Our last day in Mexico. We got up, packed up and checked out. But our flight home wasn't until late afternoon, so we still had some time.
We started by driving back into Puerto Vallarta for breakfast at La Chata de Guadalajara, a restaurant overlooking the Malecón:
Notice that in that second picture, you can see the Come Piedras sculpture in the background.
Again, the weather was delightful - the heat and humidity didn't usually get cranked up until the late morning. After our meal, they brought each of us a wrapped hard candy, the shape and color of a raspberry. It looked just like raspberry flavored hard candies I've seen here in the states, so I just popped it in my mouth. This candy, however, had a trick up its sleeve. It had a chili flavored center! (Candy with chili flavor is quite popular in Mexico.) Joanne and Terry sucked on their candies, and so the chili hit them gradually. But I'm too impatient to suck on hard candies slowly - I just crunched down on mine, and the chili hit me full force. Ouch.
Unfortunately for Joanne, both restaurants I picked that day were upstairs. You may have noticed Joanne sitting in a wheelchair in some of these pictures. She can walk, but gets short of breath easily, and so uses the wheelchair if she has to walk more than a short distance. Which meant that I was pushing her around for the whole trip. Which was fine (except for the cobblestones, as I've previously mentioned), except when it came to getting upstairs. These are old buildings, with no elevators.
Right next door to the restaurant, we found a tequila and cigar store, where we found the Tequila Almendrada we were looking for, and Joanne bought some cigars for her son-in-law. We then got back in the car and started driving around. Our original intention had been to do some shopping - Terry wanted to buy some shoes - but Terry, as she often does, started to get sleepy when we started driving around, and so did Joanne, and I was left driving around the city with two napping passengers.
As I drove, I passed a library, and it occurred to me that I might be able to get on the Internet and print out the boarding passes for our flight. Alas, although the library did have Internet access, they didn't have a working printer. However, I was surprised to see a Braille printer in the library. I mentioned to the librarian that I've never seen a Braille printer in a public library in the U.S. Terry commented that it was like finding a Baskin-Robbins in Outer Mongolia!
Out in front of the library, there was this sculpture that captured my attention. It had a plaque that read "Un niño... un libro... un futuro" (a child... a book... a future):
As I drove around, I took a couple more pictures of things that caught my eye - an ornate church:
...and, as I drove through a more residential neighborhood, a horse in a yard:
All of this was just to kill time until noon. Terry has a friend and professional colleaque, Nelly Emerson, who was taking a cruise with her husband Steve. When we discovered that the cruise was going to make a port of call in Puerto Vallarta while we were there, we decided to get together for lunch. So shortly before noon, we went to meet the cruise ship:
...and met Steve and Nelly:
...and we all went to lunch at another restaurant on the Malecón, La Destileria:
...where Joanne had get up yet another flight of stairs. This time, however, a waiter took pity on her and asked her if she'd like him to carry her up. Joanne, thinking he was joking, said "Sure!" - so he did!
This arrangement of artifacts in a niche in the wall interested me, so I took a closeup picture:
And that was pretty much it for the trip. After lunch, we walked around a little, did a little more shopping, then drove back to the airport, returned the rental car, and caught our flight home.
Joanne says: The atmosphere in Puerto Vallarta reminded me of an L.A. Street Scene. Vendors came out of their shops offering their wares: "Amigos, come have margaritas! Come have lunch! Come buy tequlia, cigars!" Et cetera.
I had some misgivings about this venture, and I discussed them with Terry and Grinnell. My first concern was that I would be the third wheel - I'm sure you all know the saying, "Two's company, three's a crowd." My other concern, and probably the most important one, was that since I was using a wheelchair, Grinnell would have to push it. That seemed to me to be a terrible imposition. I have to say I was wrong on all counts. I felt like a truly equal member of our threesome, and Grinnell never complained once about pushing me in the wheelchair. Grinnell commands respect, for he is truly a man of his word. As for Terry, we have been through thick and thin, and thicker and thinner. This trip was the thickest and thinnest, and we're still besties! I thank everybody for supporting me in this venture; I wouldn't have missed it for the world!