Puerto Vallarta- Here We Come!

Betty and Plata

By Thomas Eck

My first visit to PV in May of 2012 hooked me on the beauty and friendliness of this wonderful part of our planet. We had driven our Jeep Grand Cherokee with 195,000 miles from our home near Ensenada, Mexico to Mazatlan for a two-week stay. Since my wife Betty and I are both retired, we decided to extend our trip to visit PV and check out the area as a potential place to live.

For the past two years we had lived in Bajamar, a gated golf course community about 25 miles north of Ensenada and had grown tired of the isolation, cold ocean water and constant wind blowing off the Pacific across the golf course into our back yard. Gas grilling was not an option, as the flame would blow out from the incessant wind. Travelling 25 miles for a loaf of bread was growing old..and we were too.

Sunset on the Sea of Cortez

So it was time to move on. PV fit the bill.  It was the perfect mixture of convenience, ethnicity and natural beauty and a nearby airport that had surprisingly good connections with the rest of the world.  We leased a place in Marina Vallarta, drove back to Bajamar and made arrangements to move.

We hired TET Movers from Tijuana, who were attentive, thorough, very professional…and inexpensive. Yvette Gomez, their agent, came to our home surveyed the items to be moved gave us a bid at 1/3 the price of another mover and stuck to that bid. We decided to drive our Jeep, which now had over 201,000 miles on it. We knew the weather would be oppressively hot, so we planned to drive until about 1:00 p.m. every day, settle in at a motel that had a pool and enjoy the rest of the day. We also knew that driving at night was not a good idea for many reasons, not the least of which was roaming livestock which are even more effective than the topes, aka “sleeping policemen” at destroying a speeding car and its occupants..

The worst part of the drive was the first day, as hot winds over the 112 degree desert temperatures buffeted our fully packed Jeep as I managed to find every pothole on a 40 mile stretch of dirt road under repair on Mexico Highway 2 between Tecate and Sonoyta. We stopped in Sonoyta, found a place with a pool. And rested.

After stops in Guaymas , Cuiliacan and Mazatlan, we arrived in PV. The Jeep had not even hiccupped and the air conditioning had worked wonderfully—perhaps because there was so much packed in our car not much air had to be cooled. We had no problems with the military or police and were always treated with respect and sometimes even a smile. Of course, it helps that Betty speaks fluent Spanish.

About a week later our 144 boxes of “things” arrived amid a typical torrential rainstorm. The movers, perhaps relieved that they had survived the curves and turns of Highway 200 from Tepic, happily scurried up the four flights of stairs with our items and carefully placed them where we directed them.

A week later we were unpacked.  We are now enjoying every minute of this magical place.

View From Our Veranda in Vallarta