Trip to Punta El Custodio, Platanitos - Mexico

Hannchen & I flew Continental air lines on Friday, 11-9-07, to Puerto Vallarta via Houston to meet Richard and Cheryl Wrangle for a week's stay at Villa Exotica in Punta El Custodio, a gated community of 10 private villas next to Platanitos, a small fishing village 75 miles north of Puerto Vallarta.

We had a 3 hour layover in Houston, enjoying a delicious seafood lunch and wine at an upscale airport restaurant.

We arrived at the PV airport after 7:00 PM local time, cleared customs, arranged a time share presentation for the next morning with our new friend Angel and headed to Hertz to pick up our Ford Fusion. The car rented for over $400 for 8 days, the cheapest rate I could get through AAA in Seattle for a mid-sized car. With various taxes and insurance the total cost was over $900 USD. Very expensive I thought.

We arrived at Villa Del Palmar in downtown PV about 9:45 PM where we were met by Cheryl in the inviting lobby. After checking into our $60 per night room, which Cheryl arranged online, we were served a nice meal she had prepared in her adjoining room while visiting with her and Richard.

The Wrangles had arrived 3 days earlier and had been exploring downtown PV and relaxing at VD Palmar.

The following morning, Saturday, the 4 of us met Angel on our beach and were walked over to a timeshare presentation. Hannchen and I had no interest in buying another timeshare but felt the $250 cash payment for attending would help defray the cost of what in the end was a very expensive rental car. It started off ok with the usual complimentary breakfast. From there we were being handed off from the friendly front guy to increasingly harder-sell individuals. Once we convinced them we were not buying today shuffled off the "Jimmy" for the "closing survey", which is code for a final attempt at a backdoor sell. Hannchen and I had experienced "Jimmy" a couple of years earlier and I had a bad feeling about him. I remembered him but he not us. I was ready for his techniques this time. After a couple of somewhat polite digs on "Jimmy's" part, but digs or insults none-the-less, we left "Jimmy".

Once we received our complimentary bottle of Tequila, which was offered quickly, and our $2,500 Mexican Pesos ($250 USD) which took some prodding and patience to receive the four of us were anxious to hop in our over-priced Ford Fusion and begin our week's vacation together.

We began our journey north by stopping in Bucerias, 30 minutes north of PV, for lunch at one of Hannchen and my favorite Mexican ocean-side restaurants. The weather was sunny and mid 80's with a pleasant breeze coming off Banderos Bay. It was 2:00 PM and we had the restaurant to ourselves. The usual singing guitarist serenaded us with a tune for a nominal tip.

Our 2 hour drive to Punta El Custodio was pleasant when we weren't being overtaken by numerous Mexican motorists that seemed late for a fire we never did see. Some Mexican drivers make San Francisco and LA drivers look down right laid back.

We drove through numerous little towns, each greeting us with the poorly marked speed bumps in case you didn't see or heed the reduced speed limit. We decided this must be the only way they have found to keep those wild Mexican drivers from flying through town at very high speeds.

We finally reached Platanitos late afternoon, no thanks to road signage. From the small single cobblestone street in Seaside Platanitos it was not easy to find the start of the .5 kilometer road to Punta El Custodio.

The road was very rocky with the occasional deep rut. After bottoming our 4 to 6 times at 3 to 5 mph we arrived at the great wall and covered gated entry. Alfonso showed us Villa Exotica as well as the community pool and beach access.

Our new home for the week consisted of 2 bedrooms, one above the other, and a separate six sided kitchen/dining room that open onto a patio that faced south and southwest with a beautiful view out to the ocean to our right, an 8 mile long sandy beach to the south and an estuary to our left, or southeast. It was spectacular. Our fully prepared dinner awaited us. We only had to reheat it. We had found paradise at last.

Sunday morning I explored the estuary by sea kayak. With is being Sunday I encountered a number of locals fishing with both line and pole as well as throw nets along with children playing makeshift soccer on the exposed sandbar just inside the entrance.

Monday and Tuesday mornings Hannchen and I took single Kayaks up the estuary to explore the waterways lined by 12 to 18 foot tall Mangroves and enjoying the abundant herons, egrets and other water birds. We timed our exploration to take advantage of the incoming tidal current and the deeper water, enabling us to navigate the many channels in the estuary. Our return home was aided by the outgoing tide. Hannchen took numerous wildlife pictures while I just enjoyed the serenity and beauty. Hannchen left her larger SLR camera at the villa, I was afraid it would get wet when launching and landing our kayaks in the surf below our villa. She was disappointed with the picture quality using her smaller camera. In hindsight I was too cautious. The camera didn't feel a drop.

To access the gorgeous sandy beach with the backdrop of palms requires a relatively low tide of +2 feet in order to wade across the estuary entrance without a swimsuit. Swimming, surfing and boogie boarding can be enjoyed on nearly any tide. Hannchen and I gravitated to the beach and ocean when not relaxing or reading on our patio with the unbeatable view. When not on the patio Cheryl and Richard enjoyed the private community pool a short walk away. The pool was situated on the point where you could enjoy the afternoon breeze while sunning or sitting in the shade of the beautiful 75 foot tall fig tree that resembled a trained bonsai on steroids.

