Home Again

Well, I made it back to New York safe and sound and took a few days off from my trek. I did pop in to one of my local favorites, Pete's Waterfront, and had a couple of beers, including one nice cask-conditioned ale. However, having already included Pete's in my trek it was just recreational drinking.

All four bars that I hit today were on a single block, 7th Avenue between Grove and Barrow.

351) Jekyll & Hyde

This is a bit of a touristy place, but having been away for so long I was begining to feel like a bit of a tourist myself. This place is kind of a cross between Disneyland and a chamber of horrors. It has a great, old, dark-wood bar with a brass rail. The bar-stools have padded vinyl seats and some of them are rigged up to move up and down very slowly. So slowly, in fact, that you don't really notice it until all of a sudden your eyes are at bar level. Quite weird. There are all kinds of things, including shrunken heads, behind the bar and above the bar is what looks like a large speciman cabinet with, well, specimans in it. Skeletons of who knows what, mounted spiders and insects, an alligator, various body parts in jars. Actually, the whole bar looks like it was built in a mad-scientist's laboratory Quite cheerful.

There is a mounted T-Rex head on the wall that periodically lets out a roar and three television that show black-and-white trailers for horror movies. The whole place is quite dark, even on a sunny mid-afternoon, and there are small candles on the bar to add to the eerie atmosphere. Even more weird goings on in the large eating area in the back.

I had a Brooklyn Brewery Black Chocolate Stout.

352) Garage

A very nice, large, irregularly shaped six-sided polygon bar. Black and gray marble top with a light and dark wood patterned front and a ledge for your foot. There is a large, inverted partial copper pyramid affair hanging over the interior of the bar with racks for glasses, wine racks, and more shelves for wine. The center islands hold more liquor as well as oysters on ice. Large, orange globe lights hang from the ceiling and there is is also a rather large and quite ornate chandelier. A few large black and white pictures of musicians and singers hang from the wall as well as a couple of large sculptures made up primarily of automobile parts.

The walls are a combination of brick and mauve paint. There is an upstairs area with small green-glass shaded lights hanging overhead. Live music starts in the early evening.

I had a Guiness.

353) Penny Feathers

A smallish, half-rectangular bar with a light-wood, dark-grained, top. The front of the bar has decorative wooden panels. There is a dark linoleum ledge for your foot. About seven bar-chairs, wooden with padded maroonish seats. Little aluminum lamps with small tan shades sit on the bar. Behind the bar are shelves with a mirror back holding glasses, liquor, and wine. Below the shelf that holds the wine is a string of little multi-colored Japanese-style lanterns. Hanging immediately above the bar is a large set of shelves holding more bottles of liquor and wine and below that are racks from which glasses are hung. According to the mysterious Chinese woman who appears now and then, the place has a country French decor. She is eating French onion soup, so she should know.

Mostly brick walls with small tables with green and white checked table-cloths and lights with large, cylindrical shades hanging above them. A nice glassed in area on the sidewalk offers a great view of the passing scene while insulating you from the sounds and smells of the traffic.

I had a Maker's Mark Manhattan.

354) Sushi Samba

This is a large, ultra-modern place that is really nicely done, in my opinion at least. The top of the bar is fairly plain, about the only thing in the place that is. The front of the bar is a back-lite yellow lucite. The bar-chairs look like pale-green half-egg shells mounted on tubular aluminum. The back of the bar is molded orange and red plastic ahelving loaded with glasses and bottles and glowingly lite from behind. The overhead lights are round, luminous, yellowish disks. There is a very large polygon sushi-bar in a large area to the side and in front of the bar. There is a sunken area with sofas and small tables. Lime-green and lemon-yellow are the primary colors decorating the place.

This is an uber sake bar. The bartender, who was quite knowledgeable, said the had 165 different kinds. The mysterious Chinese woman declared herself to be sultry and ordered a Sultry Sake Cocktail and then proceeded to remove some of her outer garments. She then commented upon how her drink was served by a handsome, muscular bartender.

I broke my rule and had two sakes, a Kori and a Dewazakura Oka. They were both very good. We then headed back to the Garage for dinner.

Plodding onward, 354 for the year and 646 left to go. I plan on making more progress starting Monday when I get back to a more regular routine.

Star Coverage In Toronto - Kind Of

For any of you that may be interested, I had a brief mention in the Toronto Star as a resulut of this blog. You can access it by going to the address below. I am not sure how long they keep these articles online so if it is a bad link, let me know and I will revise this post.

www.laide.ca/review.asp?Type=Review&Id=19

I still haven't hit any bars since I got back from Mexico. Taking a bit of a breather but will be back at it no later than Monday. I might hit a few earlier, I am getting a bit antsy and the weather is nice. Perhaps a stroll in Greewich Village might be in order.

Farewell Mexico

I hit 350 bars for the year today and tomorrow I am going to be spending most of the day and packing for a very early, 5:30 A.M., departure to the airport. Probably have one last meal at a nice restaurant here tomorrow night, but no chasing after bars. They are begining to get hard to find.

348) The Sandbar

At long last the bar inside The Sandbar, on Olas Altos, has opened. I have been watching them construct it one corner of this second-floor place for several weeks now. The Sandbar itself has been around for a number of years but has just been sold and the new owners decided to put in the bar. The bar is a quarter-oval and the top is a green and red mosaic made of broken tiles in kind of a wavey pattern with the green on top. Embedded here and there are square orangish ceramic tiles with green lizards on them. The front edging of the bar is made of the same green tiles as the top of the wave. The front of the bar is bamboo. There is a palapa-like awning over the bar, just below the ceiling and hanging from it are three lights, two with orange glass shades and one with a blue glass shade. There is a black-light behind the bar but it wasn´t turned on. Behind the bar is also a nice dark-wood cabinet holding a supply of liquor. Above it was light-wood shelving with a built in rack for hanging glasses, and glasses were hung. The other shelving held more liquor bottles. There is a nice television behind the bar and some kind of a poker tournament was showing.

They still have a few kinks to work out at this place. For starters, the short end of the bar is right up against the narrow balcony that runs around this corner estabishment. That wouldn´t be so bad except that instead of permitting access to the bar they have a small table sitting on the balcony with a couple of chairs. As a result the half-dozen bar-chairs that they have are jammed so close together in the remaining area that seating is uncomfortable. The bar-chairs them selves are also uncomfortable having just a small round seat and a back that is at an uncomfortable angle. I hear they are going to replace them with larger, more comfortable chairs but I don´t know how they will fit them in.

Secondly, the bartender is not actually allowed to present you with your bill. He has to take the information to someone else who then gives it to you. This would not be a problem except that it took a good ten-minutes for this to occur. Now that means, after I have finished my drink, I have to wait ten minutes to get the bill.
Also, during this time there is nobody behind the bar as the bartender is, apparently, chasing down the guy to give us our bill. I also then had to wait for about another five minutes to get my change. Hopefully they will get this resolved soon or, I suspect, the bartender, who wasn´t too happy about the situation, will leave.

I had a rum and coke and headed across the river to the north side of town.

349) Hilo

Hilo, across from the Malecon, is one large bar. It is over-sized in just about every way imaginable, starting with the two-story tall statues that loom over the entrance and large front window which overlooks the malecon and bay. One is of a Mexican revolutionary and the other is of an even more scary looking Mexican woman. Inside are three slightly smaller statues. On either end of the bar are mounted Mexican revolutionaries (one is probably Zapata) and on the side wall is some kind of winged female figure who probably represents liberty or freedom or something.

There is a long bar with fairly wide marble edging all around and a plexiglass top over a bed of polished stones about 2 inches below it. I assume it is lit from below at night. The bar also serves as a dance-floor and there is a small wooden staircase leading to the top for easy access. While I was there, and I was the only customer, a bunch of young women came in just for a quick dance and to take each others pictures. The front of the bar is made of translucent reddish-orange tiles.

Behind the bar is a bank of drab brown coolers with a wood and marble shelf above them holding the liquor supply. The bartender needs to climb a small ladder, that can be wheeled up and down the length of the bar, to reach the bottles.

The walls are greenish, yellowish, and pink tiles except for the back wall which is covered with small, purple tiles. There are pictures of actors, actresses, and musicians on the walls, many of which are tinted to have that somewhat hallucinatory look of the 60´s. Kind of like Andy Warhol might have had a hand.

I had a gin and tonic and learned, after all this time that the name of the brand of Mexical gin that I favor translates to Black Bear.

350) Chez Sabor

Heading a bit further north and back about a half a block on Ortiz de Dominguez is this second and third story soul-food restaurant and bar. It has only been open for a short time and I hope it does well. A little more diversity in food types is always a good thing.

You enter by ascending a narrow, red-tile stairway. There also appears to be an elevator but nobody seemed to be able to get it to work. I only walked up one level and this is the smallest of them, at least in terms of seating for the customers. However, it is the one with the bar. The bar is relatively small and fairly narrow. Just room for about four barstools. Pretty much a plain white decor with white shelving behind to hold the bottles and glasses. Just a place to hold people waiting for tables I would guess. I was told that the upstairs area offers a beautiful view of the bay and is especially pretty at sunset. From what I could see from the second level I would guess it is true. They are lucky that even though they are about half a block from the malecon and the bay nobody has built anything taller in front of them.

They didn´t have any tonic so somebody ran out to get a bottle. I must be one of the only people in town that drinks gin and tonics because the guy came back with but a single small bottle, just large enough for one drink. I suppose if I had ordered a second one he would have had to run out again.

I had a gin and tonic and headed back to the south side of town for dinner.

Hoo Rah!! I hit my goal of 350 before leaving Mexico and now have only 650 left to go. I think I am taking next week off from my quest to get caught up on 6 weeks worth of unattended business back home. I have been informed that my cable service has been cut-off because my bill is over-due. Guess I wasn´t able to record the begining of the new season of Deadwood.

