Sayulita & San Blas

Joe and I took a bus to Sayulita the following day. Sayulita is a small coastal town that was very crowded with tourists when we went. They beach was covered in people so we walked down until we found a trail that went into the jungle. We took a barefoot hike through the jungle until we came out at another beach that was deserted except for a couple of families. We spent the afternoon there, went back to town to have dinner, and took the bus back to Puerto Vallarta.

The next day Joe was flying back to Tucson so he wrote me out an itinerary to follow when I arrived in the small fishing village of San Blas. I also borrowed his Lonely Planet travel book to better navigate the area. This turned out to be an essential tool. I took a city bus to the bus terminal where I had to wait 3 hours for a bus to San Blas. The lady had to tell me the same thing about 3 times before I understood her. She hated me. The bus ride to San Blas was incredible. We rode through the jungle and every once in a while we would come out to a high point where to the right, you could see over the jungle and small farm houses for miles and to the left, you could see the ocean. I watched the sun set over the ocean just before the bus reached San Blas. I followed Joe’s recommendation to a cheap hotel to stay at and paid for a room for 200 pesos. I relaxed and watched Discovery Channel in Spanish for about an hour and then took a walk to explore the town. I walked through the main plaza which was more crowded than I would have expected. The plaza is right next to the bus station and is surrounded by restaurants and taco stands. I walked to the harbor and then made a loop back into town. I finished off the walk at the San Blas Social Club. Joe highly recommended that I visit this bar. It was very small and had a relaxed atmosphere. It was partially crowded and the people at the bar were engulfed in a conversation when I sat down so they didn’t take much notice of me at first. I hung out and drank a beer. As I was deciding if I would have another beer or leave, they guy next to me at the bar struck up a conversation with me. He was from San Diego and had just visited Tucson recently. It is strange to be in the middle of nowhere and meet someone that lives near you and knows your city. But that’s how it goes with travelers. When I was in Alaska, an older couple from Canada or someplace not only knew all about Tucson but also knew the exact small town that my friend, Barbara, is from in Switzerland. Anyway, Kyle told me he had hitch hiked with some friends down the Baja coast and took a ferry across the gulf of California before travelling up to San Blas. He confirmed part of Joe’s itinerary and said that I should go on the boat ride in La Tovara while I was in San Blas. After a while his friends took off and he followed. It was about 11pm and the bar was not almost empty. I took this as a hint to go back to my hotel so I could get up early and go to La Tovara.

I woke up early and after several failed attempts of finding some guy named Abraham to take me to La Tovara as Kyle had said to do, I just followed the Lonely Planet book and took a bus to Matanchen. I got off the bus right in front of the boat ride office. The workers tried charging me 300 pesos so I asked 2 older Canadian couples if I could join their boat and pay just 100 pesos. I lucked out and our guide spoke perfect English. He was a newcomer to the bird watching field and absolutely loved the trip he was taking us on. 2 young Dutch guys from Amsterdam joined our team and we were on our way. The boat ride was fantastic. It was exactly what I would think it is like to go for a boat ride in the Everglades, minus the boat with the big fan propelling it. We saw crocodiles, turtles, iguanas, and many different types of birds. We ended the ride at a Cocodrilario (crocodile hatchery). This is the largest crocodile hatchery in Mexico. They are working to restore the crocodile population that was once in Mexico before the crocodiles were hunted for their leather. It was neat to see the baby crocodiles and the enormous 60-year-old ones they had. Crocodiles don’t do much. They just sit there in the sun with their mouths open and stare. I was more interested in a stray katamundi that was wondering around. Our guide said he has seen the katamundi here before and suspects it may be a pet or something. The other katamundis they had were in large cages. They also had a few deer in cages. The one that was lose was walking around sniffing the dirt like an anteater, eating insects. It kept walking in between my legs and showed that it wasn’t afraid of humans. It was a young animal and had a fluffy tail. I held off touching it as long as I could but I knew I had to do it. I mean, look at the picture. Look at that fluffy tail! I bent down and pet it’s surprisingly coarse fur. It immediately stood up on two feet and started hissing and clawing at me. I jumped back as the katamundi attacked. The Canadians and Dutch people from the boat thought this was hysterical. We boarded the boat and our guide passed out beers and sodas to everyone for the ride back.

