Exploring Puerto Vallarta Old Town, Coffee and Street Art

I was keen to see more of the Old Town (Centro) of Puerto Vallarta.  I also had lost all faith in finding good coffee so I decided to hedge my bets and go for Starbucks.

I jumped on the local bus again, and soon I was in the centre.  It was Sunday, and clearly the Churches were very busy.  I also noticed an awesome and weird game going on between some girls.  It was fun to watch.

There are so many stunning old buildings here.

There is also a building that has been renovated for Starbucks.

Inside Starbucks, it was overwhelmingly filled with American and/ or Canadian tourists.  I haven’t been in a touristy coffee shop for a while, so I was shocked and appalled to see how rude these tourists were.  They barked their orders at the poor local staff, and there wasn’t a please or thank you to be heard.  Who are these people?

It was a little bit rainy, so I set myself up at the window for some tourist-watching.

The drizzle stopped, so I headed to the boardwalk.  It was such a beautiful day.

It was a good place to put my feet up.

Walking back along the boardwalk were most graceful sculptures.

This part of town, felt a little……. fake. From some of the buildings I could see some types of tourists coming here.

There was a cool sandcastle sculptor though.  Reminded me of the sandcastle building championships they have in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, Australia.

Another lovely sculpture.

I got a feeling, looking at the tourists here, that they really just come down to Mexico to eat and drink – a lot.

It looks like the “timeshare” industry here is huge, and not positive for everybody?  Not sure what this means…

However, I did stumble on some colourful and unique street art pieces.

Walking through the backstreets was much more quiet.

Again, I could see why so many love it here.

I finally found a Vegetarian Buffet, and I was determined to try it, but when I went inside, there were heaps of people.  It was too crowded and the buffet in the back corner didn’t look appealing. So I walked out.

I headed back to the main street to catch the bus.

From the bus I saw my favourite street art in Puerto Vallarta, and a cute couple standing next to it.  I snapped a pic, and realised afterwards that it’s my favourite pic here.  It really sums up the colour, warmth and caring of this amazing country and its people.

Back in Las Aralias, I headed straight to Macai for some food.  Their quinoa and veggie bowl was my favourite.

This is also a tourist-free zone, so everyone is quiet and polite.  I love it.

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