Yelapa, Jalisco, México

December 3, 2014|Posted in: Beach, Nature

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We caught a late afternoon bus out of Guadalajara, took our Dramamine, and settled in for the long curvy ride. We were going to be spending the night in Puerto Vallarta before continuing on to Yelapa the next day. Tourist destinations like Puerto Vallarta don’t appeal to us much, we have to admit, which is why we weren’t going to be doing a whole lot more than getting some late-night grub and rest.

We checked into the Hotel Suites Mar Elena which is near a Mega supermarket, some fastfood chains, and across the way from a few taquerías. We threw down our stuff, kicked on the AC, and left in search of food, eventually ending up at a taquería a short walk to the northeast from the hotel which served excellent tacos al pastor, along with tacos de asada, quesedillas, and so on.

The heat and humidity were oppressive. We were grateful for the AC in the bedroom upon our return and after little delay we hunkered down for the night. Our room was smack on the street side of the hotel with thinner curtains yet we still slept in. Upon waking we got some coffee (supposedly organic) at the cafe right next to the hotel entrance and went shopping at Mega for snacks and such for the remainder of the weekend. Yelapa definitely does not have a major grocery store although there are small stores nearby where you can purchase limited supplies.

Returning to the hotel with our purchases, we repacked and checked out. I went for another coffee, M. stayed to complete checkout and inquire about the transportation to Yelapa. Our destination is most easily accessible by boat, which meant we were going to be busing or taking a taxi to a launch point and then riding a water taxi to Yelapa. We’d been told that it might be possible to drive most of the way if you have an offroad vehicle and then walk the rest of the way in, but we haven’t confirmed that. There are no paved roads in that area.

The hotel employee shared a money-saving tip with M. regarding the journey we were about to embark upon. Instead of taking a water taxi from the center of Puerto Vallarta and paying more for the ride, it’s possible to take a bus to La Boca and from there catch a water taxi at a cheaper cost given that you will have traveled further down the coast and will hence be closer to Yelapa. In other words, the bus is cheap enough that you’ll save a bit taking that to La Boca first, then catching your water taxi from there.

And that’s what we did. From our hotel, we hopped a city bus to the center of Puerto Vallarta. Along Calle Basilio Badillo where we got off, there is an Oxxo convenience store at the corner Basilio Badillo shares with Calle Constitución. Walk to that corner and there in Constitución you’ll find white and orange (some would say red, depending on your sense of color) buses lined up of various sizes but with the same paint job (ours was rather reminiscent of an old prison bus), and folks waiting. These buses head to communities further south from Puerto Vallarta, including Mismaloya and La Boca. The buses leave frequently, at least every 30 minutes if not every 20 or 15, even, so don’t worry about schedule too much. Just remember that the water taxis stop running in the early evening. All-in-all, the buses took about 45 minutes to an hour to carry us from the hotel to La Boca, with the trip on the orange inter-town line only lasting about 25-35 minutes.

From the La Boca stop we walked the main road downhill toward the beach and were intercepted along the way by a guy asking if we wanted to catch a boat to anywhere. We clarified that we were looking for the lancha to Yelapa and he led us further down to a restaurant with some tables in the shade where we paid $70 MXN per person each way for the trip (total $280 MXN) and were left in peace to wait comfortably for the lancha leaving at 3pm. Of course they hope you might order something to eat or drink while you wait but nobody bothers you if you’re not interested in the fare.

By 3pm people had formed a short line down by the beach in preparation to board the water taxi. The lancha arrived and the captain beached the front of the boat so that we could all climb onboard via a small metal ladder slung over the side. It was useful to be able to easily remove our shoes (tip, wear flip-flops). Our water taxi had a capacity of about 30 people or more and their bags and supplies.

We set off for Yelapa with the water taxi stopping at other beach spots – a couple of them rather exclusive with boutique accommodations right on the shore – along the way to drop off or collect more passengers. The roughly 25-minute ride to Yelapa takes you by beautiful coastline comprised of these small sandy beaches, rock, and jungle. Eventually you get to the bay in which Yelapa is situated, where you can disembark with your gear at one of the piers, depending on whether you’re staying at Hotel Lagunita or on the opposite side of the bay in the town proper.

