Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Mexico 2019
Food and drink
I woke up around 7am, but didn't get up for
another 45 minutes or so. As the main business this morning was to
be our booked food tour with Vallarta Eats, we didn't intend to have
any breakfast. We set off just after 9am to walk to our starting
point, which was at the river bridge on Avenida Insurgentes. Our walk
took us past a nasty-looking road traffic collision, where a person
was sitting on the ground and receiving attention from paramedics.
After picking up coffee-to-go at Starbucks, we continued on the more
relaxing surroundings of the Malecón, Puerto Vallarta's
touristy - but not unattractive - esplanade. We finally turned
inland to reach our objective - one of the bridges to the Cuale
River Island - where three others were already waiting.
Fairly quickly, the full group assembled and we were joined by our friendly and knowledgeable guide Manuel, better known as Manny. Over the course of the next four hours or so, our tour wound its way around the streets of the Emiliano Zapata neighbourhood, visiting a succession of street carts and more conventional premises. At the start of the tour, we experienced two Birria-style tacos and at the second venue, we also got to taste the broth in which the meat was stewed. Some of us enjoyed a generous tequila shot around the middle part of the tour, and we were duly grateful to the tour member who covered the cost of this. Not unexpectedly, the theme moved more towards the 'sweet' end of the scale as the tour neared its end.
Here's a more detailed list of the stops:
| Stop | Venue | Featuring |
| 1 | Birria Ricky | Birria-style beef taco |
| 2 | Birria Chanfay | Birria-style taco dorado (fried) |
| 3 | Carnitas Lalo | Pork taco |
| 4 | 412 Café | Juan, the Coconut Man |
| 5 | Carnicería Colin | Cooked and raw meat displays |
| 6 | Marisma | Fish taco |
| 7 | Tortilleria | Fresh tortillas "off the press" |
| 8 | El Cólera | Ceviche tostado |
| 9 | El Moreno | Quesadilla with pork, beans, onion, etc |
| 10 | La Michoacana | Ice lolly |
| 11 | Azteca | Candy shop |
The tour finished a little after 2pm. We stocked up on drinks from a local Oxxo store and Bruce ordered an Uber to take us up the ridiculously steep hill on which we were based. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing and attending to our respective laundry requirements.
In the evening, we attend a Tequila Tasting
event on the roof space above our apartment. We went up at 6pm, but
apparently we were late! A couple were already in attendance, and
they had already worked their way through the various shots. We soon
managed to catch up - hic! - and then we were all drinking a mixture
of tequila, grapefruit juice and lime juice. We also had tortilla
chips with fresh guacamole. The sunset was spectacular.
Back in our flat, we rounded the day off very nicely with an evening meal of pasta with tomato and salsa de mole.