Monday afternoon Hannchen and I met Emilio at the National Turtle Protection project a short distance down the beach. To keep the eggs from the hands of poachers each evening they gather them after being laid and incubate them in beach cooler filled with sand for 50 days. At 5:00 PM each day from June to November they release the turtles that hatched that day. They choose 5:00 PM because the large bird population, that find baby sea turtles quite delicious, have rousted for the night.
We returned at 5:00 with Cheryl to help release the 200 or so Olive Ridley turtles, each about 2 inches long, into the Pacific Ocean approximately 15 feet from the waterline. It is quite sight to see these little newborns enthusiastically crawling down the beach to their first taste of seawater. By 4 years old those that survive will be 2.5 feet long and able to dive to 100 meters for up to 30 minutes at a time. What an experience to watch this while the sun sets into the Pacific.

This year alone they have released 140,000 turtles gathered from more than 2200 nests they find up and down Tortuga beach at night with their 4 x 4 beach cycles.
On Wednesday we met Almondo, a self taught naturalist from San Blas at 7:00 AM at an estuary 3 miles south of San Blas (50 minute drive from the villa). We spent 4 hours in the estuary viewing the plentiful birdlife as well as well as crocodiles and a few overgrown iguanas. We were in an open 18 foot boat with bench seats, a 50 horse power 4 cycle engine and a young local as our pilot. Almondo pays him a bit extra to go slowly to best enjoy the sites. Hannchen of course was quite busy shooting photos the entire trip. We stopped at a crocodile preserve and enjoyed a light lunch at the little outdoor cafe. These crocs were huge. I was happy to have a fence between us.

Following our estuary safari, which we all thought to be a highlight of the trip, Almondo showed us around his hometown of San Blas via our rental car. Early afternoon we bid farewell to Almondo and drove into the mountains towards the state capital for an hour or so and then back to the villa for another delicious dinner prepared by Lucalena, our cook.

Lucalena would arrive each morning about 8 AM and prepare us breakfast. She would remain at the villa until late afternoon cleaning and preparing our dinner meal which we generally would eat in the evening rather than mid day as the Mexicans do. She was a delight and her meals quite delicious. Our refrigerator was always well stocked with Corona beer and food for snacks. We would buy our wine at the main office for about $10 per bottle. I found it to be good wine at a reasonable price.

We met a colorful young man in his 30's from Denver named Galen Gill. Galen was overseeing the construction of a 4 bedroom villa in the enclave for his parents and himself. He drove a macho late model Ford PU and was temporarily living in a well equipped tent in a garage. His temporary home had a comfortable bed, large screen computer, numerous videos and music (which he offered to loan me) and a more than ample supply of big boy toys to keep him busy when not playing contractor. He was loving life, thanks in part I suspect to his dad the Denver surgeon. He was very friendly and more than willing to help us with advice. He was very enthusiastic about the soccer team, the Pirates of the Point, he organized made up of children from local towns and funded by the Punta El Custodio owners. He had enlisted his construction foreman as the coach, Galen considered himself the business manager. The team had uniforms as a group of cheerleaders in uniform as well. He proudly displayed large photos of each player and cheerleader on the large door to his garage/home. What a colorful and fun guy.

Most of the other Villas in the enclave were larger and more upscale but I figured Villa Exotica had the choice location on the small peninsula. One very tastefully built 2 bedroom villa was for sale. It was one of 3 or 4 not fronting the ocean. They were asking $400,000, which seemed like a deal since we were told most are worth over $1,000,000. We dreamed of making it a permanent vacation home for the 4 of us, but not too seriously.

Saturday morning we bid paradise farewell driving our Ford Fusion south to the hustle and bustle of Banderos Bay. We encountered numerous traffic jams once 15 or 20 miles of Bucerias. We stopped at Villa Del Palmar Flamingos for lunch to show Richard and Cheryl around, hoping they would like it enough to join us on a future vacation there. It was nice to be back even if for only an hour. I gathered they liked it as well.

Due to very heavy traffic we didn't have time to drive the Wrangles to their downtown condo; they were staying another couple of days. We had to drop them off at the airport Hertz office, once I managed to get us there. I missed the proper turn 2 or 3 times, each time being one divided lane away and having to drive a mile of more in heavy traffic to try a new approach. In the end we made it to the airport after bidding the Wrangles farewell at a dirty Hertz holding area as they hoped into a taxi. It didn't seem a fitting way to wrap up a wonderful vacation, but that's Mexico.

This was possibly the most enjoyable vacation I can ever recall, and we have been fortunate in recent years to have had a number of great vacations. I look forward to visiting Punta El Custodio again one day, hopefully with the Wrangles.

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