Sailing Adventure to Yelapa, Mexico

In Banderas Bay not far from Puerto Vallarta there is a small town that is only accessible by boat. Most people who make the trip seem to take a tour with Vallarta Adventures. However, as my brother and sister-in-law sailed down from Vancouver and have a berth at Paradise Village in Nuevo Vallarta, we were fortunate enough to head there on their 40′ sailboat, SV Naida. It was a beautiful day for sailing and for sightseeing in the town.

We headed out early morning as it takes several hours to get from Nuevo Vallarta to Yelapa. Given our early start we had second breakfast on the boat, using the sun to warm up croissants purchased at the local market the day before. We were fortunate enough to see whales on our journey, and to catch sight not just of their blow spouts but also their tails slapping on the water.  Whale watching is a big business in Banderas Bay, but for us it was just an added bonus of our trip to Yelapa.

As seasoned sailors, Ken and Anne have lots of contacts within the sailing community so knew what had to be done on arrival in Yelapas. We were told to expect a small boat to greet us on arrival and lead us in to moorage, and that is indeed what happened. Richard on board the Marlin came out as we were nearing the bay and told us he had a mooring line available. It is clearly competitive as not long after another boat came out but we waved him off as we were already spoken for. As soon as we were in the bay Richard returned and led us to his moorage line and with Ken at the helm, Anne caught the line and tied us up. Once on board Richard’s boat he asked us what we wanted to do and took us to the town dock.

Yelapa was originally a fishing village started by four families who came down from the mountains and settled here. There are now 1500 residents who until fairly recently lived without electricity and continue to live without road access. Tourism is now the main industry as visitors arrive to enjoy the beautiful beaches, wander the old town, trek to the waterfalls and enjoy delicious food. The setting in the bay is quite magnificent with mountains coming down to the water, houses built up into the hillside, boats scattered in the bay and a lovely sandy beach

The town proved to be an interesting place to wander around through narrow cobblestone streets with tourist accomodations, bars, restaurants and homes up and down the hills. Although there are no cars, you certainly need to watch where you are walking as there are ATVs, donkeys, horses, wheelbarrows and scooters so you never quite know who you will need to step aside for. We even saw very small children wearing their school uniforms riding in an ATV to or from school. If roads were too narrow, stairs could always be cut off to accomodate vehicles.

A short walk through town, following occasional signs supplemented by directions from random people on the street, leads to a lovely waterfall with a pool below. Vallarta Adventures had arrived before we did so there were already a dozen people in the pool so we just moved along after taking picures. There are plenty of vendors along the pathway if you want to do some shopping, and an elderly gentlemen whose donkey is available for pictures for 20 pesos. I could’t resist but had some trouble explaining that I wanted him in the picture not just the donkey.

Our wanderings through town ended up heading down a long path across the river, through some woods and eventually wading across a lagoon to reach the beach restaurants. As we were the only people wading we must have taken a wrong turn, but it was fun and we saw some interesting little birds and small boats. We were pleased to find the restaurant Marlin that our boat driver had directed us to, and in no time at all we had large margaritas, ceviche and fish tacos. We even had a cute dog keep us company during lunch, who curled up under the table while we ate.

After lunch all we had to do was ask that our driver be called, and he promptly arrived, loaded us into the boat at the beach and whisked us out to the sailboat. We motored out of the bay, hoisted the sails and headed back to the marina to cap off a perfect day.