Rande and I spent two months around Bahía Banderas (Bay of Flags) on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. We stayed in Bucerias north of Puerto Vallarta, and Punta Negra and Boca de Tomatlán south of Puerto Vallarta. According to one writer, “…Banderas Bay seems to have been artfully designed for vacations and retirement. It seems to have been invented for people who believe they have suffered enough, so bring on the paradise, now, please…” (link).
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| The beach at Mismaloya |
The high-rise hotels and elaborate tourist attractions of Puerto Vallarta and Nuevo Vallarta were less interesting to us than old town with its narrow streets, wonderful shops and restaurants, and assorted cast of locals, expatriates and tourists. We also explored several outlying areas
and attractions including the set of The Night of
the Iguana, a movie filmed at Mismaloya; the Vallarta Botanical Gardens;
and the remote coast of Cabo Corrientes.
Night of the Iguana
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| Rande and the concrete iguana |
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| Statue of John Huston in Puerto Vallarta |
Vallarta Botanical Gardens
Traveling south from Mismaloya past Boca de Tomatlán, the Carretera Federal 200 (Mex 200) leaves the coast and begins a winding climb through the dense tropical forest of the Rio Los Horcones valley. There’s a
turnoff and bus stop for the Jardín Botánico de Vallarta (Vallarta Botanical Gardens) at kilometer 24. Located at about 500 m (1,640 ft) elevation in a tropical dry pine-and-oak forest, it
comprises 6 ha (15 ac) of natural areas and 2 ha (5 ac) of landscaped areas (link) with over 3,000 species of plants on what
used to be an over-grazed cattle ranch (link).
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| Rande on a trail in the forest |
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| Trails are signed and easy to follow |
The gardens were founded in 2004 “…for the propagation,
study, discovery, conservation, and display of Mexican native plants…” and opened
to the public in 2005. Vallarta Botanical Gardens (VBG) is a U.S.-based nonprofit that accepts
tax-deductible donations, has a large base of volunteers and hosts over 1,000
local school children a year (link).
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| Maya nut tree; as its name suggests, the nuts were a staple food of the Maya |
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| Epiphytes on the trunk of a Maya nut tree |
VBG publishes a monthly magazine featuring plants of the gardens, Mexican birds and events at the gardens (link). VBG named by USA Today as one of the 10 best “botanic gardens that think beyond the flower” (link). Admission was $80 MX ($5.50 USD) for adults.
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| Heliconia wagneriana |
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| White shaving brush tree |
San Blas jays and yellow-winged caciques are commonly seen at the Vallarta Botanical Garden, especially around the feeders, and can be quite noisy. Yellow-winged Caciques build hanging nests, sometimes living communally. Their strange calls include a sound that has been compared to an old rusty door creaking open (link).
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| Yellow-winged caciques and San Blas jays at a feeding station |
Many of the trees and plants bear signs with their names and occasional interpretive signs explain their significance. There are several greenhouses and shadehouses, a nursery where you can buy plants that they cultivate, a gift shop and a restaurant where you can have a meal, or a cold beer and fresh salsa made at your table.
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| Strangler fig tree |
Orchid conservation and propagation is a primary focus of
the VBG. Mexico has about 1,200 species of orchids and the state of Jalisco has
the most orchid species of any state in Mexico. Part of the reason for founding
the gardens was to conserve the native orchids that were being harvested
illegally from the local forests and sold (link).
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| Orchid in a greenhouse |
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| A shadehouse growing orchids and bromeliads |
We learned that commercial vanilla is produced from the seed
pods of two tropical orchids, and that it was “discovered” by the
Spanish soldiers in the courts of the Aztecs. There are about 110 species
of vanilla orchids around the world and 15 in Mexico. Vanilla is the most labor
intensive food crop in the work and the second most expensive spice (link;
interpretive sign at VBG).
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| Vanilla plants growing in a greenhouse and in the wild |
Coffee trees (Coffea arabica) grow in the forest at VBG and seedlings can be purchased in the nursery. Originally native to the highlands of Ethiopia, C. arabica is now grown in the tropics worldwide, including the mountains around Puerto Vallarta. It is thought to be the first coffee cultivated and accounts for about three-quarters of world coffee production (link).
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| Coffee tree in the forest |
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| Coffee seedlings for sale in the nursery |
There are miles of well-marked trails through the forest and down to the Rio Los Horcones, where you can cool off in a beautiful pool. You receive a map to the trails and gardens when you pay the entry fee.
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| Río Los Horcones |
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| Trail along the river |
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| Río Los Horcones |
Alexander von Humboldt, the German explorer, conducted Mexico’s first botanical surveys. His work is widely memorialized in Mexico, including a statue in Mexico City and honorary citizenship bestowed to him by then President Benito Juárez (link). There's also a statue of him in the Vallarta Botanical Gardens.
