Las Juntas y Los Veranos

We stopped in La Juntas y Los Veranos to find a place to camp on our first night out of Puerto Vallarta. Lucky for us, the person we asked for information or a place to camp was Jorge. In excellent English he excitedly explained that we could camp close to the river in a few spots and even have a swim, then invited us to come to El Tuito for the Fiesta of the Lady of Guadaloupe with his family when he learned that we were interested in doing that. As a result, we slept in our tent on his back deck, and got to meet his wife Rosario and boy Raphael, along with more of the family. Jorge and the family take care of a refuge for birds, in particular, a local variety of macaw. He explained all about their work to protect the macaws from poachers, and to increase the population by building giant nests that they hang in pine trees. Jorge was a kind of cultural translator for us: in the short time we spent with him he explained many things about the local food and culture that we had been wondering about. One of these things was the name of their town. Las Juntas means two female things that are together, in this case refering to two giant boulders that we had noticed in the river going through town, and Los Veranos can mean summers, but in this case means productive land along a river's edge. After sharing breakfast and tea with the family we continued pedalling up and up to El Tuito.Read more