Taken in downtown Puerto Vallarta as we headed south.
Our departure from Puerto Vallarta 12 days ago was smooth. I snapped a bunch of pictures on our way through town, partly to keep myself distracted but also because I’d taken so few the days we had been there. You will notice when you look at the pictures at the web link below that the pics are random, from the passenger seat of our truck. Not the usual travel shots, just views of passing through town. As we walk around various towns I hesitate to take pictures of houses, etc. I don’t want to appear to be gawking. Some of these scenes I would not have taken had we been on foot. These pictures illustrate the typical scenes of Mexican residential and road side buildings.
Our first destination after PV was the small town of Perula. It’s the first seaside town close to Hwy 200 south of Cabo Corrientas, the mountainous point of land that shapes the southern edge of Banderas Bay, where Puerto Vallarta is located. Curving through and climbing over, the road led us through a pine forest and across a river. Winter is the dry season so the wide river bed easily contained its diminished flow but erosion lines showed evidence of a mighty summer and fall run. There is an eco-tour company that has built zip-line structures through this river valley. We were fascinated by how dry the vegetation appeared as we descended the southern side of this mountainous area. We wondered if it was a ‘rain shadow’ effect or drought but were later told by locals it is normal for winter. In seeming contradiction to this, temperature and humidity increased as we entered this new southern region.
Perula is a sleepy little village, smaller even than Lo de Marcos but has several campgrounds. The beautiful flat beach and friendly people bring snowbirds back year after year. The beachfront campgrounds were full so we stayed at one a couple blocks off the beach, managed by an American-born Mexican guy named Chino. What a character! He was born in East LA and was at one time a ‘gang banger’, with the tattoos to prove it, and we were told he’d done some prison time too. But, he’s straightened out his life and is married with 4 small ‘rug rats‘--his words, not mine. He’s well liked by all the snowbirds and locals. The 10-site RV park is adjacent to his mother’s nice little hotel. An American woman from New York runs a little road-side hamburger joint called ‘Lola La Gringa’s’. John was dying for a burger after all the shrimp we’ve been eating. We learned Lola arrived there 8 years ago. After driving south in Mexico for just a few days, she arrived in Perula, liked it and has never left. There seemed to be more to her story but we didn’t ask…
We decided one day to take a little driving tour of the surrounding rugged coastal area. There are several luxurious resorts accessible only to guests, and multiple public beaches accessed by one-lane dirt roads. As we explored our way south we decided to check-out the possibilities for our next destination. We visited Tenacatita, Boca Beach and the town of Melaque and decided Melaque was best for our planned 10-day stay.
Tenacatita is a small town about a mile from the bay and mile-long beach known by the same name. The long, flat beach is lined with restuarants and there is a popular campground there. The day we were there the waves gently lapped the shore as many people swam and snorkled. There is a rocky coral point also popular for water activities. As we ate dinner a truck load of soldiers passed us. Some were off loaded and walked the beach, picked up at the opposite end. There is a Marine base near Melaque, responsible for patroling this area.
Boca Beach is located about 2 miles south in Tenecatita Bay. Known for its 3 mile-long white sand beach, there are a couple campgrounds there. There is little else, only one small grocery store and one restaurant. The Boca Beach Campground, owned and run by a Canadian guy married to a Mexican woman, seems well run and cared for. We chose not to stay there for 10 days as there just isn't enough to interest us. And the campground was very sandy, (as opposed to hard pack dirt) making it more difficult for John to get around.
We’ve now been at Melaque for a little more than a week. After the Revolution (1917) large land parcels, known as ejidos, were deeded back to citizen groups. Three such ejidos--Melaque, San Patricio, and Obregon--have melded into the town known as Melaque, population about 8,000. The campground is located on a spit of land at its south end. Ocean waves crash, literally, on one side and a lagoon brimming with wildlife, including several crocodiles, ripples on the other side. We are camped on the beach side and as I sit typing this, I glance
out the window at sand and waves…Ahhhh. The surf was too rough for the first five days to venture into the water but yesterday I enjoyed my first swim in comfortably warm ocean water.
The view out our window...ChopChop likes the breeze blowing in.
Further south down the beach is the town of Barra de Navidad, population about 3,000. It’s not a long walk--about a mile--but the sand is soft and deep. We chose to drive there. Melaque's town center is bustling with activities and serves as the main commercial zone for this area. In addition to grocery and hardware stores, car repair shops, doctors and dentists, and home-decor and furniture stores, the town offers its visitors lots of little shops and restaurants, an open market, and many small hotels and condos. Gringos who chose to live here--and there are plenty--needn't travel out of the area for any goods or services. The ramps we use to get the scooter on to the truck needed some repair so yesterday we took them to a welding shop. There are also a couple of computer shops in town.
The heat and humidity caught up with me and our first few days here I spent sleeping and reading. We try to take our daily walks in the mornings and have walked through most neighborhoods and down most of Melaque's streets. We've noticed several lots that have been fixed up for single RVs, complete with palapas and outdoor kitchens, an attractive option to purchasing a condo or house.
The little town of Barra de Navidad is more oriented for the fly-in tourist. Unfortunatley there are no RV parks there, but there are nicer small hotels, more up-scale shops, and restaurants. And across the lagoon is the very fancy Hotel Grand Bay and its golf resort. A water taxi can be taken across the water for about $2. There is a marina for pleasure yachts too. This area is a popular spot for cruisers, many of whom anchor in the large lagoon. We brought our hand-held VHF radio so have been listening to the morning radio nets, reminding us of our previous life aboard.
The only deep-water port city of Mexico's west coast, Manzanillo, is about one hour south so we drove down and spent a day there. This is the city where the movie "10" was filmed in the 1970s. The Las Hadas Resort, where the film was made, remains an impressive site nestled into the hills of the Santiago Penninsula. One of the challenges we've had on this trip is manuvering the truck around crowded narrow streets, even without the trailer in-tow. Manzanillo was no exception. We drove through the old town section near the large industrial port area but could not find a parking spot. Most of the hotels and condos are in the northern part of the bay, known as Santiago. The beach is beautiful but we didn't see the charm in Manzanillo that we've seen in other towns and cities.
We attended a fund raising event for a local charity that builds schools for underpriviledged and migrant farm-worker children. They also built and maintain a school / care facility for disabled children. It was a fun night of music and good food. We met a couple from Oregon there, Carl and Olivia. Carl uses a wheelchair too so it was interesting to exchange travel stories. They live in the Portland area and rented a bungalow here for a couple months this winter.
We've enjoyed the company of new friends and shared an interesting dinner out with our Canadian neighbors. Conversation occasionally turns to economics and politics. One repeating comment has been, "When American catches a cold, its neighbors get the flu."
Here are the links to the web albums for the various places mentioned:
http://picasaweb.google.com/dealegria1961/LeavingPVToPerula#
http://picasaweb.google.com/dealegria1961/Perula#
http://picasaweb.google.com/dealegria1961/BocaBeachAndTenacatita#
http://picasaweb.google.com/dealegria1961/Manzanillo#
1 comment:
Don't you think those marine boys are hot on the beach??? Yikes!
See you soon...more pics please :-)
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