More beach towns

We left Lo de Marcos early on a Sunday morning, on what turned out to be Revolution Day, the day that Mexico commemorates its birth as a nation. November 20th marks the anniversary of  the start of the 1910-1917 Revolution— specifically the call to arms by Francisco I. Madero to unseat the dictator Porfirio Díaz, who had remained in power for more than three decades. The celebration starts, in every town in the State of Nayarit and perhaps in all of Mexico, with a parade at 9 AM through the heart of each town. 

Although we always enjoy a nice parade, with an 8-hour long drive down the coast to San Patricio Melaque we were going to have to dodge a lot of celebration just to get to our hotel that night. The first major hurdle was getting around Puerto Vallarta before the throngs engulfed us. 

Revellers thronging to the parade

Fate did not favour us.  As we were driving through Puerto Vallarta, we ran into a "Desviacion" sign, which we have interpreted from previous experience on the Baja to mean "Devastation"! Actually it indicates a detour: one off the main road and through the narrow, cobblestoned streets of PV.  Occasionally there was a cop showing us the way, sometimes we just followed the locals, but in truth it was the worst of both outcomes, no parade and endless traffic.

Schoolchildren in period costumes and marching bands mingle

We wound through detour after detour but the best we saw of the parade itself was staging areas where children and marching bands waited for their time to shine. Actually it was a lot like trying to get to the Calgary Stampede Parade an hour late if the City Police was on strike.

All of the chaos on the streets actually made the Mexican drivers a little less aggressive.  It was the one time I felt like they didn't know where they were going either, so it put us all on an equal footing, 

Finally after losing at least an with extra hour, we got through the center of PV and on to the highway out of the city. The city itself was stunningly beautiful from the hills high above the beaches, where the hi-way leaves town to the south.

We're not much for cities but it's clear why this place had attracted so many fans over the years.  The area north of town was clearly a favourite so far on our trip and a very viable place to establish roots.

Going south we were surprised that the highway was quite busy as the towns went from post-parade to all of the other celebrations that were planned for the day.  We had many opportunities to see folks enjoy the last days of their holiday long weekend and share an obvious pride in being Mexican.

Horsemanship and 'caballero culture' is still very much a part of the Mexican identity, shared by young and old alike.

Our plan was to stay in Melaque for a night and leaving early meant that we arrived quite early, about 1 in the afternoon. So we parked near the hotel and headed to the beach for a late lunch. We were pleasantly surprised to find the prices to be a little cheaper than we had found in LoD.

San Patricio-Melaque is a Mexican resort town (totally different from a gringo resort town) that was busy with the long weekend crowds from Guadalajara. The beach was lovely fine sand with calm water that was safe even for children.

There were many restaurants along at least a kilometer of beach.  You could see beachfront stretching all the way to Barra de Navidad, the town at the other end of this long curving bay.


True to the town, the Bahia Hotel  turned out to be a very simple hotel.   It was only a block off the beach and our room was small but sufficient for a one-night layover.  An extra bed for Brad and a bathroom with no shower curtain, just a drain in the middle of the floor. Charming!

True also to the town, the staff was warm and genuinely caring.  Only a block from the beach, it nevertheless had a nice pool, which provided a break from the heat without the crowds at the beach.

Although the beds were comfortable enough, we didn't sleep well because this was the first time we had to park the Nissan on the street.  Without admitting it to each other at the time, we both worried all night even though the vehicle was parked right in front of the hotel,  In the morning all was well and we needn't have worried!

That evening we had a memorable supper of pollo asada: a whole splayed chicken, marinated and barbecued on hardwood charcoal right in front of you,  The meal included rice, a great homemade salad, beer, and smoked chili de arbol salsa for about $8 CAD.

We were the last customers so the proprietor, who spoke good English having spent several years living in the US, entertained us with stories about the town.  The chicken was well worth the wait.  

"From north to south from east to west
we will win this fight regardless"

We left early the next morning for our long drive to Zihuatenejo. We had read that about 150 km of our drive was along the Michoacan coastline and was referred to in the National press as the 'Cartel Coast'. We did not encounter any issues although we did see a somewhat heavier military presence and noticed that many of the bridges had been spray painted with text that seemed to indicate that the locals were: fed up with cartel violence; fed up with inaction on the part of the governments; and that they were not intending to tolerate it anymore.  More on this as we move inland in the next blog!

