Small World

I only went to one bar today. Went shopping in the morning and then headed out with the wife and another couple to a town called Ixtapa to eat at a restaurant that had no bar, sigh. Nothing really close to the place either so after getting home I just called it a day.

301) Espresso Pub

This is a pizza place on the corner of Vallarta and Carranza, right across the street from Torito's. There was a large, light-tan cement bar with a marble-patterned tile top. It had light-tan wood trim and metal bar-rails. There were 7 wooden bar-stools. There were light wood cabinets and shelving behind the bar and a nice selection of liquors and wine. There were three televisions, one tuned to ESPN and two tuned to Fashion TV. The floor was tan cement painted a light blue. The paint is worn off to the extent I first thought there was sawdust on the floor. There is a smaller area, down a step, in front of the coal-burning pizza oven that has the traditional reddish-orange tile.

There were about a dozen wooden tables with green table-cloths and wooden chairs. There were also a few picnic-tables and benches. Pictures of city-scapes were on the wall including one of the 1940 New York skyline. There were also a few large French liquor posters; Martini and Rossi, Asti Cinzano, and Porto Ramos Pinto.

I was wearing an old Minnesota Timberwolves sweatshirt and the bartender, an older fellow, asked me if I lived in Minnesota. I told him I grew up there but now lived in Brooklyn. He started to ask me where in Brooklyn and from his questions it soon became obvious that he was from there. It then turned out that he had moved from Brooklyn to Minneapolis. He also went to Boston University for a year and I had spent two years in Boston. We chatted for a bit. He had been coming to Puerto Vallarta on vacation every year for 30 years and finally moved down here 5 years ago. I have only been coming down every year for about 15 years so I guess I have a few to go before moving here. It is amazing the number of people who come down here for a vacation and then come back year after year. I haven't seen that to such an extent any other place I have visited.

I had a Pacifico and headed home lugging the groceries my wife had bought at the municipal market.

Again, not much progress, but 301 down and 699 left to go.