With no alarm set I woke up around 9:45 with an indescribable feeling – I had absolutely nothing to do today and we were in Mexico!! I walked out to the patio and found Derek and we sat and drank water and just took in the fact we were in sunny Mexico in a beautiful Jardin (Garden)
We got “ready” (through on some swim suits and cover ups) and walked into town for some Café con Leche and un Latte (we did not know the word for “to go” so I said “Vamos” in a nice way – but later learned that was probably rude as I was saying “hurry up”) We found out later in the day that llevar is the word for “carry” …next time we ordered Latte y llevar. Spanish is SO much easier than French. This trip I have decided to officially learn Spanish.
There are dogs everyone in Sayalita. It was one of our favorite parts of the trip – to walk the interactions of the dogs and also watch the dogs hunt and be sneaky.
We ventured through the Square and to the beach –walking by numerous massage places. NOTE: there were wonderful suggestions and ads at the Villa but the massage/spa place was asking for over $55 USA dollars for a massage – the ones on the beach and in town were closer to $25 for an hour (and if you go two they through in a free FISH pedicure (where the fish eat off your dead skin)). We saddled up at a beach bar called Pablo’s and had Pino Coladas and more guacamole, chips and tacos. They were OK. During our meal we were asked about 30-40 times by walking vendors if we wanted to buy jewelry, blankets, hats, toys – you name it, they are selling it. I took the bait and the first vendor I bought a green necklace – Derek soon taught me I have to get them down in price and act like I do not want it. I tried this about 10 min later with a blanket – I got him down 100 Pesos but Derek said I could have gone lower.
NOTE: You get around 100 Pesos for $5.00 so 1000 Pesos is $50. Beer is around 25-30 Pesos and a meal is around 150 Pesos. I got a blanket for 200 Pesos. The math was hard to do at first but I think $5 for every 100 Pesos is easier than the 1000 for $50 since nothing is 1000 Pesos. As you can tell the cost of living here is wonderful!!
After our lunch and lesson on me not being a sales person’s dream we saddled up at the beach on some chairs that were outside a hotel – they were rentable – two chairs, table and umbrella – however if you purchased 500ish Pesos of food/drinks, you got 150 Pesos off your rental … SOLD. We relaxed and took in Mexico for the next 5+ hours. We got drinks and I got a cheese plate (which might have been a poor choice – note tomorrow’s post). It was blissful – I cannot remember the last time I just laid somewhere for so many hours and did nothing.
After some time I decided to try out the water – wow it was rough. It reminded me of when Jess and I went to the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico and went Kayaking. Long story short it was so rough that when we tried to get back to beach we capsized and Jess hurt her foot. I walked in and just a foot up I was getting pulled and pushed. Also, about a foot out there is a large drop off to rocks – yikes! One time I got pulled out to the drop off and then before I knew it a wave crashed over me – taking my sunglasses out to sea … Mexico – 1 Rachel – 0. Defeated I walked back to the chairs and decided I better get ready to bargain my way down on some glasses.
We met a nice family sitting next to us at the beach from Alaska. They had just been in Puerto Vallarta the first week and were ending their vacation in Sayulita. They were catching and releasing some crazy sea life – over the span of an hour we saw two Moya Eels, crabs that were so cammiflosed that I was shocked they could even see them and some baby fish.
The beach chairs were being closed down around 6:00 and that was our cue to head back to the Villa, shower and get ready for dinner. I was craving shrimp alfredo and we found a beautiful Italian/seafood place that over looked the square – Calypso which the owners of our house said was “the best in town”. We think it was the place Erin recommended although the name had changed.
The food was good (nothing special) – service was OK but the atmosphere was perfecto. I mean we had pizza and pasta so we might not have picked the best orders to experience the restaurant. We were out in their VIP table area that was like a theater box to the square – cool seats but hard for the service to see us. Service is slow in Mexico from what we experienced. They leave you alone mostly and only come once to take drink order and food order and then someone else usually brings the food and then you let them know when you are finished. Something to get used to. The town was coming alive. Spring Breakers were everywhere and the mmmm – st mmmm-st music was starting. Clubs were opening up and live music was also starting. After dinner we saddled up in an open air bar across the square to people watch as the night came alive with flurry.
It was hilarious to see the young college kids riding around in the golf carts yelling and being what they thought was funny. It was also interesting to see 3-4 different bars/clubs compete with music – making the sounds all mess into one loud off beat symphony. The highlight of the night was watching a too smart dog cautiously getting into the garbage. He knew what he was doing was wrong and every do often he would peak around to see if his owner was coming … if he had an owner, he might just have been watching out for someone who would yell VAMOS!
By no means was this Saturday night scene what someone would have found in Puerto Vallarta or Cabo for Spring Break … I have seen The Hills and this was a completely different scene – we could just tell it was more activity and more teenagers/college kids than normal. The music went into the night – but around mid-night we had to call it. We went back to the villa and enjoyed some cervezas and some cigars from
Postcards to Iowa 