Reflections On Puerto Vallarta & An Intro to the Unique Magic of San Blas, Mexico

in #video7 years ago (edited)

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We just left Puerto Vallarta and are currently in the blissful city of San Blas, Nayarit, Mexico. Thankfully, the drive from Puerto Vallarta consisted of nice roads, no tolls, and not a single time being pulled over by the cops. It was a much-welcomed change!

If you've been following along, you probably remember that we've been pulled over in Mexico five times since the beginning of February.


Most of the three-hour drive was right along the coast, but since we were surrounded by jungle, we barely saw the water at all. The trip consisted of winding paths through the rainforest with trees that all but swallowed the roads.

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It wasn't until we were almost to San Blas that we finally got a taste of the ocean.

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After arriving in this small town of 5,000 people, we didn't waste a moment before starting to explore. In just a few hours of destination-less walking, we started to discover some of what this city has to offer.

First impressions? We are more than pleased with it. It's a quaint town where everyone seems to know everyone. We've encountered some of the nicest people we've met in all of our travels and had interesting conversations with other travelers and expats.

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San Blas has one of the oldest ports in Mexico, and for a long time, had the most important naval base on the west coast. Unfortunately, the town has been decimated by one major storm after the next over the past decades and is no longer a thriving port city. However, despite being challenged by storms, the town has proven to be resilient​ and the special energy here remains.

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(Jordan:) I'm not usually one to be very in tune with the energies that places or people give off, but within a couple hours of being here, I felt like I was surrounded by a strong field of tranquility. I'll be the first to admit that I don't understand the first thing about this type of thing, but the Earth (or something else entirely?) is emitting something here that makes it an extremely enjoyable place to be!

(Maddie:) In contrast to Jordan, I've always been especially sensitive to each individual's emotional/personal energy. Coming to this city was such a relief after being in all the commotion of Puerto Vallarta. There's something uniquely calming about San Blas. One conversation with a resident from Canada made me realize that the city somehow attracts kindrid spirits.

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We've been traveling through Mexico for six weeks and visited about ten different cities.


Visiting places that we don't end up liking goes a long way in helping us appreciate the ones we enjoy.

For instance, we spent two and a half weeks in Puerto Vallarta before coming to San Blas. It left a lot to be desired. Although it's a very popular tourist destination, it just wasn't for us.

In this video we discuss what we liked about Puerto Vallarta in addition the reasons why it's not a city that we want to live in.


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We use this action cam to shoot our videos.

Until next time,
@sharingeverybite (Maddie)
@shenanigator (Jordan)
(and Laska the Siberian Husky)

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If you enjoyed this post, follow us @TangerineTravels

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Some cities you connect with more than others.Enjoy your travels

Places and people alike, I suppose. There are some people and some places that you jive with better than others. Thanks for commenting :)

Jordan

👍

If you're leaving one-word comments, or in this case an emoji, and then upvoting every one of your comments at 100% power...sorry, but I have to downvote that.

Awesome travel destination, I am pretty sure you enjoyed and learned a lot from it. I like how you put in the details with your photos and videos, it is like a piece of me have been there too. Thanks for sharing!

We haven't been here long to explore much yet, but absolutely love what we know of San Blas!

Thanks for the compliment regarding the photos and videos. Many of our Steem posts have been mostly videos, but we're trying to incorporate more photography so the posts tell a story.

-Jordan

That's a very wise decision to include photos in your posts, it gives more color and makes it easy to read too.

Visiting places that we don't end up liking goes a long way in helping us appreciate the ones we enjoy.

That is true. Just like the saying; maybe we meet some few bad people in life, so when we meet the good ones, we can learn to appreciate them.
It's sad what happened to San Blas, and i am glad you could still feel the energy coming through. It's such a beautiful place, from the pictures. Well done, again and again and thank you for being so amazing. I appreciate all you do.