A few final comments about my stay in Mexico. First, I have to go back and change the names of a couple of bars.

The 2 for 1, and the bartender there assured me that this was indeed the name, has now had its grand opening and now appears to be Carl´s Jr. I am going to double check on this today, but that is what the new sign on top of the place says.

Chivas Guadalajara is actually Tonto Sport´s Bar. The big Chivas Guadalajara sign hanging behind the bar was in support of a soccer team with that name.

Second, my comments about the so-so hamburgers at Sweeny´s were based upon second-hand information. I have since eaten there three times and found the food to be exceptionally good and reasonably priced. I haven´t tried the hamburgers there though. I will revise my entry accordingly.

Third, just because a place has a sign that says, ¨Restaurant and Bar¨ does NOT necessarily mean it has a bar. It may just mean it serves liquor. Much time was spent walking down roads and up steps when when I spotted this sign and found no real bar. Needless to say I could not have a drink at such an establishment and count it.

Adios until I post again.

A ¨Holy¨ Ghost Town

This is Holy Week in Mexico and Puerto Vallarta is packed with people on holiday. There are tents on the beach and a merry-go-round with live ponies. Quite a festival. I decided to get out of town, but that proved to be a mistake. Everyone in the town I went to, Cruz de Huancaxtle, or La Cruz for short, must have come to Puerto Vallarta. Only one restaurant was open and it didn´t have a bar. The only bar that I found that was open was in the lobby to a small hotel.

345) Philo´s

A semi open-air place with a large palapa covering it. White stucco walls and a small stage set off in one corner covered by a smaller palapa. There was a drum-kit, microphones, and wiring so it looked like it would be cranking up later. Philo, the owner of the place, is from Mendocino, California where he operated a music studio and used to play with various people in the ¨Shuffle Band.¨ The name of the band comes from the fact that the various people would shuffle in and shuffle out.

The bar itself is a large blue cement thing with a pale-pink tile top. Along the top edge of the bar is painted some weird designs including red-spotted mushrooms that seem to be glowing, beach scenes, birds, various designs. It was quite colorful. The bar chairs are the same style that they had in Roma´s and Las Palomas. A wide pinkish cement foot-rest keeps you from being able to pull them comfortably up to the bar though.

Not much decor behind the bar; a metal rack for glasses, a glass front refrigerator holding beer, soda, and wine, a large Corona beer cooler, a smaller Snapple cooler that held more soda and wine, but no snapple, and ice chest and a water bottle on a stand. On one wall was a Banderas Bay American Legion flag, Post 14. There was a pool-table in a back room.

I had a Corona and caught the bus back to town.

346) Casa Vallarta

Back in town on Avenue Mexico was this bar tucked in back of what looks like a breakfast place. It has a nice bar though, but with a bartender that had to be walked through the process of making a rum and tonic. After twice trying to use mineral water I had to try to describe what a tonic bottle looked like. Then he was out of Bacardi rum and couldn´t quite grasp the fact that Appleton was also a rum and not, in fact, apple juice. Finally, out of exasperation, someone else cut and squeezed a lime into the glass because he couldn´t seem to grasp the concept. I assume he is new.

The bar white-brick with a nice marble-finish top to it. The bar-chairs are metal rod with rattan seats and backs. There is a nice large-screen Sony television, but it wasn´t turned on. There are three white-brick arches behind the bar and they have mirrors behind them. They have a shelf on the bottom of each of them made of the same material as the bar-top and they hold the glasses. Their are two more glass shelves above that one that hold the liquor except for the top shelf of the middle shelf that holds a statue of a reclining, or dead, Mayan or Aztec. The spaces between the arches are occupied by wine-racks. The walls are bright yellow and pink.

I had the long-in-the-making rum and tonic.

347) El Party

Down the street a bit, where Avenue Mexico turns into Paseo Diaz Ordaz, is this hole-in-the-wall that is more of a place to pop in and get a drink in a go-cup and then head on out. They do have a narrow blue-wood bar though and even though my beer was served in a styrofoam cup with a cover and a straw sticking out of it, I stuck to my guns and drank it in place.

Although there is a rack with various sized glasses above the bar, this is strictly for show because they are never used, everything is served in some kind of a plastic or styrofoam container that you can take with you. Strings of Christmas lights hang from the rack, but they are used. Blue and pink florescent lights garishly illuminate the place. The front of the bar looks like an advertisement for Corona with a beach scene featuring Corana beach umbrellas, limes wearing sunglasses, and a curvey blond wearing a thong bikini. My wife tried to tell me her (the woman curvey blond, not my wife) buttocks were artificially enhanced. This was based upon my wife´s careful appraisal of the uplift and other structural characteristics.

There were also a couple of small blue-wood protrusions along one wall where you could, in theory, set your drink down. I seriously doubt if anyone, other than me, ever actually drinks in this prison-cell sized establishment, unless maybe it was raining really hard. This is a good place to pop in and get a Derrame Cerebral, Orgasmo, or Kamikaze Azul to go.

I settled for a Corona and headed home to just barely catch sunset at the pool.

Not a bad day, 347 down for the year and 653 left to go. I plan on hitting my 350 for the year tomorrow and then taking a bit of a breather.

Daily Dozen

Well, not daily perhaps, but I did make a dozen bars today so my goal of 350 total before I leave Mexico looks like a no brainer (and no brains left). My wife stuck with me through the whole day, but did not drink with me throughout, so I give here credit for her support (literally, at the end).

333) Suzie Wong's

Shangri-la meets Mexico, that was a according to my wife. You enter by walking across a small cement and stone bridge with bamboo railings. The bridge crosses a small stream with a waterfall at one end. Large goldfish and small koi hang out in the stream and seem to enjoy themselves. If you stop on the bridge to look at them a couple of the koi come over and stick their heads out of the water looking for food. Upon crossing the bridge you are greeted by a smiling wooden Buddha.

The bar has a nice curved thick wooden top, nicely grained and with a glossy finish. The front is bamboo set in a grey concrete base that serves as your foot-rest. The bar-chairs are wood with plaited bamboo backs and round, pale-green cushions. Above the bar, and supported by two thick, black poles is an inverted dugout canoe that looks more like it came from Fiji than China. However, to compensate there is a large pink Chinese lantern with a dragon on it hanging from the middle of the boat. To the left of the bar hangs a framed picture poster for the movie "Suzie Wong."

Behind and to the right of the bar is a fairly large outdoor eating area topped by a bamboo roof that gave it an airy feeling. A number of white Chinese lanterns decorated with branches, blossoms, and birds hang from the ceiling. There are also overhead fans. The tables are round with glass tops There is a large indoor eating area as well but I didn't go in to explore it.

Surrounding the outer sides of the outdoor eating and bar area are numerous plants, palms, bamboo, and papyrus (identified by my wife who does volunteer work at the Brooklyn Botanical Garden). Also, against the far wall, is a large mask of what looks to be some kind of an islander with a shocked expression on his face. Maybe he came over in the boat above the bar and was surprised to find he was in Mexico and not a neigboring Fijian island.

I had a gin and tonic.

334) Laterraza Di Roma

The little bar area is across the sidewalk from their main restaurant and sticks out into the water on a deck-like structure made of pegged planks. The bar is quite small with a curved wooden top edged with ceramic tiles with an orange and green Aztec type of design. The front of the bar is wood-planking decorated with a small ship's-wheel and yellow-bulbed running lights. Above the bar is a green canvas awning supported by heavy wooden beams above a wooden rack for glasses which is, in turn, supported by two large green marble-like pillers. The back of the bar is wood planking with portholes and shelving for glasses and bottles of liquor.

The railing around the deck is wood with rope and a few orange life-preservers (not the edible kind; oh, wait, those are lifesavers) hanging from the sides. One area of the deck is set off from the other by what looks like ship's-railings. Numerous overhead fans with white globe lights hang from the ceiling which is wooden lattice and supporting a white awning with green fringes. An exceptionally nice view of the harbor and the boats.

I had a gin and tonic.

335) City Dump & Co.

Another place with a nautical feel to it, but this one more of a below deck feel. A lovely dark-wood semi-circular bar with brass rails running around it both top and bottom Above the bar and supported by thick wooden posts with brass fittings top and bottom are lattice work cabinets holding glasses. Hanging below them were metal racks holding more glasses. Lots of glasses.

In the center of the area behind the bar was a large, round fish tank nicely decked out with rocks, driftwood, seaweed, and the requisite sunken ship. The ship's name was the Taberna Marina and the was the name of this place before it was taken over by City Dump & Co. Kind of metaphoric. There were lots of colorful fish and one large turtle. The tank has an ornate wooden top and sits on a wooden base. A ledge runs around the base and the front half holds liquor bottles. There is also a nice wooden cupboard with a mirrored back and shelves lite by Christmas lights that held more liquor. There is track lighting above and a disco ball.

It is a multi-leveled place with a pool-table on the level that is about shoulder-high from the bar level. On one white-plaster wall hang all kinds of nautical pictures and knick-knacks. There is nice wooden planking throughout and my wife said it reminded her of a below-deck English pub.

I had a rum and coke.

336) Victor's Place - Cafe Tacuba

A small wooden bar on a good-sized tiled deck. Kind of a younger college-break crowd drinking beers and shots of tequila. Probably because the beers here are only 10 pesos (about ninety-cents) and that is cheap for anywhere in Puerto Vallarta and especially cheap out here at the Marina where things tend to be a bit pricier than in town.

The bar only has 5 wrought iron bar-chairs with blue cushions. One of these is only semi-useable though because it sits in front of several stacks of glasses. The bartender becomes visibly upset if you sit in it and then, reluctantly moves the glasses. As soon as you leave the glasses go back and his domain is once again secured.

There was a small boy sitting at one of the tables feeding and then chasing the pigeons. This seemed to be vaguely amusing to everyone except his parents.

I had a Corona.

