Have you ever heard of the Lagoon of Seven Colors? This lagoon in the far southern Yucatán peninsula, close to the border with Belize, isn’t on the main tourist trail in this popular area because it is quite a drive from Playa del Carmen or even Tulum, which are very much the center of the Yucatan’s tourist trail.
I wouldn’t have known about Bacalar had I not lived in a small fishing village not far from there for a couple of months in 2012. Back then, I had to pass through Bacalar on my way to Chetumal, the border town with Belize, every time I went for a big grocery shopping.
I have to admit though that, since I was living right on the Caribbean, I never made an effort to truly explore Bacalar and the beaches of this marvelous lagoon, which is the second largest lake in all of Mexico. Having my own private beach with ocean views that offered similarly mesmerizing shades of blue, I never felt the need to spend much time in Bacalar.
Luckily, this oversight has finally been rectified. I was not only completely smitten by the lagoon with its beautiful blue-ish tones, which result from the varying amounts of sand on the bottom of the lake, but also by the little town itself. Small Mexican restaurants blend in effortlessly with hipster L.A. style gallery /cafes and fancy lagoon-side eateries where you can swing in hammocks right at the shore. Because the lagoon is such a unique feature, Bacalar was rewarded the ‘Pueblo Magico‘ status, making it one of Mexico’s famous ‘magic villages’, of which there are now 111.
There is only one small free public access to the lagoon, but we found two good beaches that are well worth paying for (one of them was only $0.50, the other one around $1.10 – so those were almost free, too!). One was a bigger camping area right in the center of town which had a long pier into the lake and a couple of man-made wooden islands to sunbathe on. The other one was a smaller camping area outside of town where you have some swings right in the water! This is where I took the above picture of what might be the most scenic tent I’ve ever seen.
Admittedly, I am not a big fan of camping, but this tent, in its glorious location, would convince even me to spend the night!
Earlier that morning, I had boarded the bus in 
Even though I spent many months in Mexico, exploring Mexico City, Veracruz, Oaxaca, the Yucatan and Isla Mujeres, somehow I had never made it to the Riviera Nayarit, the Pacific’s counterpart of the Riviera Maya.
The Riviera Nayarit is a 200-mile stretch of coastline between the historic port town of San Blas and Nuevo Vallarta, the new part of Puerto Vallarta, a major cruise ship port. In between, you find small beach villages, colonial towns, luxury all-inclusive resorts, lots of jungle and hidden bays.
Since I didn’t have all that much time, I decided to check out three places along the coast: Sayulita, a popular surf town, San Pancho, a laid-back beach village, and Puerto Vallarta, where I could get both: my city and my beach fix, because even though I love beaches, I tend to get restless quickly when there’s not much to do except for lounging in the sun.
My first stop was Sayulita, where the bus dropped me off four hours after leaving Guadalajara, on the side of Highway 200 which follows the coast all the way down to the Guatemalan border. I went from being freezing cold in the morning (wishing I had brought a jacket on this trip, which I hadn’t) to being drenched in sweat as I walked to my guesthouse in the midday heat.
Sayulita slowly appeared in front of me – colorful houses perched on the side of a green hill, and little houses now replaced the trees on both sides of the dirt road I was walking down. My guesthouse was not right in the center of town, but I didn’t mind that; I like seeing how the locals live.
Once I reached my guest house, I didn’t waste much time: I checked in, put my bikini on and went straight to the beach, which was just down the road I was staying on. After the chilly days in Guadalajara, I soaked up every ray of sun. I walked along the long, white sand beach, watching the families that were picnicking on the beach, and taking in the surfers.
Situated in a bay, Sayulita gets quite a few waves, which is what most visitors seem to come here for: to surf. There are several surf schools around town, and whenever I went for a morning run on the empty beach, the ocean was already filled with surfers. After a while, I turned left onto a street lined with palm trees to explore the actual village.
Sayulita looked beautiful. Houses that were painted in bright colors, and with Mexican fiesta flags waving in the wind, spanning across the streets. I could see immediately why it had been declared a ‘Pueblo Magico’, a Magic Village, a couple of years ago by Mexico’s Secretariat of Tourism.
The ‘Magic Village’ program was introduced in 2001, when the first few dozen villages were awarded this title, which is confined to Mexican small towns and villages that offer visitors a magical experience. This can be through natural beauty, historic relevance and cultural riches – Sayulita was awarded the title thanks to its stunning natural beauty but also because of its distinct architecture, cobblestone streets, the well-preserved bright white church and the little town square, the zocalo, a typical feature of Mexican villages.
It was more touristy than I had expected – at first glance I counted more foreign restaurants along the streets than Mexican eateries and walked by several high-end boutiques, but that didn’t take away from the charming atmosphere of the village.
While ‘touristy’ often turns into high-rise hotel complexes and all-inclusive resorts (which is what I’d find in Puerto Vallarta a few days later), Sayulita has managed to maintain its small town character, where Mexican mom-and-pop food stalls exist alongside the fancier restaurants, which are run by expats.
Overall, I found that most of the restaurants and shops seemed to be owned by foreigners, and over the course of my stay I learned that it was actually surfers who discovered this place around twenty years ago – and back then, there were no villas in the hills, whereas now you see many thatched roofs peeking out between the palm trees.
