Tag Archives: Airbnb

Mexico Trip: Puerto Vallarta

On to the final part of the Mexico Trip: Puerto Vallarta!

I was a little worried about morning traffic from Chapala to the Central de Autobuses de Guadalajara in Tlaquepaque, but I needn’t have been. An acquaintance of Chris and Terry’s who drove a cab picked me at the designated time and got me there in less than half an hour.

The ETN bus ride took about 6 hours. Once in PV mid-afternoon, I called an Uber from the bus station (which is in the north of the city, not too far from the airport, actually).

In PV I also stayed at an AirBnb. (In fact the only hotel I stayed at the entire trip was the Real Maestranza in Guadalajara.) It was on a crazy hill (see photos). I can’t say that I wasn’t warned, as the place description and the all the reviews mentioned it.

Beachfront/Zona Romantica

PV is well-known as one of Mexico’s premier beach resort cities which is also extremely popular with the LGBT community (both Mexican and foreigners). The week I happened to be there coincided with Gay Pride Week there, so there was probably even more going on in that regard than usual.

You’ve Got Friends in Puerto Vallarta

It was great to end the trip in PV for a few reasons, not the least of which is that I had three friends who happened to be there: Michael, a friend from LA who lives in PV about half the year; James, another LA friend who was on vacation for a few days there; and Jim, that friend who moved to Mexico City who was also on a little vacation in PV (and who has since moved from CDMX to PV).

I have to admit that as I get older I’m becoming one of those people whose fascination with the beach ends at the edge of the sand, looking out. It’s so pretty! It smells so nice!

But I don’t really want to lie in the hot sand with my body slathered in oils (to which the sand will stick) to frolic in waves of questionable cleanliness. (I guess I’ve turned into that guy.)

But I was down for long walks along the Malecon, which was the best way to get from where I was staying, a couple of kms north of the main touristy area, the Zona Romantica (which is also the gay area).

Doesn’t quite capture how steep/treacherous this hill to the Airbnb was, but you get an idea. I loved it.

One of the best things I did was go to dinner with James at Casa Kimberly, a fine restaurant located in Liz Taylor‘s old Puerto Vallarta house. Here’s a photo of me on the footbridge there:

Vallarta Botanical Garden

One of the days Michael took me to the Vallarta Botanical Garden (along with Billie, his pup). Well worth the trip. We walked around the grounds, looked at flowers, plants and some fauna (I saw an iguana! In the wild!) and then had lunch. A perfect activity for the men of a certain age (and dogs of a certain age). We took a cab back into town and I thought that would be the last ride of my life – the guy was constantly passing on the two lane cliffside road.

But — here I am. Adios Mexico Trip: Puerto Vallarta – till next time.

Michael’s dog Billie went with us to the Garden

Mexico Trip: Guanajuato

On the Mexico Trip: Guanajuato, the ETN bus ride from San Miguel de Allende was only a couple of hours, if that. Another hill town, it’s the eponymous capital of the Mexican state of Guanajuato.

Also like San Miguel de Allende, a UNESCO Heritage Site. Fascinating city built on and into hills, with staircases, at least one funicular, and below ground streets in tunnels (which I read used to be rivers or creeks).

Homes are often painted in colorful pastels on the many hills (see pix). The Airbnb where I stayed in Guanajuato was part of a complex that included several Airbnb units, as well as an enormous common patio as well as an attached restaurant/coffeehouse.

Shortly after I checked in it was time for lunch, so I snapped this picture from the little restaurant right after a downpour began:

Las Cuatro Puertas cafe, looking out at Tapetepa

You can see the painted houses on the hill opposite. (The young couple walking on the sidewalk across the street was perfectly framed in the doorway kissing, but I wasn’t quick enough to get the shot!)

Centro

Like so many historical city centers in Mexico, Guanajuato is also centered around a church, this one being the Basílica Colegiata de Nuestra Señora de Guanajuato. The first time I walked over there, the day I got to the city, there was already a procession and some kind of celebration (involving costumed skits, I don’t know what of though) in front of the church.

There were guys up in the bell tower throwing firecrackers, a band playing and also singing coming from inside the church. Quite the cacophony but totally intriguing and enjoyable.

The AirBnb

As mentioned, I stayed at an AirBnb that was on Calle Tepetapa which turns into Avenida Juarez (kind of the main drag to the center of the old town). It was run by a couple who had several units to rent out, as well as being the owners/operators of the cafe in front.

