Sayulita Archives - Learning To Travel

Sayulita Beach Umbrella Seller

I really like this shot I as able to get of this Sayulita beach umbrella seller mostly because I was somehow able to make the beach look empty. The beach in Sayulita is rarely empty. Even in the evening and into the night you can find people enjoying this little piece of beach in this quaint Mexican village.

Plus the color of the umbrella really pops against the blue of the Pacific Ocean. Sayulita is one of our favorite places to visit though it does seem to come up more and more in travel media which means it will most likely change a lot over the coming years.

Sayulita Farmer’s Market

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Sayulita farmers market!

We made a weekly visit to the Friday Farmer’s Market while we were in Sayulita. We bought tiny little squashes, fresh cheese and locally made French pastry.

But our favorite purchases were the strawberries and the homemade salsa.

Sayulita Farmers Market

Stopping by and shopping at the Sayulita farmers market is well worth a visitors time as you’ll get a chance to sample some great locally made food as well as meet people who live in the quaint Mexican village.

But don’t worry if you can’t make the farmer’s market as Sayulita has plenty of stores and small stands where vendors sell fresh produce. It is a great way to eat super cheap here if you have a kitchen available and can do a little cooking on your own. This is especially good at breakfast.

Catching a Wave – Learning to Surf in Sayulita

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Why We Chose Sayulita

I’ve wanted to learn to surf since I knew surfing existed, well, at least since I was a freshman in high school, so when Daryle and I started planning our year-long adventure, we worked for a month in a beginner-friendly surfing location. Sayulita, Mexico.

Since surfing isn’t on Daryle’s agenda, it helps that Sayulita is also just a great little beach town with a relaxed vibe. It is a great mix of Mexican village and ex-pat community with many tourists thrown in the mix as well. This town of 4,000 still feels like Mexico in a way that the much larger city of Puerto Vallarta, down the road 25 miles or so, does not, in my opinion.

Whether you come here to surf or not, you can’t miss that surfing has made the town what it is today. There are countless surf shops and schools, and the water is constantly filled with beginners from 9-5. In the evening, on days when the surf is especially good, you can watch the pros catch the waves.

Learning To Surf

My mission upon arriving in town was to decide who would give the best surf lesson to get me started. Between TripAdvisor and some local recommendations, I settled on Lunazul Surf School, located facing the ocean in the middle of the South beach. I was very pleased with my choice (see my TripAdvisor review here) and not only got a few great lessons, but felt I made friends as well as I came in most days to rent a board.

While it seems now that I was up and catching waves in no time, that’s not exactly how it felt at the time. I had an initial lesson and got the standing up part pretty well or so I thought, but then I had days that were frustrating and discouraging, where it didn’t seem like I was improving. I’d have a decent day and then a mediocre day, and then a day where I just got pummeled by the ocean for a few hours until I felt like I must have forgotten everything I thought I’d learned. Some days it seemed like I wasn’t going to learn to surf after all.

The weird thing now, looking back, is that I can hardly remember those feelings. I wrote them down, so I know they happened, but once I did start catching my own waves, the frustration and doubt were all very quickly forgotten.

This is me during my second lesson, a little over a week in, which I consider the turning point for me.

A few things I learned:

1) Chill Out – Relax and just enjoy yourself. You are sitting in the ocean on a beautiful sunny day, there is no reason not to relax and enjoy. Probably you should not need someone to teach you this, but some of you who know me are not surprised this was the first lesson I needed to learn.

2. Recognize a good wave – To not miss the good ones, you need to know what a good one looks like and be focused. Don’t run after every little possibility, you are waiting for a good one. (If it is taking a while, see #1).

3. Recognize the right spot to be and stay there – You figure out where you need to be, set markers on the horizon that will help you recognize your spot, and then you stick to it. You might get distracted talking to a friend or watching some fish, and the current might gradually pull you away from your spot, but you have to keep checking your markers and make sure you get yourself back to that right spot or you’ll never catch anything.

4. When you see a good wave coming, and you’re in the right spot, you turn around and paddle like crazy…and you catch it, feeling amazing. It is simple, not easy, but simple.

I don’t think it’s a stretch to say the essential lessons I learned from surfing are also basic lessons for life, about recognizing the right opportunities and being where you need to be…and in many cases, just chilling out and enjoying the moment.

You Know You’re In Mexico…

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You know you’re in Mexico when…

Whether you love it or hate it, there are a few things that take a little getting used to.

The roosters crowing at all hours,

a cacophony of bird songs,

chickens running everywhere,

music played loud enough for the entire neighborhood to enjoy all day long,

trucks with loudspeakers driving through the neighborhood selling tomatoes, tamales or propane,

and the dogs.

There are dogs everywhere…the most uber-relaxed creatures you will ever meet. They pay you little mind and do their own thing, which is mostly sleep – wherever the heck they want.

This is one of our neighborhood critters. We see her every time we leave the neighborhood and I’ve rarely seen her on her feet. She’s usually crashed out on the side of the road. Today she reached a new level of relaxed that I thought deserved a photo. Even though I was two feet away taking this picture, she never even stirred.

I love it all!

Real Italian Pizza in Mexico

Food and Drink, Our Travel Stories

Where to eat in Sayulita Mexico?

We’ve been eating plenty of local “real” Mexican food – tacos, fresh mangos, Corona and the like – but tonight we decided to go out for something different.

We chose Pizza Venezia and I’m glad we did. We had a real brick oven pizza made by a real Italian and it was delicious!

We are learning that people from all backgrounds, countries, and walks of life find Sayulita enchanting and hard to leave. But there’s no mistaking this is still Mexico.

We ate at the counter, so we could watch the chef at work, definitely an expert pie maker, but at one point we also got to witness him literally kicking a street chicken out of the kitchen, as he turned to us shrugged his shoulders and said: “ah, it’s Mexico”. Yes, it is, and we are loving it!