Puerto Vallarta

I don't even know where to begin y'all. But this trip was one of the best ones of my life. I made this blog separately from the original personal blog to post more fashion-related posts but I'm just gonna post everything here. So brace yourself for lots of talking.

I've never been on a trip with a ~bae~ before, and that was one of the best parts about it. I'd been to PV before when I was younger with my family, but my memory is awful so I don't remember a ton of it and it was bae's first time there, which made it even more exciting.

We were lucky to be able to stay with his brother-in-law for most of the trip, and Airbnb with friends of his that lived a short walk away our first 2 days. We really didn't plan anything for this trip so it was nice to have some people to show us around and make recommendations.

We got there in the early evening on our first day so his brother in law showed us around town. We were staying in the "romantic zone" up the hill from the beach and only about 5-10 minutes from the main town area. We were super close to the Malecón, which is a boardwalk that stretches along the beach. There's always stuff going on there, whether it's vendors selling street food or trinkets, performers spinning around on ropes from a giant pole or the pirate ship shooting off their daily fireworks. No joke. I underestimated how much there would be to do here, but there's so many crazy bars and people just walking around.

eWe got dinner in town before we headed there, though, at this place called Pancho's Takos. Hands down the best tacos I have ever had in my life. They're known for their al pastor tacos, which is grilled right at the front of the restaurant in big chunks with slices of pineapple on top. I'm going to be dreaming about those for a while.

The next day, we had a massive breakfast then headed to the beach. We went to Playa Los Muertos which is close to the Malecón which meant drinks were easy to get but so were people trying to sell you everything under the sun. We took a bus to a more private beach called Playa Gemelas which was pretty dead but so nice and beautiful. That night, we went to the Cigar Factory, which was absolutely delicious. Where else can you get a steak for like $10 and shrimp for even less?!

We followed that by going to a Cuban bar where I had the best mojito and flan I've ever had and they played live salsa music. So cool.

That was our last night at the Airbnb so the next day we packed up and went to the brother in law's condo which was absolutely beautiful. We were already so crisp from the day before at the beach so we decided to take a break and go to the Botanical Gardens about 30 mins away. It was so pretty and awesome because you could swim in the river and then we cooled down at the restaurant with some food and drinks. That night we went back to Panchos because duh and then finally caught the fireworks from our balcony.

The next day, we decided to check out Yelapa, which is a town south of PV that you can basically only access by boat. We hopped on the water taxi and rode over there, where we walked to a beautiful waterfall and then chilled on the beach most of the day. A thunder storm started rolling in from what I can only describe as a jungle straight out of Jurassic Park and it started raining just before we got on the boat. We jetted off in the pouring rain and got soaking wet the whole ride back.

That night, I demanded (seriously) a romantic dinner so we went to La Palapa, a restaurant right on the beach. If sitting in the sand watching the most beautiful sunset wasn't romantic enough, the craziest lightning storm started happening and we could see it going across the whole bay. I'm not just talking little spurts, I'm talking lightening traveling from one end to the other every minute. It got even better because right before we were ready to go, the table next to us pointed out a sea turtle crawling right up to the walkway to lay her eggs. Insane! Magical! You can't make that shit up!

Our last full day, we had absolutely nothing planned which bit us in the ass a little. But we mostly hung out at the beach and checked out Mismaloya down the coast. Not sure why that place was recommended so much because it was tiny but it was still relaxing. Guess where we went for the 3rd time for dinner?!

Then it was time to go. We got most of the day on Tuesday so we got breakfast, went to the beach and walked through the marketplace getting souvenirs. It was a long day/night and we were both so sad to be coming home. But I'm living in my new studio apartment now so it's time to organize everything and get settled in!