Friends and Family

The last few weeks we have been reconnecting with friends and family that are brave enough to leave the cold Canadian winter and meet us in sunny Puerto Vallarta. 

January 30th – Bienvenidos Simon!!

Simon arrived at 2pm into the Puerto Vallarta (PV) airport and we were only an hour away so we weren’t in much of a rush to leave, the only issue is that we had no food in our van and didn’t really want to purchase any food to cook as we assumed we would be going to restaurants most days while our friend Simon was in Mexico.
We had about 3 hours to kill in PV until we had to be at the airport and were torn by what to do; our van was quite dirty so we wanted to get a car wash, but we also wanted to see the PV’s El Centro and their sea wall as well as get ice cream, and a Costco run- mostly for gas, and get some more pesos from the bank.  After trying to get a car wash in Mazatlán we knew it was probably going to be one or the other, not everything.  We settled on exploring downtown since we now had the energy to do so. After Costco, Petco- to get Rupert some nail clippers, and the bank, we drove around downtown PV searching for 10 minutes or so for parking. A guy waved us down saying that there was a parking spot close by, usually we don’t like parking where random people tell us to park because it usually comes with a finders fee, but we didn’t want to keep driving around and were fine paying a small tip to him for finding a parking spot.  Unbelievably he wasn’t looking for a tip, instead he wanted to wash our van, by hand for the equivalent of $6 CAD.  We exchanged money, he asked when we would return and then went back to washing a different vehicle.  Kendra was sure Paul missed something in translation.  There was no way we were paying $6 for parking and a car wash, but only time would tell.

One great thing about Mexico is that there are roadside restaurants everywhere and they are usually dirt cheap, very quickly we found one, ate more food than we should have, and paid less than $7 CAD per person.  We even had to tell the owner to stop bringing us fresh pressed and cooked tortillas as we couldn’t eat anymore.
We did our exploring, walked the sea wall and even got our ice cream.  We had killed enough time and returned to a hand-cleaned and dried van!! Nothing had been lost in translation!
Our day kept on getting better as Simon’s flight on a low-cost airline was NOT DELAYED meaning that relatively soon after arriving at the airport we saw Simon walking through the arrival hall.
We had decided to make Sayulita, a tourist hot spot north of PV our home base with an Airbnb located in the center of the community within walking distance to everything. We piled into the van drove the hour north of PV, dropped off our luggage at the Airbnb and walked to a beachside restaurant for some food.
We saw the sunset and spent the rest of the evening figuring out how to spend our time together in Mexico while playing a few games.
 

January 31st – Finding the best beach in Mexico

We spent the morning walking down Sayulita beach.  The area of the beach nearest the community was packed with people and vendors so we decided to wander north where it was far less busy.   After about half an hour we had reached the end of Sayulita beach, but Simon had read that there was a path towards two other beaches that very few people went to.  We decided to continue our journey up above the rocks that ended the beach towards Playa Las Cuevas a very small beach that connected to Playa Malpaso (our destination) through caves! 

It was surreal crawling through a small cave to a practically deserted beach with no development nearby.  The sand was soft with no rocks near the shoreline.  It looked like our own paradise and we had the place mostly to ourselves.  Foolishly, we didn’t bring water, or our swimsuits or anything else to allow us to properly enjoy this bit of paradise. On a positive note, while returning to Sayulita we found a quicker way to get to the beach and a place to park that would result in the walk to this beach being no more than 20 minutes.  We knew we would be returning.

After rehydrating with water we explored the townsite of Sayulita while enjoying some street tacos.  We even explored the markets and thought about what sort of souvenirs we would buy from the vendors.

Simon and Paul decided to walk to a different beach on the west side of Sayulita called Playa Carricitos the internet said it was the best place to watch the sunset.  Well, the internet was correct!  After arriving at the beach Paul and Simon ended up scaling a couple rock and finding beach chairs that they “borrowed’ for a couple hours.  The sunset was unobstructed and there were even whales far in the distance.  Highly recommend this beach for sunset if in the Sayulita area.  Kendra missed sunset as she had a meeting on Zoom with her family and a florist for her sister’s upcoming wedding.

