"Puerto Vallarta - 1996" a Puerto Vallarta Travel Page by geanster

Well, I'm going to have to think back for this trip. I was like 19 I guess when my friends and I drove down to Eagle Pass, Texas and hopped a bus down to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. It took 2 entire days of travelling after which I decided that this exact trip is the reason planes were invented. But it was definitely an experience. One of the guys with us was from near the border and we stopped and visited his family on our way down there. His mom made us breakfast. In the area she lived in, very poor, she was one of the rare folks with a car, and it had been stolen like more than 6 times. I remember being shocked by that at the time.

The bus's were very locally oriented, many people rode them to work the mornings and one morning, we'd all been sleeping across the seats as it was nearly empty. I was spread across the back seats. At about 6:45 am, I wake up and look up to see this huge burly man in a hat staring down at me. I jump straight into sitting position to the amusement of this couple in front of me who couldn't stop laughing. So now I was squished up on the right of the back seat with like 5 or 6 big working Mexican men...

It wasn't shocking to see people carrying their chickens on the bus, however it was very wierd to wake up with a huge gun in the isle on a soldiery/guard guy at a check point.

Puerto Vallarta was a beautiful place of course. We found a really cheap place to stay with the help of Armando who was with us. We did alot of tanning and eating of good food for cheap. Lots of corona and tequila. :) As far as tips, it was so long ago. I do remember we ate dinner on the rooftop of a place called Claire de Lune Rooftop Restaurant. It was cool as you could see the ocean and it felt great up there. There was also live music. They had an incredible desert including a liquor that was lit on fire.