A Town to Ourselves – San Juan de Alima – Aug. 20 & 21
Monday, December 18th, 2006The Pacific coast of Mexico is beautiful. On the left are huge mountains and on the right a vibrant, blue ocean. The landscape is surprisingly lush and covered in jungle. The mountains are separated from the beaches by ongoing valleys of palm trees and never- ending farms. The farms are vast and typically covered with grazing herds of cows nestled in between the coconut palms.
The drive was a little over an hour, when we came upon the small, clean and appealing town of San Juan de Alima. SJA is a quaint town that sits along the ocean with a mountainous backdrop. We drove straight to the beach, took our boards out and got in a short session of surf and sun before finding a place to stay for the night. We decided to stay at the hotel nearest the internet café, Hotel de San Juan, for some much needed time to update our site and check email. The hotel had a restaurant and looked as though it would come alive in the evening….we were wrong about that. Not thinking that we could negotiate, we took a basic room with fan for about $23 a night. Within a day, we realized that not only were we the sole inhabitants of the hotel, but the town as well. We could have easily negotiated – lesson learned. [read on]