We’re mostly supposed to be working on finishing projects for the boat and provisioning in expectation of leaving for the South Seas on April 1ish, but when the opportunity to go across the bay to Yelapa (about 16 miles), with two of our favorite boat buddies Camanoe (with Dave and Stephanie) and Dos Leos (with Bob and Deanne) we jumped. We were only going to go for an overnight, but once here, we decided to make it a two night event.
Yelapa is a small bay, maybe ¼ mile across, which is mostly isolated from the rest of the world. The only way to get here is by boat or an arduous four wheel drive journey on unimproved roads. From the anchorage it looks a little like a Mediterranean coastal town built up into the cliffs above the bay. Both lovely and somewhat primitive and broken down. There are really two towns here. The main part of town goes straight up the cliffs. The houses are built somewhat precariously on the rock and you make your way through town (really up town) by a winding series of steps and paths. They use a combination of walking, horses and donkeys to carry stuff and the occasional ATV. The paths are not big enough for cars and there are no cars here anyway. We hiked up through town marveling at the architecture as well as the faith in the foundations which for the most part look a little “iffy”. They wouldn’t last a minute in earthquake country is all I can say to describe them. On the way up, you are following a stream that tumbles down through town and when you get to the top, there’s a 75 to 100 foot waterfall that cascades into a little pool. This is where the town gets its water, which is then gravity fed down the hill into the houses.
The other part of Yelapa is the beach part of town that follows a river up a shallow valley. This part of Yelapa is mostly thatched roof houses, although some were more substantial. It makes an interesting juxtaposition between the cliff side look and the more tropical jungle look. There is both here.
Our first day here, we moored just off the beach on a mooring that the locals rent out. This is a deep bay and difficult to anchor in so enterprising locals have created a mooring field for boats. They get rent (about $16 US per night) and more boats come since many don’t like to anchor in the first place. Once secured, we took a water taxi ashore through small breakers and jumped off into the surf and up the beach to a nice thatched roof restaurant where we rubbed our feet in the sand while enjoying cervezas and fish tacos.
After lunch, we decided we would take the hike up river to a different waterfall from the one in town. The hike itself was worth the day as we got to see architecture that you just don’t see in California. A combination of thatched huts and adobe cottages. Some were in better shape than others. Most had a combination of chickens, chicks, dogs, horses and cows tied up or laying out in the yards. We walked through “town” on a small cobble path that just had room for either two walking abreast or a horse, which meant we moved to the side when a horse came through. Jungle was interspersed with the homes, so there were banana trees (with real bananas hanging just out of reach), coconuts and lots of other fruits that we don’t know the names of or whether they are safe to eat. We were told the walk up the waterfall would be about an hour and a half. “You go up this path, then take the bridge across the river, go up and cross through the water two times then through the gate…” were the best directions we had.
Two hours later and after walking through the river four times, we realized we had probably missed a turn somewhere. Time to go back. On the way back, about a half mile down from where we stopped, we saw a broken down gate with the word: “waterfall” scratched onto it-probably with a nail. OK, now we knew where to go, but it was getting late. Maybe tomorrow.
Round trip, approximately 8 miles, including river fording a little climbing and a mostly unimproved trail. We got back to the beach at 6 PM. We were very lucky that one of the panga drivers was still around to ferry us back to our boats. All of us collapsed onto the boats. By all accounts the next day, each of us in our three boats were mostly asleep by 8PM.
Flash forward to the next day. Hailed a fisherman for a ride to the beach. We paid $1.80 per couple for the ride. The fishermen had a load of lobsters in the boat. Had it had been later in the day we would have bought a few and had a bbq. However, it was early morning and we had a mission: Find the waterfall!
Once dropped ashore, we heading back up into the hills along the trail through the town, across the bridge and we forded two rivers. We were looking for the sign, but there was a strange noise coming down the trail. Thump, thud, kerthump! We all jumped aside just in time as a small horse came down dragging a dozen cut trees. About six per side. Just the right size to build a little palapa or hut to live in. Then as we were discussing this, another horse dragging more timber and another followed finally by a caballero. You definitely feel like you’ve gone back in time here.
Anyway, back to the waterfall, we found the gate, went another half mile, climbed some rocks and there it was, just as promised. A nice waterfall with a pond about 30 yards across. Hot feet, sweaty bodies. Shoes and shirts came flying off and we were all in the water. It was glorious. And the best part, there was not another soul in our part of the waterfall. We all swam some, then just sat on a little beach in the middle of the pool in about two feet of water and enjoyed another beautiful day in paradise. The evening ended with a fun game of “Catch Phrase” (which the girls won 2 out of 3 rounds) with Camanoe and Dos Leos. This is a departure point as Camanoe continues on south to Manzanillo and will not be around before we depart. We will greatly miss these guys and wish Dave, Stephanie who is flying home in May, a safe voyage as Dave continues on single-handing to Hawaii. We are certain we will see these fine sailors again and look forward to reading their blog at camanoe.wordpress.com. I will miss having someone to go play with (who will “ash me” next year) and Bob will miss long conversations all about boats. We will both miss enjoying the local culture with both of them. Thanks for the fun times! As for Dos Leos: More fun yet to come until we depart later this month. Someone hide the Tequilla please.
By the way, the Mexicans don’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day so no green cervezas. P.S. Thank you Jerry for pointing out that we have been slacking in our blogging duties :
