Settling into Sayulita

I’m drafting this blog post while seated outdoors at a café in Sayulita, Mexico, an oceanfront town about 25 miles northwest of Puerto Vallarta. I’m sipping my café americano, and I’m about to dig into my egg white/spinach/avocado/feta on an English muffin. All the other patrons are speaking English — a young couple just walked in, “Do you have Wi-Fi?” There are signs everywhere noting that this is not a co-working space; laptop time is limited to an hour. Window lettering advertises “bagels, bowls, waffles, vegan & gluten free.” Save for the employees welcoming folks with, “Hola chicos!” and the golf carts passing by on the cobblestone street at my left, I could be eating my breakfast at a restaurant in in the United States.

But I’m not. I’m in Mexico sampling what it might be like to live and work somewhere warm during Colorado’s winter months. Because my husband and I are tired of the cold and snow. And we’re semi-retired (work part time, work for ourselves, can work from anywhere… whatever you want to call it).

We’re kicking off a long-term plan to test different warm-weather locales for a few weeks at a time to see if maybe there’s some place in the world we’d want to settle for a few months at a time once the snow starts to fly back home (and Colorado will always be our home).

But there are a LOT of places in the world that have our attention — like a half-dozen spots in Mexico, plus Hawaii, Panama, Thailand, plus the U.S. Southwest or Southeast in or out of the RV). So maybe we’ll spend the rest of our healthy years just “testing” tropical (or desert) spots for a few weeks instead of settling somewhere for a few months. Who knows. We’re winging it.

And right now, we’re winging it in Sayulita, a place we last visited 15 years ago when the kids were little. And boy, has it grown. I’d heard the former quiet fishing village turned popular hippie surf spot had undergone a ton of development, but wasn’t expecting so many coffeeshops catering to a foreign digital-nomad crowd.

From our trip here in 2006, I recall dirt streets and a bunch of stray dogs and a handful of restaurants. Now the downtown core is packed with posh Italian eateries, crêperies, bikini boutiques, and surf shops alongside sports bars crammed into alleyways and residents selling tamales and tacos al pastor (pork grilled on a spit) on the street.

It’s not always easy to tell who’s visiting and who’s living here in Sayulita, but English speakers I’ve seen around town include groups of girlfriends, vaping 20-somethings “studying for the bar” and “working in communications from wherever” (according to coffeeshop conversation), surfers of all ages, 60-somethings who appear decidedly retired and relocated (or on vacation), and families with young kids.

There are of course plenty of Mexicans in the mix, but I’ve seen fewer at at the wood-fired pizza place or cocktail bar and more seated on the street corner in plastic white chairs eating authentic comida mexicana. Or they’re at the beach under umbrellas recreating in big family groups. Or they’re tearing it up in the surf — we had such fun watching a young kid, maybe 10 years old, ride wave after wave in without falling. Clearly he’d grown up in the ocean.

Are we enjoying ourselves in Sayulita? Absolutely. We’re warm. We’re relaxed. We’re eating well (except that 24-hour bout of food poisoning from a restaurant burrito — my first stomach issue in Mexico in 25 years of visiting!). We’ve spent every day in the last week at the beach (except that one lost sick day). I’ve read three books since we arrived last Monday. I never take the time to read so much at home.

Are we truly “living like locals”? Gosh no. That is, we’re shopping in little tiendas (corner grocery stores); no “Mega” or Super Walmart here. We’ve bought tortillas at the tortilleria ($.70 for a stack), and we’ve dropped our dirty clothes at the lavanderia ($4.50 for a tall kitchen trash bag full). But, as I said, I’m also quite happy with my egg-whites and veggies for breakfast, and that thin-crust mushroom pizza and shrimp scampi we had the other night was REALLY good.

So, I think our ideal foreign spot is some place that does have some creature comforts and services that cater to visitors — with plenty of local charm and culture, too. Sayulita proper feels overrun by gringos, is quite touristy, and has a boho vibe that isn’t quite what we fully resonate with — at least where we’re hanging out. We dig the scene, but not sure if it’s a longer landing spot for us. In the meantime we’re certainly enjoying a lot of what we’ve encountered so far. And we’re glad we have another week here.

I’ve decided one week isn’t long enough to feel settled and get a good feel for any place. Two weeks is better. After all, I need some enough time to sample more than one $30 beachfront massage. I and absolutely must return to the weekly’s farmer’s market to get more organic hummus, guac, and the best-ever tortilla chips (and try on that linen sundress I should have tried on the first time). I also need to get back to the used bookstore and try the coffee that’s grown and roasted locally (it was too late in the day for me to fully enjoy a cup when we were there last week).

Lots still to do, see, explore, and eat here. But here are a few highlights so far:

We’re staying at a casita hidden in a hill — it has pros and cons

We’ve rented a one-bedroom little house (casita) that faces the main beach of Sayulita (which is huge and crowded, particularly in one central section). Our house is located toward the south (quieter) end of the beach, and we’re on a hill, so we’re above all the action — which includes a lot of fishing boats and a station where the local fishermen clean their catch (read: it can be a little smelly sometimes).