After trying to find the entrance to Sayulita’s co-working space (I surprised to find out that there even was one!) without success, I made the Yah-Yah coffee shop my ‘coffice’, typing away on my laptop in between my beach sessions every day. In the coffee shop I was told that a lot of people seem to come for the entire winter, after spending all summer working in North America in seasonal jobs. A surfer’s dream life, I guess.
I spent a few days working on my tan, hiked up the steep hills for stunning views over the bay and hiked to a couple of beaches outside of town – Playa Los Muertos, Beach Of The Dead, which is just south of town, an easy walk following a dirt road along the beach, passing the fishing boats and the fancy ‘Villa Amor‘ Resort at the very end of the bay before the road turns up the hill. Here, you pass a colorful cemetery, where candles are lit up on the graves every night, and when you descend the hill on the other side, you’re already at the small beach – probably named after the nearby cemetery. It is kind of neat to think that the deceased have their own beach here – a pristine one no less.
This small beach in between two sets of rocks is less rough, the waves aren’t crashing against the shore like they do in the main bay, which is what attracts most people to come here. Still, compared to Sayulita’s town beach, there aren’t many people around.
The second beach I visited took more of an effort to get to. I set off on the same route that led me to Playa Los Muertos, but followed the winding road along the coast, even though I never saw the ocean. I could hear the waves though and followed the sound of the sea, sticking to the right every time there was a fork in the road. The road was hilly and unpaved, offering vistas over the thick green jungle to the left, and I rarely saw any other people or cars. The walk itself was already worth it for me, getting away from the crowds and the city noise and taking in the jungle with sounds of monkeys, frogs and insects.
I almost missed the little handwritten wooden sign near a concrete wall on the right side of the path which read ‘Playa Carricitos’ and pointed to the right, where a narrow path led along the wall down towards the ocean. I followed the path and three minutes later I was stepping onto a remote beach with golden sand, like Playa Los Muertos set in a bay, but much larger and wider, and most notably: completely deserted.
I looked to my left and saw a couple laying in the sand on the far end of the beach, and to my right, there was another couple at the far end of the beach. I couldn’t believe that there weren’t more people here, considering how close we were to Sayulita – I’d walked for about 45 minutes – and how amazing this beach was. While Playa Muertos is calmer, Playa Carricitos has rough waves, rougher waves than the beach in town even, which is why I only walked into the ocean but didn’t go for a proper swim.
On the southern end, there’s a house on the top of the cliff – I couldn’t figure out if it was a private home or a hotel – and there’s a small abandoned house in between the trees that line the beach. Other than that: nothing. I felt like I’d discovered a secret beach that I had (nearly) to myself, and I spent a couple of hours there just watching the waves crashing against the shore. I was even hesitant about mentioning it here, for everyone to read, but decided to share this little gem because of what happened when I returned a week later.
After a few relaxed days in Sayulita, it was time for a city break: I was meeting a friend in Puerto Vallarta, about an hour south of Sayulita, and was curious to see how the city would compare to Sayulita, before returning there together.
The bus traveled through the jungle for about forty minutes before the first buildings came into sight. It felt like a different world from the village I had just left: modern skyscrapers, a cruise ship port where two massive ships were lined up, a golf course, casinos and shiny new malls. It was a shock to the system after my slow beach days.
Luckily, as the bus moved further south along the busy, congested road, the skyscrapers became smaller and smaller and finally disappeared in the rearview mirror. Instead, white colonial houses with colorful doors and windows came into sight. By the time I got off the bus, we had passed a couple of historic churches and I was walking to my hotel on a cobblestone street, past blooming hibiscus trees.
I liked this part, the Old Town, of Puerto Vallarta, much better, and never ventured over to Nuevo Vallarta – why would I, because here, I found everything I needed: plenty of restaurants, several bars right on the beach, plenty of art galleries, even a microbrewery.
This part, Viejo Vallarta (Old Vallarta) is also where most of the gay bars and clubs are located, because PV is not just a popular vacation spot for families and retirees, but it is also the gay capital of Mexico.
I was wondering if I should feel discriminated, a feeling that rose over the week when I saw plenty of tour agencies around town advertising gay-friendly tours with two men holding hands, usually not wearing anything but tight speedos and showing off their toned bodies.
Where were the women? If PV was such an LGBT-friendly destination, there sure had to be some venues for lesbians? I looked into it and was surprised when I found that while there were a few mixed bars, there was only one girls – specific venue in PV, 
I also only ever saw one lesbian couple, whereas I couldn’t go anywhere without stumbling upon gay couples or groups of friends on vacation together. Where were all the lesbians? Maybe it’s time for me to open a women-focused B&B in the Zona Romantica?
The beach down here, Playa de los Muertos, is said to be the best beach in all of Puerto Vallarta, so I made the right decision by staying all the way down in the Old Town, also called ‘Zona Romantica’. It is also here where the malecon begins, a 12-block oceanside promenade which is filled with people at any time of day, and which for me turned out to be great for running.
One morning, before it got too hot, I ventured up into the hills, which make for a gorgeous backdrop for PV (as most people call it) and stumbled on small residential houses, overgrown with bougainvillea, squeezed between new condominium complexes. It was interesting to see how old and new co-existed here.
