This week I talk with wedding planner Karen Blair of Karen’s Place in Bucerias. Karen has been planning weddings in Bucerias for 18 years. We talk about how she helps brides have the perfect wedding planning from thousands of miles away.
Things to do In Bucerias, Nayarit, Mexico. Restaurants, Nightlife, Art and Entertainment
How to get from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to Bucerias and Back
The difference between Ceviche and Aguachile
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Hello fellow travelers, welcome this episode of the Puerto Vallarta Travel show. I am your host Barry Kessler and I am just so happy to be introducing you to my favorite vacation destination, and maybe even yours, Puerto Vallarta Mexico.
That music you were just listening to is performed by Alberto Perez, the owner of the La Palapa Group of Restaurants. Those are La Palapa, The
El Dorado Beach Club, and at night for dinner The El Dorado transforms into the ever so romantic Vista Grill with those dramatic views of the Los Muertos Pier all lit up at night in beautiful colors. Of course, at La Palapa you can enjoy that same view of the Los Muertos Pier all day long for breakfast, lunch or dinner, seated with our toes in the sand right at the water’s edge. It was so romantic, it’s so, Puerto Vallarta my friends.
This week we take a road trip to Bucerias, a beach town on Banderas Bay, la Bahia de Banderas, in the State of Nayarit about 45 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta by bus, and we are going to visit with Karen Blair, the owner of Karen’s place, a cool place to eat, get hitched, like wedding bells ringing with waves in the background, but first, let’s see what’s happening in Puerto Vallarta this week, the 26th of July 2018.
Make Sure You Wear Mosquito Repellent in Puerto Vallarta During Summer Months
Mosquitos are Plentiful This Time of Year in Vallarta. So don’t forget to bring Mosquito Repellant. Usually they have these fogging trucks that spray for them, but be ready and pack your Off with DEET.
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There are two great events coming up this weekend so if you are in town, don’t miss the…
Cuale Music Festival this Saturday the 28th, all day at Babel Bar
There are two great events coming up this weekend so if you are in town, don’t miss either one. This Saturday July 28th beginning at Noon and going till 8:00PM, we have the Cuale Music Festival this all day at Babel Bar. There will be music all day.
You will hear the best musicians of Puerto Vallarta playing all they long at BabelBar.
No cover. Just come and eat or drink something while enjoying the best live music.
You will listen to:
- – Son de la Ostia
- – Santi Martín
- – Moruno
- – Suite Sound
- – Zoe y León
- – Rockústica
- – La Boquita
- And we will be ending with a Jam Session.
You can’t miss it!
Again it’s this Saturday the 28th, from noon to 8. Visit with my friends at the place I took you to last week, Babel Bar on Cuale Island. And if you haven’t heard that interview, the owner Arancha is from Spain, and she and her husband have kids in school, so we talked about that, and moving as a young family to Mexico, it was an interesting conversation along with learning all about Babel Bar.
6th annual Ceviche and Aguachile Festival
So the next day on Sunday it’s the 6th annual Ceviche and Aguachile Festival
I tried as hard as I could to get Edgar Cisneros from the Ceviche and Aguachile Festival on the show, but the bandwidth sucked yesterday and
our connection over Google Hangouts was bad, so I’ll pass on this news release to you…
This will be the 6th edition of the festival. They will have around 40 different combinations of ceviche and aguachile with fish, shrimp, tuna, oysters, octopus, and any more. All will be prepared and presented by local restaurants and this year they have 10. Along with the fish, they will also have 2 stands with craft beer. One is MOLUSKO and the other LOS CUENTOS, Cervesa. There will be two stands with raicilla cocktails LA INGRATA and RITUAL DE LOS DIOSES and also aguas frescas and ice cream.
Live music will start at 12:30 with SAL DE MAR a local band of young guys who play reggae, r&b style, very tropical for the event. Then at 3:00pm enjoy Polynesian dance, at 4:00 Huichol music and at 5:00 a Charro show, with horses I suppose, not the hoochie coochie girl, Gee I wonder if she’s still alive. Let’s see, Charro was born January
15, 1951 (age 67 years), Molina de Segura, Spain.
