Bucerias

Bucerias is a town along Banderas Bay in between La Cruz and Puerto Vallarta.  I never looked up actual populations, but it seemed to me to be bigger than La Cruz, and quite a bit more touristy.  We didn’t spend much time there, but a couple experiences may be worth mentioning.  Lady Carolina had been talking about his place called the Luna Lounge for like, forever, because when they were here the previous season they had gone to see an Elvis (as in the King of Rock) impersonator band and they also have good, cheap ribs (two for one dinners, I think).  Once we got to La Cruz we had been trying to organize a big group to go there for dinner.  Once we got foiled by too much rain, but we finally pulled it together on Jan 6.  After a seminar at Paradise Village, the boys and I hopped on a bus with Lady Carolina and True Blue V back to Bucerias and then met up at the restaurant with Tim, Dazzler, San Dollar, Moments, and Appa.  We had tried to hire a taxi van to take us but we couldn’t haggle down to an acceptable price (by Steve’s standards, a near impossible task) so we were all pretty hungry when we got there after the long bus ride.  The kids all sat together at their own table, which they much prefer these days, and we all dug into ribs, ribs, ribs (and plenty of beer and wine too).  We enjoyed each others’ company but we just weren’t in much of a dancing mood it turned out, and Lady Carolina was a bit disappointed it wasn’t the magical evening they experienced there a year before.  That’s the way it goes sometimes.  Those fun, memorable nights just spontaneously happen sometimes and recreating them is near impossible.  But, like I said, we had fun, and we all hopped into a taxi this time for the ride back to La Cruz, and we got a ride all the way back to doorstep of the marina.  Which was great, until I remembered Jonathon (Fluenta) was with us and I was supposed to stop up at the top of town to take him up to their condo.  So, I asked the driver if he could take us back up there.  I didn’t have any more money, but he was nice about it.  It was on his way back, after all.  Once Jonathon was safely home, I ran all the way back down the hill to the marina.  In flip flops.  It was exhilarating, but my feet were not happy with me the next day.

The next day, I used the fact that we needed more cash to hop on a bus back to Bucerias.  There aren’t any ATMs in La Cruz, so my plan was to go to Mega in order to take out some money and get a few food items.  Along the way, I stopped at Bucerias El Centro, and just meandered around.  I just felt like getting out on my own for some low key exploring.  The coastline in Bucerias was very nice with a soft sandy beach and lined with palapas.  But the town didn’t draw me in like La Cruz.  It was much more of a tourist town, and it was lined with those little garage shops that all have the same t-shirts, hammocks, and blankets and the people yell at you to come see there stuff.  It reminded me of Cabo, the part of Cabo I don’t like.  Once I got away from that I enjoyed a couple art galleries and stopped for a fizzy water before calling it a day and continuing on with my errands.  It’s kind of funny what a big tourist town Bucerias is, and before now, I had never even heard of it.