Banderas Bay, one of the largest and deepest bays in the world and covered in lush green vegetation, is also just such a gorgeous backdrop that I forgave Puerto Vallarta for having a Señor Frog’s right down on the malecon (the only thing Cancun and Puerto Vallarta have in common, by the way).
I made a daily visit to the new pier, la muelle de los muertos, a futuristic-looking structure in the ocean that overlooks both the beach and the bay, part of my routine, because I loved the views from up here. Sometimes during sunset, a bunch of local kids came to jump off here, at least 20 meters over the water, which always drew a crowd.
When my friend arrived in town a couple of days later, I moved from my first apartment, housed in one of the old buildings, into one of the brand new condo buildings, to treat myself to a fancy place for a change.
I came to appreciate the amenities of city life in Puerto Vallarta – fast wifi, a large number of restaurants to choose from, enough bars for a margarita crawl and a fun night of beer sampling at the Los Muertos microbrewery.
I also attempted my first SUP session in the ocean (rather than a calm river where I’d done it before), which turned out to be much more difficult than it looked, and then I was ready to return to the tranquil and slow life of a beach village.
Back north I went, this time with a travel buddy in tow, and this time my destination would be a bit further north than Sayulita: San Francisco, better known as San Pancho. Ten or fifteen minutes after dropping off a bunch of tourists headed for Sayulita, I was dropped off again on the side of Highway 200, and we walked into the village where we had booked a room in a small hotel. My first impression was that San Pancho was very sleepy compared to bustling Sayulita, and what a difference from Puerto Vallarta!
We followed the main road down to the beach, which, similar to Sayulita, was set around a long bay. This beach however, was much wider, and in my opinion not as picturesque as Sayulita’s main beach. There were less people though, and most of them seemed to be surfers.
The main difference to Sayulita? Here, there were only a couple of boutique hotels, no high-end resorts like in Puerto Vallarta, and it seemed that there were primarily private rentals. There weren’t any bohemian shops like in Sayulita selling leather goods and high-end jewelry. San Pancho felt much more like a truly Mexican village, even though there were a couple of coffee shops and restaurants that were clearly geared towards gringos. The golf court on the edge of town seemed completely out of place – apparently a president who was very fond of San Pancho and came here regularly had it built in the 1970s.
We spend the rest of the afternoon on the beach and toasted to our first day in San Pancho with a couple of beers while the sun set over the ocean in front of us, and while watching the many surfers who’d come out for a sunset surf, showing off their rad skills.
The next day, we set off to do something I’d wanted to do in Sayulita when I stayed there the week before: a jungle hike between the two villages. The path wasn’t described very well, and I found somewhat confusing tales from people who got lost somewhere along the way and turned back, and others whose trip ended in front of a fence or a closed gate. We were determined to at least give it a try though, and to make things easier, we decided to start in Sayulita, where most people seemed to set out on the hike, and hopefully end in San Pancho in time for another epic sunset.
We had downloaded some of the 
I was also hoping to spot some wildlife, but sadly we weren’t very lucky – unless you count the Yellow Orb spiders that nearly caused me a panic attack as wildlife.
Eventually we got to a road fork and instinctively turned right where we could hear traffic on the paved road, but upon reaching it we weren’t sure anymore and turned around again to try the other path, even though it said ‘private property’. That’s how we got to the gate that we had read about, which luckily was open and led to a gorgeous estate (some accounts mentioned it was the mansion of a Mexican ex-president). The estate sat on the top of a hill, to its right a small beach, and to its left we could see San Pancho beach.
A guard slowly walked towards us as we were trying to figure out how to get to the beach and San Pancho which was indeed blocked by a fence. The guard told us we weren’t supposed to be there, but he pointed to a small door inside the fence which was open, saying we could go through there but not come back. I was relieved that the door was open because the fence was much too high to climb it and I really didn’t want to turn back.
We celebrated our successful hike with a couple of beers while watching yet another superb sunset. So far, all of the sunsets along the Pacific had been stunning, and I vowed not to miss a single one while I was here.
After a couple of days in tranquil San Pancho we headed down to Sayulita which felt now, after relaxing in this tiny village, like a busy, big town. It’s funny how quickly your perception can change.
I was excited to introduce my friend to El Itacate, a hole-in-the-wall taco stall that had gotten the approval rating of Thomas Keller, the Michelin star carrying chef at the famous The French Laundry, and a place I ended up returning to over and over again after I first discovered it.
We made watching the spectacle that are the sunsets our nightly routine, we bar hopped in the evenings, and I wanted to show off Las Carricitos, the isolated beach I’d found on my first visit. But when I arrived at the place where a week prior the sign had been, I noticed that it was gone! Had I not taken a picture of it the first time, I would have thought I’d imagined it. Instead, there was a brand new fence blocking access to the hill that leads down to the hidden beach.
A worker, who saw my confused face, explained we should follow the road a bit further and go down there. The hole in the fence we climbed through was probably not supposed to be an entrance, but we sneaked through it, and just like during my first visit, there were only a couple of other people, and we had the beach nearly to ourselves.
We frolicked in the waves, watched the sunset and walked back into town. Again, I am not sure if I want to tell anyone about this beach find, but since it seemed as if they were making accessing it even more difficult, I don’t even know if there’s still going to be any access to it in the future.
