And I finally made it to the Pacific Coast of Mexico last week! It was something that I had wanted to do for a while so even though I tried not to I did have certain expectations about this area. This trip definitely had some surprises for me!
For starters, I was a bit disappointed about Puerto Vallarta…I had created this traditional, charming town in my mind, based on the photos I had seen of it and the stories I had read about it. The fact that here’s where Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton lived their adulterous romance while he was filming The Night of the Iguana certainly fed my imagination in that sense.
Of course, several decades have gone by since that took place and currently the quaint area with cobblestone streets is just a small part of Puerto Vallarta…the rest is rather a very modern, touristy town. I am sure it used to be far more picturesque than it is now…oh, wouldn’t it be great if places could just resist growth and stay intact? Wait, I wonder if being in the company of a romantic interest would change my perspective…I should try that next time!
I also had the opportunity to visit other places in the area that still have not developed much…I’m not sure for how long though. I spent most of my stay in the southern tip of the area known as Riviera Nayarit. It is a beautiful region with virgin golden sand beaches, bathed by the Pacific Ocean and surrounded by lush vegetation, with the Sierra Madre mountains as background.
This area is home to fishing villages like Bucerias, La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Punta de Mita, Higuera Blanca, Sayulita and San Francisco (aka San Pancho), which nowadays also attract travelers from Mexico as well as the US and Canada (mainly from the West Coast). The highlights of this trip were definitely Punta de Mita and Sayulita.
Punta de Mita is a short stretch of restaurants on the beach where excursions to the Marieta Islands and whale watching leave from (during winter). The only unfortunate thing about this place is that you’re literally harassed by salespeople who try to convince you into eating at their restaurant or booking an excursion. Here, we ended up having dinner at a restaurant called Sí señor, built directly on the sand, with palm trees and umbrellas, that reminded me of some places I’ve been to in Akumal and Tulum (Riviera Maya, Mexico) as well as in Montezuma (Nicoya Peninsula, Costa Rica). The atmosphere was definitely enjoyable and so was the food…what could beat guacamole made from scratch right in front of your table? They also had Peruvian ceviche on the menu and the waiter insisted we had to have it, after finding out I was from Peru. My verdict: it was good but maybe a bit too spicy for my taste...hey, what did I expect being in Mexico, huh? Oh, and he also had us try chapulín (grasshopper) but we thought their flavor was nothing special.
And of course there is Sayulita, a colorful surf town with houses, small hotels, shops and restaurants spread out through a few streets and overlooking the ocean. I could stay at Don Pedro, one of its beach restaurants, just enjoying margaritas and totopos with pico de gallo, for hours. My visit to this scenic beach town took me back to 15 years ago, when I visited Playa del Carmen in Riviera Maya, Mexico for the first time. Sayulita definitely has the same laid-back, hippy flare that Playa used to have, except there are lots of people practicing both traditional surfing and paddle boarding. Naturally, the town has several surfing schools, so if you’re planning to take some lessons, this is the place to do it!
Also in this area there is Punta Mita, an upscale development that hosts exclusive hotels, among them a Four Seasons, and Litibu, another development where the chain I work for is building a hotel that will open by the end of the year (which was actually the reason I was visiting the area).
I realize that all the investment in the region is contributing to its economy but it will certainly change it too, as it has happened elsewhere. So I have been asking myself after this trip, how can we keep the natural flare and raw beauty of places and bring progress to them at the same time?
Editor's Note (4/22/17): I've had the opportunity to return to the area several times after this first trip and my perception about it has positively changed. I'll be writing a post about it soon.