksbucerias.com/
For a great evening of seeing great artwork as well as visit a difference place to be seen and eat, come to the Bucerias Art Walk on Thursday evenings.....it is worth the drive!

Careyeros Beach near Punta Mita

Yesterday I finally made it back to my favorite beach in the Puerto Vallarta, called Playa Careyeros.  I found it many years ago when I was looking for some boogie boarding waves and there were none in Punta Mita.   It is located on the back side of Punta Mita and is accessed along some dirt roads on the back road to Sayulita.  Surprisingly it is located below some very nice houses and villas along the coast and since it is outside the Bay of Banderas, it provides some larger but rolling waves.   Access is provided via staircase next to a B&B called Casa las Brisas.
Now what makes this beach my favorite?  It must the Caribbean-like sand, the crystal clear waters, and shallow depths.......what else makes a beach great!  Sundays are fairly busy as many of the Mexicans in the know go here and since there are no restaurants or public facilities, you really have to prepare.  By prepare I mean bring you own towels, chairs, food, beverages, etc. to make your day complete.  On occasion I have seen a few food vendors strolling the beach, but I would not rely on it as a source of a meal or beverages.
Even on the busier days, the beach goes for at least a mile toward Punta Mita and there is plenty of space to get away from the other beach goers.  It also happens to be a great place for collecting sea shells. There must be a coral reef not too far out as I always see pieces of white coral laying on the beach, sometimes very large ones.  Since it is a a small bay, there is an abundance of fish and I have even seen divers go near the rocks and pull out some very large oysters.
I have seen blowfish washed up on the beach as well as a small group of stingrays in the water, so I would caution swimming later in the afternoon or evenings.  Some say that the small sharks do come out later in the day, but I have never seen any and have been there through sunset and dusk hours.
It is a great beach in a secluded location and if you want to venture out of the ordinary, Careyeros Beach is the place to go!

2011 Puerto Vallarta Writers Conference

This past weekend I made the commitment and time to attend the 6th Annual Puerto Vallarta Writers Conference sponsored by Biblioteca Los Mangos and the Puerto Vallarta Writers Group.  I had been a faithful attendee at the group's weekly Saturday meetings, but in the last few months I found myself no longer attending. Why?  I do not know except the usual Saturday chores and activities started to get in the way and I allowed that!
I need to get reinspired and back to writing, so I decided to attend the conference at the last minute.   Since I was a late registrant the fee was 1300 pesos vs. the 1000 peso normal charge if I had booked and paid by the end of January. Friday evening begins with a general welcome and the guest speaker Rick Najera http://ricknajera.com/ with his "Becoming a Writer-Seriously & Pain of the Macho" speech.  Rick is a very funny guy as he is a comedian, writer, poet, screenplay writer, play writer and provided us with some funny stories with his wit and humor.   This was followed by a wine and cheese event to get to know each other.
Saturday morning started early with workshops by Susie Albin-Najera and Rick Najera ranging in topics from travel writing, blog writing, freelance writing, humor writing, etc.  Susie is the owner of the blog http://www.http//themexicoreport.blogspot.com/ and her blog is atypical as most of the news from Mexico by reporting only the positives about this great country.
After lunch, the 1st Panel Discussion was held by Sarah Cortezb http://poetacortez.com/  and Michael Bracken http://www.crimefictionwriter.com/ on the topic of "What does an Editor Really Want"
The afternoon workshop was conducted by Lisa Brackman http://www.lisabrackmann.com/
who recently published her first novel and it was in the top 100 Books on Amazon.com with her topic of "Writing the High Impact Novel".  The other workshop was conducted by Sunny Frazier http://www.sunnyfrazier.com/ "Finding a Publiser. What are they Looking for?
An afternoon break and then the 2nd Panel Discussion was held with Sunny Frazier, Michael Bracken, and Doug Danielson, "The Money's in Your Shorts: Writing and Selling Short Fiction"
The evening mixer concluded the day.
On Sunday we are up again early with morning workshops by Sarah Cortez "No Time to Forget: The Fundamentals of Writing of Memoir" which was of special interest to me as I am working on a novel about my Father's life as an escapee from Poland at the end of WWII.  Michel Bracken also conducted a seminar "Sin, Suffer, Cash the Checks: A Hands on Intro to Writing & Selling Confessions" which was writing short story essays in romance magazines.
For our final send off, Lisa Brackmann came back and did a closing speech "Becoming a Writer-Seriously & Rock Paper Tiger".  She was quite an inspiration as a newly accomplished writer.
That afternoon was the "BookFest" which was an opportunity to buy and meet not only the authors/speakers at the conference, but many other accomplished Puerto Vallarta published authors as well.  This was my first writers conference and I thouroughly enjoyed my experience and I think I got reinspired to write.  That is why my blog has been updated finally........after a year of no posts!
Let us now hope I can make the transition to novel writing and get to working on my book about my Father's life!!

