In Search of Yelapa

Yelapa, Mexico
By Dina Nishioka

Katie and I arrived a couple days ago on our Mexican vacation. We flew into Puerto Vallarta and quickly got our get-to-the-ferry agenda down since there was only one ferry leaving for Yelapa that day. We heard it was a 30-minute ride across the bay and I was a little concerned since I suffer from seasickness. I kept telling myself, it´s a motorboat – someone told me they aren’t as bad.

I´ve heard many good things of Puerto Vallarta as they have an old section of town, Zona Romantico, that is enjoyable and somewhat authentic. As we were hurriedly walked through town, the colorful tiny grocery stores intrigued me. There were countless fish taco stands and fruit stores the size of my closet but unfortunately, we had to make that darn ferry. We make it to the pier where the ferry is to pick us up – by the skin of our teeth. Well, actually, Katie did have time for a Pacifico and I, a Coca Cola “light,” so I guess it wasn´t that Indiana Jones like.

We were about to get on the boat, and I´m trying not to stress about puking on the others. All I have to say is WOW, “only a 30-minute leisure boat ride?” Nope. There was many a white-knuckle moment where I thought that I might fall out of the boat, due to it going so darn fast. Most of the time my bottom was off the seat rather than on, from the driver flying off of waves while we got slammed with water every two seconds. This happened the whole 50-minute boat ride. The ride was on a relatively small motor boat. When we got off the boat, dazed and wetter than if we were swimming, I thought, that what a long ass boat ride. It was an adventure. And, I managed to not get pukey at all. Everyone on that boat was hurting the next day from aches and pains, I´m sure.

Upon arrival at the beach in Yelapa, where do we go? Of course, Katie didn´t print out the photo of the house or directions. We asked a couple ninos to help us with our bags and to find the way to some random house that we found on the Internet. These two little kids were very, very cute though much of the way, we were carrying our own bags for them, and they carried our slippers. I knew that there weren’t any cars and it was all footpath, but I didn´t realize there would be such a consistent rustic feeling throughout all parts of Yelapa. There were lots of cobblestone-like or dirt paths. Some lengths of the path were clearly someone’s backyard – they were fine with it since it was the only path from the only beach to the “town.” You see, Katie and I are staying in the pueblo, or “town.” Town? There are like two 500 Sq. foot stores that sell cookies and maybe some soap. Think that I saw a backyard with a couple tables (oh right, that was a restaurant!). We were in TOWN.

Our first night, we ate at Ramona´s in “town.” It resembled an open one-car garage in Pearl City (small town in Hawaii) with stacked plastic chairs (you grabbed one as you went in), a medium-sized television for lighting and entertainment propped atop a stack of cardboard boxes, three plastic tables, a bunch of locals watching Armageddon with Ben Affleck and Spanish subtitles, a kitchen that you could see through a doorway, and Ramona cooking one kind of taco for the night, pollo (or chicken). Was this a restaurant or some friends hanging out? It was indeed a restaurant. Fortunately, for my no-meat-eating self, Ramona had beans and made me a “special” taco. We got away with our tacos for dinner, a couple drinks and a free movie for under 5 bucks.

One morning, I walked to the beach (about ten minutes of up and down, through their yard, under the building, over the rubble, watch out for the dog poop, say hi to the donkey, don´t step on the chickens) and had my favorite Mexican breakfast, chilaquiles. I´ve never been able to have good chilaquiles outside of Mexico. It consists of crunchy tortilla chips fried with cheese, sometimes eggs, tomatoes, chiles. The chips were perfectly crispy and chewy with just the right amount of cheese. I was in heaven. And the bonus was breakfast, fresh OJ and bottled water was about 50 pesos or 5 bucks.

We sat on the beach all day as Katie´s back turned beet red (as some of you know, she´s a member of Skin-Cancer-R-Us and likes “the burn”). We drank cervezas and sodas, ate fish tacos, chatted here and there with others, swam in unusually refreshing and clear water and just hung out.

It´s typical to see people walking around with 10 tunas weighing 15 pounds each fresh from the water, or huge prawns wiggling in a bucket. The abundant seafood is the mainstay here, and right up my alley.