Bienvenidos loyal readers. Please join Bruce and Mary as they visit their favorite cantinas in Zona Romantica, Old Town, Puerto Vallarta. To get in the mood, it is recommended that you get a cold one out of the fridge for your readalong.
If you have read much of this blog, you know the importance of cerveza, beer, in our lives. We like it, we like it even more when it’s cheap and we love Mx beer more than any other. So one of the first priorities for us when we moved here was to discover cheap beer and hopefully cheap beers with botanas. Now we knew when we came to PV that botanas, free appetizers are not in the culture here like they are in Yucatan. We knew it was unlikely that we could replace El Lucero del Alba, our favorite bar back in Merida, but here is the best that we could come up with in Old Town. And make no mistake we are quite happy with our finds so far. Oh, just for clarification, our definition of a cantina is any bar that serves cheap beer and offers botanas.
Here’s Mary at the entrance to Toños, on Calle Serdan, just west of Insurgentes.
You can see the pool tables behind Mary.
So naturally we have to try our hand at the game. BTW, it’s free.
Now it’s my shot. The tables look a little rough but play quite well.
Botanas at Toños consist of spicy peanuts and a little later our server, Concha brings us spicy sliced up pepinos, cucumbers.
Concha is working the bar. It’s Monday today and beers are only 12P, other days they are 16P. It’s a fair guess you will find us at Toños most Mondays.
Here is the first cantina we found, Los Equipales, on Calle Cardenas just west of Insurgentes.
Ariana is one of the servers at Los Equipales.
Botanas vary quite a bit here. This day we have spicy jicama, pepinos, and toasted chicharos, peas.
When Alvaro, one of the three owners of Los Equipales, is around he’ll put together delights such as these flour tortillas stuffed with Jocoque, a special crema, cream, unique to this area.
Mary is assisting a sagging poster displaying the offerings here at Los Equipales. We always get the Pacificos at 15P a pop.
Here I am at the entrance to Rincon de la Tia, just west of Insurgentes on Cardenas (just east of Los Equipales) and yes my cart is back!
I am installing skateboard wheels. Thanks Rosie for this terrific idea!
This is the first time I have successfully carted a case of beer home, que bueno!! It’s the little things.
This is the main bar area of La Tia.
Angie is bringing us our botanas.
The botanas are pretty awesome here at La Tia, but then you do pay a premium for your Pacificos – 20P. At the top of the pic are chips, then chicharron, pork rinds, and very spicy ceviche, the best I have had in PV, so far. Mary is happy with the chips and salsa.
For you seafood fans, here is La Tia’s take-out menu.
Mary and me at our favorite table, courtesy our new friend, Miguel.
It must be Thursday because we’re at Travieso’s! This day beers are only 14P. Travieso’s is on the corner of Insurgentes and Cardenas.
Mary is waving from our usual table.
Marlena saw us coming and had Pacifos on the table waiting for us.
The botanas here are consistently peanuts and spicy pepinos or mangos.
Some of the regulars at Travieso’s.
This is the central seating area which opens to…..
The deck overlooking Insurgentes.
We really like the view from our table. This is Calle Insurgentes.
And the view down Calle Cardenas.
And there you have it, my friends, our Old Town cantina discoveries so far. But rest assured we’re not done yet. For as long as there are new cantinas to discover and botanas to savor we will persist in our quest.
Thanks for visiting gentle reader. As you know Bruce and Mary love comentarios and have had some dynamite suggestions from readers so please feel free! Hasta proxima Domingo!!