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| Alexander von Humboldt |
We drove south from Puerto Vallarta about an hour on Mex 200 to the small town of El Tuito in the southern Sierra Madre. Another hour on a partly paved, partly dirt road heading west from El Tuito brought us to the coast. Cabo Corrientes (which translates to cape or headland of currents) is known for its remote 75-km (46-mi) stretch of beaches facing the Pacific Ocean (link). Remote is relative when you're two hours from Puerto Vallarta, but there are no banks, ATMs or gas stations once you leave Tuito, and it's easier to get there by boat than by car.
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| The Pacific Ocean at Playitas |
Cabo Corrientes marks the southern limit of Bahía Banderas. On a map, it sticks out into the Pacific Ocean like an elbow. Below the cape, the land retreats to the southeast. Cabo Corrientes is also the name of the surrounding municipality with a population density of less than five people per square kilometer (12 people per square mile). In contrast, Puerto Vallarta has a population density of 269 people per square kilometer (679 people per square mile) (link).
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| Cattle skulls (mostly) on a fence |
Bromeliads are known as "air plants" because they can survive attached to trees, rocks and man-made structures without soil.
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| Lowland tree festooned with bromeliads |
We stopped Tehuamixtle, a small, picturesque fishing on a
protected bay. Tehua, as it is locally known, has a long history. The Spanish loaded
ships bound for Spain in the bay and the remnants of a warehouse are visible
near the end of the bay (link).
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| Entrance to Tehuamixtle |
It’s unclear why they have a full-size statue of a great white shark in the center of the town, but it gets your attention.
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| Tehuamixtle waterfront |
Looking for places to stay, we checked Hotel Los
Dorados on the side of a hill above the town. Developers have bought up land in the area for high end resorts (link),
so the character of the coast may change in the future.
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| View from Hotel Los Dorados |
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| Pangas moored in Tehua Bay |
We drove southeast from Tehuamixtle to Villa del Mar, a
small farming community behind a large lagoon. We visited Cabañas El Cielito,
which has nine cabins, a restaurant and a swimming pool overlooking the
lagoon and the ocean (link). The manager, a gringa from the States with an older dog that wouldn't leave the air conditioned office, showed us around. El Cielito is a romantic spot for a vacation, but because of the waves and rip currents, not a great place to swim in the ocean.
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| The lagoon and beach at Villa del Mar |
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| Cabañas El Cielito |
We past Mayto, which has an extensive beach, tourist
services and a sea turtle sanctuary (link),
on the way to the end of the road at Corrales, a small fishing village. We didn't see any tourist services, but we bought cold drinks in a tienda and walked up the beach part way around
the protected harbor.
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| Corrales waterfront |
We were the center of attention wherever we went and we
sensed that the locals didn't see many gringos. Later we read this in a tourist guide:
“Corrales is a small fishing community situated on a protected bay and is at
the end of the road. Being at road end is probably what has kept this place
isolated and little known. It is also a rough and tumble place that doesn't see
a lot of tourists. It is best to make this a daytime trip only…” (link).
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| Cleaning fish on the way to Corrales |
On the way back from Corrales, we stopped in a small, unsigned
farming community and asked two women walking along the
road how to get to Playitas. They said it was nearby and told us to follow a narrow dirt road to the end and walk to the beach. We parked the
truck and climbed down a low cliff to a stretch of sand between large outcrops
of weathered rocks worn smooth by the wind and sea.
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| Playitas |
This part of the coast is exposed to the Pacific Ocean and
even on a calm day, waves crash into the rocks and break on the beaches. We
walked about a mile scrambling over rocky outcrops that looked like they
had been worn smooth by the current of a river. There are few trees on the cliffs and fewer houses. Exposed to the wrath of the Pacific Ocean, Playitas is
strikingly beautiful, but not a good place to go for a swim.
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| Beach at Playitas |
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| Weathered rocks at Playitas |
On our way back through Aquiles Serdán, a small farming
community near Mayto, an old man using a walking stick and carrying a black
plastic garbage bag over his should waved us down. He asked if we were going to
El Tuito and if he could have a ride. He was probably in his 60s, slightly built and grizzled, wearing a dark golfer's cap. I put his bag
and walking stick in the back of the truck and he climbed in next to me. He explained
that he was going to El Tuito to catch a bus to visit his daughter in
Guadalajara and see his dentist. He was missing several teeth and we could
barely understand his Spanish.
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| Cemetery at Llano Grande de Ipala |
On the way to El Tuito, he talked about who owned which house and farm and their relationship to him,
and historic events like fires. We passed a cemetery near Llano Grande de
Ipala and he told us about the people he knew who were buried there. He asked if
we liked jokes and told us what turned out to be a 20-minute a
story about a cabra (goat) that lived in the area and the trouble it caused. A couple times he laughed until he had tears in his eyes. We didn't get the
gist of the story, or at least we didn't understand what was funny about it, but he had a great time telling it.
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| Playitas |
We arrived in El Tuito after 6:00 PM and he asked us to stop
by the plaza. I pulled his belongings out of the back (the garbage bag was his
suitcase) and he asked how much he owed us for the ride. "Gratis" (for free) I said. He thanked us, threw the plastic bag over his shoulder and headed for the bus
stop. We drove back to Punta Negra, south of Puerto Vallarta,
trying to unravel the story of the goat.
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