Post by Saskrock on Feb 23, 2009 22:27:43 GMT -5
I just got back from Puerto Vallarta Mexico. I did a fair bit of rock collecting, and I kept track of what I found and where. So I'll tell all my spots so you have a lead if you go there.
First of all if you have not been to Mexico before there are rocks everywhere. The streets are rock ,the floors are rock. the walls are rock. Even a lot of the souvenirs are rock. Here are a few examples.
The streets made out of rocks I think is a little sadistic. I almost got ran over trying to get some of these!!!!!!!!
My wife wouldn't let me even try at these nice ones in the hotel!!!
I really really wanted to take this one that was downtown home but my suitcase was a little small. I tried finding out where it was cut but my limited Spanish failed me.
The best spot I found is at the Rio Pitillal (Pitillal river). Right by the bridge it is all sand but if you go upstream a little I found some red and green jasper and some black obsidian with white inclusions that I think will cab up nice. This is the river to the south of the Walmart. If you follow the path from the main road through Puerto Vallarta down the south side of the river this is what you will see.
When you get to the next bridge (no road to it yet) thats the spot to look
Along the beach in front of the Hola Puerto Vallarta (I stayed here it was great) and in front of the plaza pelicanos there are a few nice looking rocks I'm not sure what they are though or if they will take a polish. Here is a picture. Look to the south of the break water rock pile.
Anywhere along the Malecon downtown is good, lots of rock there. What really stood out for me were these really dark green ones.
I didn't get to go out to the opal mines in Magdalena. It turns out the tour is no longer running from PV and it sounded like it could be a bit risky on your own. I did find one store along the Malecon that had opal rough to buy. It is called "The Opal Mine" They actually just had some rough to show people what it looked like originally, but they were willing to sell me a couple chunks. In good sales fashion there was a small display of rough fire opal for sale a couple of days later. The quality in it was lower than what I got though. Here is a shot of the store. Its done up to look like a mine.
Here are the fire opal I bought. A little hard to see the fire in the pics but it shows a bit.
For places to avoid (for collecting at least) I tried a Mismaloya beach/river. Its beautiful out there and neat looking rocks but the rock is all granite.
The river that runs into the marina is out too. It has no banks and is surrounded by nature reserve that you can not go into. Here is a shot from the road.
Here are the rocks that I found at the beach in front of the Hola Puerto Vallarta.
DRY
WET
Here are the one from the Rio Pitillal (left of line) and the Malecon (right of line)
DRY
WET
These are from the beach at Plaza Pelicanos
DRY
WET
I thought I had it all planned out until I got to the air port. We were allowed 20Kg each for checked luggage and 5Kg for a carry on. With our luggage packed with stuff we bought, dirty clothes and the two biggest rocks they both were 20Kg (I used the scale in the hotel gym). Our carry on bags were both at 5Kg without the small rocks packed at this point. This was when Melinda came through for me and came up with the idea of putting on our jackets with the pockets full of small rocks. It worked when we checked in. No problems with bag weight. So on the way to security I put our jackets in my carry on bag , no one is going to weigh them now, so no problem right Nope WRONG!!!! It turns out my rocks show up on the xray and a 1" rock as it turns out is every bit as lethal as a pair of nail clippers!! Who knew. So now security wants to take my rocks!!!!!!!!! Obviously I don't want them to. So they tell me if I check in my carry on I can keep them. So I have to run back across the airport, get back in the very long line to check in my carry on bag. At last I did catch a break though when I got up to the counter they didn't reweigh my now too heavy carry on bag as I was about to miss the plane. That was good though because at the $20/Kg they charge when you are overweight I would have had to leave my rocks. So one more run across the airport got me to my plane that was being boarded. No problems from there on in, rocks are ok to bring into Canada as long as they are clean. ;D
First of all if you have not been to Mexico before there are rocks everywhere. The streets are rock ,the floors are rock. the walls are rock. Even a lot of the souvenirs are rock. Here are a few examples.
The streets made out of rocks I think is a little sadistic. I almost got ran over trying to get some of these!!!!!!!!
My wife wouldn't let me even try at these nice ones in the hotel!!!
I really really wanted to take this one that was downtown home but my suitcase was a little small. I tried finding out where it was cut but my limited Spanish failed me.
The best spot I found is at the Rio Pitillal (Pitillal river). Right by the bridge it is all sand but if you go upstream a little I found some red and green jasper and some black obsidian with white inclusions that I think will cab up nice. This is the river to the south of the Walmart. If you follow the path from the main road through Puerto Vallarta down the south side of the river this is what you will see.
When you get to the next bridge (no road to it yet) thats the spot to look
Along the beach in front of the Hola Puerto Vallarta (I stayed here it was great) and in front of the plaza pelicanos there are a few nice looking rocks I'm not sure what they are though or if they will take a polish. Here is a picture. Look to the south of the break water rock pile.
Anywhere along the Malecon downtown is good, lots of rock there. What really stood out for me were these really dark green ones.
I didn't get to go out to the opal mines in Magdalena. It turns out the tour is no longer running from PV and it sounded like it could be a bit risky on your own. I did find one store along the Malecon that had opal rough to buy. It is called "The Opal Mine" They actually just had some rough to show people what it looked like originally, but they were willing to sell me a couple chunks. In good sales fashion there was a small display of rough fire opal for sale a couple of days later. The quality in it was lower than what I got though. Here is a shot of the store. Its done up to look like a mine.
Here are the fire opal I bought. A little hard to see the fire in the pics but it shows a bit.
For places to avoid (for collecting at least) I tried a Mismaloya beach/river. Its beautiful out there and neat looking rocks but the rock is all granite.
The river that runs into the marina is out too. It has no banks and is surrounded by nature reserve that you can not go into. Here is a shot from the road.
Here are the rocks that I found at the beach in front of the Hola Puerto Vallarta.
DRY
WET
Here are the one from the Rio Pitillal (left of line) and the Malecon (right of line)
DRY
WET
These are from the beach at Plaza Pelicanos
DRY
WET
I thought I had it all planned out until I got to the air port. We were allowed 20Kg each for checked luggage and 5Kg for a carry on. With our luggage packed with stuff we bought, dirty clothes and the two biggest rocks they both were 20Kg (I used the scale in the hotel gym). Our carry on bags were both at 5Kg without the small rocks packed at this point. This was when Melinda came through for me and came up with the idea of putting on our jackets with the pockets full of small rocks. It worked when we checked in. No problems with bag weight. So on the way to security I put our jackets in my carry on bag , no one is going to weigh them now, so no problem right Nope WRONG!!!! It turns out my rocks show up on the xray and a 1" rock as it turns out is every bit as lethal as a pair of nail clippers!! Who knew. So now security wants to take my rocks!!!!!!!!! Obviously I don't want them to. So they tell me if I check in my carry on I can keep them. So I have to run back across the airport, get back in the very long line to check in my carry on bag. At last I did catch a break though when I got up to the counter they didn't reweigh my now too heavy carry on bag as I was about to miss the plane. That was good though because at the $20/Kg they charge when you are overweight I would have had to leave my rocks. So one more run across the airport got me to my plane that was being boarded. No problems from there on in, rocks are ok to bring into Canada as long as they are clean. ;D