There were lots of fruit plantations along this route.  The photo below show some of the banana plants with blue bags over the matured banana bunches, either to protect them from pests or aid in the ripening process.

Driving along the Pacific coast the panoramas of the coastline and ocean views were spectacular!  Many times the hiway glided down to idyllic white sand beaches with little surf camps among the coconut palms.  We half expected a sign to welcome us into the town of Margaritaville.😎

After a long day we arrived in Zihuatenejo right at rush hour! We soon realized this was a big busy town.  Big enough to extend from the beaches and sprawl up into the hillsides.

I was navigating as usual but we missed our turn, usually not a big problem. I was hot and tired at this point so we pulled over to get our bearings. This is where Google maps can get you into trouble. 

The map was indicating we could get to our Airbnb condo if we just turned up the next street and made a couple of turns to get onto the street we had missed. WELL, this turned out to be nearly straight UP! The first part was steep but the left turn took us onto a street even steeper. I was freaking out thinking we might roll backwards but Brad put it in 4-wheel drive and pushed up to the final turn.  The next -probably final- street on this path was nearly vertical.

With no assurance that our goal was even at the end of that street, our only option was to back up and make the perilous turn to face back down the first hill. He managed to get us turned back without rolling the truck but I was like a cat on a hot tin roof. I just wanted off this f*##* hill!!  We managed to find the right street and the very imposing gate into the condo development where we would be staying. The gate opened to another steep hill.... but nothing like what we had just been through. I was so spooked I didn't want to see any more hills and wasn't taking any Godamn pictures.  Get me back to Brooks.... RIGHT NOW!

South facing windows.  Great view, big heat load

Despite the potential for more drama, we found the caretaker waiting for us outside the gate.  The condo complex was a 3 story building set on lovely grounds with a pool. The condo was nice and new but it had a quirky floorplan.  It was a two bedroom but the only bathroom was the en-suite off the master and both bedrooms were not air conditioned, only the great room.  Zihuatanejo was at least 34C that day and our suite faced south with a huge panoramic view of the city stretching below us.

The pool was incredibly relaxing after a hot day

Unfortunately, with big south views comes huge daytime heating impacts so A/C was absolutely necessary.  Apologies to the owner but that A/C worked overtime for the entire 3 days we were there.

The first night I was a little nervous about walking down the street which was very steep and very Mexican! OK that sounded bad but I was in no mood to be nice to anyone, least of all my husband. Pretty frosty for a bit, despite the oppressive heat.

Almost everything was forgiven when we found a very popular eating place called Papas Loco near our place.  It had great tacos al pastor for really cheap but heir main claim to fame was baked potatoes... stuffed with different meats, cheeses and sauces. It was still steaming hot at 7 PM and the place was buzzing with people and salsa music! The tables seemed like they were right on the street but the food was good and we were starving at this point. This was definitely an adventure!

For the next few days we enjoyed one of the most popular beach towns in Mexico and came home to a quiet, restful pool.  Perfect!  This view from the edge of the pool made it clear that we were pretty much perched on a cliff overlooking the city, but it was awesome.

First we did the tourist thing and spent a day at Playa La Ropa, the best of the 5 beaches in town. It was beautiful, calm on this day, and not busy.

On the last day of our stay we drove 10 km south to Barre de Potosi, a small fishing village where many Canadians have built winter homes. The draw to this area is obviously several miles of beach, part of which is surf friendly and part of which is at the mouth of an estuary where the beach is so calm that paddleboarding and kayaking are popular snowbird pastimes.  In addition, this area is only a few minutes from the Ixtapa/ Zihuatenejo international airport.

Apparently, the fishing village at the end of the beach has grown substantially over the last ten years. Today there are many restaurants lining the beach in town, so much so that and the day we visited a busload of tourists from the inland had arrived to paddle in the gentle waves and enjoy spectacular seafood.

This will be the last of beach life for a while. Next we travel to Oaxaca via the famous silver mining center of Taxco.  Stay tuned

PS: I feel like I'm missing an easy joke about the Mexican Navy out on maneuvers. OK it's just a wheelbarrow loaded with a chainsaw on the boat, but we had to get a picture of it after watching this elderly couple load it up and paddle off!