ChrisJenTravel.com – Honeymoon Trek

The 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]

We had a long drive from Barra de Nativadad to Pasquales. First we drove through the huge port city of Manzanillo, taking a wrong turn and ending up on the Malecon (waterfront street), which cost us about an hour. We escaped out of town and took another wrong turn, ending up about 12 km in the wrong direction at the wrong beach. With the help of some extremely friendly locals, we were finally on the right path to Tecoman. Pasquales is a very well known surf break right outside of Tecoman. We stopped for lunch along the way. Yes, you guessed right….tacos. And we tried a cold coco. There are stands along the streets selling fruit and especially coconuts. The good ones have huge coolers and you order one for about a buck and watch as the vendor quickly hacks the coconut with a machete, just enough to put a straw through a small hole. We thought it was okay, maybe could have been a little better if we could have managed to squeeze a splenda packet or two down…..but refreshing nonetheless.

Eager to get there, we drove into Tecoman and began asking for additional directions. Every local gave us directions with more fervor and passion than we hoped for. They spoke very fast and used huge arm gestures and after circling the entire city a couple of times, we were finally on the right path. [read on]