Review of La Peñita de Jaltemba, Nayarit
Dec. 16th, 2023 10:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickThis is a picture-heavy post reviewing my very brief stay in Mexico to do lawyer stuff with my dad's house there.
La Peñita is up the Pacific coast of Mexico, about an hour and a half north of Puerto Vallarta, the nearest reasonable airport. To visit, you fly into Puerto Vallarta, then take a taxi or get a ride in someone's car to the actual town.
There are two roads from PV to La Peñita, one free and one pay-for. The new pay-for road is a more modern highway and the free road is a standard 2 lane road with no shoulder and lots of twisty turns. We used the free road.
The town itself is a fantasic illustration of what happens when there aren't building codes or setbacks. The main drag in town is paved, but the rest of the streets are cobblestone. Like, actual round rocks set into a dirt/gravel matrix. Here's a picture:
This sounds like it'd be quaint and it is unless you have to drive or walk on it, in which case goodbye suspension and hello rolled ankles.
It's legit tropical. Tropical fruit grows at random and also in plantations. There are pineapple plantations out of town, lots of them.
Here is a banana tree:
And here is a papaya tree:
Papaya trees are rather distinctive and they grow literally everywhere, abandoned lots, side of the road, all over the damn place. My dad has had the Mexico house for twenty fucking years and I asked him what those weird trees were and he was I don't have any idea.
One of the things that is different about Mexico, not just where Dad's house is but all over, is that neighborhoods tend to be "mixed" which is to say you can have a block-sized compound with solid 8' tall wall and a visible 3 car garage and "hostile architecture" right next to a tiny two room shack with a dirt floor. Most rich houses have iron bars on the windows to indicate that the house contains things worth stealing.
Here's some hostile architecture so you can see what I'm talking about:
It's supposed to look like agave "decorations" but also it's to keep out the robber poors.
There are squirrels in Mexico:
There are street dogs. These are unowned rando dogs that just wander around loose. There are more street dogs than you are probably imagining. Also, side note, there is more dog shit than you are probably imagining. Dog shit is a real hazard of walking on the streets and sidewalks (where present).
The street dogs are polite because if they are not, the residents throw rocks at them.
There is a beach in the town. All Mexican beaches are pretty much public. We went to walk on the beach, which was very walkable. It was, sadly, not a shell beach. It did have appropriate beach birds:
And there were pelicans!
There was this bird, which I think is a Magnificent Frigatebird. Very majestic.
There are turkey vultures.
There's a fishing trade that operates on the beach. They clean the filet meat off the fish and throw the leftover fish parts on the sand. It's exactly as nice as it sounds.
There is more littering than probably you think. Sides of roads, in town, vacant lots, etc. Lots of litter. And sometimes in the street, you can find weird shit. Like this:
Pretty sure that's a cow jawbone.
There were a lot of chickens. The chickens run around loose. You can hear roosters throughout the town and particularly before and at dawn. I am not sure if the chickens have owners or not.
There was a tree with very long seed pods which I did not get a sample of. I would have really liked a sample, but there was no opportunity and also you can't get biologics back into the states anyway. *sigh*
There were marigold like flowers:
And this other quite tall yellow roadside flower:
Lots of things that I'd consider houseplants grow outside all the time. People have them in their yards and stuff. Snake plant, Aloe Vera, Diffenbachia, Tradescantia, Monstera, etc.
The kids wear school uniforms. When school lets out, there are bunches of people clustered around the school selling what looks like repackaged cheese doodles and stuff. Like, they buy a family size bag of cheese doodles, repackage in cup-size servings, and sell to schoolkids on their way home.
There are pushcarts. There are laundry services. There are many, many restaurants. There is a tiny little grocery store on damn near every other corner. I'm not sure there's as much oversight of businesses in Mexico as there is in the states.
How'd the Spanish go?
Eh. I have *some* Spanish. My dad has virtually none, despite spending literally months a year in Mexico at his house. They will let you speak Spanish until you fail, at which point they switch to English. *sigh* I do not have enough Spanish to manage a conversation fluently but I can do... some. I got to trot out some of the Spanish, which was nice, but I've got more to work on there. Dad has, like, no command of numbers or stuff beyond please/thank you/goodbye. I feel like he should be doing better with that, but he does what he does.
