Utah to Costa Rica Road Trip

When we couldn’t take the bugs anymore, we drove into San Blas, a romantic little town filled with lots of "history" that dates back to thee 15th century. It was immortalized by the poem "The Bells of San Blas" written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. When we drove into town, the first impression is “a little scary” (as is the impression in most little…let me rephrase that, in all cities and towns in Mexico). It’s a regular, small, Mexican town, with abandon buildings, graffiti, stray dogs, and I think our initial reaction as Americans is fear, because where we come from only the “bad” parts of town look like that. I am learning that many of our beliefs, and especially fears, are based on incorrect or ignorant ideas.

We ate dinner at El Cocodrilo Restaurant right on the main street (Juarez, I think). (Another fear was that you can’t eat anywhere in Mexico, except for McDonalds, or you will get sick.) It was excellent food, the best we have had so far, and was located right across the street from the central plaza. Soft music was playing while we watched the people gathering for the evening to talk and visit together. It seemed so wonderful that I could see myself living there and felt a part of them, and again I realized how much these people are just like us, how “human” they are, despite how “foreign” their living conditions and circumstances may be to us. To them, it is just the way things are.

After visiting with some of the people in the plaza and playing with some of the kids, we went back to our bungalow, Casa Roxanna, a cute, well kept, very clean place with kitchen, pool and secure parking.

We arose early the next morning to head to Matachen to take the La Tovara River Jungle Boat Tour (take the road toward Puerto Vallarta before San Blas). An absolute fantastic experience! I would highly recommend it to anyone. The seven of us road in a lancha with our guide down a beautiful jungle river tunnel filled with mangrove trees, exotic birds, tortoises, wild raccoon like animals (I wish I knew their name), and crocodiles! Yes real crocodiles, one about 8 feet long was not 10 ft from our boat!

Further up the river we stopped at the Cocodrilo Refuge where they raise crocodiles and release them into the wild. It was amazing. They were feeding the adult crocodiles when we arrived, the ones that they keep for breeding. They have two in each cage, a male and female. Some were 12 feet long! Then we got to see all the babies, and because of Greg’s skills, they got a baby one out that we could hold. It was an awesome experience!

After our jungle tour, we headed further south toward Puerto Vallarta, stopping at Playa Chacala, which is on the way- located off of Highway 200. It is a very small town with a small beach in a little cove- and it is amazingly beautiful, supposedly one of the most beautiful beaches in Pacific Mexico. The only drawback here was the piles of garbage you had to cross over before getting to the fabulous beach. We learned later (which we had suspected) that it was the result of Holy Week, which was recently celebrated, and is not normally like that.

We played on the beach and did some body boarding, then decided we liked it so much we wanted to stay. We found the Mar de Jade, a beautiful little Zen/Buddhist resort all by itself at the south end of Playa Chacala. They are actually having a Silent Retreat beginning tomorrow, which includes meditation, etc. One guest here, after seeing us arrive with our four children, asked if we had come for the retreat. We told her we were only staying one night. “I thought it would be difficult for you to participate in the Silent Retreat.” “Impossible!” was our reply. (She had two small children of her own and is leaving tomorrow also.)

We relaxed in the pool for an hour, and then set off down the beach for some food. We ate at Chico’s restaurant, which is right on the beach, and had some excellent fresh seafood and enjoyed a beautiful sunset. The food is sooooo good! I wish I could capture that in the camera and share it with you!

We absolutely love Playa Chacala; it is definitely our favorite beach and town so far. The waves are great, the sand is perfect, and the people are awesome. It was a fabulous experience. The only bad part was that I left our door open while writing this to let in some cool air. All the bugs must have been attracted to the computer screen and they have eaten me alive. I have at least 19 bug bites…on my right arm, and probably that many on each limb. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh! Itchy!!!!

Livin’ the Dream, Baby!