In the afternoon we have a relaxing day planning with a few lectures at the festival hotel and then enjoying the nearby beach. Our plans are shattered when the car company calls us and requests to change the car, supposedly some registration expires the next day and it needs to be exchanged. This is very annoying as we just got the car so they should have known and it means we now need to make our way through Puerto Vallarta to the airport and back on a Saturday evening. There is not a lot we can do about it but after all this talking with them we are a bit late at the lectures as we learn that entering the resort even on foot is quite cumbersome as we get tagged as outsiders at the gate. At least we don’t have to pay to $60+ resort fee….
The lectures are interesting enough. Funnily even though we arrived quite late they started even later so we have time to watch all lectures even as our plan was to watch only a couple of them.
After the lectures we return to our hotel on foot, the same way we came. Surprisingly it is an easy walk, maybe we should have chosen to come to it on foot instead of waiting at the hotel and always be the last to be picked up.
Driving back to the airport to exchange the car is reasonably ok and fast, returning however is a horror show. We crawl through the downtown at a speed of two kilometers per hour and we are quite exhausted as we reach the other end of town and decide to stop at the same parking garage as on the first day and find a place to eat. It is around 9PM so we are happy to see that the scene on the promenade is quite lively and that google promises multiple restaurants are still open.
We cross into Zona Romantice where it seems most open restaurants close to us are. It is then time to choose, in the end we go with a Mexican restaurant which has both good reviews and seems to be more empty.
In fact it looks empty as it is huge, we are allowed to sit upstairs, which we didn’t even notice is available and our table overlooks the beach, it is quite romantic if we wouldn’t be soooo tired. We order cocktails, non-alcoholic as we are still driving and then it is time to decide what to eat.
After we order we watch the beach and people watch the ones that are eating on the beach, we know notice that the hotel has tables also on the sand. And then close by the fireworks start, they are quite impressive and we are happy to have caught them.
The food takes a bit to arrive, which we don’t mind due to the views, and it is reasonably good. Especially as we are famished after the long and exhausting day.
As we return close to midnight to the parking lot there are still people around going to and fro between Zona Romantica and the Central area. It also still feels quite safe which is quite nice and we enjoy the views of the lighted riviera before returning to the car and hotel where we fall asleep almost immediately.