After returning to Sayulita we all met up again and decided to go to Mary’s, a restaurant that always had a lineup, no matter the time of day.  We decided to enter the lineup and after getting a table understood why it was always busy.  The food was delicious and very reasonably priced.  It’s also the location where most of the street performers perform meaning we got to see fire dancing, hip-hop dancing, and salsa right from our table!! 

February 1- Enjoying Paradise

We spent the morning enjoying the restaurants of San Pancho (a quieter community just north of Sayulita) and our Airbnb as well as going to a market across the road to grab the ingredients to make guacamole and pico de gallo.  We had booked a tour for the next day for which we had to pay our deposit.  This gave us the opportunity to drive around the Punta Mita Peninsula (a circle tour south of Sayulita to Punta Mita, then east towards Bucerias then back through the jungle returning to Sayulita).
 As we walked towards the van it became apparent that our propane had been stolen at some point during the night.  We had no idea how much it would cost to get a new bottle, if we would be able to find a new bottle that would fit the location or if it would be threaded the same way as all our propane accessories.  Thankfully we didn’t have time to dwell on our frustration as we had a half-hour drive to do.

We paid our deposit in Punta Mita but quickly left the community, it appeared to be an almost soulless community mostly created for rich Americans.  It was full of golf courses and hotels that started at $1000 CAD a night with the majority of the beaches in the area being inaccessible to us peasants. 

We decided to skip Bucerias and went to the bank and Walmart for a few things in PV.  We decided we wanted to spend the rest of the day at Playa Malpaso, which was definitely the right call.

Playa Malpaso was the perfect place to spend the rest of the day, the waves were fun to play in and warm enough to allow us to properly enjoy our time.  We ended up staying until after sunset, which may not have been the best decision as we learned that the tide had come up meaning that it was a bit more treacherous to return back to Sayulita through the caves.  Even the crabs were seeking higher ground on the rocks. We ended up taking our chances which resulted in a huge wave hitting Simon knocking off his prescription sunglasses.  RIP sunglasses.

February 2nd – A day of highs (and a couple lows)

Today we would be exploring the national park of Marietas Islands with its super photographic hidden beach.  We needed to be in Punta Mita for our tour by 9:40 so we grabbed a quick breakfast and headed toward the van. 

Before we knew it we were waiting for our boat captain Jose Luis l to take us to the island, where we learned we would be the only three people on the boat; we had a personalized boat tour to the island.  This meant we had flexibility in what we did meaning we first went towards a large pod of humpback whales and watched them slap their tales, wave their flippers and surface for air!

Our next stop was the hidden beach where we had to jump into the water and swim 100 meters to shore.  Our tour guide was awesome as he was able to have flippers and ferry us from the boat to hidden beach on a buoy.  He even had a dry bag for our phones and glasses!!  The beach was perfect, with neat nooks to explore and take pictures of.  Our tour guide also became our photographer taking some awesome pictures of us at different locations and angles of the beach.  Sadly, the government of Mexico only allows people at the hidden beach for 20 minutes so before we knew it, it was time to return to the boat.

The whole island is full of Blue-footed boobies, a bird only found on these islands and in the Galapagos so we were able to see quite a few of them relatively up close.

Next, we did some snorkeling followed by some more whale watching.  We would have spent more time whale watching but Paul’s sea sickness caught up to him so he spent a few minutes feeding the whales the contents of his stomach.

After Paul’s stomach settled we ended up purchasing some souvenirs and ordering some pizza for dinner that we enjoyed while playing a couple games and watching a movie.

 

February 3rd – Climbing Monkey Mountain

Today is Simon’s last full day in Mexico and we decided to spend it hiking the most well-reviewed hike in Nayarit, a hike to Monkey Mountain, which was just south of Sayulita.  It was a bit of a slow start to the day as the nightclub beside our Airbnb was serenading us until almost sunrise, meaning we did the hike during the heat of the day; but in Mexico the heat of the day starts around 10:30am and tapers off around sunset. 

The hike was exactly as long as we could handle in the heat and looked out across the Punta Mita peninsula.  Looking south from the top we could see the Marietas Islands we had visited yesterday as well as Punta Mita.  Looking north we could see Sayulita as well as San Pancho.  Definitely a worthwhile hike!!

After returning to Sayulita we decided that ice cream and more beach time was in order and the day quickly disappeared. 

