Barra de Navidad

What a weekend! I didn’t want it to end.

FRIDAY (1/29)

Minori, Alice, I went straight from school to the bus terminal. Alice was going to visit friends in Mexico City, so we all shared a taxi. Everyone else was driving and planned on heading out around the same time as our bus.

Minori and I took Primera Plus all the way to Barra de Navidad and back for a little under $56! The bus ride itself took 7.5 hours but it wasn’t too bad. They gave us snacks and drinks when we got on the bus in Guadalajara and played movies the whole time. We drove through a landscape that reminded me of Thailand all dried out with a little California. Dry rolling hills, little pueblos with a few beat up cement buildings, vast agave fields, etc. There was a car accident in the middle of the main highway that delayed us and hour and a half.

We got to Barra de Navidad around 9:30pm and found out that we were the first people there from our party, so we dropped our stuff in our hotel (Hotel Caribe) and went exploring for a few hours. The car with Elan, Kim, Tyler, and Jan showed up at 11:30pm and they told us the others weren’t going to come after all, so we had these giant rooms reserved for a party of twelve that only had six people in them. Oh well, it was a really good group of six.

We ended up going and exploring the town again because the others hadn’t eaten dinner yet. Nothing was open so we went to a tiny burrito/hamburger place called Pipi’s. We made friends with the owner, Pipi (or as Tyler called him El Jefe), and always said hi to him when we came by for the rest of the weekend. After Pipi’s we went to the only bar that was open (and I’m not even sure if it was open) called Lucy’s. There were two old Canadian hippies jamming on their guitars for the bar owner and we sat down with them and listened to them play. I couldn’t help myself so I asked if I could play a song which turned into five because they wouldn’t let me stop. It had been a long time since I played so I really couldn’t remember much, but I faked it pretty well I guess.

SATURDAY (1/30)

We got up and went to La Casa de Mi Abuela, a breakfast place half a block from our hotel that the proprietor at Lucy’s told Kim about the night before. The portions were tiny, but it was good. I drank a glass of carrot juice because my CEPE professor told me it would help me tan even if I wore sunscreen.

After breakfast we made our way to the beach very slowly. I had to buy a bathing suit because I forgot all my bathing suit bottoms in Guadalajara (just like Thailand), but there were also a bunch of other touristy shops selling hats and dresses and little souvenirs. When we finally did get to the beach it was around 2 and we hung out there until lunch/dinner around 5, just drinking beers with lime and playing in the water.

Lunch/dinner was at Mexico Lindo which turned out to be our favorite spot along with Pipi’s to grab a bite. It was this cute little place with an open kitchen that faced the dining patio in the back. There was a woman making tortillas and there was fresh squeezed juice and lots of bright, tropical colors. It seemed to be run by a family with many many women. I got a delicious super burrito with chicken!

After dinner we went back to the beach with some tequila and lime, rum and coke, and watched the sunset. Kim kept saying how lucky we all were to be where we were at that moment, saying “this is the life!” and we all kept agreeing. It was beautiful to sit there with such a great group of people and be so thankful for it in that moment. We sat there for hours after the sunset just talking and frolicking on the beach like we do.

After a while we tried to go dancing but that was a bust. The only "club" had a cover charge of 40 pesos so we decided it wasn’t worth it because we’re cheap. We headed back over to Lucy’s where there were a lot more old hippies than the night before and I ended up getting coaxed into playing for them again. I played all the same songs, but no one seemed to care – “The Show,” “Far Away,” “Winding Road,” “You and I Both,” “Giving Up,” and “One Sweet Love”. I caught one woman taking a video of me and I thought I should have been getting paid for all the business I was getting Lucy’s.

SUNDAY (1/31)

Minori and I got giant smoothies at a place around the corner from our hotel for breakfast and got to the beach (after much dilly-dallying) around noon. Tyler and I rented boogie boards but the waves ended up being really big and rough. I think some were as high as 15ft. I kept trying to go in and catch some waves but it was too hard and I got tossed around a few too many times, so I gave up. People from our group kind of came and went during the day, but it was mostly me and Minori. After the beach we went to Mexico Lindo, again, and I got another smoothie.

Then we repeated our sunset ritual with more tequila and limes and rum and coke. After dark Kim, Tyler and I went to Pipi's for some excellent burritos, followed up by ice cream at Thrifty's. Then we rejoined our group back at the beach and chatted for a long time. It started raining around 9 so we moved all our towels under a big beach umbrella from one of the restaurants. Eventually we got tired of sitting under the umbrella and we gathered up our stuff to go hang out at the hotel.

In our hotel there was a big covered porch on the second floor that we planned to hang out on, and when we got there there was a group of six Australians already there playing UNO and generally having a good time, so they invited us to play with them. We ended up sitting around with them for hours. There was a girl named Alex who had spent seven years growing up in the US so she "translated" for us, and we talked a lot about cultural differences and traveling. I love the Aussies. I think I got to bed around 6am?

MONDAY (2/1)

We all dragged ourselves out of bed around noon and went to Mexico Lindo (one last time) for breakfast. The service was terrible for some reason and we only got about half the things we ordered after waiting a ridiculous amount of time. Despite this, Mexico Lindo will always have a special place in my heart.

The others left around 1pm because their rental car had to be back by 5 or 6 or else they’d be charged for an extra day. Minori and I sat around for a while in the room and then went to the beach for an hour or so.

Minori and I caught the bus at 3:30pm and it was back to Guadalajara for us. We both slept most of the time. We got to the Guadalajara bus terminal around 10pm and Minori’s amigo amistad said he could pick us up in twenty minutes. Twenty minutes turned into an hour. It was so cold and wet outside! When I finally got home around 11:30 I just plopped into bed and fell asleep without doing my homework or unpacking.