Saturday February 25, 2012
It was sunny this morning so we decided to take another ride.
Eric has ridden into Punta de Mita on his own but I have never been there so ….today was the day!
We took our usual route from Sayulita to Punta de Mita but today it didn’t turn out that well. They have paved all the areas where there are new bridges after the washouts (good) and then they seal coated the road and covered it with pea gravel (bad!!) Loose, slippery and huge possibility of sliding and also rock chips to the bike. Eric went slow and we made it through but we won’t go that way again while we are here on this trip. The whole area of Punta Mita is being developed with golf courses (you can’t have too many of them!) and big developments as well. I expected to find a fairly commercial area when we road into the actual town of Punta Mita but I was in for a shock!
We arrived at the bottom of the hill by the beach and immediately a Mexican was trying to wave us into the parking by the restaurant he was working for. We chose the nice paved public parking! At first Eric had thought we couldn’t park there but that wasn’t the case. Each restaurant along the strip had Mexican hawkers trying to get you into their restaurant by telling you they have free beach access through their restaurant. Hugely annoying but since we don’t frequent upscale gringo areas we have never run into this before. Much like walking the street in Lahaina in Maui where you are accosted by someone selling something every step of the way.
We continued down to the beautiful beach to have a look.
We walked along the beach which is part of the huge Bay of Banderas which runs from Punta de Mita where we were to far south of Puerto Vallarta. This little part of the bay is good for beginner surfers, paddle boarding and swimming. A very pretty beach.
We wandered out along one of the break waters and there are quite a few of them. They would be there for hurricane surge which would easily take out all the restaurants that are built right on the beach.
We were of course chatted up by a Mexican boat owner who thought that we should go out to see the whales. Eric told him that we have our own whales at home….killer whales. No Gracias.
So, you want to go out on my boat and see the whales!
Boat Harbor.
A look back at the beach from the breakwater. All the restaurants are along this part of the beach.
The other side of the breakwater where there are condos and a nice beach for beginner surfers and paddle boarders.
These little guys all had their pop bottles with line around it and were on their way out to fish. Cute!
We walked back along the main street toward the bike looking for a restaurant to eat at. No problemo! Eric would have picked a fish taco stand on the street but I wanted to sit on the beach. We again ran the gauntlet of restaurant hawkers and ended up on the beach where I decided on the Si Senor restaurant. We sat down and nice young waiter immediately brought us wet clothes that he handed to us with tongs to wash our hands. That was my first clue that we were in for a very expensive lunch. We ordered dos Pacificos and then had a look at the menu. Eric just about choked when he saw the prices. I ordered coconut shrimp for 280 pesos and Eric ordered chicken tacos for 180 and when you add three beers you can guess what the final bill was like. We were started with shrimp rolled in a thin slice of Jicama with special sauce. Free! We also had a free ball of sherbet for desert which was made from a fruit that I didn’t recognize. Good but kind of an odd taste.
Eric looks worried already!
The food was good but not spectacular and artfully presented, the waiters were excellent and funny…..was it worth the final bill….of course not!
Expensive lunch!
The waiters were giving everyone a look at what was on the menu for dinner. The fellow on the right was our waiter. Favorite word…..Perfecto!
Beautiful view to have lunch by.
These young ladies were having a great time introducing their baby girls to the water. This was right in front of the restaurant.
A beautiful breezy spot to sit and look out at the beach while we were served a nice lunch.
When it was time to pay the bill I had Eric give me his wallet and I paid the bill….too stressful for him. Can we afford the lunch…of course, do we want to pay that for lunch….of course not! These restaurants are set up for wealthy people on a short holiday where money is no object. I would expect that the people staying in condos there would be cooking for themselves. It was actually a funny experience to be taken in and we’ll just put that in the memory bank for places to avoid !!
Main street.
So, back onto the street to be hawked at by the restaurants and then back on the road home but first a stop at Mega for beer. We took the 200 which is the main highway back to Los de Marcos…no more pea gravel for us.
I managed a short sit on the beach and a walk so all in all a good day.
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