Sayulita (It's a town)

1/31/2013

Typical street in Sayulita with all cobblestones.

After continuing our boat projects, we needed a little break.  We have stripped all the teak and refinished it with teak restorer and sealer, polished and waxed all the stainless, polished and waxed the cabin top and deck, taken the water maker apart three times, varnished all the teak that needs varnishing with three coats, finished the solar panel installation, and managed to bathe and feed ourselves at the same time.

The nearby surfing town of Sayulita was someplace that we had not been to yet.  We hopped on a bus in La Cruz, took it to the Technology Institute by the highway, got off, ran across the highway, and caught the next bus to Sayulita under the overpass.  Not surprisingly, buses here usually stop under overpasses on the highway, because everyone wants to wait in the shade. As the bus was full, we had to stand the whole way.  Since it is winter and the Mexicans are cold when it is only 80 degrees, most of the windows were shut on the bus.  It was maybe 95-100 degrees inside the bus because of this, and we were the only ones sweating!  Luckily, the ride was only about a half an hour.  The town is built along the hillsides surrounding a giant beach.  There are many nice restaurants and small hotels for the surfing and non surfing tourists. 

We walked almost all the streets in the town, stopping to check out interesting shops.  Cathy found a "perfect" pair of flip flops at a store that carried nothing but flip flops.  We had lunch at a restaurant called Choco Banana, which had some really good Thai food.  I know that doesn't make any sense, but this is Mexico.  We were hoping to be able to rent a couple of stand up paddle boards and go play in the small waves here, but the day we were there the waves were not small.  Best to leave these to the young invincibles.  

There is a surfer on the second wave

This is a real tourist destination, complete with beach hawkers and paid for umbrellas.  But, the town seems to have a split personality between the local hippies and surfers, and the tourists.

Checking out the art at a construction site.

The town plaza with a famous fish taco restaurant in yellow.

All roads lead to the beach.

We had a couple of beers at a beach side cafe that had nice lounge chairs overlooking the beach, while watching the surfers.  After that it was time to hike back to the bus stop. Along the way we found a nice estuary with some pink legged birds that we later determined to be Black-necked Stilts.  They come here for the winter for the same reason we do, the weather. It's a good thing they have long legs, because most of the water in this river is treated from the sewage treatment plant that drains into the beach where everyone is surfing.  It must be fairly clean, they were finding plenty to eat!

Black-necked Stilts (with pink legs)