Let’s Go Back to Sayulita - Feb 18
A few small notes about this night that I didn’t fit in the last post because the night hadn’t passed by that time. A new girl named Ida showed up headed to Sayulita the next day. She’s from Norway. After writing the blog post, I was asked about going out to party around town by Jesse and Mel, another new girl from Australia. By the time we went out, Mel had brought two other friends to the hostel named Tate and some other name that I don’t remember because it was Polish. Mel met Tate in the Dallas airport. Scott, a new guy in my room came out as well, mid thirties, from Canada.
While we were out I decided that going to a bar that was only playing American top forty was not going to do. I suggested we go somewhere more authentic and Jesse told us about a Cuban bar. Close enough. We went there and I actually started having fun. There was live music, dancing, and a bar. What more do you need?
We even met up with some people that Jesse and I saw in Yelapa at the waterfall. There names are Victor, Manny, Jennifer, and … Oops again. After the night out Mel had convinced me to stay one more night in Vallarta and go to Sayulita one more time to hang out with everyone. Alright, one more night can’t hurt. I have no real schedule anyway.
OK I’ll Stay With You For Two Days - Feb 19
On this day, the whole crew headed out to Sayulita after a bit of lounging around the hostel. The crew in this instance consisted of Mel, Jesse, and Ida. During our bus trip we had a bit of a time trying to stay calm as we parked ourselves in the back of the bus. This is not a smooth bus ride and the back of the bus was bouncy to say the least. We did, however, manage to chat a bunch about my favourite recent topic: languages. Ida is from Norway and says she can speak and understand six languages to varying degrees. These languages are Norwegian (both written dialect and spoken), English, German, French, and Spanish. This is the most impressive thing. While we chatted about this stuff I realized how plausible it would be for me to live abroad and learn the languages I’ve got lined up for myself. I then decided with the crew that I would spend the next few years of my life in Mexico, France, Germany, and Scandinavia learning Spanish, French, German, and Swedish but ending my travels in Norway where I would easily pick up Norwegian and quickly marry Ida. Simple.
We spent the entire day relaxing on beaches including Playa Los Muertos which is a short walk left of the main beach. Tate met up with us at that beach as she was also in Sayulita for a visit. Later, Jesse decided he wanted to head back to Puerto Vallarta and left me with my three blonde girlfriends, life could be worse. As we had dinner, a street vendor even commented on the fact that I was hanging out with three lovely ladies and asked “Are you tired?” It was during dinner that Ida and Mel managed to convince me, yet again, to stay another two nights in Sayulita this time. I think I’m easily swayed.
As we adventured through the town we met up, again, with Victor and friends. We thought about staying out late enough to go to the beach party at 1am but realized shortly after our beach nap that we wanted out. Ida went to her hostel and Tate, Mel, and I found a ride from the hostel worker for a cool price that was cheaper than a taxi would have cost. Thanks Gerrardo. During the drive home I spoke with our driver and he has been traveling for the last 10 years of his life, mostly through Mexico. So freaking cool, everyone is so freaking cool. Tate offered and succeeded in paying for the entire ride back to Puerto Vallarta so Mel and I arrived back at our hostel safe and sound for nothing. Score.
OK, Saylita for Two More Days - Feb 20
On this morning, Mel and I lazily got our shit together, and headed for Sayulita. We stopped by in Walmart to get a tent, a nice 250 peso tent to be sure and I grabbed a towel because I left my travel towel in the hostel, nice. While we were in town we met up with Shaun, a South African dude who has been living in Vancouver for the last seven years. I don’t remember how we met him, I think he was sleeping on the bunk above Ida. Whatever. Just remember that he exists.
I can’t remember what we did with this day but I’m pretty sure we, again, relaxed at the beach and did our best to be good conversational partners. Of course, succeeding in every imaginable way, we’re all interesting and eloquent people to say the least. I believe we did a little partying that night on the top of the hostel but Mel and I retired to the tent. Also we had no sleeping mats, this would be the first time I camped straight on the ground.
Punta de Mita and Las Islas Marietas - Feb 21
I awoke and quickly realized that I needed to stretch basically every part of my body after sleeping on the ground. I decided to make a ritual out of going to the beach, which was 10m away from our tent, and sitting down to watch the morning surfers and give myself a bit of time to realign my spine.
The new crew which then consisted of Mel, Ida, and Shaun decided to finally go to Islas Marietas which was one of my goals for the two night stay. We took a few buses and arrived with little trouble, though Shaun noticed that we ended up close to the beach he had visited the day before but arrived at much sooner because he was driven straight there. A note that came in handy in the future. We talked down a few people after lunch into taking us on the boat tour for 300 pesos each, which Ida felt we could have got even lower, which is almost always true but oh well. We went to each of the islands, discovering hidden beaches, messing around, climbing things, and watching Shaun document the crap out of everything with his GoPro. Shaun works in the film industry so I’m quite excited to see what he comes up with.
We then took a bus to Bucerias where I suggested we check out the beach and grab some grub. Shaun was in search of a poncho and he was not going to buy one with out a screaming deal. He managed to acquire a nice blue poncho for 400 pesos, down from 800. Yeah, you definitely get the feeling that people are trying to suck you dry when your friend get half price on a $70-ish dollar poncho. Ridiculous. We had some delicious lunch and headed back to town. We decided to go to the fair, if I remember correctly, though this may have been one of the nights before hand. Anyway, the fair is cool and the most fun seems to be had throwing rocks at beer bottles. You get three rocks for 30 pesos. If you break one bottle you get one beer, two for two beers, and a six pack for three bottles. None of that mattered because I hit nothing. At any rate, it was tones of fun.