We decided to go out for dinner at a spot with a rooftop terrace looking down at the town square where we indulged in appetizers and drinks!  It would have been a perfect end of our time in Sayulita but unfortunately, something didn’t agree with Simon who spent most of the night sick with the nightclub once again serenading us until 6 or so in the morning.

 

February 4th – Unplanned Errands

Simon was very ill, we think (hope) that it was only food poisoning from the restaurant we went to last night, but regardless we would not be doing our original plan of visiting the mountain town of San Sebastian or exploring PV together. 

We had a bunch of errands that we had planned to do tomorrow, but to our benefit, we had a bunch of time to kill before Simon’s flight and he was able to “exist” in the van without adversely affecting his stomach. 

We stayed at our Airbnb until checkout time, then drove to PV where we found and purchased a propane bottle, found a place to fill it (because the most expensive propane bottle we have ever bought in our entire lives did not come filled), got groceries and filled up our tank of gas.  We did think to do a driving tour of PV, but decided to walk around the PV marina instead, taking us to check-in time for Simon’s flight. 

We said our goodbyes to Simon as he headed to the airport, still unwell but able to travel.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time with him and wish he could be leaving in a better condition.

We only had a couple hours until sunset so we left for another community that was recommended to us to spend our time until Kendra’s family arrived in the PV area.  We drove to the quiet community of Mayto. 

We arrived after dark, paid for our campsite, and went to bed.

 

February 5th – Organizing and Working: Beachside!

We hadn’t got much sleep while in Sayulita which had caused Kendra’s cough to return and worsen so we decided to relax by the beach most of the day, at least that was the plan.  Instead, we reorganized the van and did a bunch of cleaning.  Paul retorqued the tires and even made sure every single one of them (including the spare below the van and the full-sized spare on top of the van) where at the correct PSI. Kendra moved some items, specifically our sleeping  bag, back into long term storage and created some seatbelt “clips” out of gorilla tape, crazy glue, hooks, and carabineers for when her mom comes for that sense of being buckled into the “backseat”.

A month ago Paul had got some bleach on his El Rosario shirt, which was the last time we did a big van clean. Unfortunately, the bleach left a stain on his black shirt, so we used the leftover bleach today to purposefully bleach the shirt so he can wear it out in public again. It’s not too bad for a DIY bleach dye job with only a small amount of bleach.

The evening was spent on the beach where Paul did some work for a client and we enjoyed Mango Margaritas until it was time to return to the van. We then cooked some dinner and went to bed.

February 6th – Working Beachside

We enjoyed yesterday so much we decided to do it again.  Kendra spent the day reading (she finished Where the Crawdads Sing) while Paul did some work and updated the blog.  Although we debated walking into the community to purchase a 12 pack of beer, the cold beer from the beach bar was too inviting.  Besides, there was wifi at the bar and a beautiful view of an unspoiled beach!

February 7th- One More Beach Day!

Since we enjoyed the last few days so much we decided to spend one more day/night in Mayto. Since the people who were camping in the official campground had left we parked beside the palapas and enjoyed the beach to ourselves.  Of course, we stopped at the beach bar one last time before wandering down the beach for sunset.   There were so many hermit crabs “hermitting” in the sand and we checked out the local turtle release incubators, but there were no turtles being released today. After one last quiet night on the beach, it was time to start thinking about the next week.

February 8th- Picking up the Fam Damily!

Today was the day Kendra’s Mom, Judy, and her husband, Derek, flew into Puerto Vallarta.  After organizing the van and shuffling things around in all the storage compartments, so two additional people could travel in the van (a van we actively live out of), we headed off towards Puerto Vallarta.

Our first stop of the day was to the small community of El Tuito. This was not the first time we had ventured into this community.  We visited it in 2012 on a GoGoGauthier’s Family Christmas trip to Puerto Vallarta. It’s amazing that the more things change the more some things stay the same.  El Tuito was just as we remembered it.  The church and tortilleria hadn’t changed and the downtown area was almost the same, just a few buildings had been repainted.  We picked up some tortillas and for the first time from an actual tortilleria (a place that only makes tortillas and sells them for around $1.50 CAD/kilogram)  We thought it best to only order half of a kilogram instead of a full kilogram!  Paul was pretty proud of himself and we figured since we had half the amount they wouldn’t go bad and we wouldn’t feel rushed to eat them. We’ve been debating about only getting a half kilo for a long time, but today was the day we finally did it, but it won’t be the last!