337) Champions

We wandered a bit behind the marina into an area of hotels and found a Champions in the Marriott complex. It was kind of an uber-Champions with at least 30 television sets all tuned to one or another type of sports programming. I vegged out for a bit watching women's nine-ball, my new addiction.

The bar is an imense marble-topped thing that had only seven wooden bar-chairs and no bar-rail. It looked like it could handle at least 50 people though. Most customers must sit at the thirty or so tables of various sizes and heights. There is also a small stadium type seating area where you can sit to watch special games. Behind the bar was glass shelving backed by mirrors that held an impressive liquor supply. There is a raised area in the back that has three nice, blue-felt covered pool tables.

The walls, as you might imagine, were just covered with sports memorabilia. Good stuff too, most of it signed; jerseys, bats, pictures. A basketball signed by Larry Bird, a football signed by Dan Marino, that kind of stuff. I was looking for a baseball signed by Kent Hrbek but couldn't find one.

I had a gin and tonic.

338) Mikado

Quite frankly, the fanciest Japanese restaurant and bar I have ever been in. You enter by way of a large bridge over a large pond set in a Japanese garden. The pond has the requisite koi, of course. The bridge leads to what looks like a large waterfall rushing down a wall of rock but then splits off in two directions. One leads into the Marriott hotel and, to the left, Mikado.

The decor is equisite and so are the lovely waitresses in traditional Japanese attire. Of course most of the waitresses are Mexican, but what the heck. I could probably go on for pages describing the light-blonde shelving with intricate origami animals and birds, both real and imaginary, the Japenese rock garden and pond, the plant arrangements, the Japenese gowns displayed on the walls. It was all top-of-the-line.

The bar was a fair-sized curved L shape with a thick reddish and black marble top set on curved blonde-wood with a dark-wood window pane pattern. The bar-chairs were dark-wood with red-leather cushions. The cabinets behind the bar had the same thick marble top as the bar. There were a profusion of glasses stacked on top. Above were two mirror-backed glass shelves holding the liquor. When it comes to bars and restaurants, at least in Puerto Vallarta, Marriott pulls out all the stops.

I had a chilled saki.

339) El Faro Bar

Up a staircase and then into an elevator that holds just the operator and two passengers to the top of a structure designed to look like a lighthouse. There is an octogon shaped bar in the middle made of very nice wood with a light and dark grain to it. The front is made of slats of the same type of wood. A large brass rail encircles the bar. Above the bar, supported by wooden columns at each angle of the bar, is a combination wooden rack for glasses and wooden cabinets with glass backs and wood paneled glass doors in the front for the liquor supply.

From up here the view is great looking out over the marina to where the cruise ship was berthed, all light up like a holiday, and then behind to the surrounding mountains. Sweeping around you see a vista of the resorts of reasonable height and the foilage and mountains behind. Then, as you continue your sweep you encounter the newer, higher resorts that now completely block your view of the setting sun. Then, as you sweep a bit further you encounter two steel-beamed structures being erected that are, I hear, going to be 30 stories tall. The tallest ever in Puerto Vallarta. Progress never stops. Even the bus fares went up half a peso this week to 4.5 pesos.

I had a gin and tonic.

340) Zsubi

A two year old modernistic bar and lounge right on the water (well, across the sidewalk from the water). A bit out of time and place. Kind of like you are sitting in a Manhattan bar and a bunch of boats somehow washed up in front. The bar is a large L shaped affair with large tan tiles the width of the bar on top, kind of a light tan marble texture. The edging and front is light blond wood, kind of Swedish modern or Ikea. There is a light metal bar rail. The front is a nice, deep carmel-colored marble and it looks to be real marble. The bar chairs have kind of a 1950's interpretation of modern look to them, curved metal bases with a tannis-orange formed-plastic seat and back. Behind the bar are mirrored backed glass shelves holding the liquor supply. The longer I sit here the more I feel like I am in a Jetson's cartoon. Of course the fact that this is my eighth bar of the day may be contributing to that. Coincidently, the same bartender I had while at City Dump & Co. was behind the bar here. Maybe I overtipped.

I had a gin and tonic.

341) Las Palomas

I had intended to catch the bus back home but this one was on the way so I decided to stop in, knowing that I would not be making it back to the marina again this trip. Despite the similarity in names to another bar in the marina, Las Palomas Doradas, it is not the same one and is, in fact, almost at the opposite end.

This one looks kind of like you are sitting in a Mexican hacienda with a bunch of boats in your back yard. The bar has a worn wooden top with a rough wooden edging. The bar chairs are large, intricate wooden things similar to the ones in Roma but with brown vinyl instead of leather seats and trim. Above the bar is a wooden rack for glasses supported by three turned wooden posts, two of which were wrapped by Christmas lights, one set of which actually worked. A square yellow cement piller behind the bar had some decorative Mexican plates hanging on it and there was a large cooler with a block of ice in it for the beer, wine, and champagne. The rest of the stuff was kept out of sight. In the back were a few tables, a fooseball table, and a large-screen television. A pleasant enough place.

I had a gin and tonic.

342) Blue Note

Now, I really had intended to just take the bus home, in fact, having hit nine bars I already had my heading for the post "Be Nine Day At The Marina." However, fate intervened. This is Holy Week in Mexico and that means that most people have a one-week vacation. Puerto Vallarta is a favored vacation destination for people from all over Mexico and, especially, Guadalajara. The town is packed. The buses, with the newly raised fare, have decide to address this by not going all the way to the center of town, near where I live, but instead stop at the edge of town, well over a mile away. As they say, however, behind every cloud is a silver lining. My wife, however, does not say this.

Anyway, I passed by a place, on Morelos just off 31 de Octobre, that I often do during the day but it is closed then. This is a jazz club, upstairs, and a bar downstairs with a fooseball table up front and a pool table in the back. There were flashing disco lights and a bone jarringly load jukebox. A decent sized wooden bar with wooden bar-chairs and rattan seats. About half-a-dozen small tables with shorter versions of the bar-chairs. Kind of an Indian batik fabric covering the ceiling. A large statue of a frog holding up a sign saying "BIENVEIDOS" sat on one end of the bar. Pictures of Bob Marley and Che Guevara hung under a mountged deer-head. I hope I am not hallucinating.

I had a Pacifico

343) Sangria

As long as I was on a roll, somewhat literally by this time, I decided to try out another place that is usually closed when I stroll by. It is on Corona so I had to decide whether to have a Sangria or a Corona. A nice wooden bar at the back of a very narrow place. Eight wooden tables with wooden chairs and woven seats, same as the bar-stools, of which there were only three. Behind the bar is a wooden-framed mirror. The frame was wide and thick and there were liquor bottles on the top and bottom of the frame.

Kind of white stucco walls with a few interesting pictures and very nice lamps. The lamps were kind of wide curled wrought-iron pieces with a thin, almost a candle-holder projecting out which held not candles but an ice-cream cone shaped yellow and brown swirled shades. The bartender said she designed them and then had them made. She was very nice and I felt a bit badly because she thought there would be a bigger crowd because of Holy Week and we were the only people there until her sister came in with a few people and ordered beers. She also said they were trying to sell the restaurant because her husband had to go back to Italy on family business and they their lease would not allow them to sublet the place. She said if they couldn't sell it they would have to just close it and take the loss.

I decided on the Sangria.

344) Roxy

Almost home, across the river and the south side of town, at last. I couldn't pass this place up because it is one of my favorite rock clubs ever and I hadn't even been here this year. It has a kind of plain green linoleum topped bar that is rectangularly shaped except where it veers off at the end next to the stage. It is just a small stage but they always have decent groups that primarily do covers of late 60's, 70's, 80's, and early 90's rock. When the groups take a break the same type of music continues on the sound system. Posters and pictures of musicians from that era deck the walls, Eric Clapton (a favorite) Big Walter, Little Walter, Robert Johnson, an eclectic bunch. This is a dark place with a fairly busy dance floor, just the way a place like this should be. They had have two-for-one here so I got two beers in a bucket when I ordered. I just drank one and gave the other one away even though "The Village People" were singing "YMCA" on the sound system.

I had a Corona and called it a night.

Well kids, I wouldn't try this at home (for one thing they make the drinks stronger in New York) but I had a great day and now have hit 344 for the year and need only 656 more.

Cleaning Out The Southside

Well, not really cleaning out the southside, but pretty much every bar that is open during the day. Even the ones I went to today pretty much didn´t open until at least 4:00 P.M. or so. Tomorrow I am hitting the Marina again and then a few late nights in town. Still shooting for 350 before I leave here (having already passed 325, my previous goal) but we shall see.

329) Cuate´s Sports Bar

It looks like a bit of a hole-in-the-wall from outside but is is kind of a deep, narrow place that is bigger than it looks. It is on a busy street, Insurgentes, and I have walked by it about a dozen times and never seen it open before. A single balloon with ¨Good Luck¨ written on it floated forlornly behind the bar. Maybe this bar is just re-opening under new management. The very attractive young lady attired in a brown fringe mini-skirt, abbreviated and tight black top, and black spike-heeled boots (I barely gave her a second glance) sitting at the bar eating cucumber slices seemed to be the manager. She was the one who took my order for a beer and then passed it on to the woman standing behind the bar (and about a foot away from me). She also seemed to be in charge of the jukebox, which looked new. The pool-table looked new as well and there were three young guys playing. There wasn´t any light above the pool table and only a few white globe-lights mounted high on the walls around the place. Looked like it would be too dark to shoot pool at night.

The bar itself was a massive cement affair painted one of the uglier shades of brown that I have ever seen. The bar stools were plain wood and were most definitely not new. But then neither was the brown bar. Their was a fairly nice brown shelf with a mirror back behind the bar that held a rather limited selection of liquors and a few glasses.

The area with the jukebox and pool-table was set off by a yellow brick archway. The floor was nicely tiled with a light-brown marble pattern. The walls were a light-yellow wash with some pink designs; flowers, swirls, dots. There was one white wall with a bunch of names painted in yellow that were either meant to be decorative or just the undercoating for the yellow wash to come.

