Puerto Vallarta – The Good, The Bad, The… Well, you know how it goes

I’m almost still too exhausted from my trip to write about it. Almost.

I went to Puerto Vallarta for a few days, thanks to Bayer CropScience. They sent me to report on their horticulture symposium for my radio shows on the AgNet West Radio network. My non-radio friends have this image of me sitting in the beach, sipping margaritas and maybe doing a little work during the day. That’s not how it was, at all.

Ok, maybe a little. But just for a couple minutes each day. Sadly, I wasn’t a tourist and there just wasn’t any time for play or relaxation. Here’s what I saw the most during the trip:

It’s cool stuff, and Bayer did a great job with the symposium. Head over to AgNetWest.com for some of my work coverage of the issues discussed.

My experience in Mexico is likely completely different from what a vacationer’s would be. Still, here’s what I thought of the area.

The beach was lovely, and offered a nice sunset both of the two evenings I got to catch a peek of it.

There was also an extraordinary lightning show the first night I was there. I counted at least a lightning strike per second.

I didn’t get to see much of Puerto Vallarta other than this small segment of beach, which was the location of one of the hotel restaurants. We did twice drive through the town on buses, but I wasn’t able to get any pictures of the town itself. It was pretty much exactly what I expected it to be, little shops and restaurants, rundown by U.S. standards, but that’s strictly my view after driving through town on a bus.

One of the bus trips took us on a day-long trip through Mexico on a farm tour. It was very well organized and we got to see some beautiful land. We were also introduced to the Jack Fruit.

The jack fruit is unique. The outside smells like a combination of decomposing flesh and a dirty diaper. Despite that, we tasted it. The flesh was firm and slimy, like oysters. I hate the texture of oysters. The taste was surprisingly light and sweet. (By the way, the flesh didn’t smell like the outer shell.)

We also visited a mango farm, where we learned about Mexico’s problems with fruit flies and other agricultural pests, as well as how to properly graft a mango tree.

This is a good place to talk about the weather. Did you read my post about Arkansas? If so, you know how I feel about humidity.

Puerto Vallarta was SO MUCH WORSE than Arkansas. It was so bad, even the folks from Florida were complaining about how humid it was. When Florida is complaining about humidity, that’s bad.

Before the farm tour – makeup on, no sweat, all’s good.

After the farm tour – makeup’s sweated off, hair is drenched, my favorite hat will never be the same.

I was there the last week of September. The guys at the hotel said December is much nicer. I may be brave enough to go back someday and see if they’re telling the truth.

On the subject of being brave and/or going back…
I hate to be negative about things, but I feel the need to point out there were times when even at the hotel/resort, I didn’t feel completely safe. This is not someplace I would go exploring by myself. Fortunately, I was part of a good group of people and though I went alone, I wasn’t by myself.