Since Sayulita is not only a popular surf spot but also has excellent Stand Up Paddling conditions, so good that the first ever StandUp Paddle and Paddleboard Championship (WSUPPC) was held here in 2015, I decided to get out on a paddleboard again while here to work on my SUP skills. While I don’t think I’ll ever take part in a championship, I enjoy SUPing so much that I’ll try to always incorporate it into beach vacations from now on. Since I can’t lay on a beach for too long anyway, it’s perfect for me. I get to hang out in the ocean and be active at the same time.
After bidding my friend farewell, I was torn about staying a few more days in Sayulita or returning to Puerto Vallarta. Even though I preferred the vibe in the small beach town, I felt that the amenities in Vallarta were better. In Sayulita, it was a constant struggle to find decent wifi. There were no air-conditioned coffee shops to work in, and writing in temperatures in the 90s is quite a challenge. The running route in PV along the malecon was better than the hills in Sayulita. And there were more vegetarian restaurants in the big city.
When my bus approached Puerto Vallarta this time around, I wasn’t appalled by the skyscrapers and malls, knowing I’d not be spending any time there anyway. Instead, I’d be enjoying the charming Old Town again, and the best beach in PV, Playa Muertos. I’d be able to sit on the new boat pier and enjoy the views over Banderas Bay, devour amazing vegetarian food at Salud (still my favorite veggie place in PV) and maybe even take advantage of the air-conditioning at Starbucks. Because sometimes touristy places aren’t all that bad.
Now that I know both of Mexico’s most popular rivieras, the Riviera Maya and the Riviera Nayarit, I think I still prefer the Riviera Maya. I’ve always loved the Caribbean Coast more than the Pacific (also in Costa Rica) and I love the cenotes along the Riviera Maya, plus of course the people its named after, the Maya, and all their stunning ruins on the Yucatan.
However, I loved beach hopping along the Riviera Nayarit, and I hope I’ll get to explore more of that coastline in the future – San Blas for example is supposed to be amazing, and I haven’t made it to Yelapa near PV, which was highly recommended to me.
There’s always more to see, and so I say: Hasta Pronto, Riviera Nayarit – See you soon.
And that’s exactly how I ended up in Guadalajara: Its proximity to said beaches. I was looking for a place to fly to that had easy access to the coast, and which seemed worth exploring. Guadalajara sounded interesting enough: the cultural capital of Latin America in 2005, a university town, a city with art museums and a historic city center, and a city with several Jose Clemente Orozco murals, one of the famous Mexican muralists whose art I adore. What more could I ask for? A great flight deal ($109 from LA, booked only three days in advance) sealed the deal.
My instinct had once again brought me to the right place. From my very first stroll through the historic center, I was much reminded of Mexico City – and you all know how much I love Mexico’s capital.
Most streets of the historic center with its beautiful well-preserved, colorful Spanish-colonial buildings were lined with trees, there was more street art than I expected – and it was among the best I’ve seen in all of Mexico, and the museums were indeed as world-class as the travel guides promised.
I had only two nights booked in Guadalajara, but I quickly decided to make a week out of it. Three days in a city of over four million people were just not enough.
Guadalajara is actually made up of three cities: Guadalajara, Zapopan and Tlaquepaque. The historic center with its imposing cathedral in the center was where I spent most of my time, and the four plazas that surround the cathedral, laid out in the form of a cross, make Guadalajara’s center one of the prettiest in the entire country. After dark is when the plazas really come to life, with food stalls setting up, entire families gathering and having a snack, and young couples making out on the benches everywhere.
The cathedral itself is well worth a visit, a massive structure which took 50 years to complete (construction started in the 1560s) and whose architecture is an interesting mix of Gothic, Neoclassical and Palladian styles. The gothic twin spires in particular give the cathedral a unique look – the third set of towers built after the two previous ones fell during earthquakes.
Even though the historic center and the surrounding neighborhoods are walkable, I was happy when I discovered the city had a shared bike system, Mi Bici. I downloaded the app to see where the stations were, paid 80 Pesos (US$3.92) for a 24-hour rental with free rentals for up to 30 minutes, which is common for most bicycle shares I’ve used, and off I went. (I later discovered that a 3-day rental for MXN$160/US$7.84 would have been a better deal, but I think it’s still very cheap).
I biked around the center, took the bike over to the Plazuela De Los Mariachis, a little square that is dedicated to one of the city’s most famous inventions – Mariachi music originates in Guadalajara. Similar to Mexico City’s Plaza Garibaldi, several mariachi bands were hanging around here, possibly waiting to play for potential customers who are looking for a mariachi band for a wedding or another event, but also to serenade customers who were eating in the restaurants around the plaza (for a tip, of course).
I also biked over to Avenida Chapultepec, a wide boulevard lined with restaurants and bars, an area that didn’t seem like much during the day but which came to life at night when Guadalajara’s students and twenty-somethings filled the trendy bars in and around Avenida Chapultepec, as I’d learn a few days later when a group from our hostel made our way over there on a Friday night for some drinks. Of course I found here, like everywhere in Mexico these days, some excellent local craft beers on the menu.