Okay, back to the horses The Charro show, of the horse variety at 5, and at 6:00 pm DJs will take over. Entrance to the park is free of course and each stand will have special prices starting at 15 pesos per tostada up to 40 pesos for the premium seafood.
And he says that for the first time we´re going to have the contest to choose the best ceviche from Puerto Vallarta. People will have a sample from each restaurant and they can chose who´s the best by putting the plate on the trash cans representing the various entrants and at 6pm we´re going to count all the plates by number to decide who´s the winner by popular demand.
So once again that’s Sunday the 6th starting at noon at Lazaro Cardenas Park, Parque de los Azulejos, Taste Aguachile from 10 different restaurants with entertainment till after 6. Sounds like fun! I have all the information in the shownotes to this episode.
So, what is Aguachile?
According to Wikipedia Aguachile is a Mexican dish made of shrimp, submerged in liquid seasoned with chili peppers, lime juice, salt, cilantro, and slices of onion. Fresh vegetables such as cucumber are usually added.
As its name implies, aguachile basically translates to “chili water,” and it is a much spicier version of ceviche.
It seems the most common type of aguachile is with shrimp, cucumber, onion, and lime juice. The chilies are usually blended with water to create the marinade. One major difference with ceviche versus aguachile is said to be the time it marinates. With ceviche, the seafood marinates in the lime juice for at least 15-20 minutes. Aguachiles are tossed in the lime and pretty much served right away.
Here is a recipe for shrimp Aquchile
Ingredients
- 1 POUNDEXTRA LARGE SHRIMP PEELED AND DEVEINED
- 1 CUPFRESH LIME JUICE ABOUT 8 LIMES
- 4-6 SERRANO PEPPERS STEMS REMOVED I see they leave the seeds and veins intact to keep it spicy.
- 2 TABLESPOONS GRAPE SEED OR OLIVE OIL
Directions
Peel and clean the shrimp. Using a small, sharp knife, butterfly the shrimp open and slice into two pieces. This will help the shrimp lay flatter while marinating and cooking and will give you smaller pieces, easier to eat.
Rinse the shrimp in cold water and pat dry with paper towels and transfer back to shallow glass dish. To the shrimp, add 1/2 of the lime juice, making sure the shrimp is covered. Season with salt to taste. Cover and chill while you prep the rest of ingredients.
To the blender, add the serrano peppers, 1/2 of cilantro, grapeseed oil, remaining lime juice and salt to taste. Blend on high until desired consistency. Taste for salt. Pour this mixture over the shrimp/lime mixture making sure it’s mixed in evenly. Season with fresh cracked pepper.
Layer the cucumbers and onions over the top. Add cilantro, cover and chill for just 15 more minutes. The shrimp will be ready to eat after only 30 minutes, but you could leave it in until you are ready to eat. Before serving, mix all together. Garnish with avocado slices and remaining cilantro. Serve with tostadas or saltine crackers.
So there, if you can’t make it this Sunday to The Aguachile Festival, make your own. But hey, it’s cheaper to have someone else make them for you. Less mess and cleanup as well.
I have the recipe in the shownotes of this episode so check it out.
Two 5 Star reviews on iTunes
I got two 5 star reviews in iTunes from you listeners. The first is …
Favorite podcast of all!
in iTunes by Sambojolu from USA on July 20, 2018
I love listening to this podcast! I have a condo in Mismaloya, am there about 6 times a yr. for either week or ten days. Listening to Barry and his guests is so entertaining! It’s like being there! Great advice, tips, maps, and all things Puerto Vallarta! Keep up the good work Barry Mismaloya – Rebecca
Aww, Thank you Mismaloya Rebecca. I do this for you! And then another 5 star review from Tony and Elaine…
Simply the best
in iTunes by tonyelaine from Canada on July 18, 2018
My wife and I love your show, we now say honey let’s get out of here…… and my wife says, where do you want to go? And I say to the PV Travel Show. Barry you should do this for a living, in fact PV should pay you to do your show, it is that good……… we can’t Wait for your next podcast.
