Gay Nagle Myers is in Puerto Vallarta for Tianguis Turistico, Mexico’s annual tourism fair. Her second dispatch follows. Click to read Gay’s first dispatch.
Several delegates attending Tianguis Turistico this week admitted that they ducked out of the convention center in Puerto Vallarta and headed for the city center.
I didn't play hooky during the conference, but only because I'd sampled the charms of the city's Malecon a day before the official start of the event.
The reconstructed, redone, repaved, expanded and enlarged waterfront promenade is at the heart of the resort city's renaissance. Gone is the narrow sidewalk of old with few seating areas, broken cobblestones and lots of traffic noise and fumes.
Here is what I found: a wide, brick-lined, pedestrian-friendly, traffic-free boulevard stretching more than four miles from Puerto Vallarta's main square near the city's historic cathedral to Los Muertos beach in Viejo (Old) Vallarta.
Stilt walkers, dancers in costume, clowns, mimes, artists, musicians, fishermen, sand sculptors, toddlers in strollers and babes in arms entertained me on my stroll.
Small stores selling everything from hand-stitched sandals to Cuban stogies to fresh orange juice to fresh fish lined one side of the primavera tree-lined Malecon, while the Pacific lapped the other.
Spring-breakers were lured in to bars with signs telling them to "lay down the pencils, suck up the limes."
Sidewalk cafes, restaurants, and tortilla and taco stands were jammed in among pharmacies, Oxxo stores (Mexico's version of 7-11 convenience stores), money-changer booths and vegetable and fruit markets.
I loved the pangas the best. The wooden fishing boats displayed along the Malecon are part of an arts initiative to highlight local talent. The pangas have been transformed into works of art by 22 artists who took brush to boat and created murals of fishing scenes, religious festivals and historic sites.
At the end of the Malecon and my stroll, I bought a mango ice cream cone, walked two blocks in from the sea, and boarded the #22 public bus for the $1.60 ride back to the rarified world of four- and five-star resorts, Jacuzzis and wait service with cold towels and salt-rimmed margaritas on the beach.
I think I am more a Malecon-type traveler.
Follow Gay Nagle Myers on Twitter @gnmtravelweekly.