I had a Corona

330) Tono´s Taco Bar

This is an upstairs place on the same street, Serdan, and one block from Rizzo´s, the large supermarket-department store. It has two ancient pool-tables and an equally ancient fooseball table. With fooseball tables, kind of like pinball machines, ancient means classic. The pool-tables, on the other hand, were not classics. The bar was laminated formica with a wood-grain pattern. The front of the bar was painted a slightly less ugly shade of brown than the last place but pretty much hidden from view by the overhang. The foot rest was wood-topped cement. The metal bar-chairs had either a metal or a wood back to them and were topped by tan vinyl cushions. I got the one bar-stool that had a thicker cushion.

Somewhere in the back there was a parrot, or someone doing a very good imitation. I couldn´t find the parrot. There were a few guys at a back table playing dominoes.

The walls and ceiling were all a light-pink painted plaster with the paint peeling off the ceiling in the front. There were small, hollowed-out logs holding a variety of plants hanging from the line of cement pillers that ran the length of the room and from the side wall as well. There were plenty of overhead fans and plain industrial fluorescent-tube lighting.

I had a Pacifico

331) Roma

I headed across the bridge to the north side of town, but just barely. Right along the river on Encino is this interesting establishment. It has a lovely view of the river and from the balcony, and end chair at the bar, where I sat, you can also see one of the older automobile bridges across the river as well as the higher, new pedestrian bridge. I can´t remember what the name of this place used to be, but it is newly re-opened and the decor has changed a bit. It is so new in fact that my beer was only cool, not cold. I got it for free though because I was the first customer they had after just getting their liquor license. Timing is everything.

The bar has a nice yellowish-ivory marble-like tile top and facing on the overhang. The front is brick and the bar-rail is a narrow metal pipe. The bar-chairs are elaborate wooden constructed affairs with leather trim and cushioned seats. Behind the bar are glass shelves. The bottom one is supported by wooden supports and the top two are supported by glass bricks. They are surrounded by Christmas lights. Only two bottles were on the shelves and they were decorative Italian liquor bottles, the kind that look like military figures in fancy dress uniforms. Also behind the bar are clocks set to Cannes, Habanna, Venecia, Hollywood, and local times.

They show movies here, mostly art films, Fellini and the ilk. I did see a Felliniesque movie here last year that had Mel Gibson playing an FBI agent who had a third arm surgically removed from his back. He says in the movie that when he was a kid he could play the accordian and wipe his ass at the same time. Name of the movie was ¨Million Dollar Hotel.¨ For another film about someone who gets, and then loses a third arm see ¨The Dark Backward¨ with Judd Nelson, Bill Paxton, and Wayne Newton.

The walls of Roma are painted with lovely murals of, surprise, Rome. The back rooms contain a most electic art collection. This place is most certainly worth a visit if you are ever in town.

I had a slightly warm, but free, Corona.

332) Los Amigos

A second story bar that announces via a sign on the stairwell that it is a ¨Friendly Gay Bar.¨ It seemed to be as I chatted pleasantly with the bartender, Charlie, and the owner, Arturio (Charlie has been Arturio´s boyfriend for three years now). The bar is a huge thing that has seating for at least 50. It is shapped like two rectangles, a large one with a smaller one abutting it to the rear. Just plain wooden stools covered with patterned cloth, but lots of them. A large glass/plexiglass shelf hangs above the long rectangular section of the bar with an impressive collection of liquors. The bar top is chocolate-brown tile and the edging is wood. The facing is a dark-brown paneling.

There is a very nice, two-level outside deck with a nice view of the surrounding buildings and trees and a not so nice view of the construction site immediately adjacent. White Mexican-style cowboy hats hang from the ceiling as do numerous rainbow buntings and red, white, and green plastic pennents. Stuck in the iron grill seperating the deck from the main area were several rainbow-colored umbrellas. There were a bunch of Mexican pictures on the wall behind me, chickens, sombrerros, and pottery. Across from me were a few pictures of Zapata and his band of followers. A gladiator movie was playing on the television.

I had a Corona, served with Cheese Doodles and called it a day.

Only four today. I had planned on going out again later in the evening but didn´t get around to it so now I have some catching up to do. Still, 332 down and only 668 left.

Mundane Monday

A lot of places were closed today for some reason. I am begining to run out of bars on the south side of town, at least ones that are open in the afternoon. Tomorrow I will be making a night-time sweep to see what I can pick up.

327) Dragon Rojo

This place, on Insurgentes, has a somewhat Asian ambience, as you might gather from its name. A fairly good-sized bar with a dark-wood top resting on what looks to be cement covered with some kind of varnished cloth. Kind of like burlap but lighter and finer. The bar rail was bamboo as were the bar-chairs which had woven backs and light-tan cushions. There were two large light-pink Chinese lanterns hanging above the bar from decorative wooden cabinets with glass holders on the bottom. A couple more of the same lanterns hung from a large cement beam over the fairly spacious dining area. Behind the bar was a dark-brown cement credenza with louvered dark-wood doors. Above that was a dark-wood, mirror-backed shelf that held the liquor supply.

Several Asian-style prints, mostly of tree branches, blossoms, and birds (all on the same print) decorated the pale yellow walls. There was a small outside eating area extended in front of the place. Wind chimes hung in the three large arched doorways.

Directly behind the bar and facing the customer was a large bar-sink rimmed in bright-red ceramic tile. I got to enjoy my beer listening to the Mexican woman washing the dishes singing softly to herself.

I had a Pacifico.

328) La Fonda

Up Badillo, past Steve's (a key reference point for me) is La Fonda. It has an L shaped bar with a nice wood top that had a light and dark grain to it and was nicely finished. The front of the bar is white plaster, kind of an extension of the wall itself. Above the bar is a curved wooden rack for the glasses. The kitchen is also behind the bar. The bar stools were light wood, kind of minimal, with a small seat. Not the most comfortable.

The inside eating area had a battleship-gray floor. The ceiling was painted to look like a cloudy sky with sillouettes of birds, the kind that look like pterodactyls and ply the skys above the bay here. There were a few paintings by a local artist on the walls that were for sale (the paintings, not the walls). There was also a nice little outdoor eating area in the back that was accessible through a sliding glass door.

I had a gin and tonic and called it a day.

Two today to bring me up to 328 for the year and 672 left to go.

Balmy Palmy Sunday

A very nice day but I wasn´t sure what I would find open because it is Palm Sunday. There were a few places closed, but not too many. I think Monday might be some kind of a holiday as well, but I am not too sure.

322) Las Brazzas Grill

From the south-side of town you take the little swinging bridge to the far end of the Isle Cuale and you end up at this small, very unpretentious place. It is the only place on the island that isn´t super fancy and very expensive. Just a small cement building. The bar is a small L shaped affair with a rough brown and gravel top and a narrow dark blue overhang. There are 3 glass blocks with a kind of swirling and bubble design embedded in the top of the bar. The wall behind the bar is made of large bricks. The side walls are kind of a mustard yellow and deep orange. Just room for 3 wooden chairs with a curved sun design on the backs and woven seats. The floor is white ceramic tile. A huge black iron bouy or something with a small Christmas tree on top dominates one side of the room. There are just two blue wooden tables, each with three painted wooden chairs in the inside area. The roof is orange tile and a single overhead fan and three beehive lights hang from the ceiling.

Outside along one wall is a narrow area that is covered by a blue vinyl canopy. There are about four wooden tables out there with four chairs each. Kind of a nice spot to stop on the way home from shopping or whatever on the north-side of town.

I had a Pacifico.

323) La Tia

A fairly large curved bar at the back of a decent sized restaurant located on Cardenza across from the small park that appears to be headed for destruction to make more room for parking. The bar has a thick cement top covered with large yellow ceramic tiles except for the front edge which has a single row of dark-green tiles. The front of the bar as well as the fairly massive structure behind it is somewhat difficult to describe. Rough dark concrete embedded with orange bricks, stones, edges of bricks, and narrow straight and curved ceramic pieces the same orange color as the bricks. These were arranged to give it the flavor of some kind of Aztec design. The ledge at the bottom of the bar was dark concrete embedded with dark stones and small pieces of brick. The big bad wolf is certainly not going to be able to blow this bar down.

The structure behind the bar had three tiers of shelves holding a decent selection liquor. Above the bar was a large copper pipe affair that held a large number of margarita and wine glasses. It had decorative copper agave plants at each end and in the middle the copper was formed to say ´Azul Tequila.´ ´Azul´is spanish for blue and all of the best tequila is made from 100% blue agave.

The area behind the bar had a three-story high atrium topped by a skylight. Hanging from lower beams were an elaborate model of a multi-masted sailing vessel and a large mobile made out of driftwood and seashells.

I had a Pacifico and headed back home to pick up my wife and head out to the north-side of town.

324) de Santos

On Moreles street, one block behind the malecon after the malecon kind of angles off a block is this fairly modernistic looking place. It has a long white marble topped bar with a smooth plaster front and a heavy pipe bar rail. The barstools were of a modern design and made out chromed tubing with brushed aluminum seats. There were a lot of lights hanging over the bar with cylinderic parchment shades. The overhead lights in the rest of the place had large cone-shaped shades made of the same material. The floor is tan marble-like tile. Behind the bar are rather plain looking wooden shelves holding the liquor supply and a large espresso machine.

To the right of the bar and separated by large sliding glass doors is an outside eating area with four white linen tableclothed tables and bright metal chairs similar in syle to the barstools. Behind the eating area was the kitchen that had a large open window so you could watch your food being prepared.

The inside area had about sixteen wooden tables with white linen tablecloths and wooden chairs. The eight tables against the back wall sat up against a long white settee above which hung a large mirror. Two stone and brick arches divided the interior into three sections. They are obviously trying to be a fancy, upscale place but not succeeding very well. Only one other couple in the place when we got there. There prices a quite high too, some of their specialty martinis going for $14.00 (that is U.S. dollars, not pesos).

