January 18, 2024

January 18, 2024

Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico

The Mariner docked just after it had gone 6:30. In the Coffee Connection by 7, arriving at the same time as to Mexican Immigration authorities. Had the morning cappuccino and brioche and returned to the sleeping beauty in our suite. Looked at the maps to see what was around the pier we were docked at. There is a Flea Market with a restaurant just outside the gate of the pier. Looks like a very typical tourist trap.

We’ll go have some breakfast and then walk into town. There is a Walmart use down the road. I need to get some butane for my lighter. The hope is that they’ll let me bring it back on board. We haven’t been in Puerto Vallarta in probably forty some odd years. We just aren’t beach people and that is kind-of the theme here. It is basically a beach resort city which is located in the Pacific Ocean’s Bahia de Banderas (Bay of Flags) in the Mexican state of Jalisco. It is the second largest urban area after Guadalajara.

Puerto Vallarta is named after Jose Luis Miguel Ignacio Vallarta Ogazon, the governor of Jalisco from 1872 to 1876. Puerto Vallarta's proximity to the Bahia de Banderas, the agricultural valley of the Ameca River, and the important mining centers in the Sierra Madre have given the town a more interesting past than most Mexican tourist destinations. Puerto Vallarta was a thriving Mexican village long before it became an international tourist destination. Tourism is a major economic activity because of the climate, scenery, tropical beaches, and rich cultural history. The early village name for Puerto Villarta was Tintoque and the name Tintoque is still used formally to describe the city.

So, how did the name come to be? Well apparently our buddy, Hernán Cortés, back in the 16thcentury, explored the Pacific side of Mexico by ship. Cortés had already established the port of Acapulco to resupply and as a safe anchor his ships. At one point he sent two of his ships North to explore the coastline without him. One of these ships was wrecked in Bahia de Banderas and all but three men were reportedly killed. It is believed the corpses of the lost sailors washed ashore. Native villagers encountered numerous corpses on the beach for days after the wreck.

One of the problems in the area were pirates. They were known to attack ships along the Pacific Coast of Mexico as early as the 16th century. So, our buddy again, Hernán Cortés set out to establish a safe harbor, north of Acapulco. He was looking to provide protection for cargo ships sailing on the planned Manila galleon trade route to the Philippines. When low and behold, just several hundred miles north, he discovered a large bay, yes you know it as Bahia de Banderas, and the village of Tintoque. Pirates were already anchoring in this bay and regularly pillaged local villagers. When Cortés and his crew set foot on the beach, a mob of angry villagers believed he and his crew were pirates and surrounded them with native weapons in hand. According to Cortés’ journal, a Catholic friar accompanying the crew began praying out loud to Lord for help. Villagers were mesmerized by the red flags the crew carried and suddenly lowered their weapons, allowing the explorers to pass peacefully. It's likely the villagers had seen the flags before when they floated ashore with the dead crew from a Cortés ship that wrecked earlier in the bay. Now you know how the Bahia de Banderas (the Bay of Falgs) was named. Francisco Cortés de Buenaventura, the nephew of Hernán Cortés, is said to have formalized the bay's name during his own conquering of the region in 1525. In the following years, Tintoque became a major port and safe harbor for ships traveling the Manila galleon.

The first airplane service to Puerto Vallarta began in 1932, with electrical service on a small scale arriving about the same time. The first suspension bridge over the Rio Cuale, a fairly major waterway in the center of Puerto Vallarta today, went up in 1933. The city's first plumbing system was started in 1939. In 1942, Puerto Vallarta was finally connected by road to the city of Compostela in the state of Nayarta to the north. Prior to that the only access to Puerto Vallarta was by sea, air, or by mule trails to the sierra towns. The New York-based magazine, Modern Mexico, in 1942, had the first advertisement for a Puerto Vallarta vacation, sponsored by the Air Transport Company of Jalisco. By 1945, the company was landing DC-3s in Puerto Vallarta (carrying 21 passengers).

By the 1950s, Puerto Vallarta had started to attract Americans, mostly writers and artists in search of a escape from Eisenhower and McCarthy era. Gringo Gulch began to develop as an expatriate neighborhood on the hill above the Central part of town. In 1956, the Mascota mule trail was replaced by a packed dirt road. In 1958, 24-hour electrical generation arrived. A new airport arrived in 1962 connecting Puerto Vallarta with Los Angeles via Mazatlán, and the Mexican Aviation Company began offering package trips.

The population had started, in the 1960’s, to spread beyond the Centro and Gringo Gulch, and the Colonias of 5 de Diciembre (north of the Centro) and Emiliano Zapata area (south of the Cuale River) began to grow.

