Mazatlan to Puerto Vallarta

Our little hotel in Mazatlan was nice and clean, had a view of the bay and a pool for $35! The building dated back to the 20's and was originally a government building. In it's hey day, in the 1950's it was a grand hotel on the beach of old town Mazatlan. In the court yard the stairway was built of hand hewed teak beams, along with banyan tree's both nearly one hundred years old. Like La Paz, Mazatlan has a great malecon but this one goes on for miles. We walked four miles of it then got a taxi. We met up with another old cruising friend of ours, Dennis. We had met Dennis down in El Salvador two years ago. We were heading south and he north, again we figured we would never see each other again. We had a great evening together over drinks and dinner swapping cruising stories and lie's. He came over to our hotel the next morning and we had coffee together and said goodbye probably, to never to see each other again, but one never knows for sure and this is the way it goes with cruising/back packing travel. This was our second visit to Mazatlan so we had seen most of it before. We walked old town again in the “historic district”, homes built in late 1800's by German immigrants who built the silver mines. Some of these are in ruins with tree's growing up through them after the roofs had caved in. Some are in poor state of repair, but a majority have been completely restored and are worth several hundred thousand dollars. We had meet another couple of “backpacker” travelers on the ferry and met up with them walking the malicon, what are the odds. One of whom “Orly” was a Mexican national who was fluently bilingual. She said she had rode her bicycle from Encenada to La Paz and was continuing up to Mexico City, aah to be young. We always enjoy meeting other budget travelers and share info on cheap places to stay and places to see and do, like hey there's 25 cent toco's down the block. We stayed two days in Mazatlan and took the bus to Puerto Vallarta. The only bus to PV left at 12:30 at night getting there at 8am. This bus was a pretty nice one with comfortable seats so were able to get “some” sleep but it was OK. Again we found a little rustic hotel in Old Puerto Vallarta. Clean, a pool and one block from the beach, it was just right for us. We headed out after checking in looking for coffee and some breakfeast. And who did we meet while we sat at an open air cafe on the malicon ,but Orly and her friend from Spain. We bought them a coffee and chatted. We had tried to book a place to stay for a couple of weeks and had an appointment to go look at it today. We took it. It was a little studio a block from the beach in a little town called Bousareas 15 miles up the bay from P.V. We will move in tomorrow and will do more exploring from there. Ok got moved in but the studio was not availible so the owner put us in a two bedroom with a pool and A/C for the same price! As I write this we have been here in the Puerto Vallarta area for 10 days and as usual have been busy exploring. We have also been to P.V. before so we are trying to see some things we did not see before. We explored Old Town Vallarta, walking the old (like 60 years old) coble stone streets. We were looking for the Elizabeth Tayor and Richard Burtons old in the old town area. We could not find it the first we searched but did find a new friend Janette who we chatted with for some time as we both out strolling. She is an expat and lives here in P.V.. After doing some research we found out the the house had been torn down to the foundation and was in the state of rebuilding. Apparently Liz had sold it in 1990 and left all her belonging there, old pictures and clothes. We were happy when we finally found as it had been rebuilt to it's original splender with the little pink (Love bridge) connecting Liz's house to Burtons as they were both married at the time. Burton stared in the movie “The night of the Iguana” here shoot in 1964 and apparently it was this fact that put “Vallarta” on the tourist map. We were also able to arrage to meet and have drinks with our old friend “Billy Bob” Billy Bob owns Billy Bobs bar and grill up in San Blas were we stayed with our boat back in 2011. We hung out at the bar a fare amount back than as it was a favorite hang out and meeting place for cruisers and expats. It was great to see him again and catch up on the local gosip in San Blas and there was always plenty when we were there. We explored around our little place here in “Bucerias”, visting the beach and just enjoyng hanging out. On the 20th of October we found out that hurricane “Patricia” had spawned and was predicted to hit Vallarta! It has been strange waiting for the storm. We have felt safe in our little concrete Casa.On the 22nd the storm developed into a category 5 storm and as of a few hours ago had grown to be the most intense storm in US history! So as I write this we are hunkerd down with lot's of food and water, waiting for the shit to hit the fan!

It's now 10pm Friday the 23, it's very odd sitting and waiting. Storm should hit us in a few hours. We are hoping for less than a dead on hit. Our internet has been on and off. Our lights are still on, but the tv's dead. We will tell the rest of the story in our next blog entry. Stay tuned for more adventure.