My wife ordered a chocolate martini and it was $9.00 and one of the worst I have ever seen. Gin in a glass with Hershey´s chocolate syrup squirted into it that just kind of settled to the bottom in a lump. When I finally found someone who spoke English well enough to explain this wasn´t the way they were normally made they gave my wife a frozen margarita instead. To make amends they really loaded it up with tequila so she was pretty much tipsy the rest of the night, even though she didn´t have anything more to drink.

I had a gin and tonic and it was decent enough.

325) Blue Shrimp

Right next door is Blue Shrimp and it was as packed as the de Santo´s was empty. Just a small bar with only one stool but the hostess arranged to have another one brought out so my wife could have a seat too. The bar-top is smoothed cement with a finish to make it look like tan marble. The front of the bar is white cement with brown stripes. The whole bar is rectangular in shape but just the one short side is for ¨special¨ customers. Brightly colored margarita glasses hang above the bar. The shelving above the hanging glasses have sliding glass doors and hold the liquor.

The restaurant is decorated to give the feel of being underwater. Coral hangs from the ceiling and walls with brightly colored wooden fishes flitting about. A diver´s helmet sits on a cupboard in the back. A large, bright-red lobster-claw flower and a large wooden lobster sit in the window. The new-age music that was playing when we came in added to the dreamy, underwater atmosphere but that changed when a wandering mariachi band stopped in to seranade the customers.

I had a gin and tonic.

326) Los Xitomates

Headed out and we walked past de Santos which looked like it managed to add one more couple to their ¨crowd.¨ Nice looking place, but they need to do something. We walked about three blocks down Morales to Los Xitomates and it too was packed.

The bar is a nice L shaped, dark-wood with a lacquer finish. The front is white cement with decorative tiles embedded. Only three wooden bar-chairs with rattan seats at the short end of the bar. Hanging over the bar are lights with cylindrical shades that look to be made of copper and have cutout Aztec style patterns. On the walls are mounted lights with half-cylinder shades of the same style.

From the ceiling above the eating area behind the bar hang groupings of three lights with cone-shaped shades of the same metal as the other lights, but with no cut-outs. The ceiling is quite high with dark wooden beams. The front eating area has a lower ceiling but their is a stairway leading up to a small seating area above it. The wooden staircase is covered with muslin, presumably to keep the people sitting below it from looking up the skirts of the women as they ascend and descend.

I had a gin and tonic served with a glass stir-stick with a little red tomato perched on top.

Not a bad day, 5 bars to bring my total to 326 leaving me only 674 to go.

The Long Goodbye

As predicted, yesterday was devoted solely to recovery with very little drinking except a few beers on the beach. Today wasn´t a lot better. My friends had a 10:00 P.M. flight and had to leave for the airport. They wanted to spend their last day on the beach, and who could blame them? The weather was gorgeous. I did manage to wander down the beach a bit and hit:

321) The Beach Cafe

The Beach Cafe is, surprise, right on the beach. The bar itself is on the second floor and has a great view of the beach and bay. The bar extends quite a ways on both sides of a small semi-circular area manned by the bartender. The bar extension to the right is open-air and uncovered. The extension to the left is covered by a tile roof and a dark-green vinyl awning. The bartop is smoothed cement with decorative little stone chips embedded in it. The front of the extensions is made of decorative reddish stone blocks with patterned openings. The front of the circular area is white cement with 2 light-blue quarter-moons with faces, a yellow, smiling sun, and a number of dark blue stars. A beer cooler stacked with cans of coconut milk and various canned fruit for making frozen drinks stands behind the bar.

The whole place is done up primarily in lime-green and lemon-yellow paint with a few orange touches downstairs. The wooden bar-chairs are painted lime-green. The fairly large deck behind the right-hand extension where we were sitting is tiled and has two large orange umbrellas shading a couple of tables. The three sides of the deck not facing the bay were lined with dark-green and white plastic chairs. Behind the left extension it is much darker because it is covered and there is a television. Last year I watched the super-bowl there but was in the bathroom for the Janet Jackson incident. No matter, I saw it about 100 times on the various news shows that felt compelled to repeat it while simultaneously criticising how inappropriate it was.

I had a Negro Modela

Progress is slowing but hopefully will pick up a bit next week. 321 down, 679 left to go.

Saint Patrick's Day

Way, way too much recreational drinking today. Green tequila jello shots on the beach started us out, then more beers on the beach, homemade green frozen margaritas, shots of racillia, and repeat visits to bars. Not good. But I did manage to hit one new one.

320) C.O. Jones

This bar and grill has only been open for three weeks and has been closed for the last three days because the manager had food poisoning. Not a ringing endorsement for the place and I probably won't be eating there anytime soon. There culinary specialty is cheesesteaks.

This used to be a Japanese restaurant and a few of the trappings are still around, lanterns out front and red-fringed light pulls. They have a nice wood topped bar but with a fake-brick front. Kind of tacky. The bar rail is a thick pipe. Above the bar is a nice ornate wooden wine rack supported by wooden columns. There are dark wood shelves behind the bar with mirrored backing. Wooden barstools with light-tan vinly cushions. It has a very nice patterned tile floor, kind of an Aztec design. There is a mirror on the wall to the right of the bar that has a multi-colored tiled frame. The walls are whitewashed and there are a few brick arches.

I had a Pacifico and we all headed out to do some serious damage to ourselves at bars that cannot be counted because they are repeaters.

320 for the year and 680 to go.

A Bus Ride

The weather wasn't the greatest, not good enough for hanging out on the beach but good enough for a bus ride.

316) Mi Ranchito

We took the bus to Boca de Tomatlan, a little village just past Mismaloya. It sits on the mouth of a river that is pretty low this time of year but quite large during the rainy season. Mi Ranchito is one of about three or four bar/restaurants sitting on a little beach. Waiters for the various restaurants vie for your attention and business. The beach used to be much larger but still hasn't recovered from the hurricane a couple of years ago. They have built a primitive bulkhead. Two guys with wheelbarrows were digging up sand from the small delta at the river's mouth and hauling it up to backfill behind the bulkhead. Another three guys were picking up cement blocks and loading them into a small fishing boat to take further south along the bay.

Mi Ranchito had a little wooden-plank bar sitting under an orangish clay-tile roof. The top of the bar was covered with a dark-brown vinyl. Behind the bar are a couple of plain wooden shelves covered with green, yellow, and orange patterned cloth. The attraction of this place is the relative seclusion of the beach and the numerous plastic chairs and tables covered with brightly covered tablecloths that sit on the water's edge under small palapas. This is a good place to catch a water taxi to smaller secluded beaches that cannot be reached buy bus or car. Boca de Tomatlan is as far south as you can go on the bay without using a boat.

The weather wasn't very cooperative, a bit of sun, then clouds, and too chilly to just hang out. We decided to take a bus further up into the mountains.

I had a Pacifico before heading out.

317) Centro Botanero el Banjo

We took the bus quite a way up the mountain to the small town of El Tuito. The sign says the population is 3,500 but it appears to be much smaller. I suspect that is because much of the population lives not in the little town itself but out in the farms and ranches that surround it. We walked around a bit before finding this place on the street one block off of the main drag. There is a little cement building painted white with a large, dirt-floor area surrounded by a wooden fence. There are a number of white plastic Corona chairs and Pacifico tables. The jukebox is in a padlocked iron cage secured to a cement slab.

The small wooden slat bar sits in a back corner up against the small cement building that houses a very small kitchen. On the wall behind the bar is a painting of three Mexican gentlemen quaffing beverages while seated at a small round table. Next to that over the buildings doorway is a painting of a horse's head with pink mountains and a waterfall in the background. The limited menu was also painted on the wall. The waitress spoke no English but seemed pleased that I was writing about the pictures. Perhaps she, or someone she knew, painted them. The waitress also liked our digital camera and after we showed her how it worked she took pictures of us. I don't think they get too many tourists stopping into their place.

There wasn't much more to see in the town and the busses only ran every hour. We made it back to the town-square just in time to catch one heading back.

I had a Pacifico.

318) Teo's

We took the bus back down and stopped off just before Mismaloya. There are a couple of restaurants there, El Set and John Houston's Night of the Iquana. These are both located near the remnants of the sets for "Night of the Iquana." The filming of this movie is what put Puerto Vallarta on the map. Neither of the places were open yet because we got there too late for lunch and too early for dinner.

We took the somewhat steep cement steps (at least now there is a railing) down to the beach and stopped at Teo's. There are a lot of little bar/restaurants on this stretch but this was the second one we came to and the waiter did a good job of encourging us to "check it out." It a concrete slab about 25 feet by 25 feet elevated above the beach by yellow concrete posts. You climb up a brick staircase to get to it. Large Canadian, Mexican, and American flags were blowing in the breeze. Half of the slab is covered by a red vinyl awning with a Coca Cola logo. Behind the slab is an orange concrete structure with the typical tile roof. This houses the small kitchen and a small curved bar covered in brown vinyl that had a large diamond shaped pattern. Framed montages of happy customers adorned the walls. The tables and chairs are the typical white plastic ones supplied by Corona. The tables were covered by pale green tablecloths with white, fringed tablecloths set diagonally on top. The drinks the women ordered each came adorned with large, bright-red hibiscus.

I had a banana daiquiri

319) Ramada Miramar

Heading down towards where you catch the bus back to downtown Puerto Vallarta and down a dirt road behind the huge Mismaloya Hotel, you come to a small wooden bridge across a small river. Here you find a truly delightful place that is in no way associated with the Ramada Hotel. It sits on the edge of the river and is surrounded by lush foilage full of birds and butterflies. The river itself had numerous birds of various types either stalking or swimming about. You would never guess that you are within a stone's throw of a crowded beach and hotel.

