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Puerto Vallarta, Mexico: November 2010

My family and I went down to Puerto Vallarta for Thanksgiving again. We last went for Thanksgiving in 2007. The resort was beautiful and the weather was in the 80s every day.

We went on a sunset cruise to the island of Las Caletas where we had dinner and watched a dance show.

The town of Bucerias where there are many stores along the ocean side with silver jewelry, ceramics, bags, souvenirs, leather products, etc.

My family and I had dinner at Karen’s Restaurant on the beach where they served a traditional turkey dinner.

We went on a dune buggy ride just outside of Puerto Vallarta. In parts it was so dusty we had to wear goggles and bandanas over our noses and mouths.

The movie Predator with Arnold Schwarzenegger was filmed near Puerto Vallarta and we visited where part of it was filmed. There was a mock up of the predator there.

One evening we had dinner at El Palomar, a restaurant perched on the hillside overlooking Puerto Vallarta. At the right is my aunt Jackie, my mom Ruth and my mom’s brother, my uncle Neil.

One day, we took a tour of several towns north of Puerto Vallarta. This town is called San Vicente. On the left is the main church on the town square. It was Sunday so inside were many kids learning the Catechism. On the right is a shop we visited that made fresh tortillas you could buy by the bundle and we got to try some freshly made warm samples.

Next we visited El Porvenir where they had painted murals in the town square. The mural in the background celebrated both the bicentennial anniversary of Mexican Independence in 1810 and the Mexican Revolution in 1910. Next to the murals was a Nativity scene in preparation for Christmas.

This is the central plaza for the town of San Jose. Each of the towns we visited had the gazebo structure at the center of the main plaza and a church on the main square.

As we left San Jose we went past a monument to the native peoples and tribes of Mexico. On the right are the fisherman from the coast, in the middle the farmers from the plains, the on the right, the hunters from the hills.

We also stopped at a protected iguana reserve where you could see many iguanas relaxing in the trees.

The central plaza of the town of El Valle

We toured a Tequila Factory where they showed us the process of how to make tequila. They showed us how they harvest the piña (the pineapple) from the agave plant, then strip them down, then cook them in a fire pit, then they extract the agave juice using a milling wheel to crush the piñas, then they add yeast and ferment the sugars in barrels, then they distill the tequila and for some types they then age it in oak barrels.

The sunset on our last night in Puerto Vallarta.