After El Tuito it was time to head to PVR airport. For those wondering, it takes about 45 minutes to an hour from the time a plane lands for the passengers to make it through customs.  After grabbing a quick snack and waiting patiently, the Kerrigan-Dick’s finally arrived! As is customary when collecting someone from Kendra’s family, our first stop was Costco for some good deals.  Unfortunately, we didn’t find everything we were looking for we headed to Walmart to pick up a few remaining things.  Then we were off to the Bucerias/Nuevo Vallarta area to check out our AirBnB for the week.  The private pool was inviting and was everything we had hoped it would be!  We had fun eating, drinking, and catching up.

Now one thing that some people may not know is that Mexico has switched its currency amounts in the past 30 or so years. Unfortunately, we were traveling with one of those people who didn’t know.  After watching sunset at the beach, Kendra, her mom, and Derek went to the beach club for a drink. As is expected the drinks were not free and Kendra and her mom didn’t bring any money with them because they were just going to watch sunset. After sunset and finishing their drinks, Derek took out his wallet and pulled out a $2000 peso bill.

Now that may seem impressive, but the largest bill accepted is the $1000 peso bill, and Kendra and Paul haven’t even used this size of bill because they’ve heard it is hard for small vendors to break and have experience where a vendor hasn’t been able to accept a $500 peso bill.

The waiter brings the bill and looks at Derek’s $2000 peso bill and says no, that’s not money, we don’t use that. Derek then pulls out a $500 bill, and the waiter says that is Peru money, we don’t take that here either!  Luckily, the waiter was so humoured by this experience that he came back with his phone to take a picture of the $2000 peso bill (from the 1980s) since he had never seen one so he can show all his friends!!! Needless to say, Derek ran back to the AirBnB to grab some legal tender and left Kendra and her mom at the bar as ransom, just in case he didn’t return.

February 9th- Bucerias

Paul and Derek both had some work to do so they spent the morning at the AirBnB while Kendra and her mom walked along the beach to Bucerias.  20 years ago they had walked from the Royal Decameron Complex to Bucerias, they were both amazed at how much Bucerias has grown and developed. After stopping for a beachside drink and watching a few tourists get bucked off their horses they made their way back to the AirBnB to catch up with Paul and Derek and enjoy a swim in the pool.

 

February 10th- Another day of relaxing

Kendra and her mom walked into Bucerias again to check out the local municipal market and buy some vegetables. Unfortunately, the stalls were closed and the market was empty other than a few food vendors, so they went to a bigger chain grocery store and walked back to AirBnb for another soak in the pool and beachside sunset. After sunset, we headed into Bucerias for some drinks and live music.

We were told about the nightlife in Bucerias, but were surprised by what we encountered.  While Baja is full of Americans, Bucerias is full of Canadian Retirees, and a lot of them.  We were headed to the popular places and immediately realized our presence dropped the average age of people in the bar by a few years.  Even Kendra’s mom and Derek were some of the youngin’s in the bar.  That being said the music was too loud to talk (most people in the bar probably didn’t have their hearing aids in so couldn’t tell), so we wandered around for a bit and stumbled upon Luna Lounge.  We highly recommend the Luna Lounge if you are in the area, they have amazing cover bands, often with dinner shows that look amazing.  Unfortunately, The Eagles performance, the show playing that night, was all sold out but we were able to have some drinks at the bar and talk with the owner.  The Luna Lounge has a great atmosphere and the staff are all super friendly with amazing performers. They have a variety of performers coming up in the near future and we think you would enjoy it. We then took a Didi (Mexico’s version of Uber) back to the AirBnB.  It was our first time using it and Kendra ended up getting suspended from it for 4 days due to suspicious activity on her account, but we wonder if it wasn’t one of us being a bit too talkative thanks to some tequila shots.   We’re not sure what a Didi suspension means, or why it has happened, but are sure it’ll be fine in a few days.