There were enchiladas (tasty) and there was a mango margarita at Hinde & Jaime's which is a gringo watering hole. Nice mango margarita, though. Dad wanted me to eat prime rib at Avanti when I got there, so I ate prime rib at Avanti when I got there. I'd have rather had pork tacos, but he didn't ask me. Sometimes, the gift you give is gracefully accepting the gift that people want to give you. *sigh*
Breakfasts were dad's cooking, omelet with bacon and cheese. I'd have preferred to go out for breakfast, but Wednesday we tried that and everything was closed. Thursday we had to get the plane so we didn't have time plus he'd already put the car away in the garage and getting the car in or out of the garage is a... challenge. So, no breakfast out. *sigh*
Wednesday evening I didn't do dinner because I wasn't feeling it. My stomach does not do travel well. Like, even if I'm healthy, just everything is disrupted and I'm just off for several days. There is not travel where my stomach feels right. Apparently I don't get to have that anymore.
Which leads me to the flight back on Thursday. Dad wanted to get lunch at the airport in PV. I would rather cut off my feet at the ankles than eat airport food, but I wasn't the one driving the train, so we split a chicken sub from Subway with (cloying) sweet onion sauce. This was, in retrospect, this not my smartest choice. (Foreshadowing. I am foreshadowing.)
From PVI (Puerta Vallarta International) to Atlanta, it was not a great flight. The plane was OK but I did not feel well and it did not go well. There was puke. A lot. On the plane. I could not locate/open puke bag in time so as a result I puked into my hands, which then spilled over my hands onto the tray table, my lap, seat, floor. It was awful. Had to mop up the puke from table, seat, self, floor, etc. Had to change clothes in the airplane bathroom (Zero Stars, would not recommend).
*sigh*
At that point, I felt shitty enough that I did not give two fucks for the embarrassment factor. Winning? I don't know.
Once it's puke mode, there's easily two to three hours of dry-heaves-every-twenty-minutes to follow. Apparently that's just how I work now. *sigh* I have had an endoscopy and they said there was nothing wrong with me and they had no explanation for puke mode so apparently that's my life now. Whatever. I got off the plane (in between pukes), got in line for immigration and customs, puked (had a bag with me) more. Twice. Since it was just stomach acid, it was horrible gurgling sounds, really quite dreadful sounding, and about a quarter to a half a cup of stomach acid per effort. So, it fit in the puke bag nicely. There is a long queue for immigration/customs at Atlanta. It seems a lot longer when you're dry heaving into a bag. By the time I got to where the officials could see me, they were "Ma'am, Ma'am, this way" which, y'know, okay but my compliance is slow because I'm dry heaving stomach acid into an airplane barf bag. I comply with the officials insofar as I am able. In between heaves, they facial-id'd me and then they were "Do you need medical attention?"
No, you idiots. I need to sit still or (better) lie down for about two hours to let things settle down. No food, no water, no nothing. Dark and still, not moving. Hopefully warm b/c I'm fucking freezing at this point.
I declined the medical attention as politely as possible. "No, I'm OK. I just need to lie down for a few hours." They did give me a new barf bag which was super nice. I took that and headed to gate for next flight (3 hour layover). Laid down on floor of airport with my carryon for a pillow, closed eyes, wished for sweet release of death OR cessation of the pukes.
During the lie down, cessation of the pukes occurred as expected, which was good. Hallelujah.
Second flight (Atlanta to BWI) was uneventful and food/drink free because I just... couldn't. I rather like the Delta cookies but no. I tried to sleep but failed (can't sleep on planes). We got into BWI around midnight-thirty.
At BWI, I discovered that my photograph of the location of my car in Long Term A was a shitty video and not a useful picture. Oops. However I thought it was probably maybe 14. So we got off at 14. And there was my car, YAY. So that went right. Long Term A is a large parking lot and if I'd really lost the car, we would have been in trouble.
Went to hotel, checked in, had half a ginger ale, went to sleep.
Following morning, skipped breakfast food but got a large coffee, drove home from Baltimore, went to work and did stuff. Had a small fry at BK for lunch, ate a reasonable dinner. Things seem a bit shaky on the GI front, so I'm eating carefully but no pukes so far today, so yay.
