Note: Yelapa pictures posted this weekend
My five decade birthday arrived hot on the heals of the New Year. I had convinced my honey to spend it in Mexico, just the two of us, and what a grand and wonderful way to celebrate 50 years!
Yelapa Sunrise
This was my 2nd trip to old Mexico. It was so good to return to this country after a 34-year absence. At that time it wasn’t so hated and feared and all you needed was a birth certificate to re-enter the US. My parents let me go on a chaperoned high school band trip with 65 other adolescence and a handful of adults. Can you imagine! It was a memorable trip and one I never recovered from longing to return.
Lots of people have asked the question, “how did you pick Yelapa as a destination?”. The brief version… I was on Google maps doing a virtual tour of the Bay of Banderas. Moving around the shoreline, I stumbled on this little bay off of the big bay and this little village called Yelapa jumped out at me. After reading up, it sounded like just my kind of place. No high-rise hotels, no cars, not many tourists… you get the idea.
A Yelapa Bench
The local Yelapians are an indigenous people that have been given total rights over their land, as it has been in their possession for generations. They have not let highways or roads of any kind bring easier access and have kept the big hotels/condos away. It is primarily a fishing village, however tourism does take a close second. However, unless you have heard about it from friends or stumble on somehow it as I did, you may never find it.
The only reliable access is by water-taxi out of Puerto Vallarta. A 45-minute high-speed ride across the bay at $100 pesos/pp (more if your a gringo on your first visit). They start up about 9am and the last boat out of Yelapa is at 4:30pm. If you miss that boat you’ll have to dig deeper in your pockets for a room to stay in as the locals know you’re on their hook!
La Playa
The houses, palapa’s (bungalow type houses with grass roofs) and various little businesses all made of brick or cement, sprawl on the south east side of the bay with little streets (if you can call them that) curling around buildings intricately, at times right through the middle of a home! A shortcut from the pier to our casa lead right through a covered area where on one side was the laundry facilities right in the open for the home across the path. Another was a bathroom (enclosed in a small shed-like room) with a kitchen on the outside with just a roof overhead and a jungle of plants on one side. They make the brick down by the big river that flowed on the north side of the main village, separating it from the big Playa (beach) and tourist area. There were homes on both sides but the further upriver, the poorer the people.
A typical Yelapa restaurant
Restaurants are plentiful and the food delicious! We tried to eat at a different restaurant every night. There was this one we HAD to re-visit for some of the best fish taco’s. Most all of them feature Mexican cuisine. We just found one that brought more of the international flavors to the area. There may have been more but we had a hankering for taco’s pescada (fish taco’s) so we tried as many of them as we could! BTW – don’t order fish taco’s at a bakery! 
There are a LOT of ex-patriots in Yelapa. Something like 30% of the village is made up of gringos from various places but mostly US and Canada. It’s the kind of place the appeals to those that want to get away from phones, TV, computers and live simply. It’s also a wonderful vacation spot and some of the gringo’s living there have their families down for the winter months. Gringo’s can’t own land in Mexico so they lease from their Mexican neighbors and can build either on top of an existing home or lease and build on the land. It seems to be a win-win because the landowners get to make a little money and the gringo’s get so live in a tropical paradise with some really cool people!
Our Bedroom Iguana
Speaking of paradise, that longing inside of me, the itch that just needed scratched? To see the abundant flora, flowing over walls, growing out of the cracks and sidewalks. And the fauna, creatures I’ve never before seen flying overhead and perching in trees; the lizards that come out at night all over the walls, not to mention the little bedroom voyeur that hardly ever moved the entire time we were there (an iguana about 30” long)!
Bougainvillea
I was so thrilled to see brilliant bougainvillea in abundance in purple, reds, blue and white! Poinsettias growing in the forest. Palms everywhere! Lots of banana, coconut and who-knows what other kinds. Papaya and mango trees. We even saw a breadfruit tree. Lots of banyans with their weird twisted roots, with gigantic web-like veins that form the massive trunk.
We saw the Great Kiskadee preening in the afternoon sun while 2 wild parrots (Guacamayos) having a lovers quarrel overhead, completely unalarmed to have a witness. And those birds we called terra-dactyls always seen flying over the bay? Well they were Frigate birds! We saw this white bird with feet so bright-yellow he looked all dressed up to go dancing (later discovered it was a Snowy Egret). There were lots of Black Vultures hanging about cleaning up after the fisherman cleaned their catch. There were so many I don’t even remember. Oh… Pelicans! Lots! On our boat taxi ride back to Puerto Vallarta there was a huge rock, white on top, covered with Pelicans… the white was sun-bleached guano!
La Cascada
There were 2 different rivers each with waterfalls flowing from the mountains rising up behind the village. One was called “La Cascada” and the other…. “Upper Cascada”! La Cascada was just a 10-minute walk through the village. The path leading up was paved brick and cement and lined with vendors selling “local” stuff . Most of the stuff had tags of “made in China” or “Indonesia”! There were couple pavilions at the base of the falls to rest and enjoy a refreshment from the little bar set up there. You could also jump in for a quick dunking (I say quick because the water was pretty chilly!).
The Upper Cascada is quite a hike up the main river path which becomes dusty and rocky as soon as you leave the main village. There are homes scattered all the way up this river. There was one enterprising gringo that set up a restaurant halfway up this path to take advantage of weary hikers. The path wasn’t easy in some spots especially nearer the falls. In fact, at times it just disappeared. We spent a considerable amount of time here where we swam in water that was slightly warmer then the previous falls. It was beautiful and peaceful with only birds to keep company. Not as many people venture up here as the hike takes about 1 1/2 to 2 hours one way and most day tourists just don’t have that kind of time.
Yelapa Children
I have had great difficulty trying to capture our experience. It was a wonderful place, full of really friendly people, always with a smile and an “hola” no matter the time of day. The streets were swept clean every day and even with the lack of the common conveniences we think we can’t live without, they did and did well. It gave me a moments pause to see what is it in my life I can do more simply? There are no pretensions there. What you see is what it is and who they are. Simple, clean, friendly people living life well who seem pleased you are there with them.