I was curious to find out what everyone else from the boat was going to do next in San Blas. The Canadians were staying outside of San Blas so they had rented a shuttle for the day and were heading on seeing the old Spanish fort in San Blas. The Dutch guys were planning to go to a small beach called Playa de los Cocos to spend the day and night. I shared at taxi back with the Dutch guys and told them I had planned to go to that beach sometime as well. They invited me along and told me to bring my bags because they planned to spend the night. We bought our bus tickets for the beach and split up to check out of our hotels. I got my bags and stopped at restaurant to get a burrito for the bus ride. I made it to the bus station just when the bus was supposed to leave. I boarded the bus and saw the Dutch guys were not there yet. Just before the bus departed, they showed up. Their names were Manno and Rueben and they were 18 and 19 years old. They had both spent a few weeks in Guadalajara studying Spanish before heading to Puerto Vallarta where they met at a hostel. Surprisingly, they did not know each other prior to coming to Mexico. It also turned out that they stayed at the hostel that I wanted to stay at when I was in Puerto Vallarta. I was unable to make reservations online and the hostel never returned my emails. I called to find out if there were rooms available but the number did not work. From this, I concluded that the hostel was no longer there, just as Bar Amsterdam no longer existed. They Dutch guys even told me there was plenty of room at the hostel on New Year’s Eve. You can imagine my frustration.

We checked into a cheap hotel directly on the beach for 100 pesos each. There were only two beds so the owner brought a mattress and sheet. We ended up drawing cards for the beds. Of course, I drew the lowest card and had to sleep on the mattress. We had a drink at a restaurant overlooking the beach and then walked down to the beach. They brought a soccer ball with them and as soon as we reached the beach, 3 young Mexican teenagers ran up and asked us to play 3 on 3. We played for a while and an audience of children and young Mexican teenagers gathered on the sidelines to cheer on the white boys. My foot began hurting more and more as we played. Eventually, I stopped to look at it and noticed it was gushing blood. We called time and the teenage girls came running to my aide. I sat on the beach as they scrubbed the open would on my foot with a lime. It hurt like hell and I made it seem worse than it was because the girls got a kick out of it. I had to leave the game so I went for a swim in the ocean. The water was surprisingly warm. It wasn’t cold it all. I looked at my foot and saw that a callus on the bottom of my foot had torn.

We ate dinner at one of the best Mexican restaurants I have ever eaten at. It was a small place on the beach connected to a family’s house. All of the food was prepared by the mother and grandmother. We had hand breaded fish with rice, beans, and tortillas. We talked to an old Canadian that went on and on. He had visited this area 10 years ago and came back to see if any of his old friends were still there. I will remind you that we were on a small beach with just few hotels around, nothing else. He was a strange fellow. We bought beers at the only place that sold beers in the town. They beer distributor ran his operation out of his bedroom/kitchen/store. It was one room that performed all of these functions simultaneously. We played cards under the ramada on the beach at our hotel. The old Canadian happened to be there so he joined in too. I had told the Dutch guys about the popular American drinking game, Asshole, and they just had to play. Rueben liked the idea that he could become president and really soaked it up when he was the president, saluting those lower in rank to him and all. Manno left to go to sleep after a while, which left Reuben, the old Canadian, and me. At one point the old Canadian was going on about how all that he believed in was all around him. He pointed to the trees, the ocean, the birds, etc. He then flicked his cigarette into the ocean. I was quick to call him out on this hypocrisy. He looked down sullenly and pleaded that he was drunk.

The next morning I awoke before the Dutch guys so I walked out to the ramada to take in the scenery. They wanted to stay another night at the beach, but there was still more for me to see in San Blas. I woke the guys up and said goodbye. I ate breakfast at that excellent family restaurant where the lady told me that I did not look American. She said that my complexion and clothes were not fitting of an American. I told her I was of Irish decent but I didn’t know how to say “Ireland” in Spanish. She would name a country and I would say if it was north, east, south, or west but she didn’t realize there was a country in between Iceland and Britain. I flagged a bus down that was headed to San Blas. It just so happened that the old Canadian was on the same bus. I went back to the same hotel I had stayed in and even got my same room back. I left my bags in the room and walked through a large outdoor market that was a big attraction every Saturday. I eventually made it to the harbor where I took a boat across the water to an island called Isla del Rey. The island was like Jurassic Park. There were reptiles everywhere! I saw huge iguanas all over the place, little lizards, and I think I even spotted a snake. I hiked around the island and lay on the beach for a while. When I wanted to return, I walked to the beach I had been dropped off at and waved to the guy across the water for him to come get me. I couldn’t imagine spending 10 pesos any better.

Next, I hiked up to the highest point in San Blas to an old Spanish fort known as El Fuerte. Unfortunately a fog had rolled in from the water so I didn’t get to see much of a view. Go figure, the only time it was cloudy the whole trip was when I decided to check out a good view. I thought about heading to the bus station that night and starting my way back to Tucson early but I had already booked my room so I decided to stay. In retrospect, I wish I would have left then.