February 11- A Day of Exploration

Today we decided to check out some quaint towns and quiet beaches.  You may recall us going to San Pancho and Playa Malpaso with Simon.  We enjoyed it so much that we decided to do that with Kendra’s family too!  Derek bought some sunscreen and a sun shirt in San Pancho and everyone else bought some freshly squeezed orange juice.  At Playa Malpaso we enjoyed some beachside walks, swimming and sandwiches.  No one lost a pair of sunglasses but the caves had about a foot more of sand than they did last time we were here and Paul banged his bead on a low hanging rock on the way back to the van; almost knocking him out.  Kendra and her family found him sitting in the cave as the waves crashed around him.

After doing a short scenic drive around Sayulita (we had our eyes peeled looking for our stolen propane bottle, but didn’t find it) we headed towards Punta de Mita to a restaurant recommended by Kendra’s sister called Margarita’s on the Hill.  It was a cute hillside restaurant where we drank margaritas, ate ceviche and looked out at the Marietas Islands.  We were even lucky enough to see a few whales swimming.  After a busy day we enjoyed some more snacks at the AirBnb and a few games of Euchre – we’re still not 100% on all the rules and scoring, but enjoyed our evening in.

February 12 – A Day of Rest

Judy woke up not feeling well this morning so we took it easy.  Paul and Kendra walked into Bucerias and then spent the afternoon lounging by the pool.  Kendra’s also been working on designing her sister’s wedding invitations which has been an adventure, although it’s probably been more stressful on Kendra and her mom than on her sister.

Judy was feeling better by the afternoon so we got some snacks together and played some Crib, Kendra and Paul won- in case that matters to any of you. We also had some snacks for Superbowl and watched the game with a quick break for sunset. Go sports team, Yay sports!

February 13- Yelapa

Yelapa is a community that was recommended for us to visit a few weeks ago. We were told it has great water and a nice beach and is perfect for relaxing.  We caught the water taxi in Boca de Tomatlan and made our way to the community. Once in Yelapa we realized this type of beach and the relaxing done there was a bit different than what we have become used to in Mexico.  There were multiple tour groups and a lot of people in lounge chairs drinking margaritas and relaxing. The water taxis came every 30-60 minutes bringing other people as well.  It was definitely a busy beach, almost like a non-exclusive resort, but the water was blue, the sand was white, so we really can’t complain.

After sitting on the beach for a while we decided to visit one of the local waterfalls.  Unfortunately, this waterfall was a 3-hour hike away from the beach and it was the heat of the day so we found a guy with an ATV who would drive us to the waterfall so we would only have to walk 20 minutes, it was worth it!  The waterfall was nice and the water was refreshing. We used this as a chance to practice our Spanish, one question we asked was about a drink a child who we had passed; we wanted to know the name of it.  We asked our driver Osmar about it and he confirmed with us that it is called a chamoyada. We told him how we loved chamoyadas so on the way back to the beach we stopped in town to pick some up, and it was a worthwhile stop!  It is full to the brim with frozen fruits mixed with a sweet and spicy mixture topped with gummy candies.  HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!

Once back on the beach Derek decided to go parasailing.  He (and a pilot) started on the beach where the boat pulls you out to the water and you become airborne. Once you reach the proper altitude you become detached from the boat and get amazing views from a very high elevation. The guide steered him around the bay where he was able to take some breathtaking photos and videos.  We are quite jealous and will be on the lookout for similar experiences.   We finished the day feeding the local wildlife- Mexican racoons.

February 14- Rhythm of the Night!

Seeing as we had been in the Puerto Vallarta area it only made sense for us to finally explore it! Today we wandered around downtown and checked out some of the local markets. We knew we didn’t want to stay out too late because this evening we would be attending Rhythm of the Night (by Vallarta Adventures).  We had seen this advertised and after asking a few people who had done it we knew it was something we had to do.

We caught the boat from Nuevo Vallarta and cruised across Banderas Bay to a beach located between Boca and Yelapa. The drinks flowed on the boat and we saw some more whales and even some dolphins as we cruised along.  We enjoyed a nice dinner and then got to enjoy the amazing show, which was choreographed by some of the same people who do Cirque du Soleil.  We thoroughly enjoyed it and highly recommend seeing it if you’re in the area (pro tip, book online in advance for 30% off, get the early cruise so you get to see sunset from the boat).

Did we mention that the drinks flowed...because they sure did flow!  On the boat ride back we knew we had more than enough to drink.  In fact, one of the first things that happened is Paul fell down, so one of the bartenders said maybe he shouldn’t have anymore.  Paul agreed until a minute later the bartender returned saying, “well one more can’t hurt”. 

