the Puerto Vallarta Scene

This is the absolute lowest of the low tourist season here in Puerto Vallarta. I haven't been writing anything here because I'm pretty busy with my other activities here. I've started a few internet businesses (a classified advertising website for Vallarta and an entertainment website) and I've gone out and gotten a permit for a plant nursery here on my roof.

Guess you could say that this old expat is settling in. I moved down here totally in July 2006 and haven't gone back NOTB since. Kind of like a dust bowl transient, I packed everything into my pickup truck and drove down here as fast as I could. Of course, I had already bought a house and had spent a lot of time here, so it was more like moving home than moving to a new country.

Getting used to the weather was no problem at all. I love the warmth and humidity. Most tourists avoid Vallarta in the summer but it's quite nice (to me). The days are in the high 80s and the nights are in the high 70s. We live in a location (alongside a river) with a nice breeze most of the time and it's very comfy.

This year the mosquito problem seems to have abated but we have tons of bees in the daytime. Guess they all came down with us from NOTB where they seem to have survival problems. Hardly any flies, either. I suppose the bees are bothersome because I have a large plant nursery on the roof with hundreds of plants. We also have lots of geckos, lizards and hummingbirds.

Life is still strange for me here as my language skills are very limited. I try to speak and can usually get across my points but I have a hard time understanding the responses. If I speak Spanish at all to people they assume that I know the language and they answer back at a speed I can't follow. A friend says that it's best to pretend that I don't speak spanish at all so people will respond slower but it feels like they think I'm a retard or a 4 year old.

Oh, well. I get by.