We woke up our third morning in Guadalajara early enough to
catch a bus that would take us to the beach. I think we made it to the bus
station a little before 10 after fighting traffic through the city, and bought
two tickets that would take us to Barra de Navidad. Apparently Barra is a
popular beach destination that many know about, but I had never heard of it
before this week. I actually found out about the town through my real estate
agent who emailed me about some other things while we were in Guadalajara but
mentioned a few towns on the pacific coast that were worth checking out since
we were down there. Our real estate agent is a pretty hip fellow, so we agreed his good opinion
on this town was probably worth the trip.
Eric expresses his excitement for finally making it to the beach
After sunset we went out to get some food. We found a little restaurant in town after realizing there were no taco stands open and had some pretty good volcano tacos. I’m not sure why they call them volcano tacos, maybe because of all the toppings you can put on them, but good they were nonetheless. We talked to an older Canadian couple while at dinner who had been coming down to Barra for the winter for the last 20 years. Upon arriving in Barra we saw more foreigners (white people) in 5 minutes than we had in entire two weeks we'd been in Mexico. I had no idea Barra was such a great attraction for snow birds. Mostly Canadian snowbirds.
The stuff in the middle looks like garlic and cilantro, but its actually pineapple and cilantro. I've never seen this as a dressing for tacos in the past, but it's actually really great and gives the tacos a nice beachy flavor.
After dinner we walked around town, watched some girls practice a dance routine in the town square, took some pictures and called it a night.
In this town, there is only one big resort to stay at and it’s located right outside of town on its own island. I am glad to see that it’s settled alongside a mountain and not blocking the views of the pacific or ruining the small town feel of Barra on the main side.
The drive itself is supposed to be about a 4 hour drive, but
the bus would take 6 hours with stops along the way. We took a very comfortable
and clean first class bus to Barra which offered free beverages and snacks to
munch on. The bus played a total of three movies in Spanish including
Spanglish, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (worst movie of all time), and
something with Ben Stiller that held our attention for most of the time. The
road was pretty good on the way there except for the long haul over some mountains at the
end which left both Eric and I pretty nauseous and missing the bike. Not sure
if the bike would be better going through winding turns or not, but I’m willing
to bet it probably would.
Drink and snack station. You pick whatever you want before getting onto the bus.
On the bright side, it was kind of fun traveling via bus vs
the bike because it brought back memories of a trip we took backpacking through
Central America a few years ago. Since we had stored some of our gear at our
hotel in Guadalajara our load to carry around was significantly lighter and
much more manageable. We arrived in Barra de Navidad around 3:30, found the hotel we planned to check in at, both
found ourselves with headaches from the amount of time it took to check in and
the hassle we got from using Hotels.com, and finally got to our room with the
view for about 77 US. The original price for the room on Hotels.com was
supposed to be 58.00 plus tax but was located in the back hotel with no water
front view. This hotel room offered a slightly better placement. Our room is located slightly over to the left:
A mariachi band was playing for a group of Mexican
guys right in our hotel court yard. Good music and free for us! (they're
in the back wearing white shirts).
After checking in we took a walk around town. Barra is actually
pretty small, so our walk was pretty short before stopping at a local
convenient store to grab some refreshments. Our guide book noted that it would
probably only take 25 minutes to walk the entire town of Barra, and I think
that’s about accurate. At the Oxxo stores in Mexico they have these really great
deals on alcohol and mixer combos so we ended up buying a bottle of spiced rum
with a 2 liter of soda for about 11 US total which we took back to the hotel to
watch the sunset with.
Eric expresses his excitement for finally making it to the beach
After sunset we went out to get some food. We found a little restaurant in town after realizing there were no taco stands open and had some pretty good volcano tacos. I’m not sure why they call them volcano tacos, maybe because of all the toppings you can put on them, but good they were nonetheless. We talked to an older Canadian couple while at dinner who had been coming down to Barra for the winter for the last 20 years. Upon arriving in Barra we saw more foreigners (white people) in 5 minutes than we had in entire two weeks we'd been in Mexico. I had no idea Barra was such a great attraction for snow birds. Mostly Canadian snowbirds.
The stuff in the middle looks like garlic and cilantro, but its actually pineapple and cilantro. I've never seen this as a dressing for tacos in the past, but it's actually really great and gives the tacos a nice beachy flavor.
After dinner we walked around town, watched some girls practice a dance routine in the town square, took some pictures and called it a night.
In this town, there is only one big resort to stay at and it’s located right outside of town on its own island. I am glad to see that it’s settled alongside a mountain and not blocking the views of the pacific or ruining the small town feel of Barra on the main side.
Sounds awesome!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
ReplyDelete