Today is our last “Bill” and “Christie” tour – and we are going to two villages near Puerto Vallarta: San Pancho and Sayulita. We meet up with our groups in the Passport bar, as usual, get organized, then head outside to meet our guide in the parking area. We make it there with minimal fuss (ok, so there was fuss, too many chiefs – non-indigenous chiefs who’ve not been here before and don’t know where they are going) and begin to follow our guide to the van when suddenly we see Ron and Prim (from the fabulous Eclipse Amazing Race Sailing! Oh my gosh! On the 3rd to last day of the cruise we find out they are on the same ship? Crazy! After hugs, kisses, exclamation of surprise and cabin # exchange, we make plans to meet later aboard as head over to our tour van and group. Wow.
Excitement contained for now, we all pile into the van and head out of PV on our way up the coast to San Pancho (officially named San Francisco), with a stop at a local candy factory on the way. The “factory” is one of many huge stalls on the side of the road with displays of candy, baked goods and fruit….fruit that looks surprisingly like jackfruit. What? Our guide gets us samples, and it is jackfruit! It’s called Jaca here, and OMG, I’m so excited. We buy a bag to take with us for the trip (everyone else is buying candy – but jackfruit to me is like candy – so no need for the real sugar stuff!) and off we go, happily munching away on our jaca bounty.
After about an hour and a half total driving time, we arrive in San Pancho, where we head to the Entre Amigos project, a cooperative that provides local people with education, while teaching them environmentally friendly practices – and producing arts and crafts from recycling. The project is housed in a series of low slung buildings with incredible artwork – trees created completely from recycled materials, murals from bottle caps - a library area and a beautiful painted mural in the recreation area. It’s funded entirely through donations, and their work has been recognized by the World Economic Forum. What an excellent example of community awareness!
After a bit of time spent wandering through the premises, and shopping (and buying some cool recycled glass earrings), we head out for a stroll through town on our way to the “Golden Gate Bridge” of San Pancho. On the way however, just across the street, is a local chocolate factory and store< Mexicolate, where we all decide we want to stop for samples. Mexicolate is a small company working to promote native cocoa, then making their chocolate in the traditional ways to create excellent, indigenous chocolates. We all crowd around the little display case, tasting samples and listening to their chocolate making process. We end up buying a little box (which is pricey, especially for Mexico, but then again, it is local handmade chocolate) and we add a great t-shirt to the purchase, which is incredibly reasonably priced. So the two purchases averaged out pretty well!
Chocolate craving handled (oh, and P.S., because they have such low sugar content, the chocolate won’t melt as we tote it around through the day), we strike out for the bridge and main town area. We walk through the sleepy little town for a ways, only to find our driver waiting for us on a corner handing out ice cold bottles of water – makes us feel like we are running a marathon being handed drinks as we pass. Too funny – and way too sweet! We pass by lovely buildings with front porches and hammocks, onto the square by the San Francisco Asis church, past incredible recycled iron statues then finally to the little beach area (completely missing the Golden Gate Bridge – which was this little teeny bridge over a creek on the side of the main road) where a craft market was being held. The vibe here is very relaxed, with a main street full of restaurants (some cooking over open wood flames) and bars and ending at the beach. We grab a beer from one of the restaurants, hang out in the market for a bit, then head back to the van for Sayulita.
A quick 15 minutes later and we are scrambling out of the van onto the main square of Sayulita, a beach town made popular in 2015 when it became a “magic town.” To become a magic town, there needs to be some sort of cultural or artistic ambience to your town. Sayulita has both with a mish-mash of local and international culture, plenty of artists and a hippie/surfer vibe all its own. We are disgorged here with plenty of time to eat (on our own) and explore the town as we see fit. We ask our guide her recommendations for cerviche – and she pointed us to two restaurants she used to visit frequently when she lived here.
We ended up at El Costeno (the coast), with a prime table on the covered deck, right by the beach. The menu looked awesome, and it was tough to make decisions, but we ended up Octopus for Ed (of course!) and tuna cerviche for me, which actually came out looking much more like tuna salad – but was actually just an excellent rendition of ground tuna marinated in lime juice and other spices surrounded by more cucumbers than I’d ever dream of eating, and topped with 4 healthy avocado slices. Add 2 Modelo Negros to the list – and we spent a delightful hour plus eating and watching the comings and goings of the beach crowd…including beach vendors selling donut looking pastries, shrimps on skewers and oysters. Totally great atmosphere!
With plenty of time left before our departure, we meandered through the town, looking at shops here and there, trying to find an ATM I trusted to grab some cash (because I totally forgot all the Pesos we had at home….sigh) and finally landing at this little bar called El Barrilito, right on the corner of the main square. Walls decorated in wood strips, attached together in a patchwork sort of basket woven way, gave way to an open air patio with thatched roof and huge, live ferns and other plants clinging to the support beams, where we plunked down with 2 Pacificos to watch the world go by.
We were the only customers in the really coolly decorated open air place, and it was the perfect perch to watch the comings and goings of locals and tourists alike – the ATVs and golf carts carousing down the streets, people parking where they shouldn’t, hotel van pick ups, people cavorting in the square. Just a typical afternoon in an atmospheric Mexican hippy-ish town. As we were leaving, I got into a conversation (in Spanish) with the owner of the bar – who told me that they had only been open a few weeks, and that he and his partner had renovated (my word, not his – I’d never understand “renovated” in Spanish!) the entire place. It was really great – and definitely a town where we could hang out for a couple of weeks…if we wanted to do so in Mexico.
The bewitching hour was upon us, so we bid adios to our new friend and headed back to the meeting point for the van. Everyone showed up on time, and we all trooped off through a restaurant and into the back parking lot to board our ride back to PV.
All in all, an excellent day, proving once again that off the beaten path – or at least outside of the main city – you can find somewhat hidden gems (somewhat being the operative term!).
No comments:
Post a Comment