But since we’re up on the hill, we also hear beach music wafting up often — which we like. We also like spotting whales in the ocean! Diving pelicans are also fun to watch from our patio perch.

This place is rustic, for sure. And it’s got its foibles: Teeny tiny bugs that appear on the counter if you leave anything organic out. Mold on the side of the fridge (it’s humid here; no big surprise). And birds that poop on the patio. We also have to bring the patio furniture in at night because of the dew that appears regularly overnight — the cushions would be soaked otherwise.

It’s cozy, but not too cramped for the two of us. When we’re here hanging out, we’re mostly outside on the patio (no, we haven’t been pooped on yet). One afternoon it rained, and we split up in different rooms to read on the couch and on the bed. The lack of air-conditioning isn’t an issue with moderate temperatures in January, and there’s a constant breeze; we can open huge windows in the bedroom and the doors leading from the living room to the patio.

I love the colorful Mexican bathroom tile and the little open window in the tiled shower. I can wash my hair while watching surfers in the distance!

I appreciate the quiet location on the hill, for sure — again the ocean views are divine. However, it’s a trek up (or down) to the casita! We counted 78 steps up from the road that fronts the beach. Or you can reach the casita by walking down to it from a driveway that’s even further up the hill — but that also involves a trek up a steep cobblestone road. It definitely makes us plan our day smartly to avoid multiple ups and downs (e.g., morning exercise and back home for breakfast; a few hours at the beach and back home for lunch or afternoon siesta; back out for dinner in town combined with a stop at the grocery store).

I’m happy for the bun workout, but the steep trek does do a number on my bum ankle (that’s getting ligament reconstruction surgery in late February — after I’ve put it off for years — but that’s a blog post for another day — and also why we’re not spending more time in warm weather this winter!).

We planned these accommodations to be close to fitness class in a palapa

When I was researching things to do in Sayulita, I came across Mexfit. Owned and run by Dr. Shelly (an MD with an MPH who’s also a certified personal trainer), Mexfit offers drop-in group fitness classes in a palapa on a hill five mornings a week. It’s just a 5-minute walk away from our casita.

I’ve been to two ropes classes (like TRX) and Quent went to “yogalates” (more stretching than downward dog or pilates, he reports). After two, hour-long classes I realized a) how much I miss group fitness (I quit my gym at the beginning of the pandemic) and b) how little strength training I’ve done in the past two years (full-body DOMS combined w/ food poisoning was rough).

Also, spotting whales frolicking in the ocean — including babies! — makes planks and bicep curls more palatable.

We love the quiet beach

As I said, we’re above the main beach of Sayulita. It’s busy, and at its core, it’s chock full of umbrellas and chairs and people and vendors and music. And did I mention people?

We’re still not hugely keen on crowds, even outdoors (thanks, COVID), so besides spending one full day on the busy main beach (where we paid $20 for the privilege of sitting in good lounge chairs under an umbrella with drink service from the bar behind us), we’ve mainly brought our own beach chairs to Playa de los Muertos — about an 8-minute walk away.

When we went to this little beach with the kids 15 years ago, Quent recalls us being the only people there! Now it’s not so much a secret, and it’s got its own lounge chair/umbrella biz (not sure if you pay to sit under an umbrella or just promise to buy food and drink from folks working the on-site palapa), but you can also BYOWhatever and just hang out there all day. Yes, there are still vendors walking the beach and selling everything under the sun (magnets, blankets, bottle openers, salad bowls, bracelets, artwork, tchotchkes), but it’s relatively peaceful compared to the main beach.

We’re a stone’s throw from town, action, and food

That café I had breakfast at this morning? To get there from our home, I walk up the load of steps, then down the cobblestone hill — also 5 minutes away. Our closest grocery store is just down the street from the café. Those massage places on the beach — less than 5 minutes. And Sayulita’s main plaza/core downtown is about an 8-minute walk. We’re close to everything we need, and I appreciate not needing a car here at all. A golf cart might be nice, but we’re not going to pay to rent one when we don’t really NEED one (and we’d have to walk up and down these damn steps to get to the parked golf cart anyway).

I’ve been eating bland, non-restaurant food since the bout with food poisoning — which I got from a meal at Mary’s, touted as one of the top Mexican restaurants in Sayulita. Yeah…. I won’t be back, nor will I ever recommend it. Cereal, cheese and ham quesadillas, bananas, the good farmer’s market hummus, sourdough bread from the bakery… that’s what’s been my diet the past few days.

BUT, Quent came home with the most amazing torta he bought off the street the other night (seasoned chopped beef with onions and peppers and beans on soft bread and served with at least six different sauces and extras like chopped cucumber and jalapeño). I had a bite and it was amaze-balls. So, we’re going to venture out and get another one of those this evening. And I look forward to digging more into the restaurant scene, for sure, now that my appetite’s back.

On to San Pancho next week

After another week in Sayulita, we’re heading to San Pancho, where we’ve rented a decidedly less rustic, more spacious, two-bedroom casa (not casita!) for a week. San Pancho is a smaller town (“What Sayulita was 15 years ago,” I’m told) about a 15-minute drive north of where we are now. Fans and friends rave about the area — so we look forward to exploring there soon.

In the meantime… a beach massage is calling.