Absolutely! Places, people, experiences... they're not always going to be good, but it's relative. When the bad stuff comes around, it shows you how great the other things are. Learning to be grateful and appreciative is a fine art.

Thank YOU for always posting such thoughtful comments and following along with our journey. Truly means a lot to us!

Your engagement and appreciation means a lot to me too. Really glad you are having fun too.

As a Mexican myself, I am very happy to know that you have had such a good time in Puerto Vallarta and San Blas.

Regarding the positive and the negative stuff from Puerto Vallarta, I think you hit on some very good points. Like all the people offering some sort of service or product while you are on the beach. They become annoying and do take out of the experience. Nevertheless it is also true that they exist because there is a market that has generated them. It would be too cruel to ask the government to do something about it, I think. Because they would only kick them out without really reintegrating them in some other way.

You're totally right that there's a market there. I absolutely wouldn't want the government stepping in to do something.

I often find vendors to be quite valuable to me because they're frequently selling something that I want at a time when it's convenient for me. There were just too many vendors hassling us in PV to the point that it got to be overwhelming and energy-draining.

That's fine though because that hasn't been the case in any other city we've visited so far.

The laid-back feeling of San Blas in a nice break for us from the relatively hectic PV.

Do you live in Mexico? If so, where?

I was born and raised in Mexico City, but now I have been living outside of Mexico for 6 years.

We don't have any immediate plans to go to CDMX, but do you think it's a place we should visit?

Mexico City has amazing things that you need to see. I definitely think you should go at some point. I could even make a list of things that you can't miss for you. Nevertheless, being such a big metropolis, the amount of people and traffic can be overwhelming. From what I saw/read, this seems like something that would bother you guys. So I would recommend to leave if for when you have a mentality that would allow you to live for a certain period of time in such a crazy city!

You're right about the big city thing. We came from a big city (Phoenix) and I think it'll be a while before we'd want to live in another. With that said, we're still open to visiting them. Our next stop is Guadalajara.

You gotta have tortas ahogadas there.

Mexico. I think San Blas is such a cozy place. It reminds me of my hometown too. Hello Laska, seemse like Laska's enjoying it too. Have fun. ^^

We're finding San Blas to be quite the cozy town. Where did you grow up?

We weren't able to give Laska much exercise in Puerto Vallarta due to the immense amount of street dogs/cats. But here in San Blas, that's not an issue because the few street dogs are really tame and laid back. A tired husky is a happy husky, so she is indeed very happy here!

-Jordan

I grew up in the city but my mama and papa grew up in the province. It used to have only a few people and everyone knows each other. :)

Happy Laska! I'm glad.

Hope you have fun Jordan and girlfee!

Small towns can be fun! We thought it was funny that we were walking near the beach (about 15 minutes walking from our hotel/Airbnb) and struck up a conversation with a woman. We told her we just got in that day and she said "I know, I saw you checking in at The Social Club earlier."

That's total a super small town. My Papa's hometown. My aunt's hometown the beach is right outside the window. Lol. You can see the sunset every day. ^^

Excelentes tus post, en especial este me gustó mucho estaré al pendiente de tus publicaciones, saludos desde Venezuela...

Come visit nigeria
We have some good resort here

Based on our Steem interactions with Nigerians, we'd absolutely love to visit there! The Nigerians we've talked to on here are some of the most friendly, intelligent, and passionate people we've come across!

-Jordan

Wow, nice timeout there, glad the cops stopped pulling you guys over. Beautiful environment and i know Mexico is a great place. Hope for more update on your tour.

They stopped pulling us over...for now haha. We'll see if that continues! Thanks for reading and commenting :)

Jordan

Great post. I enjoy following along on your travels. I spent several summer in Mexico visiting my grandfather. Mostly in Mexico City, but did visit Cancun and Acapulco. Would love to go back and explore some of the smaller beach towns.

