A Good Sunday

I thought today might be rather slow, being Sunday and all, but it turned out to be not a bad day at all. I headed across the river to the north-side of town again and the first place that I stopped into was:

231) La Casa de los Omelets

The English translation for this is The Omelete House, but it sounds so much cooler in Spanish. It is actually a second story bar with a balcony on two sides. One side looks out on Calle Juarez and the malecon and bay, the other looks out on the "street" with the entrance, Calle Independencia. This street is actually a one-block long pedestrian walkway that ends at the entrance to Our Lady of Guadalupe, the large church in the center of town. The church tower is featured prominently in most postcards of Puerto Vallarta and in many of the paintings of the downtown area as well.

The bar itself is accessed by going up a winding wooden staircase. It is just a small bar with 4 stools. There are a couple of overhead fans to keep the place somewhat cool and a couple of blue globe lights on the wall. Hanging over the bar are three lamps with blue glass shades and two of the three lamps really had light-bulbs in them. The walls were white plaster with some exposed brick in patches.

I had a Corona.

232) La Gruta

This is another second story bar with an entrance on Calle Corona. You go up a winding cement staircase to get to this one. It is a fairly small place with a balcony on two sides, one of which overlooks the malecon and bay. It is right across the street from a sculpture named "The Ladder." The sculpture shows what could be a mother standing on the ground and two small children on the ladder looking out to sea, perhaps for their father who is out fishing. There is a rectangular bar with seating on three sides. The place has light yellow walls and a light blue ceiling and the tables have bright yellow and blue tablecloths. Soccer was on the television. Because the entrance is on the side-street one guy's job seems to be primarily to holler at the people passing below and offering "two for one beers, happy hour all day." This guy will also give you a discount on either a fishing trip or a day of golf if you agree to attend a timeshare presentation.

I had a Corona and did not get an offer of a second one for free.

233) Viejo Vallarta

Another bar on the second floor. These bars are older and are an interesting change from some of the larger, newer ones right on street level. I will be hitting some of those in a few days so you can read about them then. This place had a great view of the malecon and bay, as all of the bars on this stretch do, and is right across the street from a sculpture of a boy riding a seahorse. It is right by the old lighthouse and almost next-door to Mickey's No Name.

The bar had an ornate brick and stone front with a nice dark-wood top. The walls were finished in a dark-red wash with murals of the revolution and Zapata. There were a couple of old Jack Daniels posters on the wall by the pool table. On the beams of the ceiling were what I took to be revolutionary slogans in Spanish. There was a small raised stage so I assume this place could rock at night when the live music shows up. I felt strangely comfortable here.

I had a margarita.

234) Cantina de Vallarta

This place is on street level across from the malecon. It is also across the street and down a bit form Mickey's No Name. The place is plastered with old Mexican movie posters, old wrestling posters (I just love big men in tights and masks), bullfight posters and a lot of bull-fight programs. The ceiling is covered with large paintings of cards from some kind of game that I am unfamiliar with. The bartender said it was something like bingo, but he couldn't really explain it to me.

The place is kind of deep and narrow and the bar is all the way in the back. At the front are a couple of large windows looking out on the bay. In the front of the bar were a lot of those paper doily things hanging from the ceiling.

I had a margarita and, because it really was two for one here, I had a second as well.

235) La Gloria ye Infierno

I headed back across the river and not far from the Gigante supermarket is this small, cinder-block building on the corner of Constitucion and Francisco L. Mader. I looked all over but could not see a name and it didn't look like the kind of place I should be asking people. In fact, it didn't look like the kind of place I should be in. No overt hostility, but I certainly felt that I was somehow intruding.

An update. Although there is still no name visible the bartender at Machis Bar B. Q. (number 304) told me I should try a place called La Gloria ye Infierno on Constitucion. It turned out this was the place. I went in and showed the bartender the name the bartender had written down for me and he acknowledged that I was in the place. Mystery solved.

I had a Pacifico

236) Burros Bar

On the way back home I passed by this place and, ignoring the sign that says "Enter If You Dare," I entered. It is actually a pretty nice little place and has been around as long as I have been coming to Puerto Vallarta. The large papermache burro head that advertised the place has been removed though. It was kind of a classic photo-opportunity and I have many pictures of myself and friends standing by it.

The bar is a horseshoe shaped affair but most people choose to sit at the small tables right on the beach. The bar sits under a large palapa and there is not much in the way of decoration except for a few old license plates hanging on the wall of the small service bar.

I had a Corona.

At this point I headed home and got cleaned up for dinner. The place we ate didn't have a bar but I stopped at a couple on the way home with a buddy of mine.

237) La Pizza Nostra

This place, on Olas Altas has a few tables in front and a few more in the adjacent courtyard. It has pictures of the young Beatles and a young Elvis on the wall as well as a lot of photos of Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. Also a few Wizard of Oz posters and some covers of old pulp-fiction magazines. Two of the cover-stories that caught my eye were "The Flying Eyes" and "The Gods Hate Kansas." They sound like they would be good reads.

The bar is a small green cement affair and there is a pool table and a fooseball machine and not much else inside the place.

I had a Corona

238) Cafe Tizoc

Right next-door and in the same complex, I guess you would call it, is Cafe Tizoc. It is a small place with a small bar with a few stools. I honestly don't remember that much about it, but I suspect that is because there wasn't a great deal to distinquish it.

I had a Pacifico and headed home.