A Brain Day - Feb 22
We decided to call this day the “brain day” which actually meant that we were going to sit down in the best wifi spot in the hostel and take care of the things in our lives that need to be taken care of. After doing all of that we headed to the beach to cool off and unwind from all that crazy stress. It was at the beach that, again, the girls convinced me to stay two more nights. Hey, if it feels right and there are literally no drawbacks, try it. That’s it for this one, I literally remember nothing else.
La Lancha Adventure and Hitchhiking - Feb 23
In the morning, Shaun told us about the beach he had visited call La Lancha, adding that we were going to hitchhike there, something that I probably wouldn’t have thought of trying. Hitchhiking was super cool I have to say. The feeling of just pure hospitality you get from this stuff makes you smile. The crew had a blast while being driven in a jeep to a certain spot, then the back of a pick up truck with no gate. We finally took a bus to the Oxxo near the beach and stocked up on beer and junk food.
In the Oxxo we met a man named Wade Turner, a man from Texas we a thick accent that tried to teach Shaun and Mel a Spanish saying. Just for a second, picture the most American sounding Texan you’ve ever seen utter this phrase: “Disculpame, la cuenta es para el.” The sentence basically means “Excuse me, the bill is for him” and as he finished the phrase he pointed at me. Haha, very funny, Wade. Anyway, he had taught them this phrase just before saying that he spoke fluent Spanish. This gives me hope that maybe I do speak Spanish because of two things. One, I have a better accent than him, and that is not me being overconfident or cocky. Two, I can speak with at least the same speed as him and understand most of what is said to me. Ida and I had a good laugh at this little interaction as we’re the Spanish speakers of the crew.
We walked down to the beach and immediately began having a great time relaxing, reading, swimming, joking around, and finally walking around the rocky area to the left of the beach. All while being fully documented by Shaun and his GoPro. There is definitely so great footage on that thing. Also, I should say that the reason I don’t have any photos in these posts is because I didn’t take any. Everyone else seems to be doing this for me, posting to Facebook when necessary. So take a look there if you want to see a few photos.
After busing part of the way back to Sayulita we began our hitchhiking routine, having the ladies out from wagging their thumbs while the gents stood in the back. It was at a couple of speed bumps that we witnessed a fairly minor but also pain inducing motorcycle crash involving some kids on little 200cc bikes. They had accidentally came off of the finished pavement on the dirt road and skidded on the loose surface, resulting in same bad cuts and scrapes but not much else. Lucky for us and them, Shaun actually caught most of it on his GoPro as he was recording us in the act of hitchhiking. It seemed the kids enjoyed the video enough to forget about the fact that you could see some ankle bone on one of them.
We got some awesome quesidillas coming into town, and managed to just miss the sunset at Los Muertos. We relax there for a bit, walked through the cemetery when it got dark and ended up at the hostel. We met more people from the west coast of Canada and soon realized that we could probably take over if we wanted. Seriously, there are so many people from Victoria, Kelowna, and Vancouver here that it’s almost frustrating. I spent the rest of the night chatting with Ida and whoever else came around about all manner of topics as most of the others went out partying but we had decided to drink tea instead.
Carricitos - Feb 24
The new crew which is a substitution of Shaun for Jake, a guy from Victoria headed out to a beach called Carricitos. It is quite nice but the waves were a bit vicious when entering and attempting to exit. Here we found a nice shady spot, Jake managed to crack a coconut and give us a drink, and we even ended up doing some exercise. We were chatting about how Ida has been pole dancing, like in studios OK everyone, and the fact that I’m a rock climber. We found a sturdy enough tree to do some chin ups and show off some other exercises with Jake. Then we decided to do a little ab work out, jog on the beach, and finish with some burpies. I don’t know why we did this but it happened, so there you go. After heading back to town I realized I managed to acquire a half decent burn, one of the first of the trip. I usually managed to just stay in the shade most of the time.
Back at the hostel we met a Frenchman named Etienne who has been living in Peru and Mexico City for the past little while who, of course, speaks French, English, and Spanish. So jealous of multilingual people, god damnit. Later in the day we set out to buy what Mel calls “party shirts” which are basically oversize buttoned shirts with short sleeves that sport wacky colours, designs, or patterns. We failed to get any this time around but did managed to find the book store I wanted to visit, which was closed. However, we got ice cream so the outing felt like a success. We then cooked a decent vegetarian pasta together in the hostel and pigged out.
After a failed movie night attempt by the employees of the hostel, Ida and I went for a relaxing night swim, again talking about all manner of topics which, as always with me, include learning languages. I’m coming to realize that I might want to try doing this live abroad thing while teaching English. Who knows. Another relaxing night as others partied, could be worse if you ask me.
Where Am I Going to Sleep Though - Feb 25
On Thursday morning, Shaun was on Airbnb trying to find us a place to stay for the weekend. Though we were concerned about it, the rest of the crew, who did not get much sleep the night before, decided to let him handle it, go to the beach and regenerate whatever energy we could. We didn’t do much with the day but we did get some sweet fruit smoothies, empinadas, and hung out with a few of the other hostel friends on the beach while they drank oversized margheritas. The rest of the day was spent relaxing in hammocks, eating a hostel family dinner of enchiladas and passing the time. It’s what we do best.
At the end of the night, the plans for our accommodation fell through basically due to a lack of confidence and it’s now every person for themselves. I found a place on Hostelworld that seemed fine but I doubt that their information is up to date. I decided to put it off until the morning and now I’m writing a blog post instead of worrying about the roof that should be covering me later tonight.
Two more nights though.