Thank you, we're happy to hear you're enjoying our posts. Of those places, which did you like the most? We're always looking out for more recommendations.

Definitely Cacun and Tolum, the combination of the beaches and pyramids is just amazing. Really beautiful!!

Thanks for the suggestions! Hopefully we'll make it east in Mexico! So far we've pretty much stuck to the Pacific Coast. Mexico is huge! It could take a lifetime to explore it all. :)

God bless Mexico, my dream vacation home. How I wish I can learn Spanish so easily

It's never easy to learn another language, but keep an eye out on our blog for a post about how we're learning Spanish and how we started learning the language before coming to Mexico.

Do you know where in Mexico you'd want your dream home?

Jordan

Thanks for the encouragement. I've followed already.

About my dream home, I've heard alot about San Miguel. Seen couple of nice views on YouTube too.

Awesome, we should make it to San Miguel De Allende in about a month, or maybe a little more. We’re excited to visit as we’ve also heard a lot of great things!

Jordan

Don't forget to take nice shots when you get there, I'll always follow up your posts.

Thanks for your time, my name is Prince.

Sure thing! We'll definitely take some pictures and video!

I can't wait to see those.

Hey Jordan, I actually enjoy relating to you. I hope this continues.

So beautiful! Sounds like you had an awesome time in Mexico.

It is gorgeous :) We liked Puerto Vallarta less than the other cities we've visited, but overall, we're having a great time. Thanks for commenting!

-Jordan

a very enjoyable trip...👍👍

This journey has been a lot of fun! Thanks for commenting :)

Jordan

bro. good luck.. i want talk only one. i like your t shirt. thank

Thank you @muhammadabi. We got those Steemit shirts and SteemFest^2 in Lisbon in November.

thank brother

You know one thing about travelling is it creates a different you - that's if you are a full time traveller, you know what I mean? When you narrate story about travel, it takes all you have and envelop you with new idea and BOOM it adds to your world of experience

Traveling certainly offers up many new experiences. I hope we can improve our writing so that our posts tell an engaging story and make readers feel like they're experiencing it first hand.

Jordan

How was it? good?

Nice. upvote e

Hi! I enjoy your post coming a good time for me to see and read ... life becomes very busy but only love and affection in need in life. incredible work of yours. Thanks for sharing.

Glad to hear you enjoyed it @baktiarsejahtera, thanks for taking the time to read/watch and comment!

mexico is one of the most visit to the foreigner. because of the beach was so very amazed and the church was preserve. that's why i love mexico.

We'll have to find out how old that church is! It looks really old, but as you say, also well preserved. Thanks for taking the time to read and comment :)

Jordan

Where does Laska stay when youre at restaurants etc? Surely not at the hotel or in the car. You dont have to answer if it would be a security risk for her 😮
Also isnt it a bit warm in Mexico for a sibe?
Oh wait, she came from AZ...

Good to hear that Airbnb is pet friendly to well-behaved pets.
She is gorgeous. Agreed huskies should not be shaved in summer or at any time...
You're right, no I don't believe that a husky would lie in 100 degree weather outside! My red and white disapproves of such foolishness lol. Pic taken last week

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Thanks for taking such good care of her on your travels

LOL! Yours isn't too bad looking either ;)

If she doesn't come with us she stays at our Airbnb. She does well when we're gone and waits patiently for us to return.

Believe it or not, huskies do well with the heat or at least better than short-haired dogs. Their double coat protects them from the sun.

You wouldn't believe it, but in the middle of summer in Phoenix, Laska would ask to go outside. She'd then go lay in the sun for 30-60 minutes in 100+ degree weather and she wouldn't want to come in until she was good and ready!

Oh how I wish I can travel there soon. Hello from Philippines :)

Hey @milayosawa! Thanks for reading and commenting :)

Wow. Super boy

welcome... i always try to visited your post love u

That's great to hear! We appreciate you always trying to take the time to read our posts!

Jordan

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