Sir Tobey Belch. . . . Does not our life consist of the four elements?
Sir Andrew Aguecheek. Faith, so they say; but, I think, it rather consists of eating and drinking!
Yesterday, our lives rather consisted of eating and drinking. It started out with us getting dressed for a day-long journey to the little, isolated beach town, Yelapa. It is a beach town of about 350 people, located 25 or 30 miles south of Puerto Vallarta. It is only accessible by boat. There are vendors all over town selling water taxi tickets and we gave in on Wednesday, for a trip Thursday morning. So, we got to the Zona Romantica pier about 9:50 a.m. only to be told to go get a beer because the boat was not leaving for another 40 minutes. Let the drinking begin!
As we sat awaiting embarkation, we struck up a conversation with a couple from Ottawa. They were accompanying us on the journey. They were new to PV, but were enjoying the escape from the cold northern temperatures. The small talk helped the 30 minutes fly by and soon we were climbing into the boat with all the confidence of drunk on a unicycle! The day was clear and warm and we were off!
It was a very exciting 45 minute ride out. The water taxi loaded to the gunnels flew over the water. It was not the most comfortable of rides as we were all sitting on flat benches and as I said, stuffed in. I became intimate with a fleshy Saskatchewan hip on one wide of me and the over-developed “muffin top” of a man from Missouri with a “Save Water, Drink Beer t-shirt that they apparently had in just one size and it wasn’t his! I think water taxi drivers are just Mexican taxi drivers with a desire for a little more room for error. Anyway, it was a relatively smooth day on the ocean and we all unfolded ourselves out of the boat at Yelapa.
Yelapa is just this small village that has a glorious beach and a half a dozen restaurants just waiting for the boats to arrive. As I said, it has only 350 people, but now has a couple of hotels and some condos (of course) are going up. Up until 2002, there was no electricity and things were run off generators. I did hear a story that around 2000 a Yelapan girl married an American engineer. When he went to visit her hometown, he was so appalled by the lack of power, that he became a driving force to see that the place moved into the 21st century.
Once we got off the boat, our guide for the day, Chico, lead us up to the falls, which is the primary site in Yelapa. We made a single-file journey for about 10 minutes up the side of a hill. The mostly paved path lead wound through the village, past a few vendors, of course, who were setting out their wares. Finally, we cam to the falls. With places in the Northwest like Multnomah Falls, it was nothing to write home about (except that I am), but it was a lovely setting. There was a small café there and we paused, had a couple of beers and had numerous Kodak moments. Continued our contact with the couple from Ottawa and then made our way down the hill and headed back through the village, this time for the beach.
The beach was lovely, clean and sandy and sat in a lovely bay. Very peaceful except for the occasional vendor trying to get you to take a picture with the Iguana (for a price, of course). It had been a pretty full morning, so we decided to sit down at a place, also called Chico’s, for some lunch.
The lunch was fabulous! It may be the best meal we have had in our trip thus far. It was a Seafood Salad. It was not cheap, about $17.00. But Polley and I split it and it was divine. It was really 3 salads: octopus salad, mahi mahi ceviche and a shrimp salad. Everything was so fresh, the tomatoes were juicy and sweet. Beautiful to look at and we savored every bite.
Clouds began to move in as we were finishing lunch, so we just sat at the restaurant and had a beer and struck up a very nice conversation with two old gentleman whol asked if they could join us. They were both medical doctors from Iowa. Very interesting people who had been coming down with their wives to PV for the last few years. By the time we discussed the ways of the world and the positive qualities of people from the Northwest, it was time to catch the launch and head back. The return trip was every bit as exciting, perhaps even more so as it was clear the driver wanted to get home as quickly and in the most direct route possible.
Polley and I bid adieu to the friends we had made and after working the kinks out from the return boat ride, started back for home. We did stop to take these photos, which Polley had been wanting to share with everyone. Can you guess the couple. The iguana plays himself, but the sculpture is a non-likeness of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor! We only tell you because I am sure you could never guess! It is at a restaurant at the bottom of the hill where we live. We pass it at least once a day! I don’t know if we mentioned that Elizabeth Taylor had a house right near our place. She no longer owns it and it has, in fact, fallen into disrepair. She apparently bought the place in the early 60s when Richard Burton was here shooting “The Night of Iguana.” She wanted to be close by to keep an eye on Richard who was co-starring with Ave Gardner. He had a house across the alley way and there was a bridge built so that they could go from house to house. I will need to get and add a picture of the bridge which is still in surprisingly good shape.
It was perhaps our busiest day of our stay thus far. Thursday evening wanted to return to “Que Pase,” this little, funky bar where the band that we were first introduced to at “The Wedding” were playing again. It was the last night for the drummer, Dave, who was headed to another gig in Thailand. They were great. We particularly loved the flute and sax player, Bobby (long beard) who we talked to at the break. He is from Glasgow, Scotland so we had much to talk about in terms of his homeland. He is very good. The three of them were joined by a harmonica player, who we also talked to. He is a retired computer geek who loves to sit in an improvise with the group. Great fun.
A very drunk little lady of 75 who was celebrating her birthday was insisting on people dance with her. They have been coming to PV for 25 years, but her husband recently had a heart attack and, though he was at the bar, moves very slowly and she was clearly up for more. She got me dancing with her and when I mentioned Polley was 70, she would settle for nothing less than that we all three dance. Later she dragged Polley and some others to the dance floor, as you can see. It was quite a night and a fun end to a very long day!
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