Somehow we decided we would stop drinking and just dance!  In hindsight this may have been an odd thing to do as NO ONE ELSE WAS DANCING!!   Regardless, dancing was a good choice because it meant our hands were not free to hold a drink anymore! Once we got back on land is when things get a little fuzzy.  Derek bought the worst picture of us as a group from the photographer and then we ended up getting a taxi to a local bar with some new friends from Calgary/Winnipeg. After more drinks and dancing it was time to go home and see Rupert.  For some reason, we drank some more at 2 am and everyone slowly made their way to bed.

 

February 15th- Rhythm of the Morning

Kendra woke up drunk this morning, not even hungover yet! Her and Paul were both feeling the rhythm of last night and it felt like they were still on the boat as they slowly moved around the AirBnB. After rehydrating, they began the slow process of packing up their items because today was the day that Judy and Derek were flying back home. Luckily, we weren’t the only ones still feeling the rhythm of the night and Judy was joining us in not being able to walk in a straight line and having the sensation of still being on a boat.  After packing up our things and loading up the van we made our way to the Bucerias Wednesday market at La Comer.  This market had many of the same vendors that the Sayulita Farmer’s market did including fresh juice; which we needed.  Derek even found some drink coasters he had been looking for. After wandering around the market and picking up a few groceries we slowly made our way toward Puerto Vallarta. 

After saying our farewells at the airport we hit the road.  We were invited to visit with some friends in Nuevo Vallarta but could not muster up “human-likeness” to socialize or show our haggard selves- we will meet up again some other time, just who knows where.

There had been a discussion for us to stay 1 more night in the AirBnb because of how we were feeling, but we’ve felt worse in the van before (at least that’s what we told ourselves) so we decided to go back to the mountains.  We stayed in a camp spot just off the highway that we had stayed at before meeting up with Simon. Staying here allowed Kendra to have a 3 hour nap until 5:00pm and then officially go to bed at 8 after having a dinner of Fritos; the first solid food she ate all day! Somehow we didn't take any pictures today, sorry.

February 16th- Rhythm of the...who knows!?!

After a restful sleep we awoke still feeling the rhythm of the night and the rhythm of yesterday. Kendra got a text that her family made it home safely and we decided to slowly make our way further inland.  We’ve been having this internal dialogue, which becomes an external dialogue because there’s not a lot to talk about when you’ve been traveling with the same person for 225+ days, about timing and our travel timeline.  Now don’t get us wrong, we have almost unlimited time to complete this trip but we are still getting that feeling that we are behind schedule.  Not our schedule, but mother nature’s schedule.  There is only a three-month window when the weather in the southern tip of South America is hospitable (it snowed there today- Feb. 19, 2023).  Starting today we really only have 12 months to get there [at most], which seems like a lot of time, but there are many kilometers we need to drive and many experiences and adversities we need to have and overcome. So we are feeling like we need to start cutting things from our to-do list; however, we also don’t want to miss out on anything.  I’m sure we will venture back to Mexico at some point in time to see more places, but it’s hard knowing what places to cut, so for now we will try to see and experience as many things as possible.

One thing we debated cutting but didn’t was San Sebastian de Oeste.  It’s another Pueblo Magico and was another mining town. People had raved to us about the cafés and coffee there.  We did enjoy wandering the extremely narrow streets (we tried to drive a few but decided to park where the tour buses had stopped because it was stressful).  Sadly, most restaurants and cafés were closed; only open on Saturday and Sunday.

Kendra did, finally, buy a ring and Paul went into a café that the tour groups were going to and helped himself to a mini-sized cup of coffee.

Overall it was a neat place to check out, but we’d probably enjoy it more on a weekend.

After San Sebastian we headed inland stopping outside of the town of Mascota to have a taco salad made from leftovers from the past week with Kendra’s family that we packed into the van and ended our day of driving in Ajijic.

This community was recommended to us as well. It is located on a beautiful lake and full of paintings and art on the buildings. We did a quick drive through before finding a beautiful camp spot overlooking the mountains and lake. We will explore Ajijic by foot, but for now Paul will get some work done and Kendra will write this blog.  Fingers crossed we don’t feel any more remnants from our rhythm of the night experience!