- Hello, Tangerines
from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
The last time we were here,
about three and a half years ago,
we made a video that was a little critical of the city
and we thought it wasn't for us.
But today I wanna give it a second chance.
So that's what we're gonna do.
Today for breakfast,
I'm eating at this restaurant called La Palapa.
It was recommended by a friend who has never led me astray.
So thank you, Andy.
This week in Puerto Vallarta, it's just gonna be me.
Maddie is back in Queretaro,
but the last time we were here,
one reason why we thought it wasn't for us
is because it was more expensive
than the other Mexican cities we had been to.
But the problem was at that time,
we literally had 50 subscribers on our YouTube channel.
So now that our channel has grown a little bit,
we can afford to do some more things
that we couldn't the last time,
the last time we really had to pinch our pennies
and we couldn't afford to go
to a nice restaurant like this, for example.
(Jordan speaking in foreign language)
For breakfast, I decided to go with the green juice,
(speaking in foreign language) for 45 pesos
and the blue crab eggs benedict for 155 pesos.
Okay, let's give this a try.
The food came out really fast, by the way.
I couldn't believe it.
So this is an eggs Benedict
with like Chipotle hollandaise, some blue crab.
(gentle music)
Hmm, that's good, I like it.
(gentle music)
I'm told this is a pretty expensive restaurant,
but at least the breakfast menu,
it doesn't seem to be terribly overpriced
considering the atmosphere, the view and everything.
I love it out here.
There's relaxing music playing, my feet are in the sand.
You have the ocean waves crashing
with a gorgeous view out to the water.
I noticed they had beach chairs here at LA Palapa
so I asked about them and what the process's for.
Renting them and you can reserve for them ahead of time
and it doesn't have a cost
it's just that you have to purchase
at least 500 pesos worth of food and beverage.
If you purchase less than that,
while you're still get charged with 500 pesos
and more than that, well, then you pay for whatever you get.
But I might just have to do that
because I like this restaurant
and this view is perfect
and these chairs look comfortable.
So 500 pesos, yeah, I might jump on that.
It's only like an eight minute walk back
to where I'm staying, but it's up a lot of stairs.
And after living in a moderate climate for about a year now,
I'm not used to this humidity
and I'm just sweating like crazy.
So I'm gonna grab an Uber quick
and go back to cool off for a little bit.
(speaking in foreign language)
(bright upbeat music)
I'll give you guys a quick tour of where I'm staying,
it's this place called Villas Loma Linda.
And it's in Zona Romantica right in the heart
of all the action here in Puerto Vallarta.
Something interesting about Villas Loma Linda
is that it has seven floors,
but you actually enter on the fourth floor.
So you might have to go up or down
depending on where you're staying.
I think this is technically in the Zona Amapass,
but it's literally right next to Zona Romantica,
just a few minutes, walking away.
(bright upbeat music)
Coming in the front door here on the right
is a kitchen with a nice little island.
It has a dual sink over there, along the wall,
and then another sink in the island.
I think that's an awesome feature to have,
nice big refrigerator.
And then over here to the left of the front door,
it's a living room with a few couches out here.
This is the dream, check this out.
Nice, big spacious patio with a grill, a table.
You have a shade up here that you can roll down
if the sun's ever coming in, a jacuzzi
but most of all, you have this spectacular view
of the sea out here.
And right off the patio here,
is one of the two bedrooms in this place.
Nice king size bed, another patio of its own.
And you wake up to these amazing views of the sea out here.
(bright upbeat music)
This place is a two bedroom, two bath.
The other bedroom here has another king size bed
and attached to it, is its own bathroom
with a nice spacious shower, toilet and sink area.
Attached to this other bedroom
is another bathroom with a very large shower area.
This has been a really nice, nice hot water,
great water pressure, and very spacious shower.
From down here at the pool,
you can get a nice view of the layout of this complex.
So where I'm staying is on the second level right up here.
And then there's five more levels above that.
I have to give a quick shout out
and thank you to our subscriber Louise
for letting me stay here.
This has been a total treat, I love the views.
It's really comfortable and just a great location,
awesome place to stay.
If I were coming to Puerto Vallarta again,
I would definitely check out Villas Loma Linda
and see if I can find a rental available here.
So I'm gonna be honest.
It has been super strange to travel alone
for the first time in Mexico.
And I mean, traveling alone has its challenges.
And one of those challenges is how the heck
do I put on sunscreen?
Like I can reach most places, but yeah, my back, forget it.
I'm just gonna be a lobster on my back.
