Environment

This is the map: http://www.puertovallarta.net/map/index.php. I guess you have to copy and paste this...sorry. But it's an interactive map, and I like it.

I'm thinking about the footprint I leave on the environment. I don't feel too guilty about life in Arlington. Our house isn't especially big, and our utilities are pretty low. But I need a lot of heat in the winter to be comfortable, even when I wear lots of layers. And I drive my car almost every day. We have two cars, and they are both in daily use.

If (when) we live in P.V. there will be a lot of changes. The area we like, on the southern end of the city (called the Romantic Zone) :) Is between the beginning of the Sierra Madre Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. It is only about 8 blocks deep in that section. That means we will be able to walk for almost everything: shopping, yoga, beach, restaurants...is there anything else?

It is tropical. The temperature is mostly the same...60's at night, 80-90 in the day. I have read that electricity is very expensive, over a very modest limit. Seems like a good idea to keep the citizenry from wasting power on too much A/C.

The worst part is toilet paper. You don't flush it. Just put it in the wastebasket. This has always been the case when we visited in the Cancun area, but we were sure hoping it would be different in P.V. Finally, instead of just hoping, I checked it out. bummer. (Later note: our house has a septic tank, and we can flush toilet paper. Whew!)

Cooking should be a change. Imagine fresh fruit and vegetables all year long, They say you can get just-caught fish at the dock. I'll want to learn Mexican cooking. I like Mexican food, but I've never tried to cook anything more creative than tacos with an El Paso mix. I hope to keep my pre-packaged food use to an absolute minimum.

Environmentally, I think it's a good move.