The Adventure Begins

I arrived in Puerto Vallarta (PV, now that we're on a first-name basis) on a Saturday afternoon, on the only direct flight on United out of Newark. Flew 4 hour and 45 minutes and landed in ... Heaven. 

After setting down my stuff at the AirBnb, I headed in the direction of the beach. La Playa. I just wanted to soak in the sun and the culture and, of course, the cuisine. In order to make the most out of my time here and truly savor every moment, I wanted to be intentional about the following three things: watching the sun set every night, walking 10,000 steps a day, and never eating at the same restaurant twice. 

For lunch that day, I chose El Señor Frog’s restaurant on the beach. I wanted to let my mom know that I had arrived safely so while chilling at a beachfront table, I called her on WhatsApp video. She was so excited that she wanted me to call my aunt in Poland and add her to the video call. So there we were- three Polish women on WhatsApp video, in three different countries and three different time zones chatting away. I was showing off the beach and the sunshine because, well, I had found my happiness under the Ley Lines on the Pacific Coast of Mexico.

During my first week in PV, I discovered a nice restaurant on the beach just down the block from my Airbnb. The name of the restaurant is La Palapa. A "palapa" is a thatched hut. 

One afternoon I was hungry for the early bird special, around 5:30pm. I went down to La Palapa, and since, in general, people in PV tend to eat dinner later, the restaurant was still basically pretty empty. The waiter sat me at one of the tables right on the sand. I ordered a drink and opened my book. At the airport, I had bought a book entitled Just Haven’t Met You Yet. It had been a while since I had read a good fiction book. I won’t tell you what it’s about, but it is an easy romantic comedy read. The author actually made me belly laugh at some parts!
The waiter at La Palapa understood that I just wanted to be there and to relax and to not be rushed. Drinks and dinner continued at a leisurely pace.

Precisely at 8:44pm was sunset. And I had a front row seat! By the time I finished up the meal with a nightcap cappuccino, it was almost 9:30, which meant that I had been there for four hours! It reminded me of my grad school days in NYU Paris. The Director of the program would take the students out to dinner, and the meal (usually seven or eight courses) was never less than three hours. Intentionally peaceful and leisurely. I lived in France during some formative years of my young adult life and I think that was one of my most significant takeaways. They say that the French work to live, whereas Americans tend to live to work. I like to think that in addition to my love of stinky cheese, one thing I took away from my time in Paris was the idea that meals should be enjoyed, ideally never on the go, and always include a cheese course. 

So back to the beach and La Palapa. Drinks, dinner, my new book. A cozy evening. And since the topic of today’s entry is la Comida, I definitely have to tell you what made this meal so memorable in addition to the atmosphere, the location, the waiter's patience, and the sunset! 😂 I had the most amazing beet salad that I’ve ever had in my life! It had a really thin layer of goat cheese😍underneath the kilogram of beets, along with some jicama sprinkled on top. A fabulous appetizer. Then, the main dish was composed of shrimp and scallops, but those of you who know me, know my weakness for dessert. The cheesecake was divine, and I don’t even like cheesecake! Well, at least I didn’t before touching down in Mexico. And then, of course, a cappuccino to end the meal; however, as I’m learning in my Italian class, in Italy they don't drink cappuccino in the evening, only espresso. Cappuccino is reserved for the mornings, but hey! I’m in PV and not in Roma, so take that! 

All in all, a memorable evening. I'm going to end it here and include some photos. Last week's entry was about Playa, and this week's entry is about Comida. Can you guess what next week's entry will be about? If you said Amor, you guessed right. See you then.