Say you what?

We love the Baja but in the winter it sometimes seems a bit too windy and cold. So when friends mentioned Sayulita we were on it. We thought we were pretty clever to get a 22 dollar flight to Mexico City which is a HUGE airport. I guess it was cheap because it was too late to get a connection. Our good old Marriot points served us well with a nice dinner and a hotel we could walk too. The airport is like a small city.

The last time we went to Puerto Vallarta (with an explore to Sayulita and Punta Mita,)Maris was about 4 years old. It had changed so much that we recognized nothing…..absolutely nothing. We remember miles and miles of beautiful beach with occasional shacks selling buckets of shrimp and beer.

A driver took us up to Sayulita (last time it was the good old VW bug) where he expertly navigated through narrow streets made more narrow by curbside dining. Sayulita seemed like a California surfer town, mixed with a Greek island village in the middle of a jungle on the coast of Mexico.

The driver (utilizing unique driving techniques including sidewalks and prolonged backing up on hilly roads) took us to our container resort. A very cleverly built place clinging to a jungle cliff overlooking the ocean. It was perfect for a few days but not a long term set up for sure . (It is what I envision an economy room on a cruise is like but Branted pointed out… this would probably not come with sliding glass doors the length of the room that go out to a large ocean view deck). Our containers shared the amenities with a swanky resort… so we had a beautiful pool to enjoy. It was surprisingly quiet except for the birds and coati.

The first day we headed to a jazz festival in San Pancho. They had 2 stages set up for the festivities. To enjoy both, you simply rotated your chairs about 180 degrees when the bands changed.

We felt very lucky to have 4 friends guiding us to the best restaurants and beaches as well as an outstanding beach massage. They even took us to a beach where they delivered hot French fries to our beach blanket.

We love walking and so do our friends. We walked from Sayulita down the beach and up some steep cliffs all the way to San Pancho where we bought a king bedspread from a guy selling stuff on the beach. I think he should paid us for lightening his load but Brant was happy to avoid shopping by bartering at our lunch table.

It was a great trip for relaxing and seeing a different type of Mexican beach town. The jungle plants made me want to do watercolors (not that I did). A good place to be with adventurous travelers sharing interesting conversation over good food and drink.