August 1970, President Nixon met with Mexican President Gustavo Díaz Ordaz in Puerto Vallarta for treaty negotiations. The visit showcased Puerto Vallarta's recently developed international airport and resort infrastructure. The presidential visit contributed significantly to getting Puerto Vallarta's name in the news and visibility as a resort destination. Resort hotel development in Puerto Vallarta boomed in the 1970s. Prior to 1973 hotels in Puerto Vallarta tended to be modest, mid-priced establishments. Only two large sized luxury hotels existed (the Real and the Posada Vallarta). After 1973, Puerto Vallarta experienced rapid growth in global-brand luxury hotels and international resorts, to where in 2013 there are approximately 41 five star and four star rated hotels. An economic downturn in Mexico caused tourists to flock to Puerto Vallarta. In 1982, the peso was devalued and Puerto Vallarta became a bargain destination for US tourists. Consequently, the mid-1980s saw a marked and rapid rise in the tourist volume. This uptick fueled additional development, for example the Marina which was started in 1986. Puerto Vallarta's success caused other Mexican cities to take note. The early 1990s saw Mexico's government and private business develop other resort destinations, such as Ixtapa and Cancún. This took away Puerto Vallarta's exclusivity of sorts on the foreign tourist trade, and caused a slump in travel to Puerto Vallarta.

With growth comes problems. During the early 1980s, Puerto Vallarta experienced a marked increase in problems related to poverty. While the devaluation of the peso brought record numbers of tourists to the area, it also stifled investment and thus construction. While more and more workers were arriving in Puerto Vallarta to try to cash in on the booming tourist trade, less and less was being done to accommodate them with housing and related infrastructure.

During the mid-1980s, Puerto Vallarta experienced a rapid expansion of impromptu communities poorly served by even basic public services. This very low standard of living leveled out Puerto Vallarta's resort boom. In the late 1980s Puerto Vallarta's government worked to alleviate the situation by developing housing and infrastructure. But the legacy of the 1980s boom remains, as the outlying areas of Puerto Vallarta still suffer from poor provision of basic services (i.e. water, sewage, roads).

In 1993, the federal Agrarian Law was amended allowing for more secure foreign tenure of former ejido land. An ejido is an area of communal land used for agriculture in which community members have usufruct rights. Usufruct is a limited real right (or in rem right) found in civil-law and mixed jurisdictions that unites the two property interests of usus and fructus: Usus (use, as in usage of or access to) is the right to use or enjoy a thing possessed, directly and without altering it. Fructus (fruit, as in the fruits of production) is the right to derive profit from a thing possessed: for instance, by selling crops, leasing immovables or annexed movables, taxing for entry, and so on.

People awarded ejidos in the modern era farm them individually in parcels and collectively maintain communal holdings with government oversight. Although the system of ejidos was based on an understanding of the preconquest Aztec calpulli and the medieval Spanish ejido. Since the 20th century ejidos have been managed and controlled by the government. Those controlling ejido land were allowed to petition for regularization, a process that converted their controlling interest into fee simple ownership. This meant that the property could be sold, and it led to a boom in the development of private residences, mostly condominiums, and a new phase of Puerto Vallarta's expansion began, centered more on accommodating retirees, snowbirds, and those who visited the city enough to make purchasing a condominium or a time-share a cost-effective option.

After the Mexican Revolution, ejidos were created by the Mexican state to grant lands to peasant communities as a means to stem social unrest. As Mexico prepared to enter the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1991, President Carlos Salinas de Gortari declared the end of awarding ejidos and allowed existing ejidos to be rented or sold, ending land reform in Mexico.

Today Puerto Vallarta is totally reflective of all these things. We decided to get off the ship and walk into the shopping area just off the ship. There was a need for a lighter or fuel for my cigars. It had just gone 10 when we exited the ship. We then entered the obliquitous “duty free” shopping are. Which immediately extend to the not duty free shopping area, which finally exited on to Avenue Francisco Medina Ascencio and Mexico Route 200, and about a hundred taxi and tour hawkers.

We choose to go left, more or less north, to Walmart! Surprise we are in the US not Mexico. Walmart should have lighters or at least fuel. A through search yielding nothing of what we were looking for. There were a lot of people speaking English with clearly American accents.

So we traveled a little further north to Galerias Vallarta, a good sized shopping mall. He was found Chilies, Burger King, McDonalds, Carls Jr, and Starbucks to name a few. There were even a couple Mexican chains. It is so sad that the US exports the worst of everything it has to offer. But alas no tobacco store, or lighter, or fuel. The air quality was so bad. It could have been the Silicon Valley in the 1960’s. That was a time if you parked your car outside on a regular basis, you were going to need a new paint job within a year. You could see the smog hanging over the city. It hurt to breathe. There was a short break at Starbucks where we had a drink and a rest before heading back to the ship.