And I'm sure I could find someone to volunteer.
I'm drying, it's difficult.
It's pretty rare to find a pool where we're living
in Queretaro because the weather
is practically perfect year round,
and there's not really much use for a pool.
So I'm always in shorts and a T-shirt.
And I get these horrible tan lines,
like all my arms, all my feet are just awful.
So I'm hoping that this weekend
I'm spending some time by the pool, out by the beach.
So you're not so jealous of my tan.
(bright upbeat music)
Mad, I totally underestimated how nice it is
to have a pool while in port Queretaro
this feels so good.
Oh, it's a perfect temperature.
(gentle music)
By the way, if you're new to our channel,
my name is Jordan and we make videos
about our life living in Queretaro, Mexico
and about our travels throughout the country.
So if you're interested in videos like that,
please subscribe to our channel.
Every day I've been walking these very many stairs down
and usually Ubering back up the hill
and I'm done at the end of the day.
It's kind of funny when I've been walking
through Zona Romantica alone,
everyone seems to think I'm gay
and I don't blame them,
they're just playing the numbers,
a young single guy with an athletic build.
And yeah, there's a pretty good chance
he's probably gay (laughing).
But I'll be walking past a massage place
and they'll be like, "Hey, handsome,
do you want a massage?"
It's kind of funny,
they definitely cater to the clientele here,
but anywhere else I've ever been,
and it's always women offering massages,
but here in Zona Romantica,
it's always guys offering the massages
and I always politely decline,
but I just think it's funny that everyone seems
to think I'm gay.
I was wearing my Arizona state hat yesterday
and someone came up to me and he's like,
"Hey, did you go to ASU?"
I was like, "Yes, I did."
And he said, "Did you know there's an ASU bar here?"
"No, I didn't."
So I wanted to go check that out
because I thought how random in Puerto Vallarta
there's a Sun Devil Bar.
(bright upbeat music)
I told them I was a Sun Devil,
and they brought me a little courtesy Sun Devil shot.
Haven't even ordered a thing yet.
I asked the bartender for a recommendation
and she suggested that passion fruit margarita
and that was on point, this thing is so good.
As it turns out, the drinks are very strong there.
So forgive me if I'm slurring any of my words,
but I met the owner, his name's Alan,
as it turns out, this is one of the oldest bars
on the Malecon here.
It's been here for 16 years.
The owner, his wife and his daughter
all went to Arizona State,
and I left with this hat and a shirt.
I enjoyed my time there, I would definitely go back.
Normally, when I'm going back
to where I'm staying, I take an Uber.
But the Devil's Bar had me feeling a little buzz.
And I'm like, nah, it's fine, I'll just walk.
And now that I'm to all the stairs,
I'm regretting that decision.
I'm so sweaty.
I'm breathing so hard.
I need a shower (gasping).
When you're going down,
it doesn't seem too bad,
but when you're growing up, they never end.
(Jordan panting)
I was just gonna rest here (chuckles).
I'm only exaggerating a little bit.
I'm really tired, sweat's just dripping down my face.
But almost back to Villas Loma Linda
and I'm gonna take a nice shower and get changed
for more stuff later tonight, stick around.
Something I loved about PV,
the last time we were here, were the sunsets,
some of the most incredible sunsets I've seen in my life.
Behind me here, you can sort of see the end of one,
but it's not that great tonight.
So I'm hoping to show you a much better one
some other night during this trip.
I'm sure we'll see an awesome sunset.
(bright upbeat music)
If you're coming to Mexico,
one problem, I guarantee
that you're gonna run into is you'll get here,
and at the end of the day, you want to unwind in your room.
You open up your laptop
and all of your favorite websites are all in Spanish.
Instead of Fahrenheit, it's in Celsius.
Instead of miles, things are now in kilometers.
Everything's gonna be different.
Well, if you wanna fix this
and get back to the English websites you're used to,
well, sometimes you can scroll down
to the bottom and click English,
but a lot of websites
make this very difficult or impossible.
But what I like to do is use a VPN.
A VPN allows you to change your location virtually
so you can choose to be in Miami, for example,
and all your websites will switch back to English magically.
If you wanna check out our favorite VPN,
you can find it at tangerineVPN.com.
This is the only major VPN company I know about
that gives you unlimited devices for all your subscriptions.
So your whole family can use it on their cell phones
or laptops or TV, everything.
Right now they're running a sale,
it's 84% off plus four extra months free.