La Peñita is up the Pacific coast of Mexico, about an hour and a half north of Puerto Vallarta, the nearest reasonable airport. To visit, you fly into Puerto Vallarta, then take a taxi or get a ride in someone's car to the actual town.
There are two roads from PV to La Peñita, one free and one pay-for. The new pay-for road is a more modern highway and the free road is a standard 2 lane road with no shoulder and lots of twisty turns. We used the free road.
The town itself is a fantasic illustration of what happens when there aren't building codes or setbacks. The main drag in town is paved, but the rest of the streets are cobblestone. Like, actual round rocks set into a dirt/gravel matrix. Here's a picture:
This sounds like it'd be quaint and it is unless you have to drive or walk on it, in which case goodbye suspension and hello rolled ankles.
It's legit tropical. Tropical fruit grows at random and also in plantations. There are pineapple plantations out of town, lots of them.
Here is a banana tree:
And here is a papaya tree:
Papaya trees are rather distinctive and they grow literally everywhere, abandoned lots, side of the road, all over the damn place. My dad has had the Mexico house for twenty fucking years and I asked him what those weird trees were and he was I don't have any idea.
One of the things that is different about Mexico, not just where Dad's house is but all over, is that neighborhoods tend to be "mixed" which is to say you can have a block-sized compound with solid 8' tall wall and a visible 3 car garage and "hostile architecture" right next to a tiny two room shack with a dirt floor. Most rich houses have iron bars on the windows to indicate that the house contains things worth stealing.
Here's some hostile architecture so you can see what I'm talking about:
It's supposed to look like agave "decorations" but also it's to keep out the robber poors.
There are squirrels in Mexico:
There are street dogs. These are unowned rando dogs that just wander around loose. There are more street dogs than you are probably imagining. Also, side note, there is more dog shit than you are probably imagining. Dog shit is a real hazard of walking on the streets and sidewalks (where present).
The street dogs are polite because if they are not, the residents throw rocks at them.
There is a beach in the town. All Mexican beaches are pretty much public. We went to walk on the beach, which was very walkable. It was, sadly, not a shell beach. It did have appropriate beach birds:
And there were pelicans!
There was this bird, which I think is a Magnificent Frigatebird. Very majestic.
There are turkey vultures.
There's a fishing trade that operates on the beach. They clean the filet meat off the fish and throw the leftover fish parts on the sand. It's exactly as nice as it sounds.
There is more littering than probably you think. Sides of roads, in town, vacant lots, etc. Lots of litter. And sometimes in the street, you can find weird shit. Like this:
Pretty sure that's a cow jawbone.
There were a lot of chickens. The chickens run around loose. You can hear roosters throughout the town and particularly before and at dawn. I am not sure if the chickens have owners or not.
There was a tree with very long seed pods which I did not get a sample of. I would have really liked a sample, but there was no opportunity and also you can't get biologics back into the states anyway. *sigh*
There were marigold like flowers:
And this other quite tall yellow roadside flower:
Lots of things that I'd consider houseplants grow outside all the time. People have them in their yards and stuff. Snake plant, Aloe Vera, Diffenbachia, Tradescantia, Monstera, etc.
The kids wear school uniforms. When school lets out, there are bunches of people clustered around the school selling what looks like repackaged cheese doodles and stuff. Like, they buy a family size bag of cheese doodles, repackage in cup-size servings, and sell to schoolkids on their way home.
There are pushcarts. There are laundry services. There are many, many restaurants. There is a tiny little grocery store on damn near every other corner. I'm not sure there's as much oversight of businesses in Mexico as there is in the states.
How'd the Spanish go?
Eh. I have *some* Spanish. My dad has virtually none, despite spending literally months a year in Mexico at his house. They will let you speak Spanish until you fail, at which point they switch to English. *sigh* I do not have enough Spanish to manage a conversation fluently but I can do... some. I got to trot out some of the Spanish, which was nice, but I've got more to work on there. Dad has, like, no command of numbers or stuff beyond please/thank you/goodbye. I feel like he should be doing better with that, but he does what he does.
