Mexico Revisited: 2013-2014

Feb 27-March 2 2014

Bucerías was the last beach for this trip. Our previous experience had been that Puerto Vallarta beach was too crowded and Nuevo Vallarta had too much surf for pleasant swimming. Bucerías was recommended as being a far more pleasant beach town that was within easy distance from the Central bus station. The recommendation was good. The beach was several kilometers of hard packed sand, great for long walks, and it was not difficult to walk through the mild surf to enjoy the swimming.

Bucerías is divided into two sections by an arroyo, a seasonal creek with a “Kissing Bridge” connecting the two sides. Our room was on the more gentrified side of town, with luxury condos, large houses and good rooms to rent and good, but generally more expensive restaurants. The beach had almost no restaurants with umbrellas and chairs for patrons. Consequently, there were very few bathers. The only people were longer term residents who brought their own umbrellas and chairs to sit on the beach. The other, older section had a large flea market section near the Kissing Bridge and a string of beach restaurants with lots of umbrellas, chairs and tables.

Each morning we walked along the beach to the older side of Bucerías to sit in front of a restaurant. Next to swimming, walking the beach is our favourite activity. There is always something interesting to see. There were kite surfers skimming the waves in the afternoons when the winds picked up. One morning we watched a few local men with masks haul a small tire into the sea. They were diving in the water and bringing up objects which they tossed into the flat bottom of the tire. We weren’t sure if they were spear fishing or what.  A bit farther on there was another group, including a woman. Ray asked two tourists watching the divers what they were catching. They were diving for oysters that grow on rocks just 1-2 M below the surface. They dive down to bring up the rocks and use a mallet to knock off the oyster. One fisherman had lent the woman flippers and a mask and was teaching her the secrets of oyster gathering. She was doing very well. I would have like to try too, but we didn’t stop. 

On our return walk we watched fishermen haul in a large net that had been attached to a row boat off shore. Several locals and some tourists were helping with the operation. The haul produced some larger sized fish and lots of smaller sardines. A puffer fish and a baby manta ray were rejected and thrown back into the sea. Small boys helped sort through the sardines, tossing the smallest into the air, attracting a large flock of Frigatebirds. The birds caught the fish in the air or on the surface of the water before they sunk. It was great entertainment.

One of the bonuses of travel is finding out that friends who live far away from you are going to be in the same area you are traveling. The John Pike, a classmate of Ray’s from Mt Alison and Nova Scotia Tech, and his wife, Marj, live in Vancouver, a long way from Ottawa. They were staying in Nuevo Valla for February and part of March. We immediately made plans to be on the Pacific Coast in time to meet up with them. Our plans could not have worked better. We booked a room in Bucerías, less than ½ hour north of Nuevo Vallarta, and John and Marj met us for dinner in a nice restaurant the night after we arrived. You can image we had a lot of catching up to do, reliving memories of University days and finding out what our families are doing. In fact, we accepted John’s invitation to continue our get together the next afternoon at their condo in the Mayan Resort Complex in Nuevo Vallarta.

John Pike was waiting for us at the main gate to the complex when we arrived, having taken two collectives and a taxi to get there. The Mayan Complex has certainly grown since we stayed there in 2006. Instead of a complex of three towers, there were at least three times that number and new ones under construction.  Cars are not permitted in the main complex. People are transported from the main gate to individual towers, to the beach and or one of several pool areas by a golf cart train. We spent the afternoon chatting with Marj and John at the pool and then enjoyed a good, casual dinner in their spacious unit. At the end of the evening John walked us to the central transport point where we got a taxi back to Bucerías. Hopefully our next get together will be sooner rather than later.