Crossing the bridge you go up a small staircase and enter a red-tiled deck with two levels. The lower half is open air with the back half covered with a red tile roof. Bamboo railings surround this part of the deck. The elevated part, where the small bar is, is covered by a large palapa. Green iron railings surround this area. The lower deck has mostly the same white plastic tables you see and chairs you see everywhere but covered with bright tablecloths. Ours was orange. There was also one large wooden table with ornate wooden chairs that was covered by a nice white lace tablecloth. The tables and chairs on the upper deck are wooden and covered with the same bright tablecloths. The bar itself had a white marble-like top with a bamboo front. Simple wooden shelving behind the bar held the liquor supply. More montages of happy customers adorned the walls. Flags draped one wall.

Only one of the women ordered a drink here, that Chinese woman was getting a little tipsy so she settled for bottled water. The one drink came with a nice white hibiscus though.

This is a very nice place and if you ever get to Mismaloya I would urge you to seek it out before heading to the numerous places on the beach.

I had a frozen margarita and we caught the bus back to town. We stopped at a couple of places when we got back, Steve's and Sweeny's (where we had excellent meals as well), but they were both repeats.

Not a bad day and at 319 I now have only 681 left to go. Looks like I should easily make my 325 before leaving Mexico but I suspect there will be a lot of repeaters tomorrow, St. Patrick's Day.

A Gay Old Time

Kind of a gloomy day so we didn't do a whole lot except a bit of shopping. We stopped back at El Casa Tequila for another delicious margarita, had great ribs at El Torito's, and a sunset drink at the pool. Then we headed out to hit a few places.

313) Portugol

Right next door to the packed Senor Frogs is this large, almost cavernous, bar that caters primarily to Mexicans. While they have velvet ropes and bouncers at Senor Frogs, this place is almost always empty. Only four people in there when we arrived.

The nice wooden bar looks to be about 50 feet long and has a few semi-circle protrusions so you can fit in a few more people. Only 5 bar-stools though so it must be a stand-up kind of place. On the other hand there must have been 30 ashtrays. It does have a bar-rail for resting your foot. The front of the bar is red cement. There are large mirrors behind the bar with shelves for the liquor and glasses. There are also white kitchen-type cupboards with glass doors holding more glasses. Mexican artifacts and an old sewing-machine sit on top of the cupboards and the shelving above the mirrors. The remainder of the back wall is stone.

There is a pool-table and a working dartboard that was getting some action. The flooring is nice dark-wood planking. There are several blue-wooden tables with blue-wooden chairs with light-wood seats. There are two pillars a couple feet in diameter with a circular table-top built about waist-high for setting your drinks on. There were two jukeboxes but only one was playing (seems reasonable) and two televisions that were sitting side-by-side and both playing the same soccer game. There were a number of flags against the back wall but I only recognized the ones from the United States, Canada, and Mexico. I am guessing one is from Portugual and maybe one from Brazil because the place nextdoor, a steakhouse with no bar, is named Brasil.

This is a really nice place and for the life of me I can't figure out why Senor Frogs is always packed with lines waiting to get in and this place sits almost empty.

I had a Pacifico.

314) The Ranch

This is the back bar to Club Paco Paco but has its own entrance next door to El Toritos and across the street from Senor Frogs and Portugol on Carranza. The entrance to Club Paco Paco is on Ignacio L. Vallarta. Once again I prevailed upon my friend Sandy to do the honors:

The bar resembles a lunch-counter at a deli. Red ceramic tiles, top and front. The walls are blue cement. There is a spiral staircase that leads to a catwalk above a cage, or jailhouse at the backside of the dancefloor in the next room and from which you could get a good view of whatever show goes on later in the evening. There is spot-lit disco-ball hanging above the middle of the dancefloor. There are small, high tables with seating for two lining the walls on the side of the dancefloor. Two televisions hang from the ceiling for showing videos. There is a large painting of a nude hanging on the wall. Clay shingles hang above the catwalk and give the dancefloor the appearance of being a separate room. The dancefloor itself is black and white marble squares. On the side of the dancefloor opposite the tables is a rustic wooden staircase leading up to a second level. At the turn in the staircase is an old saddle slung over the railing.

My take on the place was that it was kind of like walking into a deli and then, if you walked into the next room, stepping into a set from 'Deadwood.'

I had a Corona and off we went.

315) La Noche

Blue flickering torches on Cardenas drew us into this elegant place. It had a nice wooden topped bar built on glass-bricks that were lit from behind with a black-light. The entire place had red walls. The back of the bar had a large, arched mirror with clear plastic shelving holding the liquor and glasses. The black-light from behind the glass-bricks gave the area an interesting glow. There were candles in brightly patterned margarita glasses sitting on the bar. On the end of the bar closest to the doorway was a large, free-form, reddish-orange glass candle holder that glowed from the light of the candle within. At the other end of the bar and in front of the doors to the restrooms were several tall mauve and lavender pillars with mexican turtles, armadillos, birds, etc., sitting on top of them. These are the toys that you buy from street vendors that have bobbing heads (the toys have the bobbing heads, not the street vendors).

There is a very large black wrought-iron chandelier with blue glass shaded lights hanging overhead. Several small lava lamps on the walls, kind of like lava lamp night-lights. The place was jammed with nice low round blond wooden topped tables and comfortable Sweedish style blond wood chairs that were quite comfortable. The floor was just cracked cement with a glass squared step that led up to a small alcove that held two small round tables and sofas on three sides. This was occupied by two young gentlemen who really should have been looking for a hotel room. The snacks were nice, pretzels and cheese.

I had a Pacifico and we headed home but didn't quite get there without stopping for another beer at Sweeny's. Unfortunately this stop didn't count because I had already been there. Someone had ordered a steak and it looked and smelled wonderful. He said he always ordered it there and it was in fact delicious. I am putting this on my things-to-do list.

Not a bad day, three bars hit to bring my total to 315 with 685 left to go. There are two bars in the process of being built that might be done before I leave. Actually, they are bars being built into restaurants that didn't have bars before. I like to think they are building them just for me.

Another One Bar Day

Spent the morning on the beach, kind of a gloomy afternoon, went to eat dinner at Bohemio (great shrimp and meatloaf) and then headed out for an after dinner drink at:

312) Mi Cocina

Located on Venustiano Carranza on the corner of Constitucion is this largely open-air restaurant and bar. The bar itself is made out of fairly large stones (or fairly small boulders, depending upon your perspective) with a light-colored cement top covered with a light-tan linoleum-like top. I asked my friend Sandy, "Bob's" wife, to do the honors of writing up this place, so:

Strung over the bar there are three flags; American, Canadian, and Mexican. The wall behind the bar is a gold and orange washed cement with a single cement counter lined with glasses. The dining area is constructed of a grass roof supported by palm trees with randomly placed hanging lights constructed out of grape-vines to form bee hives. Towards the back of the dining area are banana plants growing out of holes in the cement. Next to the bar stands a cooler that looks like a Coca Cola machine. A supermarket shopping cart sits in front of the kitchen area. It is probably used when purchasing the ingredients for the days meals.

The restaurant sits on a busy street so you are innundated with the sound and smell of public transportation.

At approximately 9:00 P.M. fireworks went off that could be seen from the back-side of the dining area.

I had a Pacifico and called it a day.

Grand total of 312 bars, 688 left to go.

A Penless Day

Well, actually the day wasn't quite penless, but sometimes a certain theme seems to run through a day as though it has a life of its own. The day started out with breakfast at Bob's Place. If you like your eggs benedict with no Canadian bacon but then, when you complain about it, getting two strips of regular bacon on the side, this is the place for you. The chorizo omelette had no discernable chorizo but was so heavily laden with jalapeno peppers that I broke a sweat after my friend gave me two bites to try. Anyway, on the way back from breakfast I stopped to use an internet cafe and my wife and friends continued back to our place. My wife stopped to chat with someone and my friends went up to change into their bathing suits to hang out by the beach. They were going to leave a note but discovered that neither of them had a pen. As a result one of them left a note in lipstick for me. And that is how it started.

Later we headed to the north side of town and just where the bridge on Vallarta begins to cross the river but still on the south side of town we ducked into:

307) Hotel Molino de Aqua Bar

This is a nice little bar tucked into the courtyard and pool area of the Hotel Molino. On the way to the bar you pass by two very large iron cages, one holding a somewhat subdued parrot and the other one holding some kind of a monkey (el mono). The bar is a square brick affair with a tan tile top. Two sides of the bar are for drinking, although there are only two stools. One side holds the liquor supply and the other side is the service area with the doorway to get into the thing. Around the top edge of the bar is a border of tiles with floral patterns. The top of the bar is covered by a peaked red-tile roof.

There is an adjacent outdoor eating area with palms and other trees giving it a lush tropical feel. The trees also insulate it from the nearby busy street so it is quite quiet and peaceful. The pool has a little waterfall and tucked beside it is a jacuzzi. There were a bunch of little kids frolicking about and having a grand old time. Right by the bar is a large clock on an ornamental post to remind you of the time. Seems a bit out of place in this setting. There were also a number of statues, wooden and stone, placed about the place.

I had a Pacifico and we crossed the bridge that we came to.

308) Bebo Tero

Before we got across the bridge we stopped to price some souvenir pens. They wanted 10 pesos (about 90 cents) but I convinced my friend to bargain them down. They wouldn't budge so we moved on without buying any. The saga of the pen, part two.

Bebo Tero is right on the Malecon up a narrow staircase behind a narrow door. I must have passed this place a couple of times and never spotted it. Luckily my friend has a trained eye (that and the fact that there was a guy standing outside encouraging us to go in). Up the staircase was a fairly large place with a somewhat bizzare decor. There were many paintings done in the style of Fernando Botero. If you are unfamiliar with his works, suffice it to say that his paintings are almost cartoonish depictions of very fat people. The paintings here were quite up to his quality but were very amusing. Everyone from Fidel Castro to Sylvestor Stallone's Rambo was represented. As you first come up the stairs there is a large, what looked to be paper mache, fat, scantily clad (draped in white gauze) woman with one breast exposed sitting on a park bench. A good photo opportunity if you wanted to sit down next to her. Also one of those things where you can stick your head through holes and have your pictures taken. This one had a fat Adam and Eve.