Driving to Mayto Beach

The next day after a great breakfast at El Jardin Del Tuito, we were off mid morning to take the only road to Mayto Beach area.  It is partially paved and mostly still dirt, but it has greatly improved from the first 2 times I ventured out that way over the past few years!  I am sure someday it will be finally paved all the way to Mayto.
You drive past a few small farming towns going up and down the small hills and finally only downhill toward sea level.  Remember El Tuito is a high altitude desert town!  The last 5 miles are actually nicely paved and the drive is great.  We arrived at Mayto Beach, but I wanted to explore a little bit of the other beaches as I had only briefly stopped at the small fishing village of Tehuamixtle the last time I was out there.  I had only done the overlook, but decided to go down to the village itself today.  It has several restaurants and is a oyster fishing village with oysters served as the specialty in the restaurants.  For some reason a large stuffed shark was right at the edge of the pier and I am not sure why?
After leaving Tehaumixtle I saw a sign straight ahead for a restaurant and thought it might be a place to have dinner later.  So we followed the dirt road around the hillside of rocks and found overselves over on the other side of a very long beach we could see in the distance fromTehuamixtle.  Located there was a resort of bungalows for rent on the hillside.  It was a simple place with basic amenities, but a nice pool and restaurant was available.  It was quite a view from there to miles of beaches with nothing and no one on them!
Back to Mayto Beach where our Mayto Hotel was prearranged for the night.  This is a 12 room hotel that was fully equipped including AC, Sat TV, nice towels, full baths, and a great pool right on the Mayto Beach.  They had their own restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner with palapas and lounge chairs on the beach.  The also provide massage services for an extra charge, full bar, and usually ATV rental eventhough they were out for repair.
It is just a wonderful beach with very few people and the ability to walk for miles and not see anyone!  There is a government run Turtle sanctuary on Mayto Beach with usage during the breeding season.  All of this will probably change one day as a large developer is beginning to sell lots for a rather large development just inland from the beach........so we will see how quickly that all changes!
If you are looking for unspoiled beaches miles long this is the place to go!

Driving to El Tuito

A short trip south of Puerto Vallarta was in order as my friend had a few days off and I felt we needed to get away from the hub hub of PV and find a tranquil quite place to retreat.  I have been to El Tuito for day trips several times before but this was my first overnight.  That means El Tuito where many Vallartans escape and spend time to relax, paint, draw, or write.  El Tuito is a quiet ranch town that happens to be the district area for many Mexican government offices and lies about halfway between PV and Tomatlan. 
We arrive after a 45 minute drive on a lazy Saturday afternoon and a few blocks from the main square is a quaint French B&B  El Jardin Del Tuito that provides just 3 guest rooms in a very nice setting with large rooms overlooking their own private backyard garden with large pool, flowers, animals, and a manicured lawn. www.jardindeltuito.com/  I do believe it is really the only place to stay in El Tuito and with breakfast included it is a great option.  Very peaceful, tranquil, and quiet....No TVs.
After we stopped at the Church to watch the entrance of wedding, we found a place for a late Mexican lunch of Chicken Enchiladas and Chicken Pasole at El Patio del Mario right next to the main plaza.  Very good and great prices!
Walking some more up the main street provides you a couple of restaurants, hardware store, grocery stores, etc. but not really any souvenir or arts & crafts places.  I was a little surprised to see the lack of souvenir shops, as I heard El Tuito has some great pottery creators. So back to El Jardin and an afternoon nap.....what else is there to do?  It was a pleasant day and I relaxed by the pool reading a book.
We decided to go back out around sunset to see if things might be happening on a Saturday night at the main square, but after sitting round watching the people.....nothing was happening.  A quick stop a taco stand for a dinner snack, we decided to go back to El Jardin.  If you are looking for a happening place, it is not El Tuito!  But we wanted a quiet relaxing place and that is what we got!
Tomorrow we go to Mayto Beach and I'm sure it will be a great place......

First Show at Teatro Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta

I finally made it to the Teatro Vallarta for my first show in February.  It was the ballet Romeo & and Juliet performed by a Russian traveling troupe.  Purchasing tickets can be very easy as you have the option of purchasing them online (ticketing fee) or in person at the box office.  I decided to purchase them at the box office as I like to see exactly where the seats are and that was not possible online.  Due to a friends recommendation I decided to purchase the tickets in the 2nd tier of pricing which puts you about 1/2 way up the theater seating from the stage.  Since the theater is relatively small with only about 2000 seats you get a good view from there without breaking the bank.
Arrived the night of the performance via cab, but noticed that they do have valet parking available and the lobby has a full bar/snack shop for you purchase items which you CAN bring into the theater.  As a matter of fact the seats have cup holders....very convenient. 
The unique feature of this theater is that entrance is only from the bottom, so if you have some who is handicapped there is quite a climb to your seats from down below....so be aware.  The seats were comfortable and movie theater quality with each step up a new row, so that big person in front of you is never an issue by blocking your view.  The stage was of nice size, but certainly not as large as I am accustomed to in the theaters in the US.  Emergency exits are only at the bottom of the stage and at the top of the last row.
The show was almost sold out, so it was nice to see that large of a crowd, but at least 75% were Gringos.  So it was nice to see the support from the expat and "snow bunnies" crowd.  The show was excellent and with a 15 minute intermission it was about 2 hours total.
A nice experience in a nice theater made we want to go home and see what else they might have coming up.  A great symphony performance will probably be my next choice, however they have their own weekly inhouse show "Fandango" which is features a historical dance performance of Mexico. I have heard it is very good.  For tickets and more information:  http://www.teatrovallarta.com/