Well thank you Tony and Elaine from Canadia! You know I have two other listeners who have actually been on the show, Todd and Ginette, the French Goddess from Canadia too, they told me that they dance to the Samba de Puerto Vallarta at the end of each episode, and Listeners
Dwight, who lives very close to me, and his sister Lois from Colorado, we got together for some Mexican food and they acted out the entire first part of the show where he was me and Lois was Debra, my wife, and started to sing the Samba de Puerto Vallarta, so yeah, I guess you aren’t alone.
I love that song and if you want to buy a copy of it without me talking over it I have a link in the shownotes where you can buy a download from Alberto Perez for just a buck. So there. Anyway, thank you so much for those 5 star reviews Mismaloya Rebecca and Tony and Elaine. They are so much appreciated.
Purchase The Song Samba de Puerto Vallarta by Alberto Perez
Okay Let’s get on with the trip to Bucerias and to Karen’s Place
Karen’s Place, a Restaurant in Bucerias, Nayarit, Mexico. Just North of Puerto Vallarta
I ask my listeners stuff like what your favorite places are to eat, stay, explore, and in the first episode I promised I would introduce you to
wedding planners and photographers. Well, I finally got around to the wedding planner. The wedding place. Karen’s place. In fact, when I asked my Facebook Friends what was the best place to get married and to introduce me to their favorite wedding planner in Puerto Vallarta, the place that came up most often wasn’t even in Puerto Vallarta. It’s in Nuevo Vallarta, across state lines, in Bucerias. Now We haven’t visited Bucerias so first a little history.
Where is Bucerias and a Little History
Bucerías, Nayarit, Mexico
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bucerías meaning “place of divers”, is a small beach resort town in Nayarit on a stretch of that country’s Pacific coast known as the Riviera Nayarit, on the Bay of Banderas, between La Cruz de Huanacaxtle and Nuevo Vallarta. It has a population of about 9,000 residents (seasonal influxes double that number) and is a typical town of the region with cobblestone streets, a main square, church, and many services for visiting foreigners, and features a wide
array of restaurants. It has uninterrupted beach that continues north and south for a total of more than 29 km (18 miles)
Bucerías is bisected by the Arroyo del Indio, a mountain run-off that remains dry most of the year. The arroyo also serves as an unimproved roadbed under Fed 200 overpasses and can be navigated by car far up into the foothills. The half of Bucerías north of Fed 200 mostly consists of citizens; the other half
south of Fed 200 beach-ward consists of primarily foreign residents, both permanent and part time. Once a quaint fishing village incorporated in the 1930s, Bucerías has become a quaint tourism town since the 1980s, when primarily Canadian residents began coming for extended stays with RVs and fifth wheels; Canadians remain a very large part of the seasonal population. The boom of all-inclusive hotels to the south in Nuevo Vallarta–a development extending from the north end of Puerto Vallarta–has driven building in Bucerías as well, although in a more muted way. Buildings rarely exceed seven floors, and the units are condominium, rather than hotel style.
Each January the town celebrates Our Lady of Peace (La Virgen de la Paz), who is the patron of the local Catholic church. There is a large and vibrant street bazaar featuring traditional regional art & textiles.
How to get to Bucerias From Puerto Vallarta?
Well I suppose that depends on where you start. You will be crossing state lines, so an UBER ride would only work one way. Uber can’t pick up in Nayarit. You can take a cab or you can do what I do and take a bus. From downtown take a blue bus that says Walmart on the windshield. Catch an ATM bus in front of Walmart, and make sure you ask the driver if he is going to Bucerias. The ride, depending on the traffic, the time of day and so on, both are related of course, but about 45 minutes from downtown Vallarta to Bucerias. You can board an ATM bus that says Punta Mita which will stop in Bucerias on its way to Punta Mita, the cost is approximately 15 pesos. Or you can choose to take a green-and-white Compostela bus to Bucerias for $14 pesos.