Hotel Lagunita was our stop. It’s a resort comprised of cabañas set into the rocks with concrete paths, stairs, and a swimming pool built into the hillside in such a way that the giant boulders have become part of the decor – the swimming pool prominently features some of the giant boulders in its water and they are great for standing or otherwise lounging on while you enjoy excellent views of the bay below. Some cabañas are nicer than others in terms of their construction, i.e. they have wooden window shutters whereas others have only sheets hanging off a length of twine running across the top of the window openings. Ours was of the latter variation. Then there are ventilation openings in the walls that are not screened over, openings in the roof peaks, openings everywhere. Hence, the beds come draped in mosquito netting. Hotel Lagunita, along with its restaurant Tres Amigos and assortment of beach loungers and umbrellas, occupies that whole side of the bay and stretches around and into a good part of the entire stretch of beach.

Tres Amigos seems to be the best bet as far as restaurants go. We ate there over the next three days sampling different things off the menu and the food was good each time – we never walked away feeling dissatisfied. In fact, in most cases we loved the plates – great quality ingredients and flavors, usually. Additionally, the pricing for the quality was the best as far as we could tell. Plates ranged from fettucini alfredo to an arrachera burrito to ceviche to salads to chicken fajitas to a stuffed poblano pepper to a club sandwich and more. Prices start under $100 MXN and go up to somewhere under $200 MXN per entree. There’s a kid’s menu, appetizers, and full bar as well.

Following these structures are more restaurants, clothing vendors, and eventually a store (beer, soda, and snacks – don’t expect too much variety), some homes, and horse stables. Continue on and you’ll come to the intersection of a river and the bay at the far end of the beach. When there are storms, the bay becomes muddy with sediment from the river, turning it completely brown for at least a full day. If you wish, you can roll up your pant legs and cross at the shallow point of this intersection to the other side with more buildings including hotels, cabañas, homes, and a yoga studio or two, and climb up and then down into Yelapa itself, a small town with narrow concrete and stone pathways not large enough to fit any cars but usable on foot or by ATV or horse.

Proceed through this part of Yelapa and follow the signs for one of the two waterfalls in this general area. The waterfall pours into a small pool in which you can swim, and there is a restaurant to the side. Otherwise, we’ve heard that you can keep walking up past the waterfall to another larger natural wading pool. The walk through Yelapa to the waterfall is paved and not extremely strenuous.

Otherwise, instead of crossing the river-bay intersection, you can walk east from the initial beach along the river and you will end up passing more stores (again with the usual inventory) and homes, and eventually you’ll arrive at a bridge which you can use to cross the river. There is another “town” here, although we’ve been told that the entire area is really Yelapa and it just consists of these different parts. If you then continue east, there is another waterfall in that direction, a lower one but with more water volume than the first one we mentioned above. The hike to that waterfall is through jungle and takes longer, up to 1 hour 20 minutes or more one way from the beach. We never checked that waterfall out but have heard it is nice as well. Be aware that the trek there is through real jungle and that has further temperature and creepy-crawly implications. Friends of ours who have made the trek said they stumbled upon a snake, for instance, but no mishap befell them.

Back to the hotel and our small airy cabaña (ha, “airy”, that’s putting it lightly). Bugs, lizards, and toads, oh my! Over the course of our stay, with the cabaña lacking tight seals of any kind, we had more than our share of visitors including moths, bees, flies, mosquitoes, ants, spiders, lizards, and toads. The short of it is that a mosquito net hung over the bed and properly tucked under the mattress keeps you bother-free while you sleep. Without one, good luck. Perhaps I should really say we were the visitors and they the residents. Either way, it got to the point where we were glad for the lizard and toad visits – they were there to eat all those delicious insects that were freely coming and going and reminded us of ecology and the circle of life and coexistence and the impact of humans and things of that nature. One toad stayed for more than a day – we found it behind the coffee table as we were packing to leave. Cute little bugger, helpful, unexpected, and totally unable to share the cost of the stay.