There were enchiladas (tasty) and there was a mango margarita at Hinde & Jaime's which is a gringo watering hole. Nice mango margarita, though. Dad wanted me to eat prime rib at Avanti when I got there, so I ate prime rib at Avanti when I got there. I'd have rather had pork tacos, but he didn't ask me. Sometimes, the gift you give is gracefully accepting the gift that people want to give you. *sigh*
Breakfasts were dad's cooking, omelet with bacon and cheese. I'd have preferred to go out for breakfast, but Wednesday we tried that and everything was closed. Thursday we had to get the plane so we didn't have time plus he'd already put the car away in the garage and getting the car in or out of the garage is a... challenge. So, no breakfast out. *sigh*
Wednesday evening I didn't do dinner because I wasn't feeling it. My stomach does not do travel well. Like, even if I'm healthy, just everything is disrupted and I'm just off for several days. There is not travel where my stomach feels right. Apparently I don't get to have that anymore.
Which leads me to the flight back on Thursday. Dad wanted to get lunch at the airport in PV. I would rather cut off my feet at the ankles than eat airport food, but I wasn't the one driving the train, so we split a chicken sub from Subway with (cloying) sweet onion sauce. This was, in retrospect, this not my smartest choice. (Foreshadowing. I am foreshadowing.)
From PVI (Puerta Vallarta International) to Atlanta, it was not a great flight. The plane was OK but I did not feel well and it did not go well. There was puke. A lot. On the plane. I could not locate/open puke bag in time so as a result I puked into my hands, which then spilled over my hands onto the tray table, my lap, seat, floor. It was awful. Had to mop up the puke from table, seat, self, floor, etc. Had to change clothes in the airplane bathroom (Zero Stars, would not recommend).
*sigh*
At that point, I felt shitty enough that I did not give two fucks for the embarrassment factor. Winning? I don't know.
Once it's puke mode, there's easily two to three hours of dry-heaves-every-twenty-minutes to follow. Apparently that's just how I work now. *sigh* I have had an endoscopy and they said there was nothing wrong with me and they had no explanation for puke mode so apparently that's my life now. Whatever. I got off the plane (in between pukes), got in line for immigration and customs, puked (had a bag with me) more. Twice. Since it was just stomach acid, it was horrible gurgling sounds, really quite dreadful sounding, and about a quarter to a half a cup of stomach acid per effort. So, it fit in the puke bag nicely. There is a long queue for immigration/customs at Atlanta. It seems a lot longer when you're dry heaving into a bag. By the time I got to where the officials could see me, they were "Ma'am, Ma'am, this way" which, y'know, okay but my compliance is slow because I'm dry heaving stomach acid into an airplane barf bag. I comply with the officials insofar as I am able. In between heaves, they facial-id'd me and then they were "Do you need medical attention?"
No, you idiots. I need to sit still or (better) lie down for about two hours to let things settle down. No food, no water, no nothing. Dark and still, not moving. Hopefully warm b/c I'm fucking freezing at this point.
I declined the medical attention as politely as possible. "No, I'm OK. I just need to lie down for a few hours." They did give me a new barf bag which was super nice. I took that and headed to gate for next flight (3 hour layover). Laid down on floor of airport with my carryon for a pillow, closed eyes, wished for sweet release of death OR cessation of the pukes.
During the lie down, cessation of the pukes occurred as expected, which was good. Hallelujah.
Second flight (Atlanta to BWI) was uneventful and food/drink free because I just... couldn't. I rather like the Delta cookies but no. I tried to sleep but failed (can't sleep on planes). We got into BWI around midnight-thirty.
At BWI, I discovered that my photograph of the location of my car in Long Term A was a shitty video and not a useful picture. Oops. However I thought it was probably maybe 14. So we got off at 14. And there was my car, YAY. So that went right. Long Term A is a large parking lot and if I'd really lost the car, we would have been in trouble.
Went to hotel, checked in, had half a ginger ale, went to sleep.
Following morning, skipped breakfast food but got a large coffee, drove home from Baltimore, went to work and did stuff. Had a small fry at BK for lunch, ate a reasonable dinner. Things seem a bit shaky on the GI front, so I'm eating carefully but no pukes so far today, so yay.
