planetdanika

I slept really late today. Later than I did the entire time I was on vacation. G left early to go ride in the Chilly Hilly. When I finally rolled out of bed at 9, I strapped on my running shoes and headed out for a long run. I ran from our house up to Discovery Park, around the loop trail once and then back home. It took me 80 minutes and is the longest run Ive done in at least 2 months. Man, did it feel good! I took it at a pretty leisurely pace but it felt nice to be out for so long. It was the first time Ive used my heart rate monitor on a longer run and it stated I burned over 800 calories. Gotta love that!

My running is feeling really good lately. Ive only been running two or three times per week but I feel solid. Theres no doubt Ive gotten slower- its a consequence of running and working out less overall. But I have managed to hang on to a perfectly respectable fitness level with only 3 workouts each week.

My latest Runners World magazine is touting its new half marathon training plan: you only run 3 days per week. It looks pretty tough, actually as the 3 days are HARD runs. But both G and I are slightly tempted to give it a go. Well seebut Im still determined to break the 1 hr 45 minute time for a half marathon.

Im sure youre dying to know what the food was like in Mexico (I would be). G often says the food when he was in Mexico the 1st time was terrible so we didnt have high hopes. For the most part though, we ate quite well. The standards included fresh seafood (primarily mahi mahi, shrimp, and red snapper), tacos, tortillas, salsa, and guacamole. And everything came with lots of avocado and lime. We quickly gravitated to the fish and asada (beef) tacos as our standby choices. The fresh tortillas varied widely and often made the taco. As I mentioned before, our best tacos were at The Happy Ant in Puerto Vallarta, though we also frequented a taqueria in San Pancho called Uno Mas (one more). I think I probably consumed enough tortillas and guacamole to feed a small army. Certainly enough that I dont need to eat either for a few months! G and I had several conversations about the relative merits of the avocado- I think theyre wonderful, hes not a fan.

In San Pancho, there were only a handful of restaurants- several cheap and cheerful type places and 3 or 4 more upscale. Since we were there for 6 days, we had occasion to try almost all of them and had several surprisingly good meals. Ill tell you about the top 3, in no particular order.

The hotel we stayed in had a restaurant called Azucena, which served dinner only on the weekends. We went one evening when they had live music- that was a mistake, the music was terrible! The food, however, was inspired. They served us an amuse bouche of a richly flavored spinach soup. We shared an appetizer of Iberian ham with a tomato bruschetta. I opted for a posole and G went with the Arrachera steak. My posole contained 3 of the absolute biggest shrimp Ive ever seen (about the size of my hand). The only downer was that Gs steak came with mushrooms. Oops! Otherwise, a delicious meal and pleasant evening, which had the added benefit of being just downstairs from our room.

Caf del Mar was just up the hill and had a great setting. It was all open air and terraced with tables on 3 levels. Our table was on the lowest level, underneath a trellis and we could look out over the village. This was definitely the trendiest place we ate and served self-proclaimed fusion cuisine. I ordered mahi mahi with grilled Portobello and polenta fries. I thought the polenta fries was a misprint, but it wasnt and they were delicious, as was the mahi. G ordered red snapper, which came in some kind of hibiscus sauce. It was unique and also yummy, though the accompanying potatoes were very over salted. Chocolate cake was a nice finale and very generously sized. Upstairs was a nice collection of local artwork- we wandered through before heading home.

And finally, the piece de resistance (OK, that might be a bit dramatic): our big blowout meal on the final night in town. We walked about a mile or so to get to Mar Plata, where we had seen the flamenco show earlier in the week. Its owned by a couple- one Argentinian and the other Dutch. It most closely resembles an Argentine-style steakhouse. The setting is really cool- theyve taken pieces of old ships and incorporated them into the architecture. Theres a big ships steering wheel at the entrance. Its also FULL of lanterns. Gs got a picture of them here. Anyway, the food: we ate a LOT of it. For an app, we shared a plate of Serrano ham with fresh mozzarella and a divine balsamic vinegar. We both chose steak for entrees, which I worried was too much food. The steaks were 450 grams EACH. Thats a pound of meat. It may have been too much food, but it was some of the best steak Ive ever eaten. G had the Arrachera again (described as an outside skirt steak) and I had the flank- both served with chimichurra sauce on the side. It was perfect, really. Sides were some excellent frites, garlic almond green beans, and roasted vegetables. After polishing off that heap of food, we moved on to dessert. We shared the chocolate fondue with fresh fruit. G had espresso and we ordered an after-dinner liqueur- anise of some kind. The walk home was definitely much needed and we put ourselves to bed with bulging bellies.

None of these places have their own websites yet, but you can read these articles Cafe del Mar and Mar Plata.

The remainder of our trip was pretty uneventful. We spent Thursday through Monday doing virtually the same thing. Wed get up, either go for a run or not (we averaged every other day), and have breakfast in the hotel. Then wed make our way to the beach for a few hours, have lunch, read books, play cards, and watch sunset. There was always a late afternoon shower and then wed head out for dinner. It was really very mellow. Friday we decided to deviate (just slightly) from this routine by going to the next town over, Sayulita. Its only about 3 or 4 miles and we decided we could walk it. It wasnt the distance that did us in, but the highway with no shoulder was rather unpleasant. Fortunately, within a mile or so, a VW van took mercy on us and took us the rest of the way to Sayulita.

Much bigger and busier than San Pancho, it lacked all the charm. We were not impressed although the water was calmer and thus you could swim safely. The place we ended up at for lunch was full of Americans. In fact, when a Mexican couple sat down next to us, we overheard the waitress explain to them that she was sorry the menu only comes in English. They assured her that they could read English so it wasnt a problem. Does anyone else think its bizarre that a restaurant in Mexico doesnt even HAVE a Spanish menu? I sure did.

In any case, one of the primary reasons we went to Sayulita was that we were running mighty low on cash. Our town was so small it lacked a bank or ATM. We knew that in advance so it didnt come as a shock. What DID come as a shock was that there was no ATM in Sayulita either. We both stared at each other open-mouthed when we gathered this information. In recent years, weve taken to relying almost exclusively on ATMs for cash when in foreign countries. The exchange rate is very good and its generally no-hassle. Needless to say, this put us in a bit of a bind, exacerbated by the theft earlier in the week.

When we returned to San Pancho we took inventory of all our cash and found ourselves with approximately $100 to last us 3 days. It necessitated some very creative choices for the rest of our stay. It meant, for one thing, that we purchased NO souvenirs for ourselves or anyone else. There was no cash to spare for postcards either, so dont feel bad that you didnt get one! We walked around our little town Friday evening and surveyed the restaurants to see which ones took credit cards and then made our dinner choices around that info. It all worked out in the end, although we had a few moments when we werent so sure!