van wyk journeys Every day since our arrival on Saturday it has been hot and very humid. Days start off clear but clouds spring up after lunch which has developed into some pretty serious thunderstorms tonight’s being the worst so far (October 13th). We are dry both while barbecuing a steak in the pool/fitness center/barbecuing area or sitting on our street-side balcony watching the very wet people make their way from their condos or beach to the evening’s activities, dinners at restaurants, bars or whatever is happening that night.
In short, life here does not stop because of some rain, people pass by wet or dry, from Mexico or just some wet tourist from somewhere else in the world. Taxis prowl the streets looking for touristas to drive to somewhere, tourists wander the streets going somewhere or looking for something, life here just continues.
Sitting here tonight, a Sunday night (October 15th) close to 7:30 and the foot traffic seems to have picked up, at least for the moment.
Earlier today we ventured a little farther from the condo looking for alternative ways of saving pesos not that this is such a big issue but a buck is a buck and the same goes for the peso. As it is, we walked to the Mega Mart to see what the store was all about (about 4km one way), it turns out it is a smaller Mexican version of Wal-Mart so while it’s big and vast we will stick to the more local flavoured store called Leys.
We continue to explore Puerto Vallarta walking in all directions. When we are not walking we take PV Transit (AKA beat-up old buses) or on occasion a taxi but that mostly occurs on our weekly Casa Ley grocery store runs.
The grocery store trips are generally too large to backpack all the way back to the condo (2.2KM) as I would probably need at least one or two Sherpas to carry everything, but PV does not seem to have Sherpas waiting to carry stuff around, just taxis. We do mid-week grocery top-ups walking to Leys and back, backpacking our goods to the condo, but these are typically items that we would run out of like bananas, peppers, milk, etc.
During these journeys, I have taken photos along the way of life as I see it. While I have used my DSLR for most of the photos, some of them were taken using my iPhone 6 SE, see if you can tell the difference. I was surprised by the results of the iPhone photos. Below is a gallery of what we have seen and experienced so far. Click on the first photo to enable the slide show, captions are below each photo.
Look for more soon,
Joe Jacks Fish Shack, up the hill left of the condo, around the corner and down 2 blocks sits Joe’s. Nice meal there. 
A frequent flyer along the water front in the tourista zona. 
One of the many churches in PV, Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe 
One of many art fixtures around town. 
There is construction all over PV including one building being restored right beside our building. 
A common sight around town with all of the hills some residents don’t trust their vehicles brakes. 
Stairs like this are common in the south end of PV where we are staying. 
Beachfront on the Malecon in Puerto Vallarta. 
The entrance and the taxi’s waiting for gringo’s and Canadian’s to leave with their food. 
Our go to grocery store about 2.2 km walk, Casa Ley. 
A local park with a black surfaced track (might be hot) and some weight machines where the weight is the person sitting in the seat. 
Just some of the large resort hotels that stretch across the beaches in PV. 
The old PV in the front and the resorts peeking over. 
And today we visited the Mega Mart, impressive store about 4 km from the condo, but we will stick with Ley’s as I have made some friends in the store. 
On Thursday the local farmer sells his goods outside our condo. 
Comical, I took this picture directly after she turned her back and stood in front of the farmer, so I could not take a picture. 
In reference to President Trump’s wall. 
One of many art fixtures around town. 
One of the many churches in Puerto Vallarta “Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe” just off the Old Town main square.