Happy Holidays and welcome to OnVallartaTime! We hope you are having a wonderful Holiday season. Our Christmas passed rather quietly. We went out to dinner on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, a treat for us. There are lots of tourists in town. On Christmas Day, the beach was umbrella to umbrella, blanket to blanket along the entire length of Los Muertos beach.

But even though we were at the beach on Christmas, and contrary to impressions you may have from previous posts, there really are times when we do other activities.  And while our neighborhood (our colonia) has a small town feel, we are still in a pretty big city.  Sometimes it’s just good to get out of the hustle and bustle. This post shows you two such escapes we have taken over the past couple of weeks: to the towns of Sayulita and Mismaloya.

Sayulita is a town about 45 km. north of Puerto Vallarta. When Peggy and I started coming to the Puerto Vallarta area ten years ago, we went first to Sayulita for a week. Since then we have been back twice, once last year and once a week and a half ago, both times to visit our friends Tom and Julie Cope who vacation there. I used to work with Tom and both of us are now retired. The Copes live in Albany, Oregon.

Sayulita’s original claim to fame is its famous surf break, which makes it a surfing destination. But far from being the “small surf town” advertised in the brochures, in reality it’s growing by leaps and bounds.  When we were first there, hardly any of the streets were paved, and there were horses and burros around town. Now it’s a bustling place, with lots of new houses everywhere in the surrounding hills. Where there used to be little grocery stores along some of the central streets, there are now upscale boutiques.  Still, it’s a long way from being a city like Puerto Vallarta and it retains much of its small town charm.

To get to Sayulita from PV, you have to take an inter-city bus. The fare is 60 Pesos (about $4.60 US) per person, and with all the stops the ride takes a little under an hour. These buses leave from a central bus stop on the highway in front of Walmart, in the Hotel Zone. While not too uncomfortable, the buses are showing their age; the brakes squeal, the gears grind and the ride is pretty bouncy. But it’s fun to watch out the windows.  Once you get past the town of Bucerias, it’s all rural, and the highway goes through some very interesting jungle-like forest. The bus stops near the highway, and it’s a short walk into town.

 Sayulita street view

Another Sayulita street view, on the way up the hill to Tom and Julie’s rental house Tom at the top of the steps leading up to their house

The view from the house Another, more jungly view from the house Julie in the kitchen, with a tasty-looking pineapple, about to make us pineapple-mango margaritas and lunch

This house is a good example of indoor-outdoor living in Mexico. Here we are sitting down to lunch on the deck Our lunch, a wonderful shrimp stir-fry

Two-for-one Herradura margaritas on the street in front of  Aaleyah’s, a favorite hangout of Tom and Julie’sCaptain Pablo’s beach bar and surf school in Sayulita. The owner was originally from Gresham, Oregon. As you can see, it’s quite different from Puerto Vallarta. Wait until you see Mismaloya! 

The small town of Mismaloya is about 13 km. the other direction from Puerto Vallarta, south along Highway 200. Mismaloya is famous for being the location of the 1963 John Huston film, Night of the Iguana, starring Richard Burton and Ava Gardner. In those days the tabloids went nuts when the young Elizabeth Taylor visited to be with Burton, her paramour. In fact, she and Burton later established a residence in Puerto Vallarta, which is now credited with starting the entire tourist industry in PV.

Those of you who have seen the movie will know that in 1963 there was hardly anything in Mismaloya. Today there is a large resort hotel and a few condo buildings, but the beach is still picturesque and largely unspoiled. To get there, you take a Puerto Vallarta city bus. From our condo, Peggy and I walk to the corner of Basilio Badillo and Constitución, where the buses leave for Mismaloya, Boca de Tomatlán, El Tuito and other points south. The fare is only 16 Pesos, $1.22 US. It’s about a 20 minute ride, very scenic along cliffs above the ocean. The buses are usually packed with people commuting back and forth to jobs in PV, and musicians will often hop on, pay the fare and play during the trip, passing the hat before the last stop.

Catching the bus to Mismaloya

Musician on the bus. This guy was pretty good — I gave him 10 Pesos.

The bus stops along the highway at Mismaloya. If you walk up the hill on the other side of the highway you come to the little town of Mismaloya, and later to the Zoologica de Vallarta, a private (and in my opinion somewhat depressing) zoo.  Farther along is the venerable El Eden restaurant, now also known for its canopy zip lines and as the location for the Predator movies. La playa (the beach) is a short walk down the hill from the highway.

Peggy in the town of Mismaloya Another view of the town of Mismaloya

Peggy crossing the bridge to get to the beach in Mismaloya

Mismaloya beach view

Looking the other way on the beach

Remarkably beautiful Margarita and her remarkably beautiful margarita

 A sleepy brown pelican

 A beachside restaurant kitchen

A view of the ruins of the set of the film Night of the Iguana. Yes, that’s a statue of an iguana climbing a pole.

On the highway waiting to catch the bus back to Puerto Vallarta

 Well, folks, that’s all for this post of OnVallartaTime. Hope you enjoyed it! Stay tuned for more adventures in and outside of Puerto Vallarta. Until next time…