Our place was the yellow balcony and little white room above it. Casa Grace.
Houses are built on houses. Ours was the 4th and 5th floor of this building. This is also a typical path in Yelapa. None are straight. In the village there are houses and paths, very little room for anything else. Some of the more well-to-do may have a little yard. but most just use their steps and stoops for plants and drying clothes.
Inside the entrance to the right. Those steep stairs went up to our bedroom. The door ahead was to the bathroom.
Inside the entrance to the left was the kitchen. It had a bar made of the most beautiful slab of rosewood where we ate breakfast. Restaurants typically don’t open until 9am so if you wanted coffee and breakfast before then, you had to cook it yourself! The kitchen was fully stocked with everything necessary to cook.
In front of the kitchen was the dining area. It had a table which we used once but it was terribly tippy so we moved to the bar. The table became a catch all place for our junk!
Across from the dining area was the living room/2nd bedroom. The couch was a futon with a fairly uncomfortable mattress for two people. We used it our first night there since coming down those stairs in the middle of the night for a pee looked intimidating. We used the mosquito netting the first night too. After that… not so much!
At night, the beam in the center of the room became alive with these critters which I think were geckos. They were nearly transparent!
During the day, we had a plant on our deck that attracted bees… lots and lots of bees! They were fun to take pictures of. The bigger bee was being harassed by the smaller one and finally left.
The rest of our stay, we slept in the bedroom on the 5th floor. It had big windows that faced toward the harbor. There were big sliding panels with sheets of plastic on them to help keep out winds and rain. The opening on the right of the picture was access to the roof and from there… straight down 5 stories to the jungle floor.
The other side of the room (behind the camera) was another balcony open to the sky with a table and chairs. It was beautiful to step out here and see the stars at night which were huge!
Our casa came complete with this critter…
An Iguana…
His feet were the scariest. Thankfully he kept them pulled in most of the time. He really didn’t bother us. Scared us the first night he clattered on the fiberglass roof either coming or going out for a quick meal. This was the first time we were aware of him.
My mother will laugh… this girl, who up until she left home, called her mom into any room with a spider in it to kill it before she’d go back in! Now I sleep with an iguana over my head and it doesn’t bother me! We didn’t even use the mosquito netting upstairs. Just too hot!
They provided a bodega to lock up valuables.
The entrance (red door) was an iron door with bars on the top part but no windows. Actually, other then the sliding protective panels with plastic, there was no glass windows anywhere in the casa. You lived with nature.
The door to our bathroom. Instead of having a mirror in front of the sink to look at your ugly mug, there was this gorgeous view of the jungle. At night I would watch exotic birds hopping through the tree branches to roost.
Our shower had an equally lovely view of the bay!
We had the most lovely view off the main room balcony. In the morning we were treated to fantastic sunrises coming up right in the “Vee”. Afternoons were bright and cheery like this and after dark the village lit up with little lights of various colors and the twinkling anchor lights of the boats in the bay. The locals used a lot of Christmas lights for ambience.
The casa was a wonderful part of our adventure. It was well equipped with lots of modern conveniences but it also connected you with the Mexican world just outside your door. No cloistered, hot, airless hotel room where you run the AC to provide comfort. Just the gentle ocean breezes bringing wafts of fresh air fused with the aromas of the village.