Aside from that, we did some yoga in our room, which was slightly ironical given the fact that we’re by no means yoga junkies and this seems to be one of the country’s many yoga retreats. Our yoga turned into defacto hot yoga as the temperatures were high there in the bay in the month of August. Thankfully in the bathroom we had good water pressure and hot water in the bathroom, no issues with that, and we were able to properly clean and freshen up.

We used the hotel pool a lot and dipped in the ocean once only. There are no real waves in the bay to play in (we like to bodysurf) and the water was quite muddy for part of the time given the storms, not to mention that the sand is of a thicker grain so it’s not as comfortable walking or laying on. Don’t get us wrong, though, we still enjoyed the beach immensely, reading and eating and lazing on the lounge chairs under the umbrellas just outside the hotel and the restaurant. So you’re aware, the hotel and restaurant have their own palapas and umbrellas and lounge chairs out on the sand – there’s no extra charge for using them as guests of the resort or as purchasers of restaurant fare. This is unusual in Mexico – typically you pay for your drinks or food and your lounge furniture.

Concerning the beach in general, it sees frequent visits by larger boats hauling bigger groups of tourists from cruise ships and the like – Yelapa is a sort of side excursion for those visiting Puerto Vallarta. These groups are typically visiting only for a few hours at a time, at most, and the beach never got too crazy while we were there. Indeed, it’s fairly tranquil in this bay, but you can still find parasailing, parachute gliding, sport fishing, and tour offers to places like las Marionettas, for instance. We’ve also been informed that in-season there are small jellyfish in the bay. We did not see or encounter any, so we’re gathering that summer is not their in-season there.

Weather-wise, it rained on us 2 out of the 3 1/2 days we were there, the second night twice (once before dinner and once while we were at dinner). While we were at dinner, the rain was finally long and hard enough that it flooded the outdoor eating area of the restaurant (after we had already finished our food) and went running in a stream down the beach to the ocean. We tried to wait out the rest of the rain and thunderstorm with the hotel’s cat, a couple of other guests, the remaining restaurant staff, a couple of small lost crabs, some hungry toads who were feasting off fallen moths attracted to the restaurant lights, and a smart lizard who had positioned itself smack inside one of the globe lights ready for any moths that flew inside (and there were plenty) – again, the impact of humans, pulling moths in with lights and creating a veritable buffet for the lizards and toads.

Anyway, the cat disappeared, scared you-know-what by the lightning and thunder, the crabs got washed away by the stream, the toads kept right on eating and it lost its novelty, the moths kept running into us on their way between lights and toad tongues, the lizard was nowhere to be found, and the rain just kept on coming, so after the thunder had passed our area, we braved the rain back to our cabaña where we found a rather large puddle on the bathroom floor. Again, cabaña not really sealed tight and all. However, the place was much drier than we thought it would be. As the rain died down, we saw boat owners in the bay bucketing water out of their small fishing boats. How much fun, we’re sure.

Regarding hotel service, reception keeps you supplied with cold and hot water from large Culligan-type water bottle systems, a nice touch to be sure. The hot water can be used for instant soup or other things, the cold to drink on one of their hot days. Everyone was very kind and courteous. They have WiFi but it didn’t work for us while we were there, no matter where we positioned ourselves.

As for the water taxi trip back to civilization, you don’t need to purchase the return trip ahead of time. You can buy the lancha trip to and back from Yelapa upfront if you wish but it’s not necessary. You can always start with the trip to Yelapa alone and then when you’re ready to return from there, purchase the tickets directly from the water taxi operators in the bay. This gives you more freedom schedule-wise. There are different taxi operators running on different schedules – if you buy your tickets ahead, then you are stuck on that operator’s schedule, whereas if you don’t pay for the return trip, you can decide later on-the-fly. You can speak with Hotel Lagunita’s reception desk or the restaurants on the beach regarding water taxi schedules.

All-in-all the trip was a good one. Yelapa is beautiful and a nice change of pace from Puerto Vallarta. We thought to ourselves that this stretch of coast in general is definitely worth exploring further in the future.

{Last Visit: August 2014}