Again, if you wanna check that out,
head on over to tangerineVPN.com
that's our affiliate link
and it'll take you right to their website.
So last time I visited Puerto Vallarta
this restaurant, Pipis, was one of my favorite.
And they had this drink margaritas
awesome Catrinas so I had to come back here.
Such a nice place.
And I forgot about this,
but they make fresh Guacamole at your table
and there's a live Mariachi band
playing like a bunch of different hits.
Anything from country music to Van Morrison,
all kinds of stuff, and you can request whatever you want.
(speaking in foreign language)
(enchanted band music)
They always set their heaters on fire,
but I just missed it, unfortunately.
Wow!
(enchanted band music)
I could hardly believe it.
We ordered and then a minute later, the margarita came out.
Two minutes after that, our entire dinner
was here, right in front of us, so fast.
This gigantic cadillac margarita was about 175 pesos
and we got the shrimp fajitas to share,
or I think it was 296 pesos.
It was definitely under 300.
And now the Mariachi Band is playing Garth Brooks.
I'm looking at the Margarita flavors up here,
and one of them is called blue Pipis.
So I decided I do not want a blue Pipi
so we went with a Cadillac Margarita.
(enchanted band music)
I had such fond memories of that place.
From the last time we were here,
I absolutely loved going to Pipis.
When you go to a place, you love it
and then you go back and it's just not the same.
Well, I am happy to report,
that's not the case here.
It was just as incredible as I remember, if not more
so highly, highly recommend Pipis Restaurant
and get the fajitas and the margaritas
they're the bomb.
(enchanted band music)
Leaving Pipis Restaurant, just a block away
there's all these art galleries,
including this incredible looking cafe behind me.
It's Cafe des Artistes
and I didn't notice it right away,
but there's like a mosaic looking face on the front of it.
And it looks like a castle, it's super cool.
The end of Dia de Muertos is November 2nd,
but today is November 4th.
And I'm pleasantly surprised that there's tons
Dia de Muertos decorations
still here on the Malecon
we're right at the beginning of the Malecon here
and there is Katrina
and right behind me, there's a whole bunch
of different skulls and other paper-mache decorations.
One of these theater immortals decorations
is a crocodile or an alligator.
And it reminds me of this "Family Feud" episode
where the question is, name an animal
with three letters in its name
and this guy buzzes in so confident.
He says, "Alligator!"
(machine buzzes)
The host of the show is like,
okay, well, the top answer is dog (laughing).
Fun fact, this guy was killed by a coconut falling his head,
but he still has his coconuts.
I think this one is my favorite out here.
It's a walrus fainted like the skeleton.
That's really cool, I love it.
There's so many skulls and decorations,
just one after another, I love them.
They're all painted differently and super unique.
This one has some sea creature on it.
- [Woman] It's a lotto.
- [Jordan] Oh, it's a lotto?
- [Woman] Yeah.
(Jordan laughing)
- He died of alcohol poisoning.
He looks drunk.
I think this is Zeus.
Can anyone confirm it's a Zeus.
(woman singing in Mexican)
When it comes to Dia de Muertos
everyone tells you go to Oaxaca,
go to Patzcuaro, go to Mexico City.
Why does no one say, go to port of Queretaro?
There's so much here than I was expecting.
This is incredible.
This is one of the biggest Catrinas I've ever seen
and there's all these other decorations
along the Malecon, I love it.
(woman singing in Mexican)
This park is super cool,
it has all these mosaic colorful designs all over the place,
and I don't know if it's related to him in any way,
but it totally reminds me of a Gowdy work
that I've seen in both Barcelona and Lima, Peru.
There is an insane amount of surface area
that's covered by all these tiles.
I can't even imagine,
I can't fathom how much time those took.
This is crazy.
For at least a couple of years now,
I was thinking that I may have been wrong
about Puerto
and I've only been here a few days so far,
but I can tell you that I'm honestly having a blast.
And if you're not on a total shoestring budget,
like I was last time we visited
and it's not a big deal to go to a bar
and buy a $5 drink or spend 15 or $30
in a restaurant,
well, then, I think you're going
to have wonderful time here.
And that Vallarta is a great place to visit.
Thank you guys for watching.
I'll have more videos coming out from Puerto Vallarta
for you very soon here.
And in the meantime,
here's a playlist on the screen of other videos
that we've made in Mexico.
So you can keep watching until
our next Puerto video drops.
Before you go,
please subscribe to our channel and (bell gongs)
gong that bell.
So you get notified every time we release a new video
and we will see you on Saturday morning.