love of local in Utah
Puerto Vallarta Day 5, Day Trip to Yelapa
This was the first vacation as a family that I did not organize and plan way in advance. I found time just one or two days before we left to do some investigating on what we should do on our trip. A lot of blogs, yelp reviews, etc. suggested a day trip to Yelapa.
More importantly I learned of a pie lady. A PIE LADY. A SECRET PIE LADY ON THE ISLAND THAT SOLD HER HOMEMADE PIES.
Sold. That destination was at the top of my list.
Also you had to take a water taxi to get there. I read a few times online that during whale season that the drivers would stop so you could see the whales and dolphins. That did not happen BUT it still was a fun & relaxing ride.
The sweet girls were so excited to sit and wait for the water taxi. Every time they saw pelicans on boats they asked me to take a picture of the “birds driving the boats” so I have a lot of pictures that look like this.
I snapped this picture of Abby on the boat. This is how the whole ride felt, just peaceful! It is always nice to have a break from the heat with the cool ocean boat air.
Other than the amazing pie I read about over and over on little blogs and in the middle of comments online we read that Yelapa was a “quaint” fishing village to go visit. I still can’t decide if it would be a place I recommend people to go to. The boat ride is wonderful but the taxi only goes out at a certain time and comes in at a certain time. So you are stuck there for at least 6 hours. When driving in and seeing the views it looked just as it was described online.
A man on the water taxi offered to take us on a tour of the small city and on a very short (really, everyone can do it, promise) hike to the local waterfall. I loved that little tour, it was wonderful.
The hike to the waterfall was gorgeous, I also have a little camera attached to Tyler’s head to film it a bit:
No matter how many times I am in a country and grab a piece of fresh tropical fruit to eat off of it, I will find it about the coolest thing in the world.
I will also never ever tire of walking through old chapels. Never.
Now up until this point I was so glad we made this trip. I still think I am but I have to warn you of some things so be wary of. I have visited a lot of countries where we are stopped non stop and asked to buy things. I get this, and most of the time it doesn’t get under my skin. When it does get under my skin is when they roll their eyes or show hostility when you don’t buy things. That makes me feel uncomfortable and almost like I’m not a human to them. The only thing I wish I would have gone back and bought were these beautiful signs.
The pie lady was sitting, very worn out looking near the waterfall. I was so excited to see her and she was very grumpy. Listen we all have our off days! But her pie! I could tell that if it was fresh it would have been amazing. Her pecan pie and chocolate coconut still was. But her banana cream pie, which everyone says is the best, tasted very old, along with her cheese pie.
What can I say though? We all have off days. But I did find the famous Yelapa pie lady.
The part of Yelapa I really did not like was the beach. The water is very dirty, there are constant jet skis, boats coming in and out that are leaking gas along the beach. It smelled so strong of gas and it was yucky. The sand was very rocky and hurt to play with and sit in.
When we showed up on the beach I saw the plan of the man running the show. He sat in the back and had a whole team of people. He had men with jewelry walking around telling us how they had young kids at home starving. They would walk back to him to give them the money they had collected, laugh with him, then turn around and put the sad face back on to sell more. The man in charge also had an old woman walking up and down between the chairs asking for “one peso” over and over to people. He had two younger boys standing in the back watching when people left their belongings and had them run and grab things out of bags and take people’s shoes. He even had “iguana men” who would run up to people as soon as they tried to sit down, threw an iguana in their hands, and after they were in their hands would demand five dollars. Later on during the day I saw the iguana man in frustration throw down the poor iguana as hard as he could on the ground. Obviously I did not know what was going on when Abby took this photo.
Stops from cruise ships came in and other tourists were on the beach with hours to kill after seeing the local waterfall, town, and chapel. So they drank and drank and drank. There were beer bottles everywhere that I had to keep Reagan away from so she didn’t take sip after sip. Listen I get it, I get needing to make money off tourists. I get how it is normal for locals to look at Americans as money signs and a way to eat. But the trip to Yelapa did not leave me with the warmest feelings. But the boat ride there, tour around the town, and if the pie had been fresh. I still don’t know if I would go again. I just wanted to give an honest view of the town, you decide for yourself.
Tags: yelapa mexico
Bummer about the pie lady
You got another look of the country. Every place has a lovely and not so nice side. Glad you saw both. Good for the girls to learn both. Glad it didn’t ruin your whole trip.