Vacation redux - part 3

On Tues after a leisurely morning of coffee and bakery items on the patio, we decided it was going to be our beach day.

On our trips to and from PV we had all noticed this lovely beach area that never had many people at it.  There was plenty of parking and the beach was deep with white sand - much prettier than most of the US beaches we'd been to.  The contour of the coastline there was such that this area of beach was like a cove.  It just looked perfect to us.

So we packed up our Mexican sarapes/blankets and a cooler of soda and beer and headed to the beach.  It was divine!  We laid in the sun for 20 minutes on each side, then headed into the water.  It was cool enough to be refreshing but not cold.  The water was clear and a pretty blue shade.  While we were there a few others came to enjoy the beach too, but then left after less than an hour.  It seemed they had just stopped on their way somewhere.

When we felt we'd had enough of the sun we packed up our camp and headed toward the house.  But instead of turning to go up the mountain to the house, we decided to drive further south to see what we would see.  There were miles of beautiful coastline, lots of tropical vegetation and palm trees, and then we saw a sign for a restaurant called Le Kliff.  Perhaps that might make a nice spot to have lunch, we agreed.  So we kept driving until we reached Le Kliff.

From the parking lot it appeared to be a single-level building that resembled a ranch-style house, but as we walked to the entrance we found it was very, very different.  Le Kliff is open air restaurant (there is a roof but no walls) built out and down the face of a cliff that juts out into the water.  There were at least 4 or 5 different levels, all with tables set with white fabric napkins, silverwear, and clear water glasses.  It was by far the fanciest restaurant we went to the entire week, and we just happened to be wearing bathing suits and t-shirts.

Since it was about 3pm (neither lunch time nor dinner time) there were few patrons in the restaurant so we were escorted to a table at the very front, overlooking the sea.

Cocktails and appetizers at Le Kliff

There were breezes there we had not felt on the beach.  I just could not get over how beautiful it was!

We ordered margaritas and several appetizer platters to share and thoroughly enjoyed our lucky discovery. When we finished our waiter brought out a heavy guest book and a pen so we could write our names, from where we were visiting, and a comment about experience at Le Kliff.  Before leaving we walked along the little trails that had been carved into the side of the cliff that took you down to the water.  It was spectacular!

After returning to the house, putting away the groceries, and reading/relaxing on the patio we decided we would drive into PV for dinner.  One of the Newlyweds saw a recommendation on TripAdvisor for Barcelona Tapas so we decided to go there.  On the way into PV we stopped for a sunset photo-op.

Me & Spouse in front of Los Arcos (The Arches)

1st off, the drive there was crazy.  The entire city of Puerto Vallarta has cobblestone streets which are bumpy as hell, but to top it off we were trying to find this restaurant and kept going up and down these REALLY steep streets, seemingly in a circle at 1 point.  I mean, the grades of some of the streets were so steep that you couldn't see the road ahead of you.  Once we finally arrived, we walked up 3 flights of stairs to eat on the rooftop which offered fabulous views of Puerto Vallarta.  We ordered several tapas that everyone liked the sound of and shared it all between the 4 of us.  It was really good and we had a fun dining experience there.