Beach vacation

I'm not so into beach vacations. I get bored. I don't like sand, heat, humidity or bugs.

So I went to the beach for vacation . . .

It was good.

My last beach vacation was at a remote private beach house near Los Barriles, halfway between La Paz and Cabo San Lucas. We had to drive 45 minutes on a dirt road to get there. The owner of the house told me, "You're not going to want to leave." After a week, I was so ready to go home. Too solitary for me.

But, not so in Sayulita. Sayulita is a small village 35 km north of Puerto Vallarta with a nice beach and a good beginner surf break. But the best thing about Sayulita, as far as I'm concerned, is the surprising number of good restaurants. Mexican, French, Mediterranean, Argentinian, Italian, Asian. It reminded me of Aspen in that respect. We had good breakfasts at El Espresso, Rollie's and Don Pedro's and excellent dinners at Sayulita Fish Taco, Don Pedro's and Fiambala (although Fiambala's cooking was a bit heavy on the garlic).

There was also good food available from street vendors and taco stands. Especially on weekend nights, people set up small stands outstide their houses, selling yummy home-cooked fixin's.

We were there the first week of off season so the beach was not overcrowded but was far from empty, a good thing in my opinion, in that the people watching opportunities kept me entertained. Steve and the other couple with us put in a fair amount of time surfing, although Steve had to limit his surfing after he broke his rib when he fell on the board.

We went up to San Francisco (San Pancho to the locals), 8 km north of Sayulita and had an awesome tapas dinner at La Ola Rico. San Pancho is even quieter than Sayulita. Sayulita is more my speed. It's a fairly typical Mexican town with lots of construction in progress, some more actively in progress than others. It's dusty with lots of dogs, stray and not. It's got a cute central square or zocalo surrounded by shops and restaurants. There are a couple of pharmacies and food stores, with one super tiendita. They just installed an ATM which was operational approximately half the time we were there.

We took an excursion to Puerto Vallarta one day. We stopped by Casa Kimberley, the house Richard Burton bought for Elizabeth Taylor and saw the cool old cathedral, La Iglesia de Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe, and the renowned bronze statues along the malecon. I was glad to have seen PV but was equally glad we weren't staying there.

Our lodgings at the Villas Chula Vista were very nice, an air-conditioned two bedroom two bath with a full kitchen, three balconies and a pool. The only drawback was that it was about an 8 minute walk straight up a hill which was a bit of a chore in the heat of the day. The beach lodgings looked attractive too but were more expensive and lacked the pool. Not sure which I would choose if we return.

When it was time to leave, I was in a good place. It's always nice to come home to Aspen but I could just as easily have stayed for another week. It was a nice feeling, not sorry to leave but not in a hurry either.

I'd be happy to go back.

Postscript: Just found out that, on 5/9/07 (the day after we left), Sayulita was named one of the top ten travel destinations in the world.