San Francisco

After our time in Europe and Canada, we were both pretty keen to give the bodies a reset. We’d spent the past week intermittent fasting, and as such skipping breakfast.

The town next along the coast was about 7km away by road but via an inland route. With a few headlands between us, we decided to head off early and see if we could follow the beaches all the way. The first beach was easy enough as it was just following the main beach from Sayulita. We found a path up over the headland and down through a palm tree forest before dropping back onto the next beach, Playa Malpaso. A completely undeveloped stretch of beach with only a handful of people. Crazy to think it could be so touristy on one beach and 10 minutes later you could have a beach to yourself.

Once we reached the end of Playa Malpaso, we came across a padlocked gate. There, we saw what appeared to be an abandoned old resort built on the headland. There was a clear way into the jungle and over the fence so we assumed it was just the way to go. But as soon as we entered the secured area we ran straight into a security guard 🤦‍♂️. With some quick broken Spanish, I told him we were heading to San Pancho and he enthusiastically showed us the opposite gate and told us it would be suitable to pay him for the access. Oh, and also on our way back through could we bring him some beer 😂. Fair to say the payment for access wasn’t an official arrangement.

From here we were basically at San Pancho. Still, with some beach bars along the sand, it was a more laid-back beach than Sayulita. We strolled up into the town to check out the main strip of shops and then went back to a beach bar for a Michelada. Made from Clamato juice, a dash of hot sauce, lime and beer a Michelada is a Mexican version of a Bloody Mary. The perfect refreshment after a couple-hour hike on an empty belly.

By now we thought it was probably time to find something to eat. However, we still don’t know how, we ended up in a bottle shop that specializes in Tequila and Mezcal. We happened to find ourselves in this shop with a guy only too keen to have us go on a full-tasting journey of his best bottles. Easily 10 drinks each later we had to excuse ourselves and actually find some food. It was now almost 12 pm 😂

Thankfully after a cafe breakfast and a snooze on the beach, we were ready to head back to Sayulita. Our personal gate opener was enthusiastically ready to welcome us back through with our gift of beer and the walk home was pretty smooth from there. Gee this beach life really is our vibe 🍻😎Read more