The unit I stayed in was hidden in the back, down several flights of stairs, across a bridge and in back of a huge shared patio, so although in the center of town, was sufficiently quiet and also felt very secure. Some photos:

Mercado Hidalgo, Funicular

Couple of other notable sights in Centro: The giant Hidalgo market, mostly indoors but with a significant spillover to adjacent patios under a lot of shade trees. Most of the vendors sold food items but there was a little bit of everything here. Loved this building, originally designed as a train depot but ending as a market.

The funicular goes up to the statue of El Pipila, a hero of the Mexican independence era. There are outstanding views from up top, also lots of food and souvenir vendors. If you’re more adventurous than I was, you can walk up or down through the warren of narrow alleys and staircases. Some photos:

Las Minas

Guanajuato was at the center of silver mining for a long historical period, as it sits in the middle of one of the richest silver mining areas the world has known (the Valenciana Mine). I took a short trip up the hill to the mines and did the tour, which was underground and I do not have photos of.

It was very interesting, somewhat claustrophobic (but I was OK). The guide was Spanish-speaking only, so I got a few things here and there but where I was able to read placards it filled in most of the picture.

The mine entrance I went to (Bocamina San Cayetano) was right behind the church Templo de San Cayetano Confesor, which has altars filled with locally produced silver artifacts.

Some photos:

I liked this building in the mines area.

Other Guanajuato

Last but certainly not least, some random shots around the city, including my visit to Las Momias – the mummies, perhaps Guanajuato’s most infamous “sight.” Others I will identify in the captions. So much for this portion of the Mexico Trip: Guanajuato. Next up: On to Guadalajara and Lake Chapala.

C’mon, Share, Kids, You Know You Want To.

photo thanks cleanairgardening

Or even if you don’t, you can’t afford to not share anymore.

I wanted to share this NYT piece about sharing – even though it’s a couple of months old, I agree that the new sharing paradigm is important, and wanted to acknowledge Tina Rosenberg’s opinionator.

Access, rather than ownership, is what drives the future of commerce, according to this theory.

**ANOTHER UPDATE: Los Angeles Times ran a story today on Airbnb issues in Silver Lake.

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When I was a little kid, I never really understood why everyone on the block had to have their own lawnmower – mowing was such an odious task (I grew up before the explosion of the service economy, so dads and kids – and the occasional mom, to be sure – took care of the yard work). I hated cutting the grass. We tried to avoid it as long as possible. The truth was, though, the longer the grass got the harder it was to mow with those manual push mowers (see above), which is what we had. But I digress. The point I was trying to make is that the mower was used maybe once a week, once every two weeks if there wasn’t much rain. So the “block” we lived on probably could have shared one or two mowers if someone had figured out how to organize it. (I’m sure there were smarter localities that probably did. BTW, the photo isn’t of anyone I know.)

I previously posted on car-sharing your own car; in the end I opted to sell it instead and become car-free.

Rosenberg divides the new sharing economy into what are called full mesh schemes (like Zipcar) and own-to-mesh (like Airbnb, etc). Full mesh means a company owns something and rents it out (as in cars, for Zipcar) and own-to-mesh is a gazillion little owners renting out what they have, like Airbnb, or like the personal car sharing companies I talked about in my previous post.

I never understood why people didn’t share WiFi in small apartment buildings or areas that could be wired appropriately – like they already do in office buildings or hotels. Obviously, the telcos have much dinero to lose and that’s why they’ve “encouraged” everyone to lock up their WiFi. (For those of you who’ve been on it a long time, you know this was not always the case and most people didn’t password-protect their service when it was first rolled out.)

I’ve even heard of people who make their monthly rent by renting out a few nights on Airbnb and staying elsewhere – even, at times, in their cars (if they have them) – which seems a little extreme to me, but hard times can call for desperate measures. Maybe Airbnb is the 21st Century equivalent of the “rent party?”

But how does this all work in a system where the economy is dependent on consumerism and continued consumer spending, largely made possible by debt? Well, the answer is kind of simple. It doesn’t work for that kind of economy.

Perhaps we’re on the threshold of something new, both for the way we live our lives and for the health of our yearning to be sustainable, finite planet. (But expect a lot of wailing and gnashing along the way. It won’t be pretty.)