I traveled for the first time to the city of Mexico Puerto Vallarta for a decade, a black and white movie. In a cold winter night, as I dug channels in my Manhattan apartment, I stumbled upon a “The Night of the Iguana” appearance in Turner Classic.
This 1964 adaptation of The Tennessee Williams Play, directed by John Huston and starring Richard Burton and Ava Gardner, was not exactly a classic movie. The story was overheating. The action even more. But as he played on my TV screen, I began to pay less attention to the plot and more in the lush landscape in which he played.
The coastal city, located in the Mexican state Jalisco, and bent by the beautiful BahÃa de Banderas in the west and the sweeping Sierra Madre mountain range in the east, was soon a tourist hot spot in the 1960s and early 1970s, helped Part of the crowd of Hollywood flocking there after Huston, et al., Returned and ran for it to their friends. Later, an international airport made it more accessible and tourism bounced.
Over the years, however, Puerto Vallarta was disappeared by Cancun, Cabo San Lucas, Tulum and even Sayulita, a surfing destination just a few miles to the Pacific coast. Although undoubtedly beautiful, with access to fantastic beaches, these places felt mildly familiar with resorts that, for the most part, seemed to offer a cocoon -like escape from the real Mexican country. I wanted something less predictable and, for the lack of better term, a little more “authentic”.
In addition, I was thrilled by the role played by Puerto Vallarta in what was often called romanticism of the 20th century – the scandalous case between Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. The two stars, who met throughout “Cleopatra”, were converted to Puerto Vallarta in their romantic refuge in the early days of their illegal relationship, when they were still married to other people.
Later they returned again and again, especially when there were rough patches in their wedding. Burton, in particular, was enchanted by it. As he wrote in an article in 1971 on Vogue, “The road we live in is a hazelnut invented by a genius with taste, endlessly exciting, pastel in blues and huge, burning white and dunes, and there are loaded burros and men from them Hills that go home sleeps on the horses with my feet and I could sit here forever as someone feeds me from time to time and fly me with a drink. “
If it were good enough for Liz and Dick, it was good enough for me.
‘I dream of these tacos’
Since then I have returned to Puerto Vallarta five times from the original trip in 2022, but it was not until my third visit that I finally found my way to Pepe’s. I had eaten well on my previous visits – from the freshly cut Marlin tacon (a kind of cross between an oversized taco and a burrito) at Tacon de Marlin I grabbed while waiting for my receipt to Gustavo DÃaz Ordaz Airport on huge order from a whole fried red Snapper devoured to El Barracuda, separating his accumulated white flesh, as the sun was above the Pacific Ocean.
Many people told me, however, that I had to make a trip to Pepe’s Tacos in a neighborhood called 5 de Diciembre, for what they promised to be the best tacos in Puerto Vallarta. As my partner and I walked under a dusty sidewalk from the busy Avenida de México, a long line moving beneath our sidewalk greeted us, and the cave, naked bone restaurant was blocked with capacity. As we waited patiently, an English -speaking local attitude behind us heard us talk about our first time at Pepe’s. “I dream of these tacos at night,” he said, guaranteed the meal in front of us worth waiting. He said the restaurant was open until 4 in the morning and that he and his friends often ended their nights there.
A few minutes later (the line moved quickly), we devoured two classes of Tacos Al Pastor – the smoked pork flavor that was balanced with the sweetness of the roast in pineapple – and a common goey queso fundido crackers with crumpled chorizo, along with two bottles Pacifico frozen beer (total account: under 300 pesos, or about $ 15). I don’t think we talked a word about the next few minutes, the idea of ​​any conversation that was quickly sacrificed in the food in front of us.
Daisies and people watch
As I returned to Puerto Vallarta for the last two years, I began to realize that the city was not completely immune to the kind of resort that has spread among other coastal cities in Mexico. But these high quality chain hotels are mostly north of the city, in the coastal communities of Nayarit and Punta Mita. The city also hosts cruise ships-and daily traffic floods the many tourist shops that sell everything from tequila to silver jewelry. It also hosts a large population of expatriate pensioners, derived from the temperate climate, the relatively cheap living costs and the omnipresent English -speaking trading and taxi drivers. The city is also an important winter destination for LGBTQ travelers, a kind of Provincetown South, with dozens of centrally positioned gay bar that is making a vibrant business during the tourist season (around the end of December until early May).
But everything seems to be almost seamlessly absorbed in this seaside resort a place where large families gather on the sidewalk for their evening meal, often cooked on open flame grills and where almost everyone, locals and tourists seem to spend part of it. Swimming in the waters of BahÃa de Banderas.
For me, any trip to Puerto Vallarta is based in Zona Romántica, the aptly called the heart of the old town, which, despite the cunning of different languages ​​on the busy streets and omnipres Grilled, it feels like you’ve been transferred right back in time. Take a random left or right under one of the many narrow, cobbled streets, and you will soon find a city very like the one first enchanted Burton and Taylor.
In addition, after some research, I discovered that a home that Burton bought in the late 1970s as a gift for his third wife, Suzy Miller, had expanded and turned into a hotel called Hacienda San Angel. A beautifully restored multilevel villa on the hills overlooking the Old Town, with about twelve suites, three pools, a beautifulst floor restaurant and rich, meticulously preserved gardens, would serve as a base for my first trip and would be a place I would come back On subsequent visits, even when I started renting Airbnbs for longer stays.
Although most tourists flock to Malecón, a seaside walk, I like to start any trip to Puerto Vallarta with a ride under the Basilio Badillo urban artery, perhaps confused in the eulo oven, where the fragrance of freshly cut tars and pastel It is always irresistible, then grabbing a frozen Margarita Mango in Blondie’s, where the sidewalks provide a perfect spot to take the surrounding scene.
When it’s time to catch the sunset, you could do worse than keep a table on the beach at El Dorado, where a meal from the red Snapper Ceviche and the Mesquite-Floating of the Day make a perfect accompaniment to the burning orange Sun and short fireworks usually appear.
One last detour
Last March, on my last night on the eve of the month at Puerto Vallarta, I went to a cabaret at Basilio Badillo to see a singer execute a stunningly excellent leisure of Linda Ronstadt’s “Canciones de Mi Padre”. (I decided to skip the broadcasts that characterized “Tina Turner” and “Bette Midler.”) Then I hit some of the busy clubs in Zona Romántica, downloading a Pacifico bottle of each one, bypassing the crowds of revelers on the pedestrian before pointing out. from a cabin about 1am. and giving the guide to my Airbnb address.
But as we headed home, I had a sudden longing.
“Señor,” I said, leans over the front seat, “Pepe’s, Por Favor.”
