David Simmonds

I’m flying to Puerto Vallarta next week as the first stop in a driving trip to Cabo Corrientes, a short ways south, to photo and video two villages for the non-profit charity www.onetownatatime.com. Corrientes is a beautiful area (Yelapa is located there on the north end), but little-traveled by tourists.

I always look forward to Vallarta – still my favorite place in Mexico. I’ve seen it grow from about 25,000 people when I was first there in 1970, to one of the major tourist towns in Mexico (see Cabo, Cancun), but I rarely stray from the old section south of the Rio Cuale, and that area hasn’t changed all that much. I’ll be staying in what some would snobbishly call a dive hotel, but I wouldn’t/can’t stay anywhere else. The Posada de Roger is like a second home to me and I remember well when Roger was still alive, personally watering each plant and making sure all of his guests (from everywhere in the world) were happy. Roger was killed many years ago at his home in Bucerias, but the place is still in the family, operated by his equally gracious brother, Federico.

PV is a constantly changing town with new shops and wonderful restaurants coming and going. So to keep up on things I always check in with the Virtual Vallarta web site, the online page for the slick local print magazine, Vallarta Lifestyles (click here to see the Spring/Fall issue). The web site and magazine, under the direction of Managing Editor Paco Ojeda, always have the best, up-to-date info on Vallarta and the surrounding areas. Give it a look the next time you’re heading to PV. You may see me there around lunch time devouring street tacos from the stand in front of Archie’s Wok.