Mex-ology Tour, January 25, 2024

We are walking to the tour meeting point and head out a bit early.   Who’s that hanging with Allan? 

Walk on and we see an iguana in a tree.  Can you spot him/her?

It’s now tour time in old PV complete with tacos and taquila!

The meeting point is Lazaro Cardenas Parque now known as “El Parque de los Azulejos” translated means “The Tiled Park”   Edgar, our guide, explains as little as 3 years ago, Puerto Vallarta artist Natasha Moraga, came up with a brainstorm and begun transforming the not to pleasant, wouldn’t want to be there, town square into a magnificent place where people want to hang out.

Problem – the Mexican government had no money to fund.  Ever enterprising Natasha’s idea was to have businesses and even indivuals fund a bench.  The idea caught on quickly and the park was transformed. Some individuals who lost a loved one added their ashes to the mortar.  We didn’t see it but apparently, it isn’t unusal to find folks crying at a bench of the recently deceased.

  This is Vallarta Food Tour’s bench Click the link above on the park’s name or here to get the low down.  It is an interesting read.

This is our group’s first stop. There we are in the back!We had 8 stops, walking 4ish hours, enjoying a specialty cocktail including tequila, pulque, mezcal and local agave spirit Racilla at each stop. We ate tacos from various regions, each one seemed better than the previous.  We ate & drank more than we took photos, here’s what we captured in no particular order.

Guess who bailed on this cocktail complete with an orange with a GRASSHOPPER? Grasshoppers are very nutritious. They’re about 40 percent protein, 43 percent fat, and 13 percent dietary fiber. They have higher protein content than many other animal and plant sources like chicken, eggs, and beans.

It’s just “a hunk a hunk of burning meat!!” Shoulder that is!  Flames are at the back, he continually turns to cut off the cooked portion

This tree is over 300 years old; there were several but the other were chopped down before the city issued a “don’t chop” order.

We stopped at a tequila shop and got Edgar’s idea of which was best!

We learned churros were originally brought to Mexico by the Chinese, of course the natives perfected them and called them their own 🙂

Our final stop!

It was a fun tour with lovely folks and a great guide.  I’d recommend it early in  your visit.

Full Moon time!