Archive for the ‘Mexico – Rinc’ Category

Los Ayala and Rincón de Guayubitos (revisited)

Saturday, March 8th, 2008

Los Ayala

Well, after visiting areas all over the coastal part of the state of Nayurit, we have found the spot we would settle if we were so inclined.  If you follow a secondary coastal road about 2 miles south of Rincón de Guayubitos and over a large hill, you arrive at Los Ayala.  Los Ayala is also located on the bay south of where the touristy town of Rincón de Guayubitos and the busy town of La Peñita are situated.

Los Ayala is beginning to be developed with some beautiful houses perched on the hills above town and overlooking the beautiful bay.  There are quite a few bungalows that could be rented for those that don’t want the crowds of Rincón de Guayubitos.

Hillside homes of Los Ayala are priced much more reasonably than their neighboring towns or Sayulita.

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Some are not quite so far up the hill.

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These people are building themselves a perch that views all of the area in both bays.

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Side streets in Los Ayala are currently not paved.  Progress is slow, but coming.

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Not as colorful as its neighbor to the north, but not everything is beige.

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At the top of the hill on the north end of Los Ayala, and up a very steep driveway, is a restaurant and bungalows called “Vista Guayubitos”.  It is very appropriately named.  (The bungalows are off to the right and not shown in this picture.)

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This restaurant, like most, is open-air with beautiful views from every table.

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From our table, I was able to take this panoramic shot of the bay with Rincón de Guayubitos and La Peñita. (CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER PHOTO)

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From the restaurant, we spotted a tour barge that had smaller boats shuttling guest to their snorkeling site on a nearby island.  The smaller white dot is one of the shuttle boats.

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Here’s a little better shot of the tour and fiesta barge.

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From the hillside, just below the restaurant , there is a fabulous view of the fishing boats moored at Rincón de Guayubitos

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Rincón de Guayubitos – revisited

We provided a glimpse of Rincón de Guayubitos in an earlier post, but thought it would be good to show its more colorful side.  Many towns in the area can appear to be rather drab with their unpainted cinder block or perhaps beige stucco houses and buildings.  Not so with Rincón de Guayubitos.  With the help of one bungalow and hotel developer, DeCameron, the area is anything but drab.

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They also do a wonderful job with their landscaping, even in this dry season.

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The color combinations are a little strange, but it does give you that fiesta mood.

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Here’s the oceanview side of one of DeCameron’s bungalow units.

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Other bungalow owners are getting in to their own bright color schemes.

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There are 8 RV Parks in Rincón de Guayubitos.  Seven are right on the beach, like we were in Sayulita, and therefore subject to the salt spray that can rust anything in days.  Delias trailer park is a block off the beach, and is quite shady.  They are located near the south end of town.

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We’re heading out of the area tomorrow, exactly one year from the day our adventure started.

Friends from Home

Saturday, January 26th, 2008

We discovered that some friends from Dallas, Lin and Russ, were staying in a time-share just down the road in Nuevo Vallarta.  NV is, as the name implies, a new section of condos and hotels on the beach just north of Puerto Vallarta.  Unfortunately, the road into NV is riddled with pot holes.  No attempt is being made to fill them in.  I guess they figure that as long as the construction continues, the trucks will continue to tear it up.  So, why not wait?

We made arrangements to pick up Lin and Russ and give them a personal tour that wouldn’t be offered by the hotels.  We drove south about 45 miles and  picked them up at 9:00 AM.   We immediately headed north to tour some of the smaller towns and beaches.  Our first stop was the very touristy town of Rincón de Guayubitos.  This is a popular destination for North Americans and Mexicans alike.  Every weekend brings dozens of busloads in from the interior.  The shore is lined with hotels and the streets are one shop after another, generally selling the same stuff.  We ate breakfast down this street somewhere, on the left.

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Visitors from the US and Canada are finding this town to be the perfect spot and are tossing up McMansions in great numbers.  The typical house in this area is between $750,000 to $2,000,000. and that is US dollars.

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From there, we headed to Lo de Marcos.  It was a little chilly and very few were at the beach.  We were also able to give Lin and Russ a tour of our current home RV Park.

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From here, we stopped in the quaint village of San Francisco, also called San Pancho.  It is more rustic than most of the towns in the area, but it is also the only one with a hospital.

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Then it was back to our old stomping grounds in Sayulita for a chilly lunch at Don Pedro’s, the beach restaurant we used to frequent when the Cowboys played football.

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We discovered that we were low (nearly empty) on power steering fluid, so we made only one more stop this day at Punta de Mita.  We spent a few minutes walking on the beach and then we headed back to Nuevo Vallarta.  Lin and Russ returned to Punta de Mita a few days later by bus.  They took a whale watching tour on a small boat that could handle six people.  Apparently they had dozens of close encounters with the huge humpbacks.  From what they say, we may have to try this tour.  More information on humpbacks can be found at:

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/whales/species/Humpbackwhale.shtml

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A couple of days later we picked up Lin and Russ for a lunch in Puerto Vallarta.  We left the truck at Walmart and took a cab to PePe’s Taco Stand.  Unfortunately they didn’t open until 5:00 PM.  So we headed to the beach and walked about a mile to the main downtown strip, the Malecon.  After looking at every menu along the street, we settled at the “No-Name Bar and Grill”.

From our vantage point on the second floor balcony, we were directly across the street from a very long pole sticking up in the air.

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On top of the pole were four men, dressed in traditional Mexican Indian outfits, playing flutes while sitting or dancing.

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Notice the large spool of rope.  That should tell you that there is more to come.  After they find that a large enough crowd has gathered, they drop themselves off of their perch fastened only by one heel and spiral down upside down.

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This process took about ten minutes.  This shot is as they approach the ground.

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Believe it or not, they played their flutes the whole way down.

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Upon reaching the ground, they scattered, along with some associates, to collect tips from the fascinated crowd.  They even found us on the second floor balcony.

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From our same perch on the balcony, we were treated to a seagull feeding frenzy.  In the background of this photo are two gulls diving into the water. I hope they don’t have the same target in mind.

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Followed by a large splash.

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We wondered where seagulls went when they were not stalking your snacks.

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We really enjoyed visiting with friends from home.  Thanks Lin and Russ for your vacation time spent with us.