The Hardware Store, PV Style

We had a number of excursions while on our jewellery workshop in Puerto Vallarta. It seems the regular tourists like to go whale watching or on a booze cruise on a pirate ship, but we wanted to do something a little different so we visited the local paper shop for art supplies, checked out the open air food market which included a quick peek at one of the local cemeteries and on one memorable occasion, took a stroll to the nearby hardware store.


Having come from the land of Home Hardware, Canadian Tire and Home Depot, the Puerto Vallarta hardware store was a bit different. For one thing, it was all outdoors with only the perimeter portions covered by a roof, more like a building supply yard back home than what we think of as a "store".

As well, there were no tidy aisles with product easily displayed for your viewing pleasure. Instead, there were various areas with collections of items a hardware store patron might require, such as rolls of wire and fencing supplies, stacks of wheelbarrows and various large storage containers for some unknown purpose. They also had beautiful painted mosaic sinks, which Kate and I both wanted to take home, except we didn't want to actually carry them on the plane. And apparently Puerto Vallartans are big fans of coloured toilets, who knew?

We were caught by surprise when a van from Alaska pulled in. The driver said he'd been in town since the beginning of October - smart guy, moving south as the cold weather arrived up north. Or maybe he was moving away from a certain vice presidential candidate?

We had fun poking through various bags of rusty bits and pieces, and each of us ended up buying a few things to take home and perhaps make into jewellery at a later date. We found some very cool metal maple leaves that were especially attractive to the Canadians in the group, and I brought home a pretty finial as a keepsake.