The bar itself was a small green cement thing with a wooden top. I don't expect it gets much use because the view is really great from almost every place but the bar. A narrow balcony has a great view of the bay and you can look over to Nuevo Vallarta where it looks like a major city is springing up. There is a small stage for live music and behind it was a large sun with the head of a masked Mexican wrestler in the center. There are lots of colorfully painted wooden tables and chairs and stools about the place. The walls are an interestingly patterned blue and there are bright green and red arches separate the two large areas of the place and there is one over the balconey as well.

I had a blended margarita.

309) Garbo's

After a nice dinner at El Dorado's on the beach (see an earlier post) we hit this martini bar. It was here I realized, that for the first time ever, I had forgotten my notecards and pen at home. Obviously, nobody else had a pen either. I ended up borrowing a pen from the hostess to take notes.

Garbo's is just up from the Kit Kat Club and has a somewhat similar ambience. It is a fancy Manhatatan type of place. The bar has a heavy dark marble top and a light cream-colored front. There were little candles on the bar and on the few tables in the place. There were lucite shelves on the wall behind the bar and a mosaic tile shelf below them to store the liquor. Nicely cushioned bar stools. There was a riser in the back with a black lacquered grand piano. Again, we were too early for entertainment. Overall the place had an art-deco feel to it. Hanging over the bar were lights with light-tan mottled plastic shades. There were two large sprays of bright-red "lobster claw" flowers. It is a fairly small, dark place. The backs of the bartenders tee shirt, as well as the tee shirts worn by some of the regular customer's, is that famous line "Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just glad to see me?" This was said to W.C. Fields by Mae West in the movie "My Little Chickadee." What not too many people know is that Mae West wrote the script for that movie.

I had a nicely made (read that as strong) gin and tonic.

310) Sama

This place is right next to The Palm, where I saw "The Rocky Horror Picture Show," and we hit the story of the pen, phase three. Nobody here had a pen that I could borrow for long enough to take my notes. As a result my wife and my buddy's wife had to search out a place that was still open that sold them. Luckily they found one and I now have a very nice, compact, Puerto Vallarta souvenier pen. They wouldn't tell me how much it cost. Enough with the pen now.

This bar is very small, maybe 20 feet by 20 feet, and has a very small outdoor seating area. The small bar had a black plastic top and a white front. The top had an overhang to it and held flashing lights. There were large, think 5 foot, plastic champagne flutes both inside and on the outside seating area that were made to look like the held brightly colored beverages. The outside seating area is really no more than a couple of tables and stools on the sidewalk. The barstools were bright red, plastic bucket-seat affairs that were really quite comfortable. There were multi-colored lights with cone-shaped plastic shades hanging above the bar.

There was a white couch against one wall with a large black-wood framed mirror above it.On the opposite wall were clocks set to Paris, Los Angeles, New York, and Puerto Vallarta time, in case you really needed to know what time it was in those places. There were classic MTV videos playing on the television and the sound system was really cranked up.

I had a banana martini and after my wife tasted it she and my buddies wife decided to keep it so I had to order another one for myself.

311) Dewayn's

This bar is on the street where I live, Ampas, right on the corner of Pilitas. It used to be the Papi Chulo Oasis until a few years ago. It is only a couple of blocks away from my place. It was very dark, lit primarily by candles and a few dim light-bulbs. The bar was a nice, massive, mosaic tile affair with a stone edging. The mosaic had inlaid glass bead palm-trees. Kind of New Orleans meets Mexico. The whole place had a very Mexican decor with Mexican blankets draping the dark-red walls. A lot of those Mexican doilies hung from the ceiling. There were Mexican cowboy hats hanging behind the bar and the bartender was wearing one himself. There were a couple of tables with chairs but not much else except a small stage. Behind the stage were yellow hard-hats hanging on the wall somehow evoking "The Village People."

I had a Pacifico and off home my buddy and I did toddle, or wives having left us after Santo's. Probably worn out from shopping for pens.

Not a bad day at all as I hit 311 for the year and only have 689 left to visit.

Another One Bar Day

Friends of mine arrived a little after noon today. They quickly settled in and I had frozen margaritas waiting for them. We drank them down and headed to:

306) Bob´s Place

My buddy´s nickname is Bob (kind of like ¨Her name was McGill, she called herself Lil, but everyone knew her as Nancy¨). It is a bit of a long story because his name is not Robert. Anyway, I digress.

Bob´s Place is on Aquiles Serdan, the last street before the river on the south side of town. It is up about half a block from the bay. The top of the bar is blue tile and the bar itself is brick. There are eight wooden bar-chairs with tourquise cushions. Behind the bar is fiberglass replica of a 230 pound blue marlin that was caught by a 14 year-old boy. Bob, the real Bob and owner of the place, was here and explained all of this to us. If you go on a catch-and-release fishing boat they take a picture of the fish, estimate the weight, and then release the fish. Then, using the picture of the fish as a guide you can pay to have a fiberglass replica ¨made.¨ I always suspect, though, that someone looks at the picture and then hollers out ¨Bin 14,¨ and someone hauls down one of the replicas of a blue marlin in the 200 to 250 pound weight range. But then I am a cynic.

To the left of the bar was a poster depicting pictures of all kinds of billed fish. Made it easy to identify the one behind the bar. Behind the bar there were a few pictures of people and the fish they caught. There was a picture of the father of the 14 year-old boy, but none of the boy himself, for some reason. There was also light wooden shelving behind the bar backed by a mirror. The shelving held their liquor supply. On either side of the blue marlin were carriage lamps with light blue glass. White Chrismas lights were twinkling above the fish. The floor of the bar was gray-patterned tile and the walls were light blue. There is a stairway leading up to apartments above the place. Inquire at the car-rental place next door for rates.

A small outdoor eating area is in front of the place and it is covered by a multi-colored awning strung with multi-colored Christmas lights. A nice courtyard is in the back surrounded by a wall and covered by green-corogated fiberglass. A large stained-glass hangs in the back with doves and sailboats. Fans with lights hang overhead. A sparrow was pecking for crumbs on the floor to complete the naturalistic setting.

I had a decent frozen margarita and we all headed home.

Upon arriving home we passed a party going on next door and stopped in and drank more than, perhaps, we should have. We then went to a Mariachi concert and by the time that was over we decided to call it a night. My friends were up very early this morning to catch their flight and were pooped.

Well, 306 down and 694 to go. Was hoping to hit 350 bars before leaving Mexico but don´t think I will make it. Revised schedule is 350 before the end of the month. Still well ahead of schedule though.

Not Much Of A Friday

A slow day today. There is going to be a pot-luck party down at the pool tonight so I spent most of the day buying groceries and making deviled eggs. I pride myself on my deviled eggs even though I only came in second in a deviled egg making contest once. But that is another story altogether.

305) Internet Bar and Cafe

This is kind of sad in that the only bar I am hitting today is the place that I am sitting in writing this. However, The place does have a bar with stools that is separated by a partition from the area where the PCs are located and I did sit at the bar and drink my beer before coming here to write this. It is on Madero, up about a block from the beach and right next to the Hotel Gaviota Vallarta. Across the street is a little place called Los Lobos that bills itself as a nightclub. I will have to make a point of stopping in there one evening.

The bar has a wooden top and a tile front with a large brown, tan, and green diamond pattern. There is a pelican lamp sitting on one end of the bar. There are a lot of pictures of old Mexico behind the bar and, of course, a few of our friend Zapata. Two televisions playing Mexican music videos. I am begining to like them more and more all the time. There is also one of those pictures of a waterfall where it looks like the water is actually flowing down the mountain. There is a fairly large mirror behind the bar with a ceramic elephant head attached to the top. Three shelves of liquor finish off the decor.

Not much point in writing about the rest of the place, it is just an internet cafe with large windows facing the street and large windows in the back looking out on the next door hotel´s swimming pool. The blinds were pulled though so I had to sneak a peek to see this.

I had a Pacifico at the bar and then slid over here to post this.

Creeping along ever so slowly today with 305 down and 695 left to go. Hopefully I can gain a bit more ground next week when my friends show up. The problem will be prying my buddy out of a bar after only one drink. I know how hard it is for me to leave sometimes, and I am a man with a mission!

100 Bars In Puerto Vallata

I hit my 100th bar since arriving in Puerto Vallarta today. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Getting a bit harder to find them though, but I have spotted a few to visit in the future.

302) 2 For 1

Yes, that actually is the name of the bar as well as it's drink philosophy. I am not a big fan of this concept because sometimes you really do want to stop in for just one, like today. I still have to pay the "2 for 1" price of 35 pesos for two beers even though I only drank one.

The grand opening of this bar, located in the Mall Vallarta at the end of the Malecon and up one block, is tomorrow. They were still putting the finishing touches on the place. It used to be a different bar but they changed owners and are doing a major remodeling job. It is a second story bar and you get to it by taking an escalator from the street. This is the only escalator I have ever seen in Puerto Vallarta. Let's see how it holds up. Can't do any worse than the escalators in the subways in New York that hardly ever run.

The bar area itself sits off to the right of the second floor of the street-level mall. It looks like it is being completely remodeled because it was being worked on and there were no shops open. The bar itself is light wood with a brick front. There were half a dozen wooden bar-chairs. Behind the bar were two wooden cabinets with wrought-iron hinges. Behind and above the bar was an unfinished shelf divided into five compartments. There was a television in each of the end compartments and mirrors at the back of the other three. It wasn't set up yet so there were no bottles on display. There is a DJ booth in one corner with windows on either side that look out on the malecon and the bay. From the music being played it looks like it will have either a disco or techno flavor to it.