I asked the driver if he knew where Karen’s Place was, and he did a good job of dropping me off on Highway 200,
I walked about 3 blocks to the beach and came across what looked like a hotel or condo complex, with a swimming pool, and in front, on the beautiful wide white sand beach, stood the restaurant, Karen’s Place. She has the most wonderful accent, I can’t wait to introduce her to you, so let’s go right now, to a table with a view of the Bahia de Banderas, in a lovely seaside restaurant, and meet my new friend, and now yours, Karen Blair, Karen of Karen’s Place.
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Such a delightful lady and a great place to have a meal with toes in the sand, in Bucerias.
I have pictures of happy brides, food, of the restaurant and of course of Karen, in the show-notes of this episode as well as links to the places we talked about, and maps of Bucerias and of the restaurant.
Places Karen Talked About in Bucerias and Links
Restaurants
- Le Bistrot, Bucerias, Nayarit, Mexico
- Sandrinas Restaurant, Bucerias, Nayarit, Mexico
- Restaurant Walk, Bucerias, Nayarit, Mexico
Information For Karen’s Place, Bucerias, Mexico
- Located at the: Costa Dorada Suites, Nayarit, Mexico
- Address: Calle Lázaro Cárdenas 156, Zona Dorada, 63732 Bahia de Banderas, Nay., Mexico
- Hours: 9:00 AM – 9:00 PM 7 Days a Week
- Phone: +52 329 298 3176
- Website: http://www.karensplacebucerias.com/karensplacebucerias/Welcome.html
Fun Things to do In Bucerias
- Jumpy Castle at Breakers Beach Bar in Bucerias
- Wind Festival with Kite Sailing in Bucerias
- Art Walk, Bucerias, Mexico
- Art Galleries on Lazaro Cardenas, Bucerias, Mexico
- Bucerias Village
- Sail out of La Cruz
- Bici Bikes, Bucerias, Mexico
- Wednesday Forever Spring Market with Food and Art in Bucerias
Embed Map of Karen’s Place
Bucerias Map
Okay, that should do it for this episode of the Puerto Vallarta Travel Show.
Next week, stay tuned for more on the ground reports from Puerto Vallarta Mexico, with travel tips, great restaurant and excursion ideas and more. Until then, remember, this is an interactive show where I depend on your questions and suggestions about all things Puerto Vallarta. If you think of something I should be talking about, please reach out to me by clicking on the Contact us tab and sending us your message.
And remember, if you are considering booking any type of tour while you are in Puerto Vallarta, you must go to Vallartainfo.com, JR’s website and reserve your tour through him, right from his website. Remember the value for value proposition. His experience and on the ground knowledge of everything Puerto Vallarta in exchange for your making a purchase of a tour that you would do anyway, you’re just doing it through him as a way of saying thank you. It costs no more than if you were to use someone else so do it. Really. And when you do take one of these tours, email me about your experiences. Maybe you can come on-board and share with others what you liked or didn’t like about the tour. Again, contact me by clicking on the Contact us tab and sending off a message. Don’t forget his maps, his DIY tours and his revitalized Happy Hour Board. I have links to all of those in the show notes.
And once again, if you like this podcast, please take the time and subscribe and give me a good review on iTunes if you would. That way we can get the word out to more and more people about the magic of this place. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Remember I made it easy for you to do just that with each episode I create. But if you haven’t been to my website, you really need to have a look there. I have the links to the places we talk
about, interesting pictures and the more all right there in my blog-posts and show-notes for each episode of the show so check them out for sure if you haven’t already all-right? All right.
So, thanks to you Karen Blair from Karen’s Place. She is the best! I have pictures of her place, some pictures of some of her weddings she does and links to the places we both talked about in the show
notes for this episode, so check them out. And don’t forget to recommend her if you have a friend who is thinking about tying the knot in Puerto Vallarta. And thanks to all of you for listening all the way through this episode of the Puerto Vallarta Travel Show. This is Barry Kessler signing off with a wish for you all to slow down, be kind and live the Vallarta lifestyle. Nos Vemos amigos!