A tropical break in the middle of winter

As winter trudges along, I have begun to crave a tropical escape. Unfortunately, my private jet is in the shop. I'm stuck in a snow drift and my imagination will have to do. Here is a little story to tide us all over until the warm weather returns.

The Many Contradictions of Puerto Vallarta

by Ran Holeman

Nestled on the pacific Coast of Mexico, only a non-stop flight away from Middle America, you’ll find Hollywood hills rising out of the sea and a South Beach strip dotted with small restaurants and bars. You’ll find statues that Salvador Dali might have crafted had he fallen asleep listening to Jimmy Buffett and sunsets that show you just why Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor fell in love with Puerto Vallarta nearly forty years ago. You’ll also find a Hooters and a Sam’s Club and one hundred and seventy thousand people who are trying to sell you something.

The moment you arrive you can feel the equatorial sun scrape that wintry rust from your body. You can hear waves crashing in the distance and taste one of the many exquisite Mexican beers not named Corona (the best are Negra Modelo and Pacifico). But it is also a land of contradictions, a place where globalization is creeping through a once unique seascape like a kudzu vine. The beaches are awash with commerce, and the hotels are packed with “ugly Americans.” Each day, the swelling tide of Yankee tourism seems to diminish the city’s ample charm a little more. If you have the good fortune to visit Puerto Vallarta, you’ll find its most defining and interesting characteristic is the interplay between everything you’ve dreamed a tropical paradise to be and everything you’re afraid it has become.

Continue reading Ran's story at DivineCaroline.com