It wasn’t very far to the ship, maybe a mile. Except for the smog and traffic it wasn’t bad. We walked back through the gauntlet of tourist shops. When a convenience store seemed to pop up out of nowhere. Just on a lark we stopped to see if, maybe, they might have a lighter or fuel. Yep! They did. The lighters, very small, were $16 USD each. Three were purchased to just make sure there was enough for the next three days. Back on board we headed to the suite. Mary wanted to rest, so I went to the cigar lounge to try out one of the new lighters. We met at 13:30 in the Coffee Connection for a quick sandwich for lunch. After lunch we played a game of Canasta.

About then it was time for an afternoon nap. The ship set sail at 15:00 and by 15:10 we were napping on the deck outside out room. At some point there was movement from the deck into bed where I remained until it had just gone 17:15.

Reservations at Prime 7, the speciality steakhouse on board, at 19:30. This was a get dressed nicely event. Shower, shave and get dressed. Had a cup of tea while dressing. As 19:30 approached we finished up dressing and headed out the door for the ten minute walk and elevator ride down to Prime 7.

Prime 7 looks like a classic, yet modern steakhouse. It is more formal than the Compass Rose and a little less pretentious than Chartreuse. The wait staff is all in tuxedos but the white gloves are missing. The wine steward, note not sommelier, offered us the included wines. The wine list was requested, a request he seemed confused by. Normally there are two included wines at every meal. There is a wine list you can order from, but these wines come at an extra charge. The included wines are usually great, but once in a while you want something special and tonight it seemed appropriate.

He brought the wine list. Shortly later the waiter came and took our orders. A bone in rib eye steak for me, and a slow roasted prime rib for Mary. There was onion soup, for Mary, and clam chowder for me. The wine steward return and I noticed he did have a silver chain with a tastevin round his neck.

A tastevin is a small, very shallow silver cup or saucer traditionally used by winemakers and sommeliers when judging the maturity and taste of a wine. The saucer-like cups were originally named by Burgundian winemakers and allowed them to judge the clarity and color of wine that was stored in dim, candle-lit wine cellars. Regular wine glasses were too deep to allow for accurate judging of the wine's color in such faint light. Tastevins are designed with a shiny faceted inner surface. Often, the bottom of the cup is convex in shape. The facets, convex bottom, and the shiny inner surface catch as much available light as possible, reflecting it throughout the wine in the cup, making it possible to see through the wine. With the advent of modern electric lights, tastevins have very little practical use, although sommeliers often wear them on a ribbon or chain around the neck as a nod to tradition.

Becoming a sommelier is much more than knowing little bit about wine. There are four levels of sommelier certification from the Court of Master Sommeliers. Introductory Sommelier is the first level, followed by Certified Sommelier, Advanced Sommelier, and Master Sommelier-the fourth and final level. Each level must be completed before moving on to the next.

Each sommelier level covers similar content, though it gets more detailed with each one: 1)Theoretical wine knowledge like understanding classic wine regions, history, geography, and grapes. 2) Wine tasting, which is crucial to being able to describe wines, help guests navigate digital wine menus, and find the right wine bottle price range. And if price range isn’t a thing, the ability to speak knowledgeably about how wines interact with our senses is a great way to upsell cocktails at a restaurant or bar. 3) Each level covers wine service, from all the necessary steps to hitting a standard 5-ounce wine pour every time, the proper wine serving temperatures, and how to decant wine. While this young man was wearing the sommelier’s badge, the silver chain and tastevin, he didn’t appear to have even basic knowledge of wine. Perhaps he was very new or a trainee and therefor very nervous. Look at the wine list, which isn’t overly extensive, a St. Michelle blend of cabaret and sangiovese grapes was chosen. He concurred with my choice and disappeared to get the wine. He returned with decanter and got it all set up and then brought the bottle over. He almost opened it before bringing it over, a major no-no.

The bottle looked nice but St. Michelle didn’t appear on the front label at all. There were some questions about this. So he disappeared and sought the experience of another sommelier. He returned and assured me it was St. Michelle. Reviewing the rear label I could see that it was a blend product in collaboration with another wine maker. Something he should have known.

Anyway he poured the wine into the decanter and the poured a taste. The wine was a good dark rich red, the flavor was smooth and elegant. After approval he poured Mary’s glass and then mine. Those actions were at least professional. Knowing how hard it is to become a sommelier, it is disappointing when you see someone wearing the badge of honor that hasn’t quite earned it yet.

The onion soup was nice. The clam chowder was a little disappointing, but then the basis for judging is based on half a decade or more in New England. The rib eye steak was quite nice. Mary was a little disappointed in her prime rib and thought the rib eye was much better.

A piece of key lime pie and a fourteen layer chocolate something for dessert. Both were very nice.

After dinner I put on my smoking jacket and headed to the Connoisseur Lounge for my evening port and chocolate, and cigar. It had turned 22:00 before I realized it, so it was off to bed. There is a time change again tonight and we gain an hour. Our tour tomorrow, Salsa and Salsa, isn’t until 10, so it really doesn’t matter much.

Buonanotte e ciao, Enrico

Our evening sunset!