The bike came in especially handy when I wanted to visit the Museo de Arte Zapopan, a modern art museum which is located in the Zapopan part of town. It was a welcome excuse for me to check out that part of town, which I might not have gone to otherwise, because it was pretty far from the historic center, where I was staying.
The museum turned out to be one of those contemporary art museums that made me think several times ‘Really? This is art?’, and it was much smaller than I expected, but the architecture in Zapopan and the striking Basilica Nuestra Señora de Zapopan, which dates back to 1730, made up for the slightly disappointing museum (which luckily had free admission. I would’ve regretted paying for it, I think).
I much preferred the Museo de las Artes de la Universidad (MUSA) in the center of Guadalajara, which didn’t only win me over with some impressive pieces of art, but also with its auditorium, in which Orozco had painted both the walls behind the stage as well as the inside of the auditorium’s dome. Both murals depict, typical for Orozco, social injustice and resistance against the system.
Another art space in Guadalajara that shouldn’t be missed is the Hospicio Cabañas, one of the oldest and largest hospital complexes in the Americas, and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. Orozco painted the domed chapel of the 19th-century neoclassical hospice complex – 57 frescoes cover the walls and the ceilings. It is one of his masterpieces.
But art in Guadalajara doesn’t stop there: In recent years, Guadalajara has become more and more of a hub for young artists from all parts of Mexico and beyond. Art galleries have been popping up around town, and a residency and alternative cultural education organization supported by the State of Jalisco’s Ministry of Culture and the Instituto Cultural Cabañas, PAOS (Programa Anual de Open Studios), has been attracting artists from all over the world. The program offers a month-long residency at the Museo Taller Jose Clemente Orozco, the former residence and workshop of the late Mexican muralist.
And then there’s the street art which fills entire building walls and doors. Even on the colonial houses the art never appears disruptive, but rather adds to the crumbling facades. I stumbled upon a new great piece every day on my wanderings around town, one of the best murals was right outside the MUSA Art Museum:
Guadalajara doesn’t have a typical drink, but it is so close to the town from which Mexico’s most famous drink originates that almost everybody visiting Guadalajara takes at least a day trip there: Tequila. Of course you can also get it in every single bar in Guadalajara, but after seeing photos of vast fields filled with blue agave plants in a travel article a while back, I wanted to see the little town for myself, and most importantly: take a distillery tour.
I am not the biggest fan of tequila (the thought of tequila usually brings back memories of too many tequila shots in my early 20s, complete with licking salt off my hands and finishing the shot with sucking on a slice of lemon), but I thought that a distillery tour and a tasting of some higher end tequilas might change my mind.
A few other people from the hostel also wanted to visit Tequila, and so we decided to head there together on what turned out to be a pretty rainy Saturday. Saturday is the only day that the Tequila Express runs, a train that goes from Guadalajara to Tequila, solely for tourists, complete with mariachi bands, tequila and some snacks. However, once we saw the hefty price tag (MXN$1,200 US$59), read some lukewarm reviews and found out that we wouldn’t even get to see the town itself, only a distillery, we opted for the more economical way to get there: taking the bus.
What was supposed to be a 90-minute trip turned into a two hour journey, and when we finally reached Tequila, we were starving. We decided to get some food before finding out how to hop on a distillery tour, of which there are many in the little town, including well-known tequila producers such as Sauza, Tequila Herradura, Jose Cuervo, Cofradia and the El Llano Distillery.
Several touts approached us, trying to sell us their tour, and we finally agreed to join one that left an hour later, which cost MXN$180 (just under US$9), leaving us enough time to grab lunch, and maybe see a little bit more of Tequila.
Strolling through the streets of the village made me wish I would’ve come for an overnight stay. Tourists were roaming the streets now, which were lined with souvenir shops and restaurants. Tequila itself is beautiful, but I think I would’ve enjoyed the village more after the crowds had left and the tequila barrel-shaped vehicles that brought visitors to the distilleries had also left for the day, enjoying a quiet evening on one of the benches in the town square.
With its colorful Mexican houses, an 18th century stone church and leafy plazas it deserved being included in the list of Mexico’s Pueblos Magicos, towns around the country that offer visitors a ‘magical’ experience because of their natural beauty, cultural riches, or historical relevance.
Thanks to Tequila’s significance in producing Mexico’s most famous export, Tequila and the surrounding area have also been given UNESCO World Heritage Site status. For most people, a day trip is probably enough, but I would’ve also added an extra day to check out another distillery, because there are so many in and around Tequila, which is why the region also likes to promote itself as the ‘Tequila Trail’ – think Mexico’s answer to Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail.
On this visit though, there was only time for one. The tour we’d been sold was for the Orendain Distillery, a family-run, award-winning tequila producer which was founded by Don Edwardo Orendain Gonzalez in 1926. It was fascinating to learn more about the production of tequila, a drink I knew literally nothing about, other than that it is produced from the agave plant. But which part of it?
During the tour, we learned that tequila is made from the piña, the heart of the agave, which, once the spikey leaves have been removed, indeed looks like an oversized piña (Spanish for pineapple). It takes 8 to 10 years until the agave can be harvested though – the tequila business sure is a long-term investment. The companies who were smart enough to extend their Blue Agave fields a decade , however, are now the ones that benefit from the growing popularity of high-end tequilas inside and outside of Mexico.
