Hello, family and friends! It was a bit of hard travelin’, and it’s been a busy, hot week and a half, but after seven months we are finally back On Vallarta Time!

After spending the night at our friend Eve’s house, we caught the shuttle to PDX at 4:00 AM and arrived here in Puerto Vallarta last Wednesday afternoon. Our landlord met us at the apartment to give us the keys and ever since then we’ve been busy, busy, busy settling in. It’s a joy to be back. Even with all the activity, I can feel all the stress and anxiety of our move and all we had to do over the summer starting to fade away.

Our apartment, which we love, came mostly furnished. All the basics were here, but we needed towels, silverware, pots and pans, cleaning supplies, outdoor furniture, lamps, etc., all the little things that make a house a home. So that’s how we’ve been spending our week, going from store to store, and checking out the online forums, looking for the best (and least expensive!) small furnishings. All this running around has been seriously cutting into our beach time! Still, we have taken the time to relax and to check out both our old familiar haunts and explore our new neighborhood.

I’ll show you some pictures of our apartment, but first, the heat! Or I should say, the humidity! Temps have been in the low 90’s with humidity to match. It’s like being in a steam bath. It takes a lot out of you, and it has limited our physical activity a little. We have ceiling fans, and thankfully, A/C in the bedroom, so we are able to escape the heat better than a lot of people.

We are here a little early this year, at the tail end of what people say has been the hottest summer in recent memory. All the people of Vallarta are just hanging on, waiting for the weather to change. “Soon,” they say. “Maybe in two or three weeks,” say others. We leave our apartment fresh (as possible) and ready for the day, and even though we walk slowly on the shady side of the street, by the time we get to the corner we are soaked through. But hey, we are here, and we love it! It’s the tropics, after all.

Now to the apartment. It’s really perfect for us, very Mexican in style and layout and in a convenient location in a great neighborhood. Here’s a set of pictures. Remember, even though we have done a lot, we have a lot of decorating yet to do. The walls are mostly bare but we are getting there, slowly but surely.

Those of you who followed OnVallartaTime last year will recognize this as our building. Our apartment is the second floor, the one with the pillars on the terrace.

Here are some pics of the inside:

And the terrace! We are so lucky to have this large terrace, and on the shady side of the street. Here’s a glimpse of the neighborhood from the terrace.

Well, that’s OnVallartaTime for now! This post has been all about our apartment, since that’s been our focus since we got here. Future posts may include the neighborhood, returning to the beach, and interesting spots around town. I’ll see how it works out, but I don’t think I’ll be posting on a regular schedule this year.

As a parting shot, Here’s Peggy (the birthday girl!) relaxing on the terrace in the evening.