Mexico

Monday, November 25 – Thursday, December 5

Shaina, my top travel companion of 2019, and I had to get one more trip out of our Southwest Companion Fare deal before the year was out.  We decided on a 10 day Thanksgiving-time trip to Mexico was in order and it did not disappoint!

Because of a massive blizzard in Denver, where we were flying out of, our trip got off to a bumpy start.  Our flight to Puerto Vallarta was cancelled 24 hours in advance and we had to scramble to find a way to Mexico that missed the huge snowstorm that had taken over the entire Midwest.

We ended up flying to LAX, staying a night there, and then flying to PVR.  One day lost, but not bad considering thousands of people were stranded much longer.

San Pancho

We took an Uber from the airport about an hour northwest of Puerto Vallarta to our first stop, the surfer town of San Pancho.  It was just what we were looking for as far as tequila, tacos, live music, local shops, and more tacos.  It’s an incredibly adorable place!

Our Airbnb was right downtown in the middle of all the magic.  We literally walked right out the front door into a coffee shop, waffle stand, and cute retail shop.  I didn’t get any photos because it was so dark and we ate outside, but Limbo was a really fantastic restaurant we ate at the first night.  Not to be missed!  (cash only like a lot of things!)

Many margaritas were consumed!

We tried to buy from local artists, and both fell in love with these custom painted wooden bowls by this man.  He was really passionate about his work.

Ah yes, and then there were tacos.  So many tacos and cocktails.

Big fans of Victor’s Tacos

Cocktails at Barracuda Cocina were our favorite!

These are from Taqueria El Pocas and they were hands down the BEST!!!!

We had such a fun four days in San Pancho and would highly recommend visiting!  It has everything a relaxing Mexican vacation could desire!

Litibo & Higuera Blanca

San Pancho was small, but Higuera Blanca is really, really small.  This was our isolation portion of the vacation.  Our Airbnb Casi Cielo was one of our favorite places we have ever stayed in all of our travels together.  It was epic.

There was no need to go anywhere really.  We read a lot.  Meditated, laid in the sun, went for long beach walks, and two times made the hike into town for groceries.

The back of a pastry delivery truck outside the market in town.

Now we were fortunate to have a little mirage just down the beach from us called the Litibu Grill.  It’s a cash only restaurant and bar that we hit up every afternoon for margaritas, wine, and ceviche.

The owner of Litibu Grill has a 9 month old Great Dane puppy, Gilligan, who lives his best life.  There was a tiny dog there too that was chasing Gilligan around and it was hilarious!  Then Gilligan spotted some wild cows walking by and was fascinated.  He was such a highlight of hanging out there!

And of course there are the sunsets!  Our slice of heaven on the hill gave us a beautiful sunset every night.

Puerto Vallarta

From isolation to the big city!  We wanted to take advantage of Shaina’s Platinum Sheraton status and spent the last two nights at the Sheraton Buganvillias.

Looooots of tequila at the swim up bar!

We made friends everywhere we went!  People were so lovely!

And doggos, of course.

Custom engraved tequila bottles!

And of course there were tacos!  The locals we chatted with in our hotel told us to go to Pepe’s so that was our first outing!  The quad of salsas they bring was impressive as well as the size of the tacos!

We had time for one more taco run before we headed to the airport and this time we chose Morning Tacos only a hop skip and a jump across the street.  We took them to the airport with us and ate them in the Priority Pass lounge with our free drinks.  Win!

Mexico was such a wonderful experience.  I would go back and do this trip again in a heartbeat.  It was relaxing, delicious, and the people we met were so kind and generous.  I could not have asked for a better final international trip of my 2019 adventures!

Gracias!