Distilleries here proudly serve ‘100% agave’ tequila – this is what you should look out for, if you, like me, have bad memories of tequila-related headaches, because the 100% pure tequilas don’t cause hangovers, if enjoyed in moderation.
The tour of the distillery was highly informative and shows visitors pretty much the entire process of tequila making: first, the piñas are roasted in an oven, then, the sugar is extracted and fermented for 7 to 12 days, and lastly, the tequila is distilled (usually twice), which means ferments are separated by heat and steam pressure.
There are three different types of tequila: Blanco (bottled immediately upon distillation), Reposado (aged for at least two months), Añejo (aged for at least a year, but less than three) and sometimes there is a fourth one, Extra Añejo (over-aged). We get to try the main three types during our tasting and are surprised how different the tequila tastes from the mediocre stuff we’ve previously tried. Especially the Añejo, which is smooth and tastes more complex.
We are in good spirits as we walk through the pouring rain back to the bus station to catch a bus back to Guadalajara, and we all agree: coming to Tequila was eye-opening in many ways. The three of us agreed that we’d all been converted to Tequila drinkers, each of us carrying a small bottle in our bags, to enjoy back home.
To be completely honest: I didn’t want to spend my last few days in Mexico in Puerto Vallarta. I wanted to stay in 
I flew into Guadalajara, Mexico’s second city, where I spent a week, including a day trip to Tequila, and headed west from there to spend some time exploring the most popular towns along the popular Riviera Nayarit: Sayulita, San Pancho and Puerto Vallarta.
The day I arrived in Mexico, I nearly had a panic attack. I was so busy the day leading up to my departure from LA that I didn’t even have time to think about all the things that popped into my head during my plane ride to Guadalajara:
The last few days in 
I knew I could give her a great taste of Mexico here, with abundant Mayan culture at historic sites like Chichen Itza, Tulum and Uxmal; beautiful Spanish-colonial towns like Valladolid, Campeche and Izamal; dreamy beaches in Playa del Carmen, Tulum and Mahahual; dozens of cenotes – natural freshwater sinkholes – for something completely unique; swimming with turtles and flamingo watching for wildlife, and plenty of taco stops along the way.
Once I started to map out my dream road trip in detail, breaking it down day by day, I realized that I wouldn’t be able to fit in all the places I ideally wanted to visit. This was the route for our week-long road trip:
If you have more time than we did (ten days), I recommend you take this slightly longer route, which includes the Yellow Town of Izamal and 
If you’re wondering why I didn’t include Merida in the second option, which is just a short drive from Izamal, it is because 
Mexican village life in the form of a sleepy little fishing village was our first stop. We picked up our US$9 per day rental car at the airport in Cancun and headed straight south towards Playa del Carmen. On the way, just off the main highway to Playa, sits Puerto Morelos. Even though it’s far from
From Puerto Morelos, it is only another 45 minutes to Playa del Carmen, where we spent a couple of nights. I wanted to use Playa as a base to explore a couple of cenotes, and there are quite a few of them just a short drive from Playa.
In fact, they are unique to this part of Mexico and belong to an extensive underground network of rivers and caves, many of which remain unexplored. Those that are explored have one thing in common: they all have crystal clear turquoise water and often they have a large underwater cave system which you cannot see from the usually round, open cenote entrance. In short: they are perfect for snorkeling and diving and are a must-visit on a trip to the Yucatan.
I tried to fit as many of them as possible into our road trip to introduce Miss G to several kinds of sinkholes: covered ones, underground ones, and open ones, and our first one was going to be an open cenote south of Playa named Jardin del Eden, Garden Of Eden.
Jardin del Eden is aptly named in my opinion, because this open cenote is surrounded by lush green plants and trees, and you can see all the way down to the bottom of it. This is one of the bigger cenotes I’ve seen, and what you see from above isn’t even everything there is: we kept seeing groups of divers peek out of the water every now and again, which made me wonder how big the underwater cave system was.
Our second day in Playa was spent right in town, because this beach deserved some time, too:
I have to admit that I am not the biggest fan of Playa itself though, simply because it is just so Americanized and tourist-focused, but I know that other people like it. Fifth Avenue, the main drag that runs parallel to the beach through Playa, is lined with malls, souvenir shops and restaurants, many of which don’t even serve Mexican food, but European or North American fare at U.S. prices. I don’t mind it for a stroll, but we didn’t spend much time in Playa itself.
Our hotel, the 
I know that other travelers spend a week or longer in Playa, but some of my favorite places along the coast, the Riviera Maya, are actually further south. Our next stop was one of them: Akumal.
This small beach town is located about 30 minutes south of PdC, or 25 minutes north of Tulum. Once a hidden gem, the secret is out now. During previous visits, I’d never seen the beach as busy as this time around, and that’s for one very good reason: there are sea turtles feeding off the sea grass right off the shore here, and you can swim with them. While years ago, you’d see only a few individual tourists floating face-down in the water turtle watching, this time around there were entire tour groups in the water, easily recognizable by their bright yellow, orange or red life jackets.
Apologies for the bad quality of these pictures – Just to give you an idea of how close you’ll get to the turtles. Make sure to bring a good underwater camera and, extra pro tip, a disposable camera doesn’t qualify as such.
Despite the popularity of the turtles, which are on the part of the beach that is closest to the street, it is still possible to find an empty stretch of beach here, if you walk further down the bay, away from where the turtles are.
The Maya lived in the region which today is made up of Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, and are known to be one of the most sophisticated civilizations of their time (AD250 – AD900). To this day, you can find the ruins of their cities, their temples, their religious centers and their infrastructure throughout Central America, and there are around 20 Mayan ruin sites on the Yucatan Peninsula alone.
Tulum was mainly serving as a port for the larger Mayan city of Cobá, which would be the next set of ruins we’d visit. Tulum is believed to have had between 1,000 and 1,600 inhabitants, compared to around 50,000 in Cobá, to give you an idea of the size of the site. There is only one major structure here, El Castillo, a 25 feet (7.5 meters) tall pyramid.
Because of its proximity to Playa del Carmen and relative closeness to Cancun, Tulum is one of the most popular ruin sites, and always packed. Knowing that, I made sure we’d arrive at the crack of dawn.. well maybe not that early, but we got to the gates just after 8am, when the site opens, and we got our tickets without having to wait in line, enjoying our stroll around the ruins with barely any other tourists around.
By the time the sun started burning down on us, we were ready to leave. We had timed our visit perfectly: when we walked back to the car, several massive tour groups were entering the ruins, and no less than 20 large buses were spitting out tourist after tourist into the parking lot. If you want Tulum without the crowds, definitely head there early.
Instead of returning to our hotel, we drove straight to Tulum’s glorious beach – without a doubt one of the prettiest along the Riviera Maya. An extra wide stretch of beach with powdery, white sand for as far as the eye can see, and this water, with its incredible I-don’t-know-how-many shades of blue.
We found a beach bar, settled into our beach chairs and didn’t leave our spot for the rest of the day, until it was time for dinner, which brought us to Antojitos La Chiapaneca, a taco place in the village (not by the beach) that came highly recommended and exceeded our expectations by far. It was so good that we ended up going back there the next night – even though Tulum has dozens of dining options. But could there really be anything better than these seven peso tacos?
We could have easily spent another day on the beach in Tulum, but the next day was reserved for more cenotes. After having swum in an open cenote, we wanted to see a different kind of cenote – a covered or partially covered one. After doing some research, it was a close tie between Gran Cenote and Cenote Dos Ojos, and I finally went for Gran Cenote. Dos Ojos, a covered cenote, seems to be the most popular cenote in Tulum, but I found the admission pretty high (MXN200 admission if you bring your own equipment and are prepared to walk 3km to the cenote, or MXN500 for a ride to the cenote, a guide, snorkel equipment, and a lamp), and I knew we would be visiting a couple of covered cenotes in Valladolid later in our trip.
Gran Cenote was the perfect mix of covered and open cenote, and with a lower admission (MXN150) it allowed us to add another cenote to our tour of natural sinkholes. Gran Cenote did not disappoint: crystal clear water, a large area for swimming, and a covered part where you could swim through and reach another open part of the cenote. We snorkeled, marveled at the underwater rock formations and the stalactites hanging from the roof of the cave, sunbathed on the wooden deck and watched the turtles that were swimming in a separate area.
After a couple of hours, we were ready to check out another cenote and we went to Zacil-Ha, which was just a little further down the road. This cenote was mainly frequented by Mexican tourists, I had read, and was only MXN50. When we arrived, there were only two other people around, and later on three girls arrived to film a music video there, other than that, we had Zacil-Ha to ourselves.
The cenote is much smaller than the Gran Cenote, an almost perfectly round-shaped natural swimming pool – at least that’s what you see from above. After a while, we saw a couple of divers emerge, and descend again, and were gone for long enough to lead me to assume there must be quite a large underwater cave system here.
The best part of Zacil-Ha was the zip-line that went right above the cenote. You can take a thrilling ride which ends with you plunging into the water from a considerable height. Don’t expect a proper zipline with a harness – it is basically just a handle that you hold on to and let go of once you reach the center of the cenote. Definitely worth the 10 pesos we paid for it. Since this cenote is small and on the road to Cobá, you could even stop here for a quick dip on the way to the Cobá ruins, where we’d head the next day.
Cobá is about an hour inland from Tulum, and couldn’t be more different from the seaside ruins. This Mayan city is surrounded by thick jungle and gets much less visitors than Tulum or Chichen Itza, and the grounds are so spread out that it’s nearly impossible to see everything without a bicycle. Luckily, there are plenty of bikes right at the entrance, waiting to be rented, or bicycle guides, who have a seat for two in front of their bike to drive you through the jungle from one structure to the next. Feeling a little lazy, we opted for the latter option which turned out to be pretty convenient, because that way we were taken on the route that made the most sense and we were able to take in the beautiful jungle instead of focusing on not getting lost.
The most exhilarating part of a visit to Cobá is the climb up Nohoch Mul, which isn’t only the highest pyramid in this city, but in all of the Yucatan. The views from up here make you realize just how green this part of the country is: the jungle stretches to the horizon in all four directions. It is one of the few ruin sites where you can still climb a pyramid, and Nohoch Mul with its 120 uneven, large stone steps up to reach the top at 137 feet (42 meters) is quite the challenge for most visitors. The way down seems even more daunting, and the lone rope dangling from the top for tourists to hold on to is used by every single person slowly clambering back down.
Cobá is certainly one of the most interesting temple complexes on the Yucatan: older than Chichen Itza, known for its elaborate stone carvings, and the famous 
I am not sure why Cobá is less popular with tourists, given that it is close to both Playa Del Carmen and Tulum and has a ridiculously low admission fee of only MXN57 – especially compared to the steep MXN232 Chichen Itza charges.
After touring the ruins for a couple of hours we stopped in the actual town of Coba (which is tiny) for a quick lunch in a local Mexican restaurant before hitting the road again. According to GoogleMaps it would take us about an hour to get to Valladolid, where we’d be spending the next couple of nights, but it took us closer to two hours for us to finally get to what is still my favorite Mexican village.
Valladolid was the stop on our road trip I was most excited about, because I had fallen in love with this colonial town in 2010, but during all of my visits to Mexico since, I had never made it back there. Now that I’d seen so many other Spanish-colonial villages all over Latin America, and visited several ‘magic villages’ (as 83 villages in Mexico were declared, thanks to their cultural, historical, or natural treasures) – would I still adore Valladolid as much as I did all those years ago?
Another thing that hadn’t changed? How hot Valladolid was. With average temperatures of 93ºF (34ºC), the town can feel unbearably hot, especially in the afternoon, and with no ocean anywhere nearby, we were thankful for the three cenotes here. Cenote Zaci, is right in town, and Cenote Dzitnup, is about five miles outside of town.
Back then, you could nearly miss the entrance to the cenotes if you didn’t pay attention, but now, a big tourist plaza had been built around them, charging MXN90 admission to enter both, and a number of souvenir stands lines the path to each cenote. I realized that these two cenotes had become part of a tour, probably the Chichen Itza tours from Cancun, but luckily we didn’t encounter a bus load of tourists while we were there – as a matter of fact, the tourists in both cenotes seemed to be mainly Mexicans.
We started with Cenote Xkeken, which you can’t see at all from the outside. A small entrance leads to some stairs which go down into the cave, and once you reach the big cave room it is almost impossible not to be in complete awe. The ceiling is covered in stalactites of all sizes, and then there is the bright blue refreshing water.
After a quick dip we walked over to Cenote Samula, which used to be famous for the long tree roots hanging from a small hole in the ceiling of the covered cenote. However, there wasn’t much of the tree roots left when I went there this year – either they were cut off or fell in, I am not sure. This doesn’t make Samula less impressive though, and again, you can’t even see the entrance, but access the cavern through a tiny hole and walk down a set of stairs until you reach the water. In this cenote, the rocks and stalagmites underwater are even more dramatic than in Cenote Xkeken, and you’ll want to bring a mask and a snorkel to be able to fully appreciate them.
We got off to an early start the next morning – once again to beat the tourist crowds. Our final, grand destination was Chichen Itza, the most popular Mayan ruin site of the Yuctan.
And it is easy to see why this UNESCO World Heritage site is so famous: the structures here are extraordinary, especially the perfectly restored main pyramid, El Castillo, which is jaw-droppingly stunning. It is on this stepped pyramid where during the equinoxes (21 March and 21 September), shadows on the steps of the pyramid resemble a descending snake. The temple has 365 steps – one for each day of the year – which is only one feat to show how sophisticated the Mayan culture was, and how it was integrated into their buildings and religious centers.
The site has enough structures to keep you exploring for at least half a day, with the Temple of the Warriors, and the massive Great Ball Court, where the Mayan ballgame was played and which is the largest in the Mayan world.
There are fascinating structures like El Caracol, an Observatory, and the Jaguar Temple. All of Chichen Itza’s buildings are restored in such detail that there are frescos and the ubiquitous serpent heads that ornate many of the temples.
Upon leaving, we saw tour bus after tour bus arrive, and I can only recommend staying in Vallodolid or one of the hotels near Chichen Itza if you don’t want to share the site with hundreds of tourists (the pictures at El Castillo were taken before the crowds arrived).
For us, all that was left was the long drive back to Cancun, and long before handing over the keys to our rental car at the airport we were already pondering where our next Mexican road trip would be..
Third-party liability insurance can also be purchased through an independent insurance provider, by the way. I’ve done that several times (through 
When I mapped out my Mexico trip and tried to decide which city to fly into, it basically came down to one decision: Flying straight to the coast or visit a new city first. And as much as I was ready for some beach time, my curiosity to explore another Mexican city won. And Guadalajara won for three reasons: It is known to be cultural and artsy, it is relatively close to the Pacific coast, and it is only 70 kilometers from Tequila. A travel writer I follow on Snapchat had just gone there and her snaps from Tequila looked so gorgeous that I wanted to see the agave fields for myself, and visit a couple of tequila distilleries – even though I am not a big tequila fan (I have a margarita every now and again, but straight up tequila wouldn’t necessarily be my drink of choice).
When it rains, it pours, they say, and that couldn’t hold truer for the past couple of weeks. And I don’t only mean that because it is pouring as I type this – I haven’t seen that much rain since leaving Seattle, but Guadalajara got so much rain today that the streets were flooding – but, as so many of us, I’ve been struggling with the events of this week. That combined with a string of bad news since the beginning of the month has put me in a slump which I’m trying to get out of.
