When we decided to stay another week several months ago and I found a condo in Conchas Chinas I just had to stay at. May 2021 we saw it for sale right after we returned home. Our friends were still there so we asked them to walk by it and give us a report. They said it looked great. I called the listing realtor to inquire as I was ready to fly back down to check it out only to find it just had an accepted offer. So fast forward, the new owners renovated it and put it up on airbnb! I just had to stay there! By chance we met the owners before we stayed there and they introduced us to their realtor neighbor, Alan.
The new owners did an amazing transformation job! Truly a beautiful place.
While we were there Alan showed us a 1 bedroom for sale in the building, very nice, no balcony but a bit of an ocean view. Then the day before we left he showed us a 2 bedroom 2 bath in the building that will be coming up for sale, the owners actually are from Spokane! They now live at their lake place in CDA, small world. It was a lovely unit. Only draw back for me is the highway you have to cross to the beach or to go into town. Also I like my independence and the hills of Conchas Chinas are a little uncomfortable for me to climb around on my own in the early morning, and to go to town for groceries, restaurants, exploring and walks is a bit more of a challenge. Following is a couple pictures of the 2 bedroom place I took which don't do it justice.
Our first night in Conchas Chinas we walked into town via the highway and walked to El Barracuda for dinner. I had coconut shrimp, Dave the Seafood Casserole, we both loved our dinners. We saw the sunset from the beach and walked back to old town to catch a cab back.
We enjoyed many breakfast on our ocean view balcony. As well as a couple of dinners we made.
We continued to see whale activity in the bay as well as some dolphin activity.
An Iguana hung out on the roof next to us. The owners told us he has been on their balcony and they thought he was going to come in.
We walked around the hills of Conchas Chinas, know as the Beverly Hills of Puerto Vallarta, even so there are some uncared for huge places that seem empty, some only partly built, such is Mexico! Passed by some places that we question who lives here, complete with sports courts and guards????? We made it to the top where to the Grand Miramar Hotel, known for being a very nice exclusive place.
Passed by the painter in the window a few times, he had a buddy on the street once trying to sell us a painting.
We swam in the pool.
We went into town everyday to run, walk, shop, or eat, sometimes a couple times a day. We either walked the beach or the highway. Several times we took the bus back, or a taxi or Uber.
I had made several reservations for our last week, starting with Saturday:
We took a taxi to Mismaloya Grill for lunch as I had read great reviews of it. We loved the beautiful location and looking onto the Barcelo which is the location for the show Aculpulco which we watch. We found the food and margarita to really not be that great, but the location was a 10! Even so I would come back for views and location alone.
We had a great dinner at Casa Isabel on the night of the Super Bowl, we were happy they had the TV's in the bar going so we could watch the Super bowl half time show.
Monday I had reservations for the beach club at La Palapa arriving at 10:00 am where we spent many hours enjoying the views, food and beach. Made dinner at our place later that night.
Tuesday, Valentines Day. We walked into town and did a big walk ending with a stop at Freddy Toucans to pick up a couple of their homemade cinnamon buns and a cup of decaf to go which we enjoyed on the beach.
Later we walked to La Playita for lunch spiting shrimp fajitas which are always good but the margaritas were too strong to even drink! How can that even be, but trust me they were! This year I have decided this place just really isn't very good which is too bad because the view and location is awesome.
I had made reservations to return to the Sea Horse for Valentines day dinner as we so enjoyed Dave's birthday dinner there. They were very busy, service very slow, they appeared to have all their family and friends helping, but food was good, views amazing, and really enjoyed visiting with a couple at the next table who have lived here full time now for a few years.
Wednesday- Our last full day. We had made reservations for Pizza Napoli for dinner but after a full day of walking around along with a beach side lunch at El Barracuda we decided to go to our usual last day pizza at Los Muertos for dinner, which provides us enough left overs for lunch before we head home. We finished the night with a few churros from the churro man by the church :)
After 6 and 1/2 weeks in PV it was still hard to leave! Our last morning we walked the beach into town and walked all the way to Buenaventura Grand and back to the bus stop on Constitution to catch the bus back to our stop to climb the hill back to our place. We have put on many miles and many steps, averaging at least 25,0000 steps a day, sometimes 30,000. We have had conversations about how great we feel while here, we can be so active and enjoy so much great fresh produce and fish, which we love to purchase and prepare. We walk to the grocery store rather than drive, walk to all the restaurants, we can walk and run outside during the winter, it just doesn't get any better than that! Hopefully it all counteracts the margaritas I consume! Which are made with fresh squeezed lime juice, no fake mixer here, so healthy right?
