After escaping the freezing cold of Canada, Jon and I had arranged to meet Steph in Sayulita, a small coastal town an hour north of Puerto Vallarta.  Steph’s sister had warned her that it might not be our idea of an ideal destination since it had become more popular and less chill than the guidebooks currently suggested, but Steph had had her week in San Blas to chill out and Jon and I weren’t up for more than an hour of transit in Mexico after multiple days of flights getting there.   

Getting to Sayulita from the Puerto Vallerta Airport was uncomplicated and inexpensive. That is with the exception of attempting to acquire change for the bus by buying a sub at the airport Subway (I figured a chain in the airport  must have change), but when we got to the cashier to pay, he declared that he did not have enough change for us and overcharged us by a few dollars for the sandwich. When I tried to ask if he could get change from somewhere he suddenly became comically mute indicating that he spoke no English and mimed out for us with exaggerated gestures and facial expression the state of the register.  It did not seem to matter to him that I was asking in Spanish. At least we got enough for the bus.

All we had to do was go through the front doors, take a left and walk to the overpass where a bus departed every 20 minutes for a small fee of $40 pesos ($2.5 Canadian).  I bitterly clung to my sub as we stood next to multiple vendors selling freshly made tacos (I bet they would have gotten me change) that looked oh so good. They even told us to relax as we started getting up for bus after bus to see if it was ours, and they told us that they would let us know which one we were supposed to get on, which they did.  

Mural in Sayulita

While finding our bus to Sayulita was simple, finding our accommodations from the bus stop was another matter.  Steph had booked our accommodations at a place called El Corazon on 4 Coco Sur Street, however in an attempt to be organized (so very unlike me) I had put it in google, but accidentally entered it as 4 Coco Street (so very like me).  No one on 4 Coco street had ever heard of the place, and we had yet to buy Mexican sim cards which would have easily resolved the issue, however, after climbing a ridiculous amount of steps with our bags in the heat, we eventually found the right street and the right place along with Steph waiting for us with 3 very cold beers!  The guest house, like many others in the town, was themed around love and the decorators missed no opportunity to incorporate hearts wherever they could. Interestingly enough there were no numbers on the guestroom doors. The owner explained this by pointing out that numbers on the doors could indicate that the place was a Motel and that would suggest an establishment where unsavory behaviour would be welcome, and it certainly was not. We did not bother to point out that it may be the decor more so than the numbers that would give people the wrong impression.

As far as Sayulita goes, it is your typical tourist town.  The first thing you see walking in is the Hippie Market, filled with various stalls selling brightly coloured strings of pom poms.  I don’t know the purpose to the pom-poms, but our accommodations made sure we were supplied with a set in our room. There were coffee shops and restaurants with inflated prices from what Steph had become accustomed to in other parts of Mexico, $25 pesos for a taco versus the normal $12-15, and 2000s music blaring from every cafe,. They sure do love their Coldplay in Mexico.  We did enjoy the chocolate banana stand which advertised the frozen bananas dipped in chocolate and rolled in a variety of toppings as a “nutritious snack”. One can never miss an opportunity to be healthy while traveling.

Fortunately, Steph had received a great tip from a fellow traveler about a less touristy beach a kilometer outside of town.  It was a bit of an uphill, then downhill, hike, which was mostly on a regular road and then through the bush. When we arrived we found ourselves on a gorgeous beach with only a handful of other people.  

The water was slightly colder than expected, but once we jumped into the first wave it was hard to pull ourselves away. We were even joined by two humpback whales who were cruising by alarmingly close to us.  

A few local boys wait to surf at the beach

Another couple was certainly enjoying the privacy of the beach and thought that it would be a great location for the girl to do a naked photoshoot. She had bedazzled certain parts of herself so I guess she was sort of covered up??  Luckily, Steph and I were in the water when this took place so we were too far away to be exposed to anything in detail, Jon was on the beach and slept through the entire things.

Feeling that one full day in Sayulita was enough we boarded the bus back to Puerta Vallarta to catch a long distance bus to Barra de Navidad. The ride would take 5 hours, or so we thought…

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