There is a wrap-around balcony with large glass windows and French doors. The color scheme is light-orange (top) and dark-orange (bottom) painted plaster walls with a dark green band separating the two colors. The ceiling above the bar and the area immediately behind the bar-chairs is lower than the ceiling in the rest of the place and is painted a sea-green and has recessed spot-lighting. The rest of the place has a much higher ceiling with those beehive lights and ceiling fans. The floor is large marble squares seperated by stones inlaid in cement. Lots of small round wooden-topped tables sitting on metal poles with high wooden chairs.

I was talking to the bartender about the overnight destruction of a park about a block away to make room for a parking garage. He said it was too bad but there were so many cars in Puerto Vallarta now and so many people driving in from the surrounding areas to work there that something had to be done. He said that many people, including tourists, think of Puerto Vallarta as still being a Mexican town when in reality, when you consider the greater Puerto Vallarta area, it now has a population of over half-a-million people. Something that I had never really thought about. There will probably be more escalators in the future.

I had a Pacifico and headed back to my side of the river.

303) La Escondida Sports Bar

Back over on the south-side of the river at 210 Jacarandas, was this nice little place. It had a very nice light-wood parquette topped bar with a dark wooden front. There were 6 dark-wood bar-chairs with dark-blue cushions. There was a nice brick arch over the bar hung with white Christmas lights. Narrow shelves behind the bar held an ample liquor selection. There were triangular, wood-framed mirrors behind the bar as well and several sports pennants. Also some flowers and a few pictures of what I assumed to be regular customers. There were several floral arrangements about the place and they were all real flowers. All in all this was a very pleasant bar with a friendly bartender named Mary.

The floor was gray tile and there was a bunch of little tables with bright yellow tablecloths with white table cloths set diagonally on top. The top table cloths were covered with bright sport-oriented patterns. The chairs had blue cushions. The whole place had brick walls with large windows on the side of the place opposite the bar. The wall with the door had a large window as well with a bright orange-glass arch. There were a lot of sports pennants hanging about the place. The overhead lights had large transparent yellow globes and there were a few overhead fans. There was a jukebox in the back and three televisions. The only one that was on was covering Clinton's surgery, endlessly. Jeez, it wasn't serious, he lived, he will recover. Enough already. There was a sports schedule posted so it appears that they do cover games when they are televised.

I talked with a guy there who had been coming down for 22 years. He said it was largely a local's bar but there were a lot of people like him who stayed in the surrounding hotels and made this their home away from home. He also told me that the reason there are now, all of a sudden, so many more cars in Puerto Vallarta is that just three years ago the dealers began selling cars on time. Prior to that you had to pay cash to get one. Once people could finance their purchase sales exploded. Hence, no park and a parking garage.

I had a Pacifico (12 pesos vs. the 35 'two for one price I just left' and headed out.

304) Machis Bar B. Q.

Over on Cardenas on the corner of Naranjo (Spanish for 'orange,' but don't expect more) was my 100th bar in Mexico. This is an upstairs restaurant/bar. The bar itself is black laquer set on a brick base with wooden bar-chairs that had red cushions. Above the bar was a big, cone-shaped rattan lamp as well as several small wooden planes hanging from the ceiling. The planes were more like toys than models.

There were brick walls and a narrow wrap-around balcony with tables and chairs. The balcony was covered by a red awnings. The rest of the place had tables with chairs with either the same red cushions as the bar-chairs or bright multi-colored cusions. The three tables against one wall had brick cushioned benches instead of chairs. The roof was a beamed A-frame with a red tiles. There was a brightly colored unbrella and a green golf-bag with clubs hanging from the ceiling as well. In the back was an old Singer sewing-machine. There were white lace curtains hanging from the windows and a nice cool breeze blowing through. BB King was playing on the sound system. The owner or cook came in with a load of corned-beef getting ready for St. Paticks Day when, I was assured, they would have both green beer and green tequila.

A guy drinking at the bar had just moved down to Puerto Vallarta and his girl-friend will be tending bar at The Sandbar. I haven't been to the Sandbar yet (it is right nextdoor to Sweeny's) because they are just building the bar into this place. It is supposed to be open in about a week. He said he was looking for a job as a bartender and I told him the last place I was at had a sign up saying they were looking for one. The bartender here wrote him a note of introduction so he was going to check it out. Good-luck to him. The bartender, when she found out about my quest, also recommended that I try La Gloria yel Infierno. She said I would find it to be an interesting place. I can hardly wait. They also have a guest bartender day here where an amatuer like me could try his hand. She said they didn't do it during the busy season, now, though because it got to be too stressful for everyone concerned. Darn.

An update. I checked out La Gloria yel Infierno and found out it was a bar that I had been into and couldn´t find the name. I have gone back and updated my post to reflect the name and how I found it.

I had a Pacifico (12 pesos here as well) and headed home. I am just giving you the prices on these last couple of places to show that the two beers that I paid for at the last two places cost less, in total, than that generous 2 for 1 offer.

Not a bad day, spent quite awhile in each place because they were so friendly and I was in a chatty mood. 304 down (100 in Puerto Vallarta, Whee!!) and 696 to go.

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.

A Pleasant Tuesday

The weather is clearing so it was a nice day for a walk. I took a stroll across a bridge to the north side of town and walked along Morelos, a street up a block or two from the malecon and a bit further down than I had walked before.

298) La Casa del Tequila

At first I thought this might just be a place that sold tequila. When you first walk in there is a tequila tasting area and they say they have 350 kinds of tequila for sale. It looked like it. They have a lot of tequilas that you just don´t find in the stores and, interestingly, do not have the ones you do find. They focus more on the more unusual and more expensive types. I only sampled one, it was very good, before walking through that area to my real goal.

Behind the tasting area was a very nice and quite ornate wood and metal bar. I thought it was a genuine antique but after talking to the bartender I found out it was only ten-years old. It was, however, made with old planking from barns and doors so it had that antique look about it. The top of the bar had four wood planks about three feet long, one foot wide, and half an inch think affixed to it. The planks were framed in iron bands about one and a half inches wide with large rivets about every three inches. Although the iron looked old and rusted I found out it had been painted with a special paint to make it look that way. The front of the bar was a pounded metal separated into panels with the same type of bands described above. In the center of each panel (except for two where it looked like they had been removed) were brass looking emblems with an agave plant and the name of the bar inscribed. The back of the bar was equally ornate but all wood. There were mirrors and glass shelves that held an impressive liquor selection, mostly tequilas. The bar stools had backs and real leather seats. The bar-rail looked to be twisted wrought iron and was held in place by wide iron bands with ornate curls on each end. The wall behind the bar was painted to look like storage racks of, what I presumed to be, tequila barrels.

There was also a large, bright eating area with several tables. Not too large with overhead fans and those behive lights. I asked a couple who were leaving how the food was and they said it was very good. I saw the little kitchen and the Mexican lady making the tortillas looked like the real deal.

I had a margarita on the rocks and it was one of the best I have ever had.

299) La Casa del Habano

At the end of the block, across the street and up a bit on Aldama, was this interesting place. At least interesting for here in Puerto Vallarta. When I first walked in I thought it was just a place to buy cigars, but the sign out front did say bar. They sell nothing but Cuban cigars and have a very large, walk-in, humidified temperature-controlled room to store them in. A very impressive selection too.

Walking though this area you enter a very nicely appointed smoking room with a small, three stool bar. The bar has a black and red marble top and sits off to one side of the smoking room. Given the number of comfortable chairs and sofas available the bartender thought it was a bit strange that I chose to sit at the bar, but rules are rules.

There were a couple of televisons that were turned off and a lot of books and magazines available for reading while you enjoyed a good cigar and a drink. The pictures on the walls were mostly cigar related and cigar advertisements. There was a large poster of Che Guevera enjoying a cigar. He seems to be second only to Zapata in popularity down here. On one wall was a nice stained glass hanging of people harvesting tobacco and to the left of the bar was a black stained glass hanging with the words ¨Habanas unicos desedes 1492.¨

I spent my time at the bar smoking a small cigar, having my drink, and chatting with the bartender. She was born in Puerto Vallarta and has lived here all her life, 32 years. We chatted about the changes we have seen and she told me about some small towns that I might want to visit. She was somewhat surprised that I had been to several of them already. While I was there a fellow, Wayne, stopped by. He was from Niagra, Canada. This was his first time in Puerto Vallarta and he was going to be here for four weeks. We chatted a bit as well.

I had a Cuba libre.

300) Etc. la Cantina

Back on Morelos and down a block or two from La Casa del Tequila, was this large, but not touristy, bar. The bar itself was a fairly large wooden three-sided affair with a tan marble-patterned linoleum top. There were beer cases and a few kegs being stored there along with the obligatory beer cooler. The bar-stools were plain wooden affairs. The bar rail was seemed to be a large iron tube. The most notable decorative touch were a number of old saddles mounted on the high up on the white plaster walls. There was a bit of orange paint to brighten the place up a bit.

Although this was on a busy street, the back-side of the bar was cool. You could just hear a touch of the traffic through the doors and windows that looked out on the street.

There were a lot of wooden tables and chairs and, from the menu on the wall, it looked like you could order Mexican bar food: Alitas, Burritos, Nachos, Carnes F., Papas F., Camarons, and Cacahauates. I am not sure what half of that stuff actually is, and I wasn´t hungry enough to find out.

There wasn´t anyone in the place but me and the bartender and he didn´t seem to speak English. Maybe the place livens up at night, it was only a little after 3:00 P.M. The bartender was watching a soccer game on television, Chelsea vs. Barcelona. He didn´t seem too pleased when Chelsea scored to increase their lead to 4 to 2 (I subsequently saw on the news that this was also the final score).

I had a Pacifico and headed home.

Not a real milestone like 250, but round numbers are always nice, so with 300 down I now have 700 left to go.