Touring Mexico with Zenler 2023 - Part 3: Puerto Vallarta and Sayulita

David Zenler Author

Jul 17, 2024 |

Welcome to part 3 of this blog, all about Mexico and traveling as a digital nomad for two months from Mexico City, to the east, and to the far west...

Puerto Vallarta

Date Stamp: January 5, 2023 - Traveling from Mexico City to Puerto Vallarta

We are flying from Mexico City's main airport to Puerto Vallarta which is a 1 1/4-hour flight. Check out my Mexico City blog here. A little bit of a stressful situation as the Airport shows the Gate and not baggage drop off we assumed it was handled once through customs. So we merrily went through and had the customs people go through all of our belongings wanting to confiscate the liquids. Eventually, we managed to get them to let us out to check in our baggage and then re-enter customs, we should know better!

Speaking very little Spanish does not help although we are learning fast as I think all digital nomads do!

Other than that smooth flight. At Puerto Vallarta, the Taxis are licensed meaning you cannot use Uber or One Driver they have a monopoly hence the price is double. Something to be aware of, it's still reasonable at £25 as it takes around 20 minutes to reach our Hacienda.

Puerto Vallarta is built on the seafront with lively music and lots of bars and restaurants. It's a buzzing town that mixes old with new from the old-style churches and architecture of the old town to the tall skyscrapers of the new town. As usual, we do a walk around the bustling town to see what is where and soak in the atmosphere.

Temperature is definitely hotter here at around 26-28 degrees.

Hacienda is a great building with 5 floors, ours being the top, it is clean and has a balcony and a good pressure shower. Why mention the shower... well to me and my wife, it is a must for waking up. There is no breakfast here but there are so many places around it's not a problem.

Tech Notes for the Digital Nomads

"The only thing here is the internet which is so slow and the connection fluctuates, we kind of expect this whilst travelling so we have bought a Telcel SIM with Data on. So I can if needed use the phone as a digital hotspot (basically using the phone as a router, most phones have this). Now for this blog I do not need the internet as I am writing it in WordPad ready for dropping into the blog later."

Date stamp: 6 January 2023 - Puerto Vallarta and the Three Kings

Let's start by explaining what the Three Kings Festival is: it is a celebration of the Three Wise Men and Jesus. There is a tradition of cutting a cake and inside the cake is a plastic baby Jesus if you cut into it and hit the baby you have to buy the shop and everyone in it a cake. A little bit may be missing in translation but many of the shops have this cake. And we went for our morning coffee at a café run by a Californian/Mexican lady who invited us to cut the cake, luckily my wife did not hit the baby!

Nice to see the Pelicans diving and scooping up fish close to the seafront.

Today we were looking for trips and doing a deep dive into the town. There are lovely walks across bridges and markets scattered everywhere, it's a very colourful town and the people speak English. We saw a big rise in Americans here and as it is solely supported by tourism speaking English seems common. However, where possible we always speak Spanish as it is polite to do so.

We ended up in a beach restaurant taking advantage of happy hour 2 for 1 deals on cocktails and just chilling. We saw a Humpback Whale breaching relatively near to us from the restaurant. We have organised a trip to swim with wild dolphins and do some whale watching plus visit an island this will be in next week instalment.

Nightlife in Puerto Vallarta is very lively it's a busy place but not as crazy as Mexico City. It was also nice to see the sea again.

Date stamp: 7 January 2023 - Trip up to visit Sayulita

Check out the day at the Hacienda and the time for us to move across to Sayulita. Checkout is at 12:00 which means time for a coffee and breakfast and a leisurely pack. We were going to get the local bus to Sayulita but in the end, decided for ease to get an Uber drive for the 1 hour 15 minutes to our hostel for about £30.

Arriving at the hostel down a dusty bumpy track road the Hostel appeared. Please note that it looked nothing like the pictures on Hostel World, it was a bit untidy and the smell of weed on entry confirmed it was not what we were expecting. I think for 18 - 26-year-olds it's perfect, we're really starting to show our age.

But time will tell...

We dropped our bags off and did a recky of the surrounding area. Smaller than Puerto Vallarta, Sayulita has a buzzing feel you can walk around the town's main roads in 30 minutes. There are lots of shops, cafes and bars with amazing smells of seafood in the air. The beach is not too long but it has a great feel to it.

Date stamp: 8 - 9 January 2023 - Sayulita

For the next few days, we rested and enjoyed the sun, internet at the hostel was ok but not in the room and as there was music playing everywhere it was hard to do any kind of recording.

It's a Very Small World

Sitting outside the Hostel with my laptop and of course my Zenler T-shirt on, a guy called out to me "Are you David Zenler?" I said yes and found out that David Visaldes is one of our instructors. He wanted a picture with me and I felt like a celebrity. Hoping to meet him at some point.

Date stamp: 10 - 11 January 2023 - Sayulita Covid Delta struck!

Got Covid Delta variant so out of action for two days! I was able to do a little work but not much.
On the 11th feeling a little better, but not totally, with taste loss, an aching back, a runny nose and a headache behind the eyes deep joy :)

Date stamp: 12 January 2023 - Sayulita hotel switch

We are moving today about 5 minutes to a hotel on the beach. We often go there for lunch and know some of the staff it looks really nice checkout in most places is 12:00 but we are leaving at about 10!

Beachfront huts are amazing just 10 seconds to the sea. The room has a giant bed and a great panoramic sea view.

One of the bartenders Mosas, recommended me a Chlamato drink as it gives energy and boosts the immune system. It did help, but it was a massive two pints that tasted a bit like Bloody Mary and to be honest, I felt much better after.

Date stamp: 13 January 2023 - Sayulita Chill Day

We are off tomorrow to Saint Poncho so today is a recovery day as I am not 100% yet. Such a shame as the beach has pretty decent waves but I'm not able to get in the water yet.

See you in the next Instalment